Warlords of Draenor

I know I haven't updated this blog in a while. The last remaining weeks of my last semester of college got really hectic, so I couldn't find time to do this. But now that I'm finally done with school I think it's time to write another blog!

During the first week of November, I watched Blizzcon because I was really anxious to see what new expansion we were going to get for World of Warcraft. And to be honest, what I saw wasn't really that disappointing, but how they presented it was another issue. Warlords of Draenor is the title of the newest expansion and it's going to take us through a different dimension through the Dark Portal when Outlands was not corrupted with all that Fel crap and such. We get to see the original Orc warlords and see how the Horde was before they became what they are now. I am actually intrigued because they say these are for the fans that never really got the chance to play the older games of Warcraft. I only played Warcraft 3, the Frozen Throne, so I have no idea what the story before that came about. And, I'm very happy that we get to travel back to Nagrand, since it's one of the original zones in Outlands that they're having us travel through.

The original warlords and the clan they are associated with are as followed:

Korgath, the Shattered Hand
Blackahnd, the Blackrocks
Kilrogg, the Bleeding Hallows
Ner'zhul, the Shadowmoons
Gul'dan, the Stormreaver (and he's already green, know this!!!)
Grommash, the Warsongs
Durotan, the Frostwolves

The reason why I said to remember that Gul'dan is already green is that all of the Orcs with the exception of him are red. This is before the Orcs drank the blood. Unfortunately, those who decided to share us the information when releasing it to us, the audience, during Blizzcon forgot to mention this up until the Q+A part of World of Warcraft, when an audience member asked about it. (How do you forget to mention that crucial part when talking about the warlords is beyond me). There's going to be quests that prevents you from allowing these guys to drink it and such... But it's NOT a time traveling expansion. You're basically going through an entirely different dimension, so you're not effecting time itself.

As a member of the Horde, our starting zone in Outlands will be Frostfire Ridge while the Alliance gets Shadowmoon Valley. I will say, Shadowmoon looks really freaking cool.

They are also updating the models to look more realistic, adding more polygons and such to have more detailed looks. From what we saw, they're doing an amazing job with it, and I cannot wait to see more of them be revealed.

You get to make your own Garrison, a fortress to help you create an army to fight against others. You can customize it however you want and put it wherever you want. You can allow your workers go through instances and loot stuff, complete quests, and you can even do all of this offline as well! So this is a new feature that will looked at with a good eye for me.

I also enjoyed hearing that you can have an instant level 90 character! If you're one of those who got tired of playing the game after a while and you're completely behind and not wanting to level to get up to your friends, well here's a level 90 for you! You can level whoever you want instantly! So this might bring back a few people to play.

Overall, with what they're doing with the expansion, it's great. How they presented this to us during Blizzcon could have been better. I'm sorry, but Chris Mezten, I'm not really pleased with the presentation you gave during this and forgetting most of the story and character names and such... Also forgetting to let us know that one of the Orcs already turned green when you were showing us who they were. I cannot wait to see more reveals through this time, and I am trying ever so hard to get my character up to date so that she is ready to progress to the next expansion... and maybe a few other characters as well!

So, I'm the Kitty and Persephanie the great priestess of Dragonmaw and I am back amongst the blog writing people!

>'-'<

Most Frequent Questions Asked

Every now and then, I'd be getting questions from friends and such about certain games I've play. I thought I would share to you what questions I normally get and how I answer them.

1.) What is your favorite game of all time?

"I don't have a favorite game of all time. For me, there isn't a game that is better than the other because there's so much to look into. I can't say that Metal Gear Solid is better than Mortal Kombat because they're two different games from genres to characters to stories... I don't have a specific game that is my all-time favorite, but I do have favorite series of games."

2.) What was your first game ever played?

"For a while, I was under the impression that Sonic the Hedgehog was my first game. But then looking deeper, it was Mortal Kombat."

3.) What game is the most hated on your list?

"There is this snowboarding game I bought for fifteen dollars at Gamestop called Dark Summit. I'd like to explain to you what it's about but even when I Google it, nothing comes up."

4.) Why is Metal Gear Solid your favorite series of all time?

"If you've played the series, you'd understand my reasoning. There's just so much about these games that I feel that it is literally the best series out there for anyone to play. I mean, what goes into making one of these games is just astronomical, I can never find anything I dislike about the series. I mean seriously, there is no problem that I can find when I'm playing these games."

5.) Do you play any other fighting game besides Mortal Kombat?

"Honestly, I've tried getting into Street Fighter and Soul Calibur, but I couldn't. I can't pull off specials or combos. I'm not going to say that these games suck or anything like that. But I just don't have the patience to learn all of these moves."

6.) Ever been scared by a video game?

"Who hasn't? Haha. Yeah, there's been moments where I've gotten scared by something in a game, mostly from Doom and Resident Evil."

7.) What is your favorite boss fight?

"The award goes to "The End" from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. This boss fight was just beautiful. I mean it really made you want to get this guy because he's hiding from you, sniping you down but isn't killing you at all. Yet, you want to defeat him. He's this one-hundred something year old hunter that has you playing this game in three giant areas in the forest. Even when he manages to find you, the screen turns into a first-person view from his point and BAM! Truly awesome."

8.) Most hated boss fight?

"Ugh, I had to admit this, but it's Shao Kahn from Mortal Kombat 2011... Story mode Kahn, not arcade. Arcade is simple. But in story mode, you fight against him with Liu Kang and then Raiden at the end. Two characters that I don't play that much with. I liked that story mode in this game made you play as different characters, but I really didn't enjoy myself playing as Kang or Raiden when fighting against skullhead here. Plus, they wanted to make him cheap on purpose to give you this intimidating feeling when going up against him. My feelings were just that I wanted to kill this bastard and let it be the end of it."

9.) What is your favorite first-person shooter game?

"Perfect Dark. Nuff said. Then Dishonored."

10.) Is Lara Croft a perfect role model for women?

"In my opinion... No."

>'-'<

Grand Theft Auto 5

Well of course I was going to write a blog about this game, but I was waiting for the right time to do this. So, I haven't beaten the game, but I kinda get the hint on what you're supposed to do at the end, I'm not going to spoil anything because the game is still fresh so you're all lucky this time.

Characters

So, let's talk about who you play as first, shall we? You get to play as three characters: Michael, Trevor, and Franklin. My personal favorite is Michael, mainly because he reminds me a lot of Tommy Vercetti from Vice City, and of course I have to like Trevor. Who doesn't? Franklin has his moments, but they're not as memorable as Trevor's randomness or Michael's random outbursts with his family.

When you choose to another character, you get them to be at some random location doing something random. I think the best so far is Trevor waking up on a railing in his underpants and combat boots. I didn't even have him dressed as that, he just randomly dressed like that. Michael tends to be around his car a lot and Franklin either plays with his dog Chop or gets drunk.

There's one thing I wanted to mention about a supporting character: Jimmy DeSanta, Michael's son:

When I was playing this game from the beginning, Michael's son Jimmy sounded very familiar, so I had to look up the name, and I was right all along. He's voiced by Danny Tamberelli, the kid who got his fame from All That and Pete and Pete.

Missions

The missions are awesome. I really enjoy going on heists because it's not like the others where you just get a gang at random and go right for the bank. You get to choose who you want to go based on what you want. Do you want a gunman who can shoot quite well or poorly? Do you want a hacker that can get the job done or messes up a bit? Depending on how well they are based on the percentage you see, the more money you get to whip out to them after the job is finished. However, you can always be cheap and stick with the poor guys. With me, I want to get the job done, so of course I am going to pick the guys that can hold their own during these heists.

I love that you can replay the missions to get a better rank. You get a copper, silver, or gold rank depending on your actions during the mission. Get a lot of headshots, do some random stunts, complete within this time, be the first to finish the line all plays a great part in getting a better rank. And if you feel like you want to do better, like I said, you have the option to go back and replay these missions.

Los Santos

All right, I'm getting this out there, this whole area is fucking huge. If you were to put this city out in real life, Los Santos would be as big as New York City. This is a giant city, it literally takes you real life minutes to get to a certain spot depending on where you need to go. I had to take five minutes of my real time to get to a mission halfway across the city. It's huge, and I am glad that there are no barriers restricting you to a particular part of the city unlike the fourth one did. I was never a fan that you had to unlock parts of the city to progress. With this game, you just have the giant place in your face! Bam!

I really enjoy driving through the woods, seeing the wildlife and tasering cows... but not enjoying that Trevor keeps getting mauled by cougars.

My One Issue

There's only one problem I have with this game, and it's not that I can't access GTA Online well. It's the damn police. Before, the cops were not that much of an issue in the previous games, they were quite easy to get away from... But with this game, I really haven't liked cop chases. 

First off, when you run away from them, you're immediately bumped to a two star wanting, which I don't get. In the fourth game, the only time you get bumped to a two start wanting is if you're already putting your arms up when a cop draws his gun on you and you begin to run away from them. With this, it's just when you drive or walk pass them, they're immediately firing at you. 

Another problem is the actual car chasing. They are annoying. They don't stop ramming their cars into you and I cannot stand that. Cars already have an issue of acting really heavy, you can't really back into a cop car thinking that you can just push it away when they have you pinned. No, your car stays there and is pinned down and you cannot get out. They will get you pinned eventually.

Losing them is also an annoyance. You don't really have that much of an area to get out of in order to lose the cops. You just have to keep driving and work your way around areas that are off the map such as allies or fields. You have to drive in areas you wouldn't think a cop would drive to in order to find you. That's how you lose them. Once you have them questioning where you're at, you'll just see the cop's search cone moving all over the map. Just don't get yourself caught in that cone, otherwise it's back to running away from them.

And that's really my issue with this game.

Worthy Enough To Get It?

You damn better get it.

>'-'<

The Dickest Move In Video Game History

Sure, there have been moments where you're so outrage that the series ended the way it did or they killed off a favorite character. What I've experienced, I don't think a killed off character or a series ending could top this one.

I'm giving you the heads up, I'm spoiling the ending of Heavy Rain... well, one of the endings. So if you haven't played the game and want to, don't read this.


Anyways, so, let's say you've beaten the game where these events happened: You started a relationship with Paige, both of them survived in the end, you did not save Shaun in the end. You get this depressing ending where Paige and Ethan are standing over Shaun's grave and mourning.

Now, here's the part that A.) Makes me not like Paige at all after this and B.) Has to be by far the dickest thing to say to anyone during a mournful moment.


She has the audacity to turn to Ethan and asks him to give her a baby. Yeah, right there and then, she asks to create life over the grave of Ethan's youngest child. "I want to have a son with you, with your eyes, and blah blah blah."

The eldest son was killed in an auto accident, and Shaun couldn't be saved in time before he drowned, you really think he's in the mood to hear you ask him to make a kid with you? How... how is that even possible for a person to think like that on a grave of a young kid? And it's not like she was asking him in a way where she sounded like she was in mourning over Shaun's death, she was talking to him as if it didn't matter that Ethan's other son died in front of his eyes.

To make matters even worse for this situation is that Ethan asks Paige for him to be alone for a little bit, she actually gives him his space. She walks away from him. When she turns around, she sees him loading a pistol and blasting it in his head, killed instantly. She's screaming and crying and running after him.

But is she upset that he just killed himself or over the fact that she can't get pregnant by him after she asks over his son's own grave?


Sure, there might be other dick moments in video games that you might think is worse than this, but I don't see anything more dick-like than having someone asking you to make another life in the world after you just lost two within several months from each other that you happened to witnessed... in some manner of course.

And this is why I played Heavy Rain with a walkthrough so I could purposely avoid this ending. It's not only a dickish ending, it's also a very depressing ending, even though this game is already depressing (only, it gets much better when you're playing as NAH-man, ahem, Norman Jayden, and surprisingly Paige Madison.) Believe me, I know that there are other dick moments in video games, such as Colonel Volgin making Naked Snake pee his pants in the torture cell or that Berri never gets resurrected in Conker's Bad Fur Day but... I just feel this was the worse moment ever for a video game to have.

>'-'<

Twisted Metal... The Parts I Don't Like

I've been a fan of the series since the original. But what's funny to note is that I only like two games out of the entire series. Sure, there has been some games I haven't touched, and if I haven't touched, I can't judge. But I've played 1-Black... and let me tell you, the original and the second one are the two games that I can enjoy playing. The others... not so much. I'll tell you why.

With three, 989 Studios really fucked it up by adding nothing but rock/metal music in their soundtrack. The first two games didn't have that. Sure, some of the tunes were tolerable (at the time I was a Rob Zombie fan) and Microwave is still a favorite of mine, but that's just the thing. The first two games never had an actual soundtrack like that, it was just music. And I liked that because it made the levels more exciting to play. Twisted Metal 2's Antarctica is my favorite level in that game, and the music during that level made the level more dangerous and scary for those who dreaded upon it. But let's say, you throw in some random band... it's not as intimidating as it would have been had there just be music and not lyrics.

Also, the characters are so fucking stupid. Flower Power, a nature freak that joins the tournament to end it once and for all to save the forest. Firestarter, a pyromanic that took away Thumper's special. Auger, another construction worker. Club Kid, a guy who's obsessed with partying. These guys were not fun to play as. Not to mention, all of the character's endings sucked as well. The one that was unbearable to watch was Sweettooth's. Now, I understand that the second game, his ending was whacky, but it was made in a way where that was funny. He got transformed into a bug because he wanted some peace and quiet. The second game knew how to throw in comedy with their endings because Calypso loves to screw around with everyone's ending. With the third, however, his corrupting grants were just horrible and not evil. In the second game, Hammerhead's ending was that the two drivers wanted the ability to fly. With that, Calypso granted their wishes. They jumped off the building they were standing on and fell to their deaths, thinking that they had the ability to fly. What they didn't know, was that Calypso instead gave them two plane tickets. That is how corrupted he is, but with an ending like Flower Power's, who wanted the Twisted Metal tournament to end because it destroys the nature life, he instead made a giant man-eating plant go after Amber Rose... That's not being evilly corrupted, that's just being fucking rude.

Even the reception of the game itself didn't even get good remarks. The game scored low in a lot of reviews, and I don't blame them for disliking the game. 989 Studios really did a horrible number to the series. And it only gets worse.

With 4, it just got even more unbearable to play. And I can't believe my brother and I thought this game was actually good when the game came out. Looking back, I can honestly say it was a mistake owning that game.

First off, the tournament isn't even hosted by Calypso, Sweettooth is now in control of it. And may I add, he doesn't even look like Sweettooth, just a generic evil looking clown who's got a giant smile on his face and juggling. He doesn't talk whatsoever, just some random clown. Seriously? Why can't Sweettooth talk? But you want to know what's even worse? Calypso is a playable character. You can control Calypso... No...

You have a bunch of new characters that I don't ever want to see return again. You have a drag queen, a pizza delivery boy, a nuclear family, even Rob fucking Zombie himself is a playable character. The names of these characters aren't even creative whatsoever: Mr. Zombie, Drag Queen, The Joneses, Trash Man, Micro Blast, Meter Maid, Google Eyes, Quatro, Pizza Boy, and Orbital. There's only two recurring characters, not counting Calypso, and they are Mr. Grimm, who is called "Captain Grimm," in this game, and General Warthog.

I'll just end the bashing here because I really don't want to talk about the game.

Now, the next one in the series was okay in my books, but I just felt that the series should have gone back to its comedic roots as what it had in the original and in the second. However, this time, the game got a lot darker, more serious, more violent... and actually as a Mature rating unlike what it previously had. Of course, this got people's attention, it made Sweettooth have a signature look as a psychotic serial killing clown, which in my opinion, I actually can tolerate. But I do miss the comedy that he brought, despite that he has it in Playstation All-Stars. But this game was too dark for me for this series, and I just for some reason, didn't really like it. It was a good game overall, but I just don't think this series needed to be dark, not after having some really good moments in the original and the sequel. Screw three and four because they don't count.

The new characters were a great touch to the game, as well as recurring characters. I did enjoy Darkside's story a lot because it's an innocent woman who's face is forever trapped in a mask by a corrupted boss that put her there. But what bugs me is that all of these characters are locked in an asylum because of how greatly disturbed they are. Sweettooth obviously being the greatest threat possible in there. That was the one thing that really bugged me. But these characters did have good stories such as Spectre, Bloody Mary who wanted a man that can finally love her. Shadow, who's best friend was killed because she was thought to be a witch and she wants to get revenge. Brimstone, a minister who killed a baby because he thought it was the devil... even thought it wasn't.

It was dark but... just not my cup of tea.

I have yet to play the latest Twisted Metal because after I heard that you only take control of three characters riding in other cars, I thought to myself, that's not what Twisted Metal is. Twisted Metal is a tournament that has a bunch of drivers trying to win for a wish they want to have come true. Please, for the next game, I would definitely like to see Twisted Metal 2 style be what the game is... Granted that I enjoyed seeing Twister's helmet in an ending (I did look up the endings for the characters), still... I want to see more characters be added and go back to what Twisted Metal was all about.

There I said it...

>'-'<

Sub-Zero... A Character That Brought Us Closer... And Scorpion Too I Guess

Back in 1992, my brother got Mortal Kombat for the Sega Genesis. He was eight, I was still one years old. (We're seven years apart) I always had a fascination of watching my brother play video games, and I was watching him play Mortal Kombat.

Now, before any of you guys out there starts complaining that my parents allowed me to watch such violent nature as a young kid, understand this... My parents as well as my brother would always prevent me from seeing and or playing something that was too graphic, too violent, too disgusting, etc., therefore, if something scary would pop, I would always be told to close my eyes. I did so, until I reached an age where that didn't bother me at all. It's a video game, I was told it was fantasy and never to react anything I see. So, don't judge my family too quickly for allowing me to watch such stuff.

Anyways, Mortal Kombat really got my attention with all the flashing colors and such. I really wasn't bothered when my brother did Scorpion's fatality. I, in fact, just sat there and continued watching him play. I did so when he had his friends over.

We've done this for years where I would watch him play. And by the time I was able to actually play the games myself, him and I would always fight against each other. He would NEVER let me win on purpose. I was told that I always had to earn my victories. My brother basically never took things easy on me, and he still does and not just in video games. (Also with my art but that's a whole different story)

He would mostly play as Scorpion. I would play as Sub-Zero. We would fight like crazy until both of us had enough butt kicking. But I realized that despite how violent this game, this game actually brought us closer.

When we got Mortal Kombat 2011, the first thing we played was Tag Team Kombat. He chose Scorpion, I chose as Sub-Zero. He even laughed how we managed to beat the game with the two iconic characters. Then, earlier this year for his birthday, we decided to play the same game but against each other. Him being Scorpion, me being Sub-Zero. (I won both times) But, it's just funny how despite we're always at each other's throats and being jerks to one another... this game doesn't make us do that. Instead, we act like actual siblings and I think it's really cute how this game brings us together.

It makes our mother proud that we can rip spines out of people's backs.

>'-'<

It's Been A While, Hasn't It?

Yeah I know I know... with the ridiculous amount of job hunting and having some fun in the summer, I kinda forgot about this blog.

I have played a new game recently... The Last Of Us.. Go figure. It's different I'm going to say but honestly... with it being summer, I really haven't spent a lot of time playing video games. I'm trying to do a lot of different stuff around the house since I cant get a job for the summer, however, playing video games isn't really what I want to do a lot for the summer.

So, for the time being, I'm just going to back away from the video gaming for a little bit, just becuase summer finally kicked in with the warm weather and I want to enjoy as much as I can with it.

>'-'<

Where In The World Is Reptar?

Rugrats: Search for Reptar was the first Rugrats game I've played when I was young and I have to say, at first I greatly enjoyed it, but then when I played it again now... I can't believed I enjoyed this game when I was little.

You see, granted that this game is Playstation era, still this game I thought was awesome but now I don't. The camera in this game is horrendous, especially when you're playing "Incident In Asle Seven." You have to guide Tommy to jump from platform to platform and the camera just freaking sucks. Tommy cannot, I repeat, cannot jump high. He's a baby for heaven's sake...

Okay, where am I going with this? What is the game even about? Well, I'll tell you. The game begins where Tommy wants to play with his Reptar puzzle but finds that all of the pieces are not in his doll. So you have to find the pieces by playing a random game based on episodes of the Rugrats such as the one I stated, Grampa's Teeth, the Mysterious Mr. Fiend and the Seven Voyages of Cynthia to name a few. Once you find all of the pieces, you get to play a bonus level of playing as Reptar, and well... destroy the city.

There's another game that I played that was for the computer that was really freaking hard and I could never find a way to complete it. You see, the point of Rugrats Adventuer Game is that Angelica managed to throw Reptar into the trash, and knowing the babies, they cannot just go up to their parents and tell them that their toy is in the trash. So they have to find a way to get the toy out of the trash. You have to find a way to scare the trashmen, find a way to get Reptar out of the trash, and how to get to the trash. But it's not so easy. You have to complete a series of finding items and the damn cookie game where you have to guide Chuckie through a series of drawers to get him to the top and make sure he gets the "chocolate chip" cookie, otherwise if you get coconut, you have to do it all over again! But finding a lot of these items could be a pain because sometimes if you click on one of them, one of the babies will let you know that they don't need that particular item, but it might come in handy later. Obviously, but you come across those items so many times it gets annoying.

I wished that Rugrats were still around because I greatly enjoyed that show when I was little. The old episodes are always and will be my favorites. All the episodes before Dil and Kimmy came are my favorite. But of course, Netflix got rid of them, as well as never having the old episodes around... I would definitely LOVE to see these and not expect to see them on the station where the 90s are back.

Because I'm not staying up past midnight every single freaking day to watch a cartoon that plays only once.

>'-'<

Mixed Feelings For A Fighter

Okay, so a while back there was this game that was (and still is) in the making called Death Cargo. It's a fighting game being developed by an Italian company called Necrostorm. This game is supposed to make us feel nostalgic by having 80s and 90s stuff going on with it. It's all bloody, it's all neon-looking and such.

But here's the thing, at first, I really didn't like what I was seeing. I thought it was just some project a college student was making. I wasn't impressed at what was being produced. So I may have had some harsh words about this on another fighting game site I go on that was talking about this game. I thought it was very disrespectful of them for sending a member of their own team onto this site and start bashing us for commenting about the game. Still to this day, I don't like that they did such a thing like that, very unprofessional on their end. However, that's not to say as a year went by, I started to change my mind about the way I started seeing this game.

Yeah, I probably was a bit too harsh about this game, and didn't care that it was being made by a company that doesn't produce video games. This is their first time, how could I be so judgmental like that and forget that this is their first time. But the way they were responding to other criticism wasn't so nice. You see, I started seeing a lot on their old Youtube videos that anyone that enjoyed Mortal Kombat got bashed, and I mean super bashed them. Hold on just a freaking minute... you're going to bash a game that literally inspired this game to be created? I mean, "The 80s and 90s Are Back," is what they keep saying, and last time I checked, Mortal Kombat came out in the 90s. You're going to bash any fan that is a Mortal Kombat fan? That game is what making your game come to life. And yeah, there are a lot of things in this game that seems like a pure ripoff of Mortal Kombat, but what's not to say that a lot of fighting games out there right now hasn't taken something from another game that turn it into their own?

I will say, I don't like the names they chose for their characters. Amaz-1-Ng...? It's like part woman part cyborg... Plasma, Morbo, Crystal (who actually is a guy)... But they don't look like fighters. Leach is some Hulk-like character wearing Daisy Dukes... Yeah, they could have done something better with the characters.

From their latest Youtube video showing yet another Beta, I will say, from that video alone, it got me re-thinking that this game might not be so bad as what I thought it was back in the past. Their game is mainly about some large ship managed to lose these weapons that are now taking control of these characters. Plasma is like the head captain of the ship and is out searching for them. As much as I keep seeing it's face (it is neither a man or a woman), I do like what I see, despite him having Chun Li's special. I would really appreciate seeing other characters for once in these Beta videos that Necrostorm puts out.

I don't know, I have mixed feelings for this game, I did before and that was until I continued seeing things from this company I didn't appreciate. However, you're entitled to change minds about things, you know?

>'-'<

Have They Changed Since I Last Touched Them?

Okay, I have a confession to make... I used to be a huge wrestling fan in my kiddie past. I had, and still do, have a massive crush on Edge and Shawn Michaels. Something about muscled men wearing tights... Yeah, anyways, I know there's a huge series of WWE and WWF games out there and I used to buy the PS2 up to, god I think it was 2009 that I ended with before realizing it was getting stupid to watch. I'm sorry but I really cannot stand John Cena and both of my guys are retired and the new faces aren't that entertaining. (I know that Shawn is still around every now and then and so is Edge but not that much, but still, I can't just keep watching the show and expect to see them when they're not even wrestling anymore)

WWF Attitude (Get It?) was the first wrestling game I used to play on the Playstation. My brother was into wrestling, but I never watched it with him because I wasn't allowed to for some reason... Except I could play the video game instead... I'd always create characters, never really played as the actual wrestlers. I remember when choosing the voice for your character, I would laugh so hard at Owen Hart's "I'm not a nugget." I never understood why he said that because like I said, I never watched wrestling, and of course, being very young and hearing this would make a kid laugh.

Throughout the Playstation 2 era, I got more and more into wrestling ad began playing these games like crazy, and yet, I still to this day, have never played an actual wrestler character, I'd pick my created characters. Hey, if I'm allowed to play them in the story mode, why not? This was interesting because I enjoyed making characters in any kind of game that has this feature. I took advantage of this a lot with the wrestling games.

I also managed to play Crush Hour, their little car game, and I'd always played as Edge. I will say, for how strange this game was when it came out, it was fairly entertaining and I enjoyed it a lot.

But then I started to see something with these games... They're beginning to be the same game one after the other with a few changes every now and then. But it's the same game every time with a new story mode. I didn't want to keep wasting money away on something that hasn't changed in a long time. I mean, in the past, wrestling games were fucking awesome, like Midway's Wrestlemania. I LOVED this game because it was funny, entertaining, and would keep my attention going after a while. This was a game I wanted to keep playing even if there wasn't that many characters to choose from. Don't matter, it has Shawn Michaels in it, I'd play him every day! Haha... Anyways.

I've recently started to watch all my old wrestling DVDs again because I don't know, I felt like watching something I used to watch as a kid. I still scream when I see my favorites come out even though I know the outcome of the match. It's still entertaining to me despite that I know it's fake. Yeah, I know it's scripted and people make a big muck about it, I really don't give a damn. If it's gaining my attention, I like it well then that's fine with me. But honestly... I wish I didn't grow out of it, although, I wouldn't have that much fun watching anymore because neither of my favorites are on. Yeah, I still like a few that are still wrestling, but they're nothing compared to Edge or Shawn Michaels. It was fun while it lasted, I'll say that, and I will continue crushing on these two guys for as long as I live.

Yeap.

>'-'<

Psychology And Such

So in one of my classes for school, I had to do something that talks about women, since the class is literally called "Psychology of Women." I thought for my final, I would talk about how women are portrayed in video games. Instead of me explaining it, here you go:

Youtube Video

So yeah, enjoy it!

>'-'<

My Love For Fighting Games

I never really took the time to actually see how much I love fighting games... and to be honest, I really only love one. Mortal Kombat. You see, back in the early 90s, when that game came out, my brother was playing it non stop. We were the Sega Genesis kids mainly because Sega does what Ninten-don't. However, when the N64 came out, I got it, so Nintendo wasn't really that bad of a company for us. Anyways, Mortal Kombat was the only fighting game the two of us really got into. I never really saw my brother take home a Street Fighter game. Not too many of his friends played it either when they came over for their male bonding time.

And as we grew up, neither of us still had a liking for Street Fighter. Now, don't get me wrong here, I don't hate the series, nor do I think Mortal Kombat is superior. These games all have their pros and their cons, but it was just that I grew up with Mortal Kombat and I choose that over Street Fighter any day. I've never really played Street Fighter as much as I did with Mortal Kombat. When I actually do play Street Fighter, I tend to just mash the buttons like crazy and hoping that I do something with that. I don't know why this is, I mean, if I spent most of my time that I do with Mortal Kombat to Street Fighter, I'd probably be somewhat decent. The problem is just that I never really did took the time to look at the character's moves and play the practice mode over and over again until I mastered majority of their moves. Same goes to any of Capcom's fighting games, I just cannot get with it and play it the way it should be played. Their moves to me seem complicated. Sure, most of you who play Capcom's fighting games might be laughing at me, but I really don't mind, I deserve it because hey, I'm not going to be perfect at everything might as well confess it now.

There are other fighting games out there that I tried... well, only one, Soul Calibur, and of course, I had no fucking clue what I was doing. To be honest, I only got the game because of their create a character mode, and from what I saw, I really liked it. But after I actually tried to play the game, I still had no fucking clue what I was doing.

Mortal Kombat really is the only fighting game I can get into. It's not because it's simple to learn everything, but I just really love the way it plays... despite that it's simple to learn everything is a key factor to why I like it. I shouldn't really have to be ashamed that I can't pick up Street Fighter and all those other fighting games, it's just that for some reason that kind of style never stood out nor have I ever took the time to actually sit down and play the game. With Mortal Kombat, I did so, and becuase of that, I really have a fun time defeating my brother every now and then, as well as defeating my friends.

And, the only reason why I decided to make a blog about my personal life with fighting games for this week is because I'm kinda in a brain-farting mood. I really couldn't decide what game to review this time and well... I guess I could start reviewing some nostalgic games for next week's blog thingy...

I'm still also trying to find some way to make video blogs... maybe over the summer probably... as well as my psychology project that has me talking about how women are portrayed in video games... and it's not going to be the feministic view either. I really don't want to do that. I'm rambling.

>'-'<

Sweeeeeeet Emooooooootioooon

Revolution X is the game on my list of bashing and reviewing and whatevers. So as we play the blatant Terminator 2 game, we come to find ourselves fighting against a group called New World Order, they hate everything you like. Aww, so they hate cute little kitties?

You're fighting against these never ending dudes in yellow who also have roller blades on as well, shooting a barrage of bullets at you that only a few actually connects. You're heading to Club X, the hottest new club that opened in LA because AEORSMITH is playing there tonight! But as you're fighting through, they get captured by NWO's leader, Helga, played by Kerri Hopkins, who also plays all the girls in the game and who is also Sonya Blade from Mortal Kombat. Reason why I mentioned that is because Midway is to thank for this game. When you get to Steven Tyler's dressing room, he tells you to go to his car and such, stop NWO from taking over the world and music is the weapon.

Yeah.

Oh, did I mention that before you see Aerosmith get captured, a giant tank comes storming into the club? It's that kind of a game.

When you get to the car and such, you're on your way to three different locations. The Middle East, the Amazon and Pacific Rim. In each of these locations, you need to stop whatever NWO is doing at these spots, whether it's to stop a busload of children on their way to be brainwashed, contaminated food,  or chemical making. In each of these spots, you're also fighting men with surf boards for maskss and Power Ranger cosplayers. Each of these levels have bosses that take FOREVER to destroy, so remember to stock up on a bunch of CDs, because remember, music is the weapon... which means music literally IS the weapon. You have to basically dismember these bosses piece by piece, leaving absolutely nothing left of it.

There's a bit of a difference when you're playing the Middle East level, where you're stopping a busload of children to be brainwashed. You have to constantly keep up with the speed of the bus, so you're either speeding up or speeding down every now and then. Once you magically find a way to actually destroy this bus, you also kill the kids that are inside of it, because once you destroy the bus, you really destroy the bus, meaning that you also destroy the children that are inside. Great job you murderous bastards.

Throughout the game, you have to find all the members of Aerosmith. You have to do a series of tasks in order to find them. So, to find Steven Tyler, you have to shoot these two fishheads and this TV in the lounge area, once you do that, you'll be entering in some secret zone and you'll find Tyler making out with some random chick. It's like that with the other characters, finding something to shoot at and heading onto the secret area. Why am I mentioning this? Because you HAVE to find these guys in order to get the REAL ending. Yeah, it's one of THOSE games.

You see, once you defeat Helga, meaning once again, shooting and dismembering her... I mean, he, yeah, Helga is really a giant mutated macho man in disguise, piece by piece, you get words scrolling up on the screen telling you about the ending. If you didn't find all of the members, it tells you that you will not be rocking with the "greatest" band ever, Aerosmith, because you didn't locate all of the members. You gotta find all of them to be legends.

Meh, that's fine, I'm sure everyone else will be pleased to rock out with me after I saved all of their lives from the New World Order. I'm sorry Aerosmith is too arrogant to rock out with me because I couldn't find their sorry asses in hard to reach spots.

>'-'<

Infinitely Fun!!!

I'm warning you now, I'm spoiling a few things about Bioshock: Infinite. If you do not want to be spoiled, please keep reading, thank you!!!

Oh my was Bioshock Infinite amazing to play. I totally enjoyed Columbia a lot more than Rapture, mainly because it just seemed a heck more interesting to understand its history and more visually spectacular to look at. I mean, every now and then I found myself stopping for a few seconds just to look at the scenery. Plus, with the last two games, the character you take in control just didn't seem... interesting to play as.

I mean, let's face it. With Jack, you're a slave, with Subject: Delta, playing as a Big Daddy was fun for the most, annoying with the remainder of the game. But with Booker DeWitt, this guy just seemed so much fun to play as, maybe it's just got to do with the character interactions throughout the game. I just felt that having a character that seemed to be more of a livelier character was more fun to play as rather than two mutes.

With the story, I'm being honest here, it confused me for a little bit, but I totally get it. Booker is Comstock, Elizabeth is his daughter Anna... and honestly... I saw it coming... pretty much around the time that Booker drowns Comstock in the fountain, I knew that Elizabeth was his daughter... And if she is his daughter, then that means that Comstock is him. But hey, I'm not disappointed, Bioshock has a way in making twist endings, and this one certainly made me happy. Towards the end of the credits, you get another scene, making you think if this was another reality or not. Ooh, Inception... dum dum dum dum DUM DA DUMMMM... I never saw the movie.

My only complaint... I wish there was more interaction with Songbird. I LOVED that creature, especially when you find out about the word "CAGE" and that... Ugh, I wish there was more interaction with that creature, maybe a fight or something could have made me a little happy, but hey... that damn thing should have killed me when he tossed me into a tower. There's no way Booker should have been alive after that! Haha, I really liked the part where you have to defend your ship while heading towards Monument Island and you're telling Songbird to crash into enemies and such. The only enemy I hated fighting in this game are those damn Patriots. I think I missed reading somewhere telling me that the most damage you can do to it is shooting it in the back. It wasn't until much later in the game, pretty much that defending scene, was where I found out that shooting those things in the back damages it a lot quicker than shooting them in the front. Also, those turrets were also driving me crazy every so often.

I did enjoy the new powers that you had, my favorite had to be the shock ability, mainly because when you place the traps down, they do some heavy damage, and it's fun setting them down in places and watching your enemies walk right through them. I also liked the fact that you didn't have to rely on finding ADAM to buy your powers and upgrades, you just rely on collecting money, which isn't that hard to find throughout Columbia. Even Elizabeth helps you find money throughout your adventure. So upgrading your powers and guns shouldn't be a difficult thing to do, as long as you're smart about spending them...

I really thought they did an awesome job with this game, and I certainly hope that the series continues. To end the series here would be extremely disappointing because I know they can do so much more. I just really thought this game was the best out of the three. I loved the new area, the new challenges and the fact that my character I'm playing as actually is a guy I can have fun playing with rather than feel sorry for. I mean with Jack, you feel sorry for him when you find out that he's a slave, obeying kindly towards Jack Fontaine. With Delta, you felt sorry for what Sophia did to him and his daughter. I don't want to feel sorry for my characters, I want to be angry along with them to get to the end and drive a bullet through the brains of those idiots... Like Booker here... Even though the ending... I did feel sorry for him. But that's just because he gets drowned by three Elizabeths. Haha, still, I really loved this game.

>'-'<

I'm Back! And I Played As A Tomb Raiding Human This Time!

Yeah, after undergoing some nasty health issues, being hospitalized and all them crazy stuff going on, I figured now is a good time for me to come back into reviewing video games and do what I do best. Being a kitty that is.

So, during my time of not writing blogs, I played the recent Tomb Raider game and I freaking LOVED it! There's a few things that made me a little angry but it's nothing that would make someone just not get the game. Let me be the first to say that this is the FIRST EVER Tomb Raider game that I beat without relying on cheats. You know, I could never really play this series without relying on cheats because A.) I was like... 9 or something when I played the game back on the original Playstation and B.) I had no freaking clue how to play the game.

After a long disappointment with the Tomb Raider series after Angel of Darkness, I thought that the series was forever doomed like Sonic. But, after I heard that the game was going to be rebooted, I decided to take advantage on the situation and pre-order the game. I thought what I saw at E3 was amazing. A new Tomb Raider that actually makes you feel like an adventurer.

This game is totally different, Lara is actually a human being this time. You have to rely more on your resources than relying on infinite ammo. You know, I never quite understood exactly how and why she had unlimited ammo in the previous games... Yeah... But I did enjoy the fact that you had to upgrade your weapons to make them stronger and equipment that really would help you in situations that she was placed in. It was fun using that bow, I don't know what it is, I just loved using it. I mean, sneaking up on someone and just driving an arrow right through their heads just seemed so funny to me. Yeah.

You find yourself in a lot of gun fights, and yeah it does get a little repetitive, but it's nothing too hard to handle. Sometimes I did find myself dying every so often because I tend to run into a huge group of people shooting at me, and of course, THEY'RE the ones with unlimited resources, while I have to rely on smashing boxes and collecting items for ammo. That's the one thing that kind irked me with this, they have unlimited ammo and such while I have to hunt down for mine.

I'm glad that I didn't have to upgrade Lara's strength like we had to in Angel of Darkness, that was the most annoying thing ever to encounter in that game despite it being one of my favorites. In this, Lara just knows how to be athletic in situations where you know that's physically impossible to do. I mean sometimes Lara grabs onto ledges that I know for a fact no one would have such super gripping powers after sliding down a steep hill going at least fifteen miles per hour. I mean, even some of the falls that Lara endures, there's no way she could just stand up after that and dust herself off, no. If I felt from a long drop, I'd be limping and possibly seriously injured, and no I'm not counting on the fact that I'm only 100 pounds. Still, the falls that Lara endures in this adventure of hers, she shouldn't have stood up after some of them.

The whole story behind this game is that Lara and her team crashed into an island after a strange storm came about. They have to find a way to get off the island. Throughout the adventure, Lara finds out that you literally cannot leave the island, something in it is causing all of the airplanes to crash and ships to burn. So this sun goddess is basically the reason behind it, and she needs some sort of soul to transfer into or whatever and luckily one of your crew members happens to be the person that the sun goddess wants... or at least some crazed nutcase who thinks that the sun goddess needs this person. You have to save her while also finding the remaining survivors off of the island while battling perverted gunmen and such...

These characters are interesting, but I felt that the last boss of the game was really... dull... you have to fight this giant samurai-like monster who's wielding this giant sword around. Second phase comes in and he summons a few archers that he just automatically bashes away if you get him to go near them, and the third phase is a little tricky but it isn't that hard to fight him, he just moves a bit faster. I only died once by him because I actually moved in the wrong direction and lost track of where he was at. But this boss was ridiculously easy and I was a bit disappointed. Although the very last guy you defeat, the man who kidnapped your friend, you get to do some quicktime events leading Lara to have her double pistols back into her hands, which I thought that was kind of an interesting nostalgic moment. But, despite having to be a little disappointed that the boss fight wasn't really that great, it was overall an awesome reboot and I would definitely recommend you picking this up if you haven't already. I mean, this is what I thought Tomb Raider should have been all along, unfortunately, it took us at least almost twenty years to figure out that Lara isn't supposed to be some super human or whatever. She finally felt human, and that's something I totally want to keep seeing in the future games...

That is if there are... which of course there will be.

>'-'<

Lacking On The Update...

Due to recent health issues, I've decided to take some time away from writing blog. I haven't really found any kind of motivation to write anything new, and I'm sure that some of you guys were expecting me to actually have something to say about Playstation 4's arrival. Unfortunately for that, I don't have anything to say right now becuase I haven't taken the time to really look what they had to say about the system.

I'll recover, just hope everything goes right for me.


>'-'<

A violent, gory, implying sexual intercorsing, masturbating, S&M fetishes, murdering, suicidal, child abusing, profanity using, cannibalistic, prostituting, pedophiling, molesting, serial killing, geronticiding, vandaling, sexually transmitting, homophobic, racists.... DAHH!!!

Well if the title of this week's blog isn't something to be concerned about, let me go into details.

In 1996, a company called DigiFX Interactive designed a game and got published by Merit Studios. This was a point-and-click adventure that took place in the 1950s. You take control of a character named Steve, who has awaken in this town called Harvest with amnesia. He's trying to figure out who he is, where he is, and everything else. No one seems to be giving him any kind of helpful information other than telling him that, "You were always a kidder." You stumble upon one person who seems to believe you, the love interest, Stephanie Potsdam, who everyone tells you you're supposed to marry her in a few days. All of these townsfolk are trying to influence you in joining the Lodge. You do, by completing tasks that seems like harmless pranks, but they have dire consequences on the townsfolk. When you finally manage to enter the Lodge, you come across all these random series of rooms to show that you're a definite initiate and must complete another set of tasks before you venture on an save Stephanie, who gets kidnapped right before you become an official member of the Lodge. When you finally find this woman, everything is explained to you. You are in a simulation that turns people into serial killers. You have the option to become a serial killer, or be killed in the virtual world. You see, you and Stephanie are the only REAL people in this town. If Steve picks the option to save Stephanie and live the rest of his life in Harvest, the two live the rest of their lives within five minutes, although it may seem like an eternity to them. Both of them gets killed in the real world. For some reason, this is considered the "good" ending. The "bad" ending has it where Steve kills Stephanie and gets out of the simulation. He hijacks a car and kills the woman driver in it. He's then late seen playing Harvester with his mom coming in and telling him that games are too violent. He laughs at a comment she makes and the camera zooms into his mouth where there we see that he has a severed finger in his stomach.

This games contains: violence, gore, implied sexual intercourse, masturbation, S&M, murder, suicide, child abuse, profanity, cannibalism, prostitution, pedophilia, molestation, serial killing,  geronticide, vandalism, sexually transmitted diseases, and stereotypes of homosexuals, Native Americans, Italians. and others. 

This is a game called Harvester.

Do I have a mouthful of things to say about this game, and I will warn you, this blog will be all over the place because it's that crazy of a game. I've never played it before, but I've seen plenty of walkthrough videos about it on Youtube and from what I've seen... no words can really describe what I think about this game. I mean, I really have no way of explaining how I feel about this game. I've sat through the entire thing and I just laughed my ass off. The game was not gory, it was digitalized in so many ways that the blood just didn't' even look real. Actually, a lot of the game didn't look real. Of course, it's live-action and live-action computer games were mostly shitty products that failed miserably in the market. However, this game is considered a cult classic. But it's very underrated, especially with the features that it showed throughout the game. I mean that's a handful of stuff this game contains, and a lot of it can't be featured in video games today, otherwise that would be considered rating the game Adult, and many stores in the world refuses to sell anything Adult rated in stores.

So, what the heck? You have a game that's filled with the most horrific stuff that soccer moms would throw huge raging fits about if anything like pedophilia or child abuse was featured in a game today. There's a lot of offensive themes in this game that makes today's game look a bit childish if you played, and I'm saying that because despite how crappy this game looked, it did feature a lot of stuff most games really can't fit into today. I mean sure there's a few themes that this game has that has been featured in other games, but how many can you say has you killing children? I mean yeah, you actually get to kill children in this game. I don't think I've touched a game yet that has me killing a child... if I do I'll list it here but I haven't.

How about we actually pick things about the game to talk about now, shall we?

Here's something I don't get, which I've already mentioned. People consider the "good" ending to be where Steve marries Stephanie, lives the rest of their lives in Harvest, and dies of old age, but towards the very end of the ending, you see that Steve dies in the real world and the people operating the machinery explains their dissatisfaction on the choice Steve made. But in the bad ending, despite that Stephanie gets killed by him, Steve lives, and lives the rest of his life as a serial killer, but he remains alive. Doesn't this mean that the serial killer ending should be considered the "good" ending rather than the bad? Sure, he doesn't get the girl in the end, but at least he has his life intact. He's not dead, so doesn't this mean that the protagonist achieved his victory? By getting out of this alive? Sure he's now a serial killer, but he's not dead. Yeah Stephanie was his love interest and gets killed, but couldn't he just find some other random chick? It's not like she was remotely attractive anyways, he could have done better...


Here's another thing that bugs me. How in the world did Steve and Stephanie get captured by these people who are trying to turn Steve into a serial killer? How come not Stephanie either? I mean, you have both of them in a situation where their lives are in danger and if they refuse to do your bidding, you can just end their lives within a second. But only Steve gets to make a choice, either both of them dies, or just one of them dies.  I mean, what's wrong with trying to get Stephanie into being a serial killer? Is it just because of her character that she is in the game makes it hard for her to become a serial killer? And when you do save her in the end, why strip her down to her bra and panties? To make it easier to torment her? I mean throughout the Lodge levels, you're climbing a rope that whenever you touch it, you hear a girl screaming in agonizing pain. Obviously you find out that this has been Stephanie that you've been torturing, the Sergeant of Arms tells you that. But, it just doesn't quite add up. And where did Steve go after he becomes free from these people in the ending that turns him into a serial killer? I mean, we find him waking up, smiling and saying that what he went through was a cool experience, then we find him hitchhiking. I mean, yeah we can assume he was kidnapped but honestly... where did he go?

Why do most of these characters want to kill you if you don't do something right? I mean with the paper boy. If you don't give him a paper when you walk out of the house, he gets angry. Do this multiple times and he will shoot you down dead. Why? Why kill Steve for not... putting the paper out... That makes no sense either. I mean, you have all these random character that really makes no sense on existing in this game, and it gets even more out of control by the time you ender the Lodge because that place is filled with a bunch of random things I can't really describe. You're first sucked into something that's supposed to represent a monster's stomach, then you're in a kitchen... you have to face some giant monster that has a book that needs to be returned to where then you're fighting against a chess master... you're in a room with a mother who's triplets are eating her dead, a guy that murdered his family that's in the setting of Vietnam... to a religious zealot asking you wild questions about religion. I cannot comprehend on what was watching by this time. There's also quite a lot of interesting characters such as teachers who brutally beat their students down dead with baseball bats, a father who is obsessed with meat and molests little children before burying them alive, mothers who are so desperately seeking out the bake sale and baking thousands of cookie and throwing them away, a mother who has a secret sex life that tortures her husband with knives and barbed wired sex toys... I really have no idea why I am describing these characters to you. They're all messed up in various ways. It felt like the creator behind all of this wanted to make an outrageous game that had no rules, no limits on sense and logic... Just do whatever the fuck you want and hope it sells good.

Unfortunately for that it didn't sell well whatsoever and I'm glad it kinda did.

You see with a game like this, it just doesn't make sense. All those violent games we have out right now has sense and logic to it. This game just doesn't have it. I felt like during this creation, the guys behind it just wanted to make a game that would be more out violent and messed up than the games that were currently out during that time. And before, Mortal Kombat proved to be THE game that settled the creation of the ESRB rating system... not this game, it was a few years too late to be honest. But what about this game makes it where not too many people actually talk about it? I mean, to be honest, I stumbled upon this video game over a random video I clicked on while I was on Youtube, and I researched a little bit more about this game. Not too many people actually know this game exists... And when I stumbled upon a walkthrough for this game, I was stunned that this is a game that no one knows. I mean, I really thought that what this game features would be something everyone would be talking about, I can't even remember if there were any news reports on this game at the time. I remember seeing stuff about Mortal Kombat and Doom, but nothing about Harvester. Maybe it was just the fact that this game failed at selling stuff. I mean, majority of the live-action games weren't that great.

I just feel as if the creators of this game just wanted to put as much offensive stuff in this game without thinking about making it actually a great game. What's even more hilarious about this game, with all of the offensive shit that was put in this game, was that there's no black people once featured in this game. I get that it was based around the 1950s, and you know what happened during that time, but um, not a single black person featured in this game, not even mentioned either! Wowsers.

So yeah, this is Harvester, a game that I... really have no clue if I should recommend anyone to try to get a hold of or whatever. It made me laugh like crazy when I was watching the walkthrough of it, but I cannot figure out if anyone would really want to waste money, or even time, to play this game that makes no sense.

>'-'<

A Not-So Continued Game Should Be Continued

There were a lot of good games for the Playstation 2, but the one in particular for this review has t o be one of my favorite first-person shooters called XIII. Ever heard of this game? A game created by Ubisoft, it is based on the Belgium comic series of the same name. The game is based off of the first fifteen comics. The game truly feels like you're in a comic book because it has that cel-shaded look, whenever you kill someone in a gruesome way, there's little panels showing you his ultimate fate, and it's just got that cartoony feel to it with its humor and appearance. Sadly though, this game didn't get a sequel, so you don't know what happens next unless you actually read the comics. I thought that the live-action show they're doing with Stuwart Townsend would be a great way to bring the series back to the fans, however, I hated the show.

Let me actually talk about something that isn't hated by me.

You take control of a character named Steve Roland, or so you think. Your guy is being framed for assassinating the president, he must try to clear his name in a way to prove that he's innocent. But then you realize something as you progress throughout the game. You're not actually Steve Roland, you were made to look like him to get back at the Twenty organization for their betrayal. One bad guy named the Mongoose, is up in your grill because he KNOWS that he placed three bullets in you, and that you shouldn't have been alive after his encounter. Little does he know, you're not the Steve Roland everyone thinks is alive, you're Jason Fly, taking Steve Roland's identity and scaring the Twenty... You're also trying to figure out who number One is as well. Walter Sharidan, the brother of the late president, takes over his brother's campaign and becomes president. General Carrington and Jones are the only two people that knows of your innocence and wants to help you out. Amos, at first, believes you're guilty for killing the president, but then changes during the remainder of the game when Carrington later explains to him what's going on.

That's a little bit about the story, how about the game?

You don't get to kill all twenty of them, a few of them do die under your hands, other died under other circumstances, and some of them kill themselves. But the boss fights aren't really that impressive, they normally all act the same. The boss moves around really fast, has a dangerous weapon in their disposal, and you mainly have to find cover almost entirely throughout the fight. I feel as if there's really no specific strategy to these bosses because they all act the same. The second to the last boss, (sadly, I cannot look up his name because I'm constantly getting Final Fantasy XIII popping up) is one of two bosses that I find really challenging. Mainly because there's not enough cover to hide behind. You're in this room with a giant table in the middle, glass panels covers the corners of the room. You can hide behind them for a little bit, until they get shattered, for cover. Then the Mongoose fight is challenging of them all. You're roaming around this giant hanger with rockets that are about to launch, but if you shoot them, they spill out this gas that slows you down for a little bit. The Mongoose runs around really, really fast, and has a mini-gun in his disposal. I mean, he's not freakishly hard, it's just that most of the time, you're going to be finding yourself shooting next to him rather than at him because of how fast he moves.

The gameplay feels like any normal first-person shooter. At times, there's a bit of stealth moments where you cannot let yourself get spotted, otherwise the guards will call in HQ and have them be aware that you're in the area. This mission. where you need to infiltrate the Sanctuary, always ticked me off because of some of the areas that they have you sneaking around. Like this one spot, you have to climb out of a well and take out two guards that are roaming around the area, and you have to be quick because they move just as fast as the bosses. Allow them to successfully alert HQ or whatever, your mission has failed. Another spot is where you're in this large courtyard area. If you take someone out in the sights of another guard, they're alerted and they go running off and tattle-tale on you. You know when they're alerted when you see the exclamation point hovering over their heads, as well as a question mark, letting you know that they're suspicious of what's going on.

Another thing that kinda bothers me is the use of the sniper rifle. It's one of those games where you have to wait for the character to stop moving to actually get a good sight on the guard you're targeting, and this gets annoying because you have to wait like ten seconds before XIII stops moving finally. I get what they're trying to do, but it's annoying with these first-person shooters that do this. You don't hold down anything specific for him to hold his breath for a steadier aim or whatever, you just have to wait. And of course, once you shoot, you have to wait again if you're trying to aim once more.

The game does bring some good comical points to it. There's a part very early in the game where thugs that the Mongoose sent on you, are making a snowman. IF you shoot the head off of the snowman, you'll see that it's a deceased person  they probably killed with the Psycho music playing in the back ground for three seconds. That part kills me, literally. I don't really get the significance of the song several characters are singing, unless it has something to do with the name "Fly" and flying since that's the first part of the lyrics. "You can fly, you can fly..." Yeah, I still don't know the significance with that song, and several characters sing this song... You also hear some funny conversations such as a guard thinking that the newbies are "goddamn John Rambo." I always laugh at that part. Oh, and did you know that these characters are voiced by people that you know? Adam West stars as Carrington, and he's not AS funny as he normally is, David Duchovny stars as XIII, and Eve plays as Jones. So this game brought a few known people into this game as stars... but what happened  to this game?

You see, the ending ends in a cliffhanger. You're assuming that the way this game ends, it's going to have a sequel to pick up where it last left us. Unfortunately, due to poor sales and terrible reviews, Unbisoft didn't bother making a sequel. There is a point and click game out there for the PC, Mac, iPhone, and iPad back in 2011, however, it's not the same. It got mixed reviews, but some of the negatives sure hurt this game, such as "don't expect this to be the FPS of the year." "The graphics make up for everything this game lacks, such as the lackbuster weapons and story." They just thought this game was dull, that it didn't bring anything new, that it's just your typical first-person shooter that has nothing special other than making it seem like you're in a comic book.

How does this game end in a way that there SHOULD have been a sequel? Well, you're on a boat, and you were asked to located Walter Sharidan, the president. So you're searching throughout the inside of the boat, and you happen to overhear number Seventeen, Kim Roland, Steve Roland's widow that you helped out in a previous level, screaming as Walter to give her back her son. You then hear her get slapped and Walter is screaming about some deal that they made together. You stumble upon an office and you get a flashback (which occurs every now and then, showing how you became XIII and some previous missions that you did during these times) having Kim asking you who number One is. You never really get to see him during these flashbacks, nor do you ever get to see him... Well, you do, that is if you actually read the comics, or English version of them. Walter Sharidan enters the office after the flashback ends with him talking to you in a deeper, more serious tone. He asks you, "Are the fireworks not to your liking?" And then... DRAMATIC MUSIC and the panel "To be continued..." shows at the bottom of the screen.

I saw a Youtube video saying that this game had the dumbest ending ever. How though? Unisoft followed the comic book, this ending is an ending in one of the comics. I actually made a response to the person, telling them that if they really wanted to know what happened next, go read the comics. Ubisoft just didn't make a sequel, that's not stupid, the game didn't sell well. Don't hate upon the ending, really, don't.

Overall, this game isn't that bad as many made it out to be. It doesn't get boring if you really enjoy this game, I certainly do. The game brings somewhat of a challenge in the later levels, but it also gets more fun as well. I truly feel that Ubisoft, one day, should make a sequel to this game, and hopefully people didn't forget about this game. I thought that there should be, despite many people were talking down about it. Yeah, the game didn't have interesting weapons, but so what. The only thing that they should have improved on, is the multiplayer. Yeah, this game's multiplayer really wasn't all that great, and I wasn't too fond with it either.

If you ever want to check this game out, go ahead. I certainly don't mind playing it every so often, that is if I'm around a Playstation 2. I definitely would recommend you to get it if you're a fan of the comics, if you're a fan of first-person shooters, and a fan of goofy games. That's all I gotta say!

>'-'<

Angry Backpack Birds And Bears In Pants

I own Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie... both games received exceptional reviews. I am, or was, in the middle of trying to beat the first game because I could never do so back in the past. But after actually really playing the game unlike I use to back in the past, I must say... It's really flipping tough.

Back in the day, I used to play video games and didn't care if I beat them or not. I just like playing them because it was fun. Now that I'm older, and realize that you HAVE to beat the game, some of it really isn't that fun. I was at Bubblegloop Swamp when I last played the game, and I never really understood why some of these jiggies that you have to collect can be so challenging. I'm not sure why it's taking me such a hard time obtaining this one jiggy where you have a ten second time limit to get the piece, while you have to slowly inch yourself across this very narrow platform. It's ridiculous, and for some reason, I just cannot do it.

I know what comes at the end of the game, a quiz game and then the final boss fight. But I doubt I'll ever reach that knowing that I somewhat suck at this game. If the swamp level is giving me such a rough time, I cannot imagine how Rusty Bucket Bay is going to be like, and that is everyone's worse level too, or so it seems.

The one thing that used to always annoy anyone that's in the same room when I'm playing this game is when the characters talk. Yes, it's incredibly annoying after you played this game for a while when these guys talk. For those who have never really played the game but know of the Nintendo 64, some games didn't have your characters talk, some did. This game had it where your characters weren't talking, but made sounds. They make a random sound when they're talking, and believe me, it gets extremely repetitive when you've played this game for a while.

There's interesting secrets that this game carried, however, some of them did get scrapped when it came to the sequel, such as the Stop'n'Swop. It was supposed to be where you could transfer data over to the next game, but it got scratched due to technical difficulties. But it's really funny how it's still in the game, and that Rare literally made it be known to those who completed the game and collected these eggs, (yes, they're eggs) that a sequel was in the working. These secret eggs really had no important purpose in the game, unless you're going for the 100% items collected run, then yeah, it serves a purpose. But because this concept got scratched, there's really nothing too wild about it.

What's also really funny about this game is that the sidekick, Kazooie, holds more of a significance over Banjo. Banjo is a very, very, VERY slow character, hardly has any good moves in his disposal, and also, he can't really get around that well. Walk up a steep slope, he slides right back down. When you're using Kazooie, she can not only get you up those steep slopes, but she can fly, she can make you jump farther and higher, have some arsenal to use against her enemies... overall, she's the better one to play. Also, she insults pretty much everyone that she comes across from, I always thought that was hilarious.

I'm not going to touch Banjo-Tooie until I really beat the first game. The thing is though, is that I played it for a little bit, just to see what it's like... Holy crap is it different. Here comes another game series with the games being different from the previous... I was confused what I was playing, and how there's more of an improvement and such, really, it's different... and I'm not sure how I'll react towards that. I also heard that there's a level that consists of lava... Okay.

Despite that I never owned an Xbox and probably never will, I saw a little bit about what Nuts & Bolts was like... Eh... no. Just no...

Rare always made great games back in the day, and this was one of them. Banjo-Kazooie, there's no other game like it. Really, there isn't. When was the last time you played a game where a bird, who swallows golden puzzle pieces, had more of an advantage over a bear that's trying to save his little sister while solving riddles and rhymes? I don't think you really have.

There's just one thing that I have to mention. Kazooie gobbles up all the jiggys that you collect in this game. One of the jiggys that you receive at the very end of the game when you're in Tick Clock Wood, gets farted out of a bird... Mind you, I said that Kazooie gobbles up all of the jiggys that you collect in this game... Mind you that I said that Kazooie gobbles up all of the jiggys that you collect in this game... Okay? Yeah... Disgusting.

Get the game when you can. However, it might be pricey wherever you go. I've seen the game be locked away in cases because it is one of THOSE games.

>'-'<

Perfect Shooter, Undefeated Streak

I have played plenty of first-person shooters in my gaming life, however, there's one game in particular that will never, ever be replaced as the best (in my books that is.) A game that literally defied shooters. A game that literally took something and made it ten times, no, a hundred times, no, infinite time better than what Goldeneye 007 did for the N64 (and believe me, that game was a saint in shooters before this game came along). I am talking about Perfect Dark.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the game that is literally THE best first-person shooter game, in my opinion, that is out there. Sure, you can argue that Call of Duty and Halo are better, but you know what? Those games wouldn't even have a chance if it wasn't for Perfect Dark. Yes, Goldeneye came first, and many people thought that the game brought an ounce of awesomeness to the multiplayer, but Perfect Dark made it to where you can play muliplayer without the use of other people around. I mean, of course it's always nice to play with your friend and family members, but what happens if your friends aren't into video games like mine were? I mean whenever I had a group of my friends come around, I could never get them to play any kind of video game that involved violence. They mainly wanted to play Mario Party, and to be honest, the first one really sucked and I owned that one. Perfect Dark made it to where you can fight computer AIs, as much as eight, and just roam around the arenas shooting at a variety of different skilled bots. I mean you can make them really stupid and slow to very fast and intelligent. And that was a brilliantly new feature to have in a video game back in the 90s.

You had not only a new style of playing multiplayer, but you doubled the characters, doubled the arenas, doubled the guns, doubled a whole lot of things from Goldeneye, and Rare was the developer. It's not like Goldeneye didn't do anything in the first-person shooter genre, the game is an all-time classic and is up there with Perfect Dark. The game was one of THE best shooters to own in the N64. Pretty much everyone can tell you their reasoning on why they hated the Klobb, and they'll all say the same thing. An annoyingly loud shooting gun that forced you to waste an entire clip to actually do SOME damage, not to where you can actually kill a person. They will tell you why they feel the need to camp to Golden Gun. This is why multiplayer was awesome, and how everyone will tell you that Facility and Temple are the greatest levels... well, at least I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I do.

But there's got to be something that I dislike in these games, I mean I'm praising the hell out of them, there's got to be something that I have to dislike about both of them. Well, there is a few things that I have an irk about. With Goldeneye, Trevelyan just runs around in the Cradle mission hardly doing anything against you. You have an infinite amount of guards barging in front of you that's actually doing the damage. And if that's not annoying, when Trevelyan FINALLY allows you to fight him in the final fight, you have to CAREFULLY jump down (unless you want to climb down on the ladder) on this tiny little platform underneath you and shoot him. If he gets you, you're dead. There's hardly any room for you to move around and it sucks if you miss the platform totally. The boss fight was a totally disappointing fight. But hey, despite that Sean Bean is one of my favorite actors, he really played a shitty character. I mean the entire time during Goldeneye, the movie that is, all he did was more talky talky and less pew pew. Even when he had the perfect opportunity to shoot and kill Bond right before he plummets down the same area that I was talking about earlier, he just stood there, aimed the gun at him, and yapped his mouth like it was nothing. Of course, bad guys have to have the last laugh.

Ugh, such a disappointing character, and mind you that he was the only other double agent in the series that Bond worked with.

In Perfect Dark... let's see, there's got to be something in this game that I don't like. I guess, again, the last boss fight. I didn't care for it as much as I should have. You have to fave this giant Skedar King that's shooting rocket launchers at you, and time to time, he spawns mini Skedar creatures that, not only annoys the living crap out of me, but sometimes they just get you without you even knowing that they're there. I just didn't like the fight because when I first encounter him, I had no clue what I had to do. The shield freaking annoys me throughout the entire game. Sure that I don't mind it when I am using it, however, when I'm fighting against those that have the shield, ugh, annoyance. There's only one mission where the guards are using the shields and that's when the Carrington Institute is being ambushed. The guards are in shields, for some ungodly reason, and I can never beat this mission on the harder difficulties because of course they have double the damage power, but just trying to penetrate a bullet into their chests is ridiculous!

I'm a sucker for the K7 Avenger and double Falcon 2s. Not to mention the Proximity mines in the Villa area, undefeated. I'm freaking undefeated in this game, not one person has ever beaten me. The Villa against bots and putting the proximity mines in certain places that I know they'll go, I just see my score being at least thirty points ahead than the second place character. I mean that's just slaughter, you know? Sure, I get killed every so often, but hey, I'm not expecting myself to actually be untouched... that's just not human.

I also enjoy the story that Perfect Dark had. Aliens and technology, if those aren't perfect science-fiction materials to use... ugh. I'm a fan of science-fiction, no doubt. You can play the story missions in three different ways, which is something that I don't think I have experienced in any other video game yet. You can play story mode regularly where you just control Joanna Dark, your main character. You can play co-operative mode where you can have your friend, or a computer AI, be your partner. And what's even cooler, is that if you managed to beat a certain mission within a specific time, you can unlock other characters to be your partner, so you don't always end up with Velvet Dark, Joanna's supposed sister. You have Puglist, Hit and Run, Hotshot, and Alien as your other choices. Of course, they're totally not easy to unlock. I've owned this game throughout majority of my life and I still haven't come across unlocking these guys... I'm not sure why that is though... Anyways, the last mode is counter-op, if you have two players playing, one of you can be Joanna Dark and the other one could be an enemy. The person controlling the enemy can get killed as many time as they can, but if Joanna gets killed, that's it, the game is over and the guard player wins the game. If Joanna completes her objectives, she wins and obviously the guard loses. Oh, and um, when you're playing the levels with the Skedar featured in them, whoever is controlling the guard gets to be a Mr. Blonde code. For some reason, there couldn't be any kind of way for you to control a Skedar alien... despite that Turok has the ability to make you play as a raptor and a group of bugs...

I also discovered on Youtube from those who have pulled off the soundtrack from the game, a few hidden songs. There's a rare Deep Sea: Nullify Threat soundtrack that those who have some emulator, they can somewhat find the song despite that it's really hard to get played... At least that's what I read. Another was a BETA death sound... After hearing that and the one that's the actual soundtrack, I like the actual soundtrack...

I am rambling on and on and on, however, I have to really find some way to end it... Um... I dunno.

>'-'<

Purple Dragons Are Cool

Did you know that the same guy who plays in Reno 911, Carlos Alazraqui, voiced the Chihuahua dog from the old Taco Bell commercials and the character that I am going to be talking about in this blog, Spyro the Dragon? That's something you either did or did not know...

Anyways, let's actually get down to the point of this blog, the Spryo the Dragon series that were the GOOD games, not this Elijah Wood version that had absolutely nothing to do with the original series when it got to the Playstaion 2. No, I'm not going to even talk about that series becuase it's totally nowhere near what Spryo was during the original Playstation

When Spyro the Dragon first came out, you played this game and enjoyed it. I haven't heard a single person to this day where I heard them say that they hated the game. Not one person yet has told me they hated it. So, what is this game about? You're a dragon who has to free all of these other dragons who were turned into crystal after Nasty Norc turned them all like that. You have to collect every singly gem in the arenas to get a perfect score as well as collect the Dragon Eggs that were stolen by what I call "Nana Boos." That's mainly about it.

My only flaws with the first Spyro is are these minor issues: The fact that Sparx, the dragonfly, AKA your health meter, doesn't point out the direction the nearest gem is. You can't swim and touching any kind of water or anything that looks like water damages you. And the boss fights are pretty lame.

Of course, sequels can either make or break the series, luckily for this series, it made it.

Ripto's Rage was the next game in the Spyro series that literally improved so much from the original. You can now swim in the water, Spyro has new moves that he can perform, there's more character interaction, better boss fights, a great story, more levels, and a bunch more of fun-filled things. To be honest, I really don't think I can complain about this game or find a flaw in it because I really didn't find any when I played this game. i mean, they improved so much with everything from the last game, I feel like this is one of those perfect games that you rarely see in video game history.

Wow, to see me actually write something like that should be outstanding.

Next, we have Year of the Dragon. This time, there's a bit more to say and I do have some minor complaints. Of course, there are improvements from the last game that are made in here, such as more levels, more interactions, and a bunch of new characters that you meet... and actually get to play as. But that's the one thing that bothered me in this game. You see, I get that it's cool to play as new characters, but some of these characters that you get to play as, aren't really that fun.

Sheila, the kangaroo character, is not really my favorite, but at least she's playable in some senses. I mean, the character nonstop jumps to get to places, and it sucks because she doesn't want to do the double jump move all the time that I ask her to do. Some times, she does the jump, but she doesn't want to move forward onto the ledge that I'm jumping up. Other times, there's an enemy that's standing right at the ledge, and if I'm not quick enough, BAM, I get hit. Her attack move is so lame, half, if not, almost most of the time I get hit first. She just does this kick that sends both of her feet into the enemy and that's really about it, she does have a ground pound move, but she has to jump in the air, flip once and then actually land on the ground. Do I really need to see that flip before? Why can't you just use your feet to smash stuff when you're trying to do a ground pound?

Sgt. Bird, in my opinion, is the worst out of the cast because you have to fly in these ridiculous areas where there's a bunch of stuff shooting at you. And it's not like flying is that easy in this game, at least for me. It sucks controlling him because the movement is so slippery, even with Sheila, if I just slightly press the directional button, they take off in a heartbeat and I can't slow them down. With Sgt. Bird, I just feel like I'm unable to move with him because he just doesn't want to do anything. I have to set him down upon a platform, adjust where I want to go next, and then take off, hoping that this time, he flies right where I want him to instead of a wall or a nearby enemy.

Bently the Yeit is surprisingly easy to play because he's got that bat you can just swing around and hit enemies easy. There's really nothing to complain about here.

Same with Agent Nine, in fact, excluding Spyro and Sparx, he's the most fun character to play as. All you get to do is shoot stuff, in first person view too, it's really fun.

Sparx is actually playable in this game, and I thought it was going to be like another Sgt. Bird issue, but actually, it isn't. You see, you're in an overhead view of him and you have to shoot at other insets to advance to the next part of the level, while also collecting gems. Yeah, each character you have to collect gems too, they're not going to slack off away from that part.

There's also a variety of bonus levels you can play with Spyro too, such as the skateboarding one. I don't feel like going too much into details there becuase really, all you do is perform a series of tasks that Hunter wants you to complete, and it's not like these challenges are hard. Maybe the one where you have to outscore him by doing a bunch of crazy stunts on the board, but really, these bonus levels are a peach.

Maybe that's why I like the Spyro series so much, is becuase it's easy to actually play and beat. I mean sure, I like a challenging game, but there comes a time and a place where I would also like an easy game be placed in my hands and get through. There's nothing wrong with asking for an easy game every once and a while, right? Games these days are certainly not what they use to be back in the past. And as of right now, I have yet to touch any new game that feels and plays like the original Spyro.

But wait a minute, Kitty, you're forgetting something... Just becuase Spyro has existed on the Playstaion 2 doesn't mean that his series has ended in that particular generation... He came back, with a bunch of new friends, in a new kind of style... that he's sort of the main character of... but realistically, he's not... Because his name rarely gets mentioned in the commercials, and he's not the first character that appears in the strategy guide book (And no, it's not because they're going alphabetical, in fact, it's not even alphabetical in the first place) I am talking about Skylanders; Spyro's Adventure.

Yeah, about this game... what the fuck is it supposed to be about Spyro? I see nothing about this game that has to do with Spyro. Why make him the star of the game when I have yet to see anything that makes him stand out more than the other characters. Ooh, he's got a silver character that you could have only obtain if you went to E3, bull, that's not making him special. Maybe if I actually played the game, I probably would get a sense that he probably does have a bigger role than what I'm thinking, but if I have yet to hear his name be announced in the commercials, do I really want to know if I'm right or wrong by playing this game? Sure, it does look like a lot of fun to actually get a hold of, but to waste so much money on it, I'll pass. I already wasted a lot of money getting the collector's edition for Diablo 3, and I haven't touched that game since I've beaten it with my Witchdoctor character back in the early summer.

I guess it's just because I'm waiting for the expansion packs that they claim they're making before I get back on the game.

But back to Skylanders. I remember seeing a mother at a Best Buy looking so stunned and freaked out that the amount of money she has to waste on the Skylanders characters was hysterical. I wanted to ask her if she knew what she got herself into, because let's be honest, this game is not cheap, the additional characters are not cheap, and I'm fairly certain with these "Giants" that they're selling out now, aren't cheap either. She almost wasted an amount as much as what the game cost, and it's $90. If I want to see what this game is like, however, I just feel that I am going to be disappointed with what I find out with the amount of times I see Spyro, how he plays, and the fact that I'm wasting so much money that doesn't need to be wasted upon.

It's best to say that I'll just have my opinions about this and move on with my life...

So, that's really all I have to say about Spyro. I just hope in the future, same goes with Naughty Dog and their creation, that I see a game about this character that actually doesn't suck and goes back to the original roots it once had. None of this new, mystical game where it's totally not like the original, and completely ignores the fun and cuteness it once held in the past. Bring back the cute, no one ever thought that being a dragon and being cute couldn't exist.

They can... they did... and it was fucking awesome.

>'-'<