Online Gaming

You know what? It's hard to be a hardcore gamer when you don't have much money, I've never had too much experience with online gaming. I've spent some time with Unreal Tournament 2004 where I quickly got my ass owned and I played Gunz: Online for a while, which is...just crap.

All of this is going to change soon, for I'm finally going to have money for X-Box Live and I can experience some of the X-Box's best exclusives to their fullest potential. All of the games I've talked about have little to no multiplayer mention, I hope to expand on my game reviews by now being able to talk about online multiplayer. Because many people don't even play the campaign in games, many people went straight online when Halo 3 came out and to this day have never played through the campaign. It's a pretty big deal and it's the selling point many of the gamers out there who play games just for the online multiplayer.

I plan on enjoying Halo 3 and ODST online along with Gears of War and other titles. Did someone say new time waster? I think so.

From console to console

I borrowed Fallout 3 from a friend of mine, now that I have a PC that can actually play games, a whole new world of video games is opening up to me.

I've beaten Fallout 3 on my XBox 360 and thoroughly enjoyed the game, now I can enjoy playing Fallout 3 in the portability of a laptop. (I don't know if a 19 inch screen is that portable, but hey, it fits in my backpack and I play it at school in study halls.) In addition, I now have all the extra fun mods have to offer along with a wonderful thing called the console command that basically lets you do anything.

Though I still have to mess around with the vast amount of mods I can play with, I want to see what Fallout 3 is like without mods, etc. simply played on the PC. Anyone who knows video games knows that controls hugely impact how one enjoys playing a game. So far I would have to say that the controls while playing Fallout 3 on PC vs 360 has it's ups and downs. For example, to pull up your Pipboy, which serves as your status menu to equip and unequip armor and weapons, along with managing ammo and medecine, you press B on XBox and Tab on PC. While the B button is easily located on your controller, I often find myself pressing Caps Lock or Q which toggles the always walk or auto run control. This can lead to such misfortunes such as walking into a landmine, losing focus as you try to figure out why the pipboy won't pull up while you take heavy damage, and of course simple annoyance.

The same problem goes with sneaking, to toggle sneak mode you simply press the right analog stick down on 360, where as you press Ctrl on PC. While the repercussion of missing this button press is vastly lowered, it's still annoying when you have to look down to see where you're finger is.

Though these are minor problems that are easily fixed after playing for a while. (I've almost gotten used to it all, my finger still occasionally misses the Tab button) Despite this, the PC still wins in one area of controls that console won't be passing in for a long time. Aiming, first person games seem like they are made for the mouse and keyboard. Sniping, shooting and just moving around is alot more fluid than it is on two analog sticks.



After some thought and consideration, you can't say which control scheme is better, PC or console. It's all preference, but when you want to get more bang for your buck, the winner is clearly PC. With so many mods out there, the time you can spend playing a game can be endless. Downloadable content can only last you so long, but the wonderful community of modders are always at it leaving you with an almost endless myriad of extra content. And it's free too!

Let it snow

It's felt so long since the last time I've seen snow. I thought I would only see a little bit of snow this year, but I was sooo wrong. It started snowing on Monday, and boy did it snow. A few hours later a snow day was called and I didn't have any school the next day. Tuesday rolls along and it is still snowing! When will it end? No surprise when I learned that I didn't have school yet again on Wednesday. (today)

The snow didn't stop any time soon, I was up until 3 in the morning and it was still snowing. It poured for a long time...God must have really bad dandruff. Anyways, I wake up in the morning and what do I have to do? Shovel snow, almost a foot of snow. The roads got plowed and many of the sidewalks shoveled, and you know what? Another snow day was called, no school tomorrow.

It's going to be a white Christmas, maybe a little bit too white for my liking. Blog has been neglected for a while. Nothing interesting has been happening, I'm coloring a friend's pickguard. I've been crunching for time so there hasn't been too much time to work on it, these snow days are a wonderful time to finish things up. It should be completed soon so hopefully we'll have an interesting post soon.

Ninjas = Assassins?

Most of the awesome action movies that involves crazy action involving swords and things that are sharp are usually going to be Chinese wire-fu films. They're good movies, but the wires are a bit much and it just gets hard to take seriously sometimes. American action movies are primarily just a ton of guns now too, and there's nothing too cool about watching guns; you just pull a trigger and you're done. Nothing too special.

I always enjoyed action movies, but there has been a lack of good action lately. This changed once Ninja Assassin came out.

I'm going to tell you now, the story is absolute crap, but that's expected of an action movie.
But do you ever go to see an action movie for the story? No, you see it for the action.

The fighting scenes in Ninja Assassin are just spectacular with a minimal amount of guns. The opening scene of the movie shows a gang being attacked by a ninja, heads fly off and limbs get chopped off, and you don't really see any of it happen. That is until there is only one man standing and a ninja appears out of the shadows, then BAM! Last man is dead, cut to Ninja Assassin logo. After that first opening scene you will there will be lots of...
a) Ninjas
b) Lots of blood
c) Action
d) Awesome

What I love about the movie is that they don't over do the ninja. You know, moving at the speed of light, fireballs, walking through walls and crap. They move at the speed of light about two times in the movie (speed of light might be an exaggeration, but inhumanly possible.) and occasionally become shadows, but for the most part when you don't see them, they're just hiding.
It's realistic with just a touch of fantasy.

With such a bloody, intense opening scene though, you would expect the action to only get better. Well, you're a little bit wrong. The action is still good, but I personally expected a little bit more from what you see at the beginning. Especially the last person the protagonist kills, you expect him to you know...rip him to shreds or cut his body in half. Nope, slash and walk away. It was a cool fight, but the kill was alright.



Here's a closing statement.
Ninja Assassin is a good movie for the action. Don't go walking into the cinema looking for a good story because you will be sorely disappointed. Walk into the cinema looking for awesome action, and you will be satisfied.
I have to give the movie a 8/10

Halo Series: Part 2

Ready for some more of my own personal rants and some educated view points? Oh yeah, I'm totally ready.

This part will be focusing the game play of Halo.
Now before we get into things, lets look into some FPS that were on consoles before Halo's release in early 2001

Medal of Honor
Unreal Tournament
Atlantis
Half Life 1 (remake)
Agent Under Fire: 007
Red Faction
Time Splitters

Well, as mentioned before, Unreal Tournament was already for PC and had little to no multiplayer capabilities unless you were playing on PC, Medal of Honor was pretty good, Atlantis was dece at best, Half Life is pretty good, but then again there's PC that beats the console experience. Red Faction is alright, lack of multiplayer, Time Splitters was alright too, there's some multiplayer.http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1501321773395030274

BUT REMEMBER!!! PS2 ONLY 2 CONTROLLER PORTS!!! (I mean seriously, what's the deal, good system...but only 2 controller ports?!)



So Halo had some pretty cool things going on. It had solid controls, if you've ever played a good console shooter, Halo set a pretty good template for future shooters to follow. Now here's the thing with shooters before this, they were either all super high tech weapons that are like WOAH or old boring guns that are real.
You had a familiar and new arsenal at your disposal. You've alien (covenant) weapons, and human weapons. These have different effects and lead to different ways to play. Covenant plasma weapons would drain your shields alot faster than bullets would, but once you've got those shields down and all you have is a plasma rifle and pistol you're going to have a hard time killing someone with just plasma. On the other hand, bullets damage physical health faster than plasma, but as mentioned before is a bit slower at draining shields. So once shields are down, bullets will do a good job killing someone quickly. Added with frag grenades that do considerable damage and large splash damage, and don't forget about everyone's favorite plasma grenades that stick onto your opponents and a melee. This "sacred triangle" really diversifies game play allowing for different ways to play as opposed to the traditional "keep on shooting" mentality.

This allows people to have a mix of weapons to fit their style of gameplay. Personally, I generally like to carry a plasma rifle and some sort of bullet weapon whether it be a pistol, assault rifle, battle rifle, SMG, or sniper rifle. I quickly drain their shield and try and go for a head shot, or you know...spray. Added with grenades to throw around corners when occasion calls and some sticky grenades for mid-range low ammo desperate measures.

This triangle added with vehicles that are very difficult to destroy, makes for some pretty intense gameplay. Though hard to destroy, there are several means to destroy them, usually by hijacking it or killing the driver. Also in Halo 3 and ODST, an overcharged plasma pistol shot will temporarily stop a vehicle from functioning for about 5 seconds. 5 very precious seconds, by that time a grenade is set to explode in 1 second destroying the vehicle AND the driver. AWESOME



Added with a fresh console multiplayer experience and solid gameplay that is made to fit other diverse playing types results in a great gaming experience.

Vehicles + Easy Multiplayer + Sacred Triangle = Lots of fun



I would like to say that this post has been brief and I'm shocked.

Bioshock

Since the game came out 2 years ago I was always hearing about how great of a game Bioshock was. All I knew that it was a first person shooter and that it was good and it won game of the year. Had to be a good game right? Boy was it good. As my last post said, I was lucky enough to come across a copy of the game on PC for only $5, coincidentally I recently got a new laptop that had great gaming capabilities and allowed me to run the game on its full settings. Awesome.

Well, I went through a bit of trouble installing the game, mainly because I installed it during school during a study hall. I should have read the installation guide telling me that I needed an internet connection to be able to install it, unfortunately I was in my school's band room. I had to go through the trouble of finding a teacher cool enough to let me use the internet from one of the class computers and use it on my laptop. Voila, I got the game running, I launched the game with high expectations and an open mind.

I was blown away. This didn't stop any time soon. This is an awesome shooter, with some RPG elements that add spice to the game without turning it into a all out RPG shooter like Fallout 3 is.

In Bioshock, you play as Jack you're on a plane and it crashes into the ocean, you manage to survive the crash and swim onto an island. You're smart enough to go into strange mysterious doors and before you know it you're in a submarine to the underwater city of Rapture. You are in an unknown world and don't know what to do. Fortunately a man named Atlas manages to reach you via radio and asks of your help. You are asked to help him rescue his family that is lost in Rapture. This would seem like an easy task if all of the citizens of Rapture hadn't been turned into crazy, deranged, killers out to get you. Despite the fact you're in a city of lunatics, there is indeed a ruler, Andrew Ryan runs the city, mainly because he is the man with all of the ADAM.

Bioshock basically revolves around ADAM, a substance that genetically mutates and rearranges people's genetic make up giving them amazing powers in the form of plasmids and gene tonics. Plasmids work alot like magic, it uses something called Eve and it works just like an MP bar in RPGs. Plasmids are primarily used offensively, some being electroshock and incinerate. Electroshock zaps your enemies with electricity stunning them for a certain amount of time allowing you to get an easy head shot or hit them with your wrench. Incinerate sets your opponents on fire, and I think the telekinesis plasmid is rather self explanatory.
Gene tonics on the other hand, have permanent effects on you, just as long as you have it equipped on you. (I'm not sure if equipped would be the right word, but it's the basic idea) Gene tonics help you in various ways and are categorized in three branches: Physical, Combat, and Engineering tonics. Physical gene tonics helps in ways such that medical kits heal you more, eve hypos regenerate more eve, food and drink around Rapture you consume restore more health; physical gene tonics can even make you run faster, become invisible, and even help you get more money. Combat tonics on the other hand are rather self explanatory, they help you in combat; this could include more damage resistance, stronger wrench swings, or even setting opponents of fire or freezing them if they melee you. I will get into engineering tonics shortly.

Throughout Rapture, you will see automated turrets, security cameras, drones, locked vaults, and electric locks. All of these can be hacked to your advantage, you can hack turrets to shoot enemies instead of you, security cameras to send drones against enemies, have drones attack enemies, unlock vaults, and unlock some doors. Other things that can be hacked are the vending machines and medical stations. Vending machines can be hacked to reduce the price of items and have more items in stock, and medical stations may be hacked so the price to heal is reduced and if enemies happen to heal themselves it instead kills them. Hacking is a mini game, you have to get a pipe flowing with water from point A to point B, if the water overflows than the machine short circuits thus hurting you, or it sends drones out (Hacking is alot like the game Pipe Mania http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_Dream_%28video_game%29). To add to the challenge of hacking, there are over load traps, alarm tiles, and acceleration tiles. Overload traps instantly make the thing you are hacking short circuit, alarm tiles sends drones against you and acceleration tiles makes the water move faster. Thankfully, hacking isn't the only option, you can also buy out the item you're hacking or use an auto hack tool, which hacks the item with no effort. If you don't have enough money to buy out something or have no auto hacks and hacking is your only option (though hacking is never really necessary, it sure makes things alot easier) this is where Engineering gene tonics come into play. Engineering gene tonics primarily help you when hacking or interacting with technology. Engineering tonics generally does something like reducing the difficulty of hacks, reducing the number of over load traps or alarm tiles, or reducing the number of supplies needed to invent something at U-Invent machines. (U-Invent machiens may also be hacked, these machines allow you to invent things like autohack tools or unique ammo that is hard to find.) Hacking is only going to be as big of a deal as you make it to be, you will regularly come across vending machines and safes that can be hacked, and it is hard to resist the call to treasure and reduced cost of ever so useful med kits and eve hypos.

Every weapon save for the wrench, camera, and plasmids have 3 different ammo types, each with a different effect. The pistol and machine gun for example have anti-personnel, armor piercing, and regular bullets. Anti-personnel is effect against other humans, armor piercing against robots, and regular bullets...well...they're regular. Other examples of something more unique would be a trap bolt which stick an arrow on the wall and then shoots a sort of grapple off the arrow creating a kind of trip wire that is flowing with electricity. Ammo types really change the flow of the game and further adds to the RPG element of the game.

Ok...ADAM, this stuff made people go crazy, this stuff made people strong, this stuff game them super powers. This stuff, makes Bioshock so awesome. ADAM is used to purchase genetic upgrades at the Gatherer's Garden, here you can buy new plasmids, gene tonics, and can raise your max health and eve. ADAM is obtained by harvesting or saving little sisters, these creepy little kids are perfectly harmless, they would be harmless if they weren't always guarded by Big Daddies. To get to the Little Sister, you need to get past the Big Daddy, these guys are STRONG and you'll have some trouble defeating them, luckily you have a rather large arsenal of weapons. (I wouldn't use your pistol here) Once you've defeated the Big Daddy, you have the option to harvest or save the Little Sister, harvesting her will result in instant gratification giving you 160 ADAM for each harvest, while saving a Little Sister on the other hand will only give you 80 ADAM. Though only receiving 80 ADAM, every 3 Little Sisters you rescue rewards you with additional ADAM, some rare ammo or items, and exclusive gene tonics and a plasmid only obtainable by saving Little Sisters. Harvesting or saving Little Sisters also effects the ending you get once you beat the game. (I've played through one and experienced the happy ending, it was a pretty happy ending.)
You can go through the game without harvesting or saving one Little Sister, but you'll definitely have a difficult time doing so.

The environment in Rapture is stunning. Outside windows, you can see the beauty of what used to be an underwater metropolis, but what is now reduced to ruin and chaos. There are 8 different districts that you traverse in Rapture, some looking a bit more like the other, some alot more unique, such as a forest where Rapture gets all of its oxygen or an entertainment area with bars, a music hall, etc. The different environments keep the game fresh and interesting (as opposed to the monotonous halls that look exactly the same in Fallout 3)

Something I enjoy alot about Bioshock, is that not only is it an FPS that has RPG elements, it also has horror element to it. At times ammo may become scarce and you'll be left only with your wrench, and a grenade launcher which you don't want to waste. You will also be scared out of your mind some times, my first experience with a Houdini Splicer scared the crap out of me, I see the shadow of an enemy around the corner, and when I turn, what do I see? Nothing, he disappeared, then he reappears behind me, I scream, almost drop my laptop and stop breathing for a second. There are always times in the game when you will be genuinely creeped out, and that's just awesome that they actually manage to scare you. It's not a "Ew, gross" kind of scared or a "something popped out of nowhere and screamed" scared, it's a psychological kind of scared. When you see shadows, and you hear the taunts of splicers, when the lights go off and you hear voices, or when enemies are playing dead.

When the enemies started playing dead, I was paranoid and shot every body on the ground out of paranoia, I lost alot of ammo, boy was that a bad idea.

Early on in the game, you run across a research camera. You'll find this camera to be indispensable later on in the game. The camera takes pictures of enemies (dur) but every picture you take of a certain enemy raises a bar that goes up for every picture. Once the bar is filled, you get some sort of bonus, this is usually a damage bonus to that kind of gene tonic. You can't just take pictures willy-nilly though, you need film to take pictures and pictures are also graded, so the higher grade you get the more the research bar is going to raise. If you don't take pictures you'll soon find it will take a clip of ammo to kill a single enemy.

I don't want to get into story, because in my opinion, it's rather hard to tell without giving away key plot points. The story is primarily told through radio messages and audio diaries scattered throughout the game.


Ok, so we all know Bioshock is a great game. I think it's great because of it's solid shooting, diverse setting, engaging story, wonderful integration of RPG and horror elements, and that the game can be played any way you want it to. (Stealth, gun slinger, tank, plasmid master,, etc.)



Gameplay : 10/10
It's just absolutely spectacular. For the sake of not being monotonous, just reread the review, it's basically all about the gameplay.

Story : 9/10
It's enticing, interesting, and makes the game worth while.

Visual Presentation : 10/10
The 50's feel of the game makes it charming. Though parts of the game feel waaay to similar to Fallout 3's cartoons*. (wow, I've referenced Fallout 3 alot in this review.)
The water effects are amazing and make sense since the game is underwater.

Lasting Appeal : 8/10
It's one of those games that you play through once and put away for a while, (thought you might play through again to experience the other ending) but then you pick it up again after a few months and re experience the awesome all over again.

Overall: 9.5/10 (not averaged or anything)
It's amazing, it's fun, it's scary, and it's diverse, you'll feel some sympathy, and you'll get mad. Bioshock won game of the year for a reason.





*If you thought, "Well...isn't Fallout copying Bioshock's cartoon pictures? Because Bioshock came out before Fallout 3."
No, not true, Fallout's cartoon icons have been around since the very first Bioshock that came out YEARS before Bioshock did.

A place of old reviews

I've noticed, because I'm rather low income and I don't have the money for all the current games because they're all really expensive. I got Bioshock on PC for $5 recently; I got it because it was cheap and I happened to have $5 on me and someone who was 17+ of age that would buy it for me. You read reviews, and they'll say the visuals are stunning...well...what if the game came out 4 years ago? I suppose these are the reviews you want to read, because what was an innovation then, could become a regular must have in every game.

I should just rename this blog "The Behind Gamer"

Anyways, I've noticed a trend in reviewing rather old games. Games that were amazing back in the day, but what if you want to know how it stacks up to games now? This is where it's all at.

Street Fighte IV

So I thought that they were far enough and experienced to know to only make one game.  Hey, Street Fighter IV, cool, not that many characters, but I suppose they would be diverse enough to enjoy thoroughly.  WRONG.  I don't think CAPCOM will ever learn.  Super Street Fighter IV has been announced, I thought we were far enough and smart enough to know what we want to put in one game so we don't have to release it 5000 times over.  I thought we could put everything we had in mind in one game, nope.  Now, it's not confirmed, let's face it; if they're releasing Super Street Fighter IV, I think it's safe to assume Super Street Fighter IV Turbo, Super Street Fighter IV Hyper, Champion Edition, 4th Strike, Turbo Edition, EX, Alpha, Alpha 2, Alpha 3, Zero, etc. etc.

Then they'll end up combining them to make Super Super Street Fighter IV Hyper Turbo Tournament Edition : Grand Master's Challenge, Fourth Impact.

A bit of an over exaggeration, but don't you think it's about time they release one game with everythinig in it though?   

Though I suppose it's tradition to release Street Fighter 5000 times and eat everyone's money.

Halo Series Part 1 : Multiplayer

I was on IGN and reading the reader's top 100 games of all time, of course I come across Halo, and this is what I read.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%253A%252F%252Ftop100.ign.com%252F2008%252Fign_top_game_15.html&h=2b18c3d112746cae59ca89bc06fdf277&ref=mf

You've got the phrase "one of the greatest games of all time" followed up with statements using the words "decent." Now what I don't understand is how a game of such great caliber can even have the word decent used in a description. It goes to show that people don't really have too much to say about it. What people fail to mention about Halo is that it really popularized console shooters.

So apparently one of the greatest games of all time is decent. Weird. I'm going to try to explain, why Halo was such a big deal.

Here's what I have to say about this.
Back in the day, the computer was THE machine to play just about all FPS. Think about it, it was 2001 and the PS2 and Game Cube just came out a year ago, Nintendo has never been known and remains to this day, not known for shooters. The PS2 on the other hand, didn't have much to work with in the shooter department, sure there was Unreal Tournament that was ported to the PS2, but it had no online functionality, not until 2003 and by that time Unreal Tournament was outdated and was replaced by Unreal Tournament 2003. So let's take a look back at 2001, anyone who wanted to play some hardcore shooters had to have a good PC that could run awesome games, then came along Microsoft with the X-Box and have a game called Halo. You're this guy in bad ass armor that looks like Samus, but you don't have boobs and you don't have a gun attached to your arm. What you do have though, is an assault rifle, the strongest pistol known to man, 8 grenades, recharging shields, and you can whack people with your gun like you're on steroids.
The people who happened to buy an X-Box are graced with 4 controller ports, internal memory and a FPS for a console that works.

Now here's where Halo + X-Box makes the biggest impact. PS2 only had 2 controller ports unless you bought an add on allowing 4 people to play at once, and still not many games for the PS2 supported more than 2 people. So you have 3 friends over to play some videogames, oh darn, this isn't like Golden Eye where all 4 of us can play at the same time, darn. Well, Halo comes along, and all 4 of you can fight each other and have a fun time, but wait. They're taking it to the next level, despite the lack of XBox live at the moment, there was LAN. People could hook up two X-Boxes together to have 8 people playing each other, but wait, it doesn't end there. Up to 16 people could play with each other, provided you had 4 TVs, X-Boxes and 16 controllers. Despite this people still managed to get friends over to play Halo in a large group.

Halo you could say, is Golden Eye taken to the next level. Golden Eye had 4 of your friends duke it out, with Halo you could have up to 16 people fighting. Later on X-Box Live would be introduced to the world and a whole new era of gaming began, soon online multiplayer would be the norm and a game without it would be like a sin.

I would like to elaborate more on the multiplayer part. Prior to Halo, not many games allowed you and some friends to get together and play a game sitting 2 feet apart. I remember Super Smash Brothers and Golden Eye, those games were and remain gems to the gaming industry. We go into a new millennium and the shooter scene generally still remains in the PC world. Aside from games like Golden Eye, you can't really get together with friends and shoot each other up. This is what makes the biggest difference, even with today's online multiplayer which is so easy to set up and do.
Nothing beats you and a few friends sitting down and play a game together. Being able to laugh and talk directly to each other, punching your friend that stole your kill, and just being with your friends. Inside jokes are formed and unknown bonds are found. (I found out that my friend John and I make for a killer capture the flag team) You can't really do that with the PS2 seeing as how most games only supported upwards to two players save for a select few that supported 4, and you had to go through a bit of trouble to do that. Game Cube didn't really have any good shooters to play, they had Mario Party and Super Smash Brothers, but there is something different about shooters.

Here's what I have to say about the shooter party vs. other games.
The person hosting the party, would kick ass at fighting games like SSB etc. regardless of button mashers, when you own the fighting game, you are almost guaranteed to win.
In shooters, you never really have to be good to win. Hell you could suck but end up winning. Because there are so many ways you can kill and die. The noob of the group could always be on the search of the cheap weapon (coughrocketlaunchercoughplasmaswordcoughshotguncough) and own everyone, the kill stealer, the scavenger that picks up the scraps of a firefight and kills someone after he's killed someone else, the vehicle junkie, the screen looker. All of these contribute to a diverse experience that can give even the most inexperienced player an unfair advantage. There is always the risk of dying versus fighting games like Super Smash Brothers where I always dominate to the point where winning so much just isn't fun anymore.

Well, you might be asking, "Well, what about a PC LAN party?" you trying getting 8-12 friends together with computers good enough to run what ever game you'll be playing. Sufficient wires to connect all the computers, monitors, and not to mention SPACE for all of this, as opposed to a TV or two, an X-Box or two, and alot of controllers. It was just alot more convenient.

In a nut shell this is what was so great about Halo in the beginning. Being able to have 4 friends together and play a shooter hasn't been so easy and functional since Golden Eye. Not to mention you can go up to 16 players. In a time when multiplayer FPS at such a size required a ton of computers and wires, Halo put it into console size and offered lots of convenience, specially when the PS2 generally only supported 2 players and the Game Cube was sadly kinda a flop.



To be honest, Halo isn't a bad game, but it isn't an amazing game. It has good controls and is one of the best console shooters, it doesn't compare to what PC shooters had to offer. When you are not a PC gamer, but wanted something to shoot up, Halo was your answer. If you were a PC gamer, Halo was nothing special.

Halo delivers an experience that was not so common in the console scene at the time.
A first person shooter, with multiplayer that works well.


Part 2 will be discussing gameplay.
Alright.
This post turned out a bit longer and ramblier than I want it to be. Oh well, I hope I got my point across.



Personal Rant

On a side note, I'm not all too big on Halo. Though I do enjoy the series and have fun play the games. I generally think it's over rated. Thought it is undeniable that it has influenced countless games since it's release, people seem to like it for all the wrong reasons. I remember someone not really having a good reason to like other than other people liked it....and graphics. Though visual presentation is important it shouldn't be the prime reason someone likes a game. More on this topic later.

Symphony of the Night

There are few things I want to discuss but not enough time.  School, art comissions and band* have taken up alot of my time.  Despite this I still manage to find time to play some videogames at night (staying up until 3 am then having to wake up at 5:30 is generally not the best idea, but I managed to stay awake the entire day somehow.)

Anyways, I have been playing Castlevania : Symphony of the Night, it is simply a solid game.  It is the first Castlevania game to use and incorporate RPG elements, that being leveling up, upgrades, customizing equpiment, etc.  

I have played other RPG like Castlevania games like Aria of Sorrow and Order of Ecclessia and I know what to expect.  Not quite blown away by anything of this game, but is in my opinion alot more fun than the normal Castlevania games where you level to level beating a boss on the way.  Castlevania is just a fun game in general.

Overview

True to Metroidvania style gameplay, exploration is key and you will be looking at your map ALOT.  You play as Alucard (Dracual spelled backwards, zomg) Dracula's son, and you are trying to kill your father.  You hop into the castle and you're off to find Dracula with no sign or hint as to where you are supposed to go.  Somewhere, there is generally no right or  wrong place to go because each room has something important or helpful to offer whether it be a new weapon, armor, money, or a new ability.  

After mindlessly exploring for a while, you begin to get a basic idea as to where you are supposed to go, that place is usually the place you haven't gone to yet.  Here's the thing though, the places you haven't been to almost always aquire you to obtain a new ability to get there, such as turning into mist to get through iron bars or doubling jumping onto higher platforms.  

So it follows this basic formula

1) Run around/explore

2) Go to all rooms possible

3) Examine areas you cannot reach

4) Find ability/upgrade allowing you to reach these new places

All while killing monsters on the way.  The pacing is great and the seemingly repetitive formula always seems fresh.

Gameplay

The sheer number of weapons, armor, etc. in this game is staggering.  Items are basically everywhere and you need to learn how to use each one to the best of its ability.  The amount of secret rooms and passages is also amazing.  There are certain walls you can break open with your weapon that usually leads to more rooms with treasure at the end that is worth finding if you manage to find it.  An experienced gamer will know where to look for these passages, usually that little dead end that seems to be there for no reason (hit that dead end for safe measures.)  The size of the castle itself is the icing on top of all of this.  The castle is large, there is lots to explore, but it doesn't end ith just the castle.  There is an inverted castle, which is like a mirror othe castle that you can explore.  It's harder and more hardcare and awesome.  There is a ton to explore and a ton to do.

Controls for this game are solid.  With your basic Castlevania controls, attack, jump, crouch, run, up+attack for special.  You also have a second attack button, you may assign a weapon to each hand, it could be two swords, or a two-handed word, a sword and a shield, or a sword and a special weapon like a pentegram or shuriken.  This gameplay open for different play styles.  You also have your basic armor equipment, head gear, armor, etc.  this is self explanatory for anyone who has really ever played a game where you equip armor and weapons.  (If you do not understand, start playing different games and expand your variety of games.)

Presentation

The game has a great look and feel to it.  Each area has its own distinct atmosphere, be it a library or colosseum, you will always know your general location by looking at the enviroment.  The sprites in the game are smooth and well done.  Alucard's movements are all smooth along with the enemies causing the game to flow smooth as water.  Not much can be said about music because the ISO that I downloaded doesn't seem to have music, I have sound but there is an over all lack of music.  Despite this, I am a big Castlevania fan and have heard the songs and know what they are, it's pretty epic.  One thing they do in this game is that they keep 3D graphics to an absolute minimum, only about 2 enemies are 3D.  The only 3D is at the beginning of the game and that's just about it.  This is good because it seems that Konami didn't have too much experience with 3D rendering because the 3D intro of Dracula's castle looks incredibly sloppy.  Because they use almost no 3D and keep it to 2D they manage to make a beautiful 2D world.

Favorites

1)I love how Alucard can turn into a bat, wolf and mist in this game to reach different places.  Though I haven't found much use for the wolf form, mist and bat are lots of fun.  

2)I enjoyed how save points were well scattered through out the castle so you never had to go too far to save and stop playing.

3)Well placed warp points so back-tracking is much easier and faster taking you to general locations faster.

4)Weapon and play style variety.

All in all, Symphony of the Night is a one of the best Castlevania games to date.  It has spectacular visuals that always looks fresh.  The castle is huge and there is a ton to do, explore and collect.  Last and most importantly the gameplay is smooth and fun and is paced so very very well.

Gameplay : 10/10

Presentation : 9/10

Fun Factor : 9/10  <----That point in time when you can't figure out where to go gets to you just enough to get points deducted.

Overall: 14/15

*My school's band is one of the best in the state.  We are playing First Suite in E-Flat by Gustav Holst, Lux Aurumque by Eric Whitacre, and Galop by Dmitri Shostakovich 

New shoes

A class mate of mine recently asked me to color his shoes. We negotiated a price of $25 and I was off to make it the awesomest thing ever. The shoes he gave me were Nike Air Force 1's, and it took me about a week to finish. I spent a good lot of late nights coloring these shoes too. Overall, I would have to say it took me about 16-19 hours to do finish this.

And here is the final product.

Halo 3: ODST Campaign review.

Earlier I reviewed Halo 3: ODST based on the bit of campaign I played and the hours of firefight mode I played. Now that I have beaten the game, a full review can be done. In the link below you can read about the firefight mode and all of it's glory.
http://sharpiegamer.blogspot.com/2009/10/halo-3-odst.html

The campaign is a fun experience that you may or may not want to do over again. In the campaign you play Rookie; you and your crew get knocked off course on your decent onto a covenant ship when they go into slip space. You wake up several hours after your crash landing onto New Mombasa, left alone in a dark hostile place crawling with covenant troops. Your goal is to figure out where you team is, or what happened to them. Early on in the game, you meet the Superintendent, a massive super computer that basically runs the city. From the Superintendant you can view objectives and places you need to go, there are 6 areas you need to investigate to discover what happened to your team. This is where the fun really happens, when you find the right object using the detective visor it brings you into a flashback on what happened to your team. These flashbacks are alot more action oriented and brings you back into the normal Halo "shoot everyone in sight" scene.

Despite being able to go to these way points in any order you want, it really helps when you do it in the right order. I managed to almost go through the flashbacks in chronological order, but if you find that you've done it in a jumbled manner and you care about the story, you will have to piece all of the events together for it to really make sense.
Another problem in being able to do these flashbacks in any given order is the pacing. When played through in chronological order, each level is more intense than the other. Like, the very first one, you are simply on ground, moving through the city fighting some brutes and the like. Later, you go onto fight hunters, but then you are high jacking a phantom ship. It's weird when you playing the most epic scene in the game, and then for the rest of the game, it just doesn't compare to what you first played.
Despite this, there will always be the same ending and this ending remains intense and challenging.

With all of the flashback levels aside, getting to them isn't all that great. You are playing as the rookie and you travel across New Mombasa in the dark, so you will be using your detective visor just to see where you are going most of the time. This takes away from the dark lonely atmosphere of the game if you'll end up playing 4/5 of the game using that visor. While traveling through the city, you will come across the occasional troop of enemies patrolling the city, but otherwise it is a long walk trying to find your way to the next way point, it seems a little bit too long too. Despite this, the background music gives you a feeling of loneliness. If you really care to look for it, there are sound records of a girl and her tale of the covenant invasion called Sadie's Tale. I personally was not too interested in this, but anyone who is interested is given a little motivation to explore the streets of New Mombasa.

So looking back at old scores. Here is the final score for Halo 3 ODST

Gameplay: 9
Gameplay, difficulty and level design remain solid and is over all fun to play, especially firefight mode.

Presentation: 8
Being too dark for its own good, just about forcing you to play through the game with the detective visor on, save for the flashback levels. Flashback levels are really where the setting is good with a fairly diverse landscape.

Story: 6
An over all bucket of dece of a story, but who's really playing a Halo game for the story?

Lasting Appeal: 10
Firefight will leave you and your friends with lots of fun to be had looooong after the campaign in complete. With ridiculous pars as 200,000 points, you'll have fun reaching the par score and getting better.

Over All: 8/10 (24/30)
Still, a bit too pricey for a game that should only be costing $30 or $40, you'll still have a ton of fun with firefight and a good run with the campaign. It's a great game, but the only real question stopping you from actually getting the game in my opinion is the price.

S and Z are little shits

Ok. Everyone likes Tetris, some more than others, some less. What matters though is that everyone loves Tetris, but I think it is safe to say that just about EVERYONE hates the S and Z block. You know those little freaks of nature that don't really fit anywhere, so you gotta look at the list of blocks you're about to get to check for an S or Z blocks and when you see one you're like, "Aw, crap. Gotta get ready for this."

It's like having your grandparents or your annoying old (reeeaaaally old) aunt over, you know it's going to happen in advance, there is NO way of avoiding it, so the best thing to do is to get ready for it as best as you can.

It's nothing like the I block (you know, the one that is just a straight line) you want that to come, but it never does. You have the entire grid filled out save for this little strip that you've reserved for the I block and by the time it finally comes you are one block away from a game over; then out of nowhere the I block comes and you're happy as can be. It's like when Jesus came back to life, hopelessness fear, then this wonderful thing comes along and saves you and makes everything better.



Let's recap

S and Z blocks = Satan
I Block = Jesus
L, J, and O are the under appreciated middle child.
T is a mystery because I could never understand how to do a T-Spin

I've got my hands full of videogames right now.

I just got a new laptop that has great gaming performance, so a whole new world of gaming opportunities opened up for me. Now I bit off a bit too much I could chew, here's a list of games I'm currently playing right now.

Fire Emblem
Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga
Super Mario World
Super Mario 3
Metroid Zero Mission
Bioshock
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Half Life 2 (Half Life 2: Episode 1 after that)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Metal Gear Solid
Final Fantasy VII
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Halo 3: ODST

Does Golden Eye Source count for anything? If so that too.

Maybe I should wait for Thanksgiving break and Christmas break for this, but then again. Maybe not.

Games like Final Fantasy, KotOR, Oblivion, Fire Emblem, and Superstar Saga will take a considerable amount of time. Since they're all RPGs. Oh gosh. I think I'm gonna get Unreal Tournament III: Black soon too.

THERE'S SO MUCH ON MY PLATE RIGHT NOW!

I'm at that point where I want to play this, but then I'll want to play that too, oh and don't forget about this one too, and that, and this, and that, and that, and that, and this. You get overwhelmed, especially when you've got school and band to worry about.

Tip to gamers. Keep to only 1 or 2 or so games to play at one time.

iPod nano

Ok, the new iPod nano is weird. It has a camera on it, but this camera only takes video and doesn't take just pictures. JUST video.

You cannot take action pictures where you and friends are in sweet poses in midair when you only have a video camera. If you or someone you know can do backflips off walls or something of equal caliber, you've a good use for a conveniently small camera. But you won't find too many occasions to use a video camera when you're hanging out with your friends, etc. You'll generally just want to talk pictures (facebook!)

It also makes you wonder, if they've managed to shove a camera into an iPod nano, why hasn't the iTouch gotten any sort of camera yet?

Final Fantasy VII

Prior to this I had only played Final Fantasy 1-6, but I got Final Fantasy VII on my PC and there is one big thing that I really enjoyed from the start of the game.

You are thrown straight into the action.

Unlike your usually Japanese RPG where you have to sit through boring introductions, you know get to know this ordinary child that is the protagonist and then watch his little village get burned down by bandits and then his dying father tells him that he's not actually his father and his real dad is some magical swordsman. No, you don't go through that generic bull crap at the beginning, you jump off a train and you're off to blow up a reactor. AWESOME!

Halo 3: ODST

I recently got Halo 3: ODST. Let me tell you, it is a great game.

Though I haven't gotten through too much of the campaign, that isn't really what matters, the thing that makes the game worth $60 is the fire fight mode. Much like the Horde mode in Gears of War 2, you fight off waves upon waves of increasingly difficult enemies. Firefight can last hours if you have enough skill, but also requires team work with the people you are playing with. Local multiplayer in this game only supports two people, so if you want to go through the campaign with 4 players, you'll need to use system link or have xbox live. This was a disappointment because sometimes it's nice to just have friends over and kick some ass together without having to have 2 copies of ODST, have 2 TV's, 2 360's and a system link cable.

Back on the topic of firefight, each wave becomes more difficult and each stage has different enemies and difficulties. For example, the Crater stage has snipers on the roofs and on the night time version of this stage has engineers flying around giving your enemies and overshield. Each wave brings on stronger enemies, you'll find yourself pitted against 4 Brute Chieftains wielding gravity hammers, leading a dozen brutes with jetpacks with countless drones flying in the air and 2 hunters to put the cherry on top. You will get your shit owned, but given enough skill and teamwork, you can beat them, (I did it with just me and a friend) What makes a situation like that more difficult is that each round activates a skull, "Tough Luck" is always the first skull to be activated so enemies dodge grenades and slower projectiles easier, as rounds go by (a round is 5 waves) more skulls are activated, things get a little tricky after the first round when "Catch" is turned on and everyone starts throwing grenades. This forces you to change your strategy and actually think a little bit. Health packs and ammo caches are replenished after each round and at that time you and your team mates will have a short period of time to get any needed ammo.

In ODST to you are no longer Master Chief so you wont have your wonderful regenerating shiled anymore. In ODST you have a life bar, but before your life bar actually starts to drain your stamina has to be taken down, you know it's taken down when everything starts to turn red, when that happens you should take cover and wait for everything to return to normal color. If you do happen to lose health the only way to regain it is by finding a health pack. You also won't be jumping quite as high, you still jump considerably high but you aren't as floaty has the MC. You'll also find you throw grenades a bit more realistically but still a bit inhuman.

As for the campaign, I haven't played enough to know. This will be updated as soon as I beat the campaign.

So far, Halo 3: ODST's score is

Gameplay: 9

Controls, level design, and difficulty remain as solid as ever.

Presentation: 9

You actually feel a little bit lonely playing the campaign and visuals are still good despite how old the Halo 3 engine is getting.

Lasting Appeal: 10

Long after beating the campaign, you'll be able to kill hours upon hours on fire fight mode.

28/30

After deducting a few points for having to pay $60 for a game that should be $30 we get an over all score of

25/30

Note: The game comes with a Halo Reach beta and also comes with a Halo 3 mulitplayer CD with extra map expansion on it. If you didn't invest any money on the DLC for Halo 3, you'll have ODST and all the Halo 3 multiplayer maps.

Batman Arkham Asylum

I had very limited time playing the game. It wasn't so short that you can't have a formulated opinion, but just enough to have a good opinion about it.

The beginning of the game takes your through the Asylums dark halls. The Joker is making constant comments and jokes as the credits role, it gets a bit boring after a while and you just want to play the game, but don't worry it's only about 5 minutes. Waiting 5 minutes is well worth, you go through the usual how to play like any other game.

The combot in the game is spot on, it's an easy task, but is a very fun one. You simply press X to attack, Y to counter enemies, and B to do this weird thing with your cape that stuns them for a short period of time. Tapping LT will throw a baterang and and holding it will take you into an aiming mode where you can make more precise shots, this is used more when sneaking or breaking control panels. As easy as the combat is, it gets a bit difficult when there are 8 thugs on your back and you don't notice that you should counter and you get smacked in the back of the head with a lead pipe. You can counter enemy attacks when little waves come from the top their heads, it looks alot like the spidey sense in the spiderman games.

Combat when your enemies have guns turn into a whole new situation. You'll find yourself dead if you approach enemies with guns the same way you approach enemies without guns. Because of this you'll need to use stealth to take down your enemies, this can be done in a variety of ways. There are always conveniently located gargoyles you can hang from where the enemies you can't see you. Holding RT will take you into a crouch which is used when sneaking behind enemies. Fighting enemies with stealth adds a fun, different level of enjoyment and difficulty whether you are using a glide kick or an inverted take down.

Combat aside, when you're not fighting you are going from point A to point B or tracking someone down, like trying to find Comissioner Gordon. While getting to certain areas you probably have to rip open air vents or use your grapple gun to get up to high places and glide to lower platforms, you may sometimes experience a Zelda or Metroid kind of situation where you know where you're supposed to go but you don't exactly know how to get there. And you run around for a while thinking of the most obscure ways to get there, and then you look and or down and there is a place you can grapple up to, though it may just be me, you rarely ever come across a situation like this. Exploration and making your way to destinations reminds me alot of the Metroid Prime series, especially the third Metroid Prime game where destinations and objective points are alot more linear and less open ended. While there is still room for exploration, there is generally only one way to go, you may come across a dead end but you will never be frustrated while trying to get to a destination. Despite feeling a little bit like Metroid Prime, the exploration and platforming is all original and is absolutely solid.

There's a light RPG element in this game as well, just very light though. Every time you rescue someone, kill a thug or complete and objective you are rewarded with experience. As soon as this experience bar is filled up you can access an upgrade screen where you can improve anything from your armor, get better comboes, get stronger baterangs, and even be able to throw multiple baterangs at once. (My personal favorite is the inverted take down)

Batman: Arkham Asylum is spot on, every aspect of the game has been finely executed from combat to exploration. You constantly feel like a bad ass and you feel like a total beast when you pull of a huge combo or glide down from a gargoyle and knock out an enemy. Even when sneaking around you feel like a ninja. You are Batman.

The only gripe I really have with the game, is that if you are talking to a guard, a doctor, etc. It just looks incredibly awkward; the people are completely still except for their lips that are moving when they talk. When Batman responds to their remarks the camera goes into this weird view from behind the person you are talking to's shoulder. Batman is just as awkward talking as everyone else, completely motionless except for his mouth. This is just a personal gripe, but the awkward conversation only comes up every once in a while and is easily pushed aside and you'll soon forget it ever took place.

(Despite how little of a gripe it is, it's my only gripe so you know. It leaves alot of space to elaborate on.)

This game is definately worth your money. Used or new, you will get your moneys worth.*

Gameplay: 9

Presentation: 9

Lasting Appeal: ? (not enough time with game to know)

Overall: 18/20

*I don't really know too much about replay value since I only got a few hours with the game.

Inspiration has struck me

After hours of mindless doodling while I should have been doing my homework I've finally worked out a design for the next Guitar Hero Faceplate I am doing for my cousin DDRsensation (check out his youtube, he's a pretty intense Guitar Hero player) 

In about a week I'll be finished, there will be rainbows and colors and lots of win going on.  

Big crunch

This was written with the big crunch theory in mind.  Where the world is fated to become one, tiny single being, a black hole.  

We were so close

We were almost one

The world was you

The world was I

That’s all there was

 

My grip loosened from you

And in a time much too short

And the world grew so large

Larger than it ever was before

And I’m so far away from you

 

Miles apart

And worlds apart

Galaxies away

Across the universe

And everything in between

 

You are always on my mind

As I travel across this world

It’s only a matter of time

When I reach the other side

And I see you once again

 

When we can be together again

Where the world is you

Where the world is I

Where there is nothing else

But you, and me.

The world in the first dimension.

Oh gosh.  You know those tag pictures on facebook where you tag your friends as "the funny one," "the cute one," etc?   They are possibly the most one sided ways of looking people.  Ever. Period.  End of story.  To describe a person in one word is incredibly close minded.  It feels like it takes away individuality and complex personality, the problem I have with it, is that I am not just "the funny guy" and this girl isn't just "the cute one."  

Despite the fact these tag photos are all in good fun and are never meant to be serious.  It sets a one dimensional perspective on people and life.  

Capes are such a distraction.

I don't know how the super heroes do it.  They must have spent hours designing their capes so they could look like a bad ass and fight crime easily.  I made a cape for homecoming, while dancing it got EVERYWHERE.  

There is a lesson to be learned.  We overlook the cape SOOO much, next time you watch Batman or something think about how much time it took to make an awesome cape.

Battle Bears

Cuddly pink bears are trying to hug you to death, what do you do? Shoot their heads off as rainbows shoot to out of their decapitated heads of course. Battle Bears is a shooting defense game for the iTouch/iPhone made by SkyVu Pictures. In a matter of the weeks the the game has quickly risen from the bottom to the top, and there is a good reason why.

You play as Oliver a robotic bear running on a carriage full of gold and treasure pulled by unicorns that soon trip and impale each other with their own horns. You are stuck and lost, and over the horizon a horde of pink bears trying to hug you to death, your goal is to fend off these pink bears called huggables until you help arrives. In between levels you enjoy brief cut scenes that will actually make you laugh and will also introduce you to your newest weapon you can add to your arsenal.

The game plays much like Metal Gear Touch where you stand behind a barrier shooting enemies. What sets Battle Bears apart from Metal Gear is that you must fight off hordes of enemies that are constantly advancing towards you. You have a barrier that your enemies must break through first in order to actually hurt you, while playing early on in the game this might seem easy, but as you progress to higher levels you will soon find yourself overwhelmed with pink freaks. But you are not left alone with just a gun, you are given special weapons such as a unicorn horn crossbow allowing you to shoot through enemies or a swear microphone immobilizing the on coming enemies.

In Metal Gear Touch, you need to zoom with a scope in to pick off far away enemies. This is not the case in Battle Bears where there is no zoom. If you ever have the need to snipe on coming huggables (they come to you so there's no need, but still) the aiming is very precise and you can manage to pull off a head shot given your aiming is good enough. The aiming works perfectly close range as it does far. The shooting mechanics work like a charm and flow like water.

All in all Battle Bears is a great game with great value. It is easy to pick up and play and you'll find yourself hooked once you start. With a price of only $.99 it is seriously worth your money if you are looking for a good game to play on your iTouch/iPhone. The satisfaction of seeing the rainbows blasting out of the huggables' heads when you kill them never gets old and always manages to put a smile on your face.

Gameplay: 8

Good aiming and shooting minus the occasional frame rate issue

Presentation: 7

Charming, though cut scenes are a bit cheap.

Lasting Appeal: 7

Survival mode will keep you busy after camaign

Over All: 22/30

If anyone actually READS this blog.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Skyvu-Pictures/63872706742?ref=ts

Join their facebook fan page.

Shoes!

A while back someone asked me to color a pair of shoes for her daughter's birthday.  I say, ok.  Let's do this, it took me a only a few hours to do this, and I am pretty satisfied with what I did.  

I free hand by the way with a little bit of preparation.  

Comissions have been slow lately, being in high school you tend to not have too much money, neither do the kids that pay you to do this stuff.  Despite me just being a teenager, I'm kinda feeling the burn of the recession.  

No I'm not.  XD 

Oreos in background are no sublime messages to go get oreos, I was just eating oreos while I was doing this.  

Ponyo!

Ok.  Hayao Miyazaki, his movies are legendary.  He  is legendary, and he keeps on churning out legends, his latest is called Ponyo.  This isn't the most action packed movie in the world, but is simply adorable.  The introduction looks like it was ripped straight out of a drawing you made with crayons as a kid.  

Anyone who has seen a Hayao Miyazaki movie will instantly recognize his easily distinguished art style, it's as spectacular as ever.  Despite a lack of action, that's fine, the sheer creativity of the movie more than makes up for that.  I particularly liked how the waves took the form of a swarm of giant fish worked out, because you could still think they're vicious waves; but they are also fish.  The color in some of the scenes, like the first scene after the introduction catches your eye and instantly makes you want to say, "Woah."

Beautiful animation aside, I couldn't help but notice the story was a little bit The Little Mermaid-esk.  Now it's not a total rip off, the conflict is basically the same, water dweller falls in love with human and wants to be human.  Anything that is not that is all Ponyo.  What makes me love them movie so much, is that every waking moment of the movie it makes you want to:

a) smile

b) go "AAAAAAW!!!"

c) both

Words can't describe this movie, mainly because I think this movie delves deep into your mind and reminds you of your own childhood.  No one's childhood is the same, and Ponyo reminds you of the best memories of your childhood and when you walk out of that movie theater you will think to yourself, "I love that movie."

It was when my childhood died

Remember those great shows on Cartoon Network like Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Powerpuff Girls, Ed Edd n Eddy, Tom and Jerry, Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends and the like?  Those were great cartoons that I held onto dearly as a kid, then slowly, very very slowly, each show got cancelled one by one, year by year.  Each time a show got cancelled and replaced with another, anotherp peice of my childhood disappeared.  And it was the when I was in 6th or 7th grade that they stopped Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Miguzi that everything worth watching minus Toonami was worth watching on Cartoon Network. And that was when my childhood died and I had to become a big boy.  Later on I started watching Discovery Channel and became a big boy.  Life sucked since that moment, I stopped getting cable and only had basic cable a few months later and watched That's 70 Show and the Simpsons on a daily basis and enjoyed a nice 2 hours of awesome TV, then the stupid Tyra Banks show messed up everything and TV sucks for me again.  

And that's when my childhood died.  When all of my favorite shows on Cartoon Network all got cancelled.

I suppose it's a brief evolution of Cartoon Network, I suppose these new shows like Chowder and Total Drama Island is like the new Dexters Lab, etc. and in a few years when they're replaced with crappier shows the same kids that watched those shows will think the same think I think right now.

I did a real guitar too.

Before the Guitar Hero faceplate was done, there was an actual real guitar.  A friend of mine learned that I colored shoes for profit (OH SNAP! shoes too!) and asked me if I could color his guitar.  I accepted and whipped out my sharpies, (me being an amateur and a kid in high school, I don't have that kind of money to get really good material, but it still ended up looking awesome) and started to color away.  It took my a good month or so to finish.  

It's a squier by the way, it's my first and only custom guitar so far, but I suppose it's best to start off on a crap guitar than start on an expensive guitar.  

Oh, I noticed I clearly had my artists signature on the picture of the back.  I poorly photoshopped my signature out for safety reasons.  You can kinda tell where I poorly photoshopped it.  XD

Regarding Fallout 3

Fallout 3 is a great game, but there is one big problem I have with it.  Once you have reached your level cap, things tend to get a bit boring.  To be honest, there is alot of content, items, weapons, armor, and meds, but when you reach level 20 so quickly you start to lose motivation.   You will also have a nice lot of the map explored, and you'll have just about every piece of armor, every weapon, every item, a myriad of meds to get hopped up on, and be swimming in pools of bottle caps.  Now what do we do?  

Once can only have fun nuking super mutants and beating little children that can't die with a sledge hammer for so long.  And while all of their downloadable content finished, ("finished" you can never be too sure.)  While new places to explore is very nice and adds something nice and most importantly new to the game, but up until Broken Steel, there was no extended level cap, which basically meant, there is virtually no challenge when playing the game.  You explore, you shoot and you kill.  

Despite how much there is to explore, it all begins to start to look the same after a while, and in reality it kinda is the same.  It's the same looking hallways, the same enemies, and when you've explored an entire place, it's the same treasures you found in the last place you explored.

There's not too much room to complain about when each play though is at least a good 50 hours and unless you're some super focused freak, you'll probably be side tracked from the main quest for at least another 10 hours.  Let's not forget about playing through another time, which you'll probably do just because, I personally replayed the game a second time specializing in stealth which is like playing a whole new game.  

But then again, regardless if I played the game sneaking around like Solid Snake, we come to the same dead end, the game just gets stale once you 

a)  Reach level 20

b)  Are swimming in bottle caps and 9mm Pistols

c)  Beaten the main quest

all 3 of which generally happen around the same time frame kinda.

I distinctly remember in one play through I did half of the main quest, reached level 20, invested in all of the traveling salesman, did every sidequest I could, and had every item in the game.  I played for about 40 hours in that save file, and after that, the motivation is gone, all reason to explore is gone and everything just turns stale.

Despite how awesome of a game Fallout 3 is, in the end, you usually always end up in the same place.  At the top of post Apocalyptic America...Bored.  

Then DLC comes along, then you repeat the entire cycle.

Then you are King of Post Apocalyptic America...Bored.

Oh well, it was a great time getting there, but what ever!

That was all somewhat pointless.  I suppose that's just my view and only gripe about Fallout 3, it can be what ever you want it to be.

Guitar Hero Faceplate

My cousin is a pretty intense Guitar Hero player and he asked if I could color his faceplate, and me being his cousin and all I did it free of charge.  And I think the picture of the finished prodcut really reflects both aspects of the blog, oh yeah.  I did this all in sharpie too, then I proceded to put some laquer on.

First post.

Alright, first post.  Let's get things going, I am an artist and I am a gamer.  And that's the basic jist of what this blog is about.  Art and video games and what ever else I feel like.