Video Game Update

I’ve been meaning to post an entry on here sooner, but it seems that GameSpot has taken up that slot as my “main blog” now. I suppose it’s because I can rant about video games or whatever I want on there, with the added bonus of it actually being a website based on video games. :p

Don’t worry, I still love WordPress and the fact that it allows me to use keyboard shortcuts in Firefox rather than waiting on the website to load horrendously slow on Internet Explorer.

But anywho! An update on video games.

Recently purchased Pokemon Soul Silver on March 14th. I was really excited since I never got to complete Pokemon Silver or Gold, and the new enhanced versions of the games only prove how awesome the originals were. I think the enhanced graphics and whatnot only make the games that much better.

Sadly, I have to cut this short for now. <_< I’ll write more later.

Making Progress

NOTE: This entry may/will contain spoilers. :p

Sorry for not posting here so much, I’ve been neglecting my blogs lately.. except for my GameSpot one, of course. I somehow manage to find something to write about in it. Haha. :]

An update on my video games.. I’ve completed a new game: The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. I had originally planned to start on my actual video game collection when I finished up with Metroid Fusion but apparently that didn’t work out.. as The Minish Cap overtook my free time and I quickly found myself going through every dungeon in the game, collecting heart pieces and upgrades. However, I have to say that it was a refreshing break from the rest of the games I’ve been attempting to play.

Now I’m currently working on the end of Dark Cloud. A lot of people I know give it a bad rap because of the “customization” idea that really isn’t customizable. Sure, you can arrange the town any way you see fit but the villagers all have requests that need to be fulfilled if you want them to be 100% happy, or if you’re planning on having 100% on your “request” bar for each town. I’ve gotten 100% on one or two towns and the others I’ve gotten 89% or so. Kind of frustrating but luckily it’s not needed to complete the game entirely.

I have to admit that the story was lacking and dragging on during the Muska Racka (Lacka for some people, SONY made a huge ass typo in the game) and I felt like the nightmare would never end.. seeing as the Sun & Moon Temple is a long 17 levels long. I didn’t mind all the hard work at the end however, as I got the ‘sun sword’ and it was 100x better than the weapon I was using. I was glad to get the hell out of Muska Racka though. -__-;

The only bit of the game that confuses me the most if the weapon customization. I understand the whole “add this element to raise it, add this to raise this stat, add this to increase damage to _x_ type creature” concept but I’m curious as to how my weapon is supposed to evolve from the sun sword to a higher level weapon. I guess I screwed up the stats or I didn’t do the elements correctly but it still confuses the hell out of me. @_@

But anyway.

If I remember correctly, Grand Theft Auto Vice City is the next game on my list to complete.  I’ve gotten a lot of missions done in it but the boat missions are probably the most frustrating for me. I think the one that I did last was the one where you race to a checkpoint and get a shipment before the other people get there. :\ I hate navigating the boats, just like I hate navigating airplanes in GTA San Andreas.

Anyway, hope everyone is well. I’ll be posting my review on Dark Cloud as soon as I finish it! <3

Ciao for now.

Changing Perspective on Metroid

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I recently begun playing Metroid Fusion for the GameBoy Advance via ROM. I’m currently nearing the end of it, I believe, and I have to say that playing this game alone has changed my perspective on the series altogether. Before I wouldn’t say I thought that the Metroid series was bad, I just wasn’t interested enough to sit down and play the copy of Metroid Prime that I DID own.

But that’s all changed now, I’m hooked on the GBA games so far and I may even go as far as to try to complete Prime sometime.

I suppose it’s because I’m a fan of the GBA already, but the controls, graphics, and the difficulty of the game overall is just right. The thing about Prime that I disliked was that I really had NO clue what I needed to do and in Fusion, I’m actually given directions on where Ineed to go. Sure, it’s up to me to find upgrades for my health, missles, and bombs along the way and I have to work my way around doors that are unaccesable once I’ve completed a section of the game due to the SA-X attacking the door, but the game doesn’t throw me into a brand-new section and say “Here! Figure out everything on your own and we won’t give you anything to go by!”

Prime left me hanging in the wind. I really only got past the first bit on my own because of sheer luck, and I immediately got the impression that all Metroid games were boring and more difficult than they needed to be. It’s not that I’m a lazy gamer or that I want every single piece of the game handed to me, because I don’t and I’m not, but really.. How can I progress when I have absolutely no clue what to do? I may try to attempt Metroid Prime in the future but right now the games Metroid Zero Mission and Super Metroid are on the list of “to play” games. x]

I’ll post my full opinion on Metroid Fusion later when I’ve actually completed it. So, look forward to that. I’m off to defeat another boss!

Revisiting The NES & SNES

In between working on my list of games to beat, I’ve been enjoying some of the older games I used to play when I was younger. Games that were released on the NES and SNES — Games I loved, and thought were better than anything new that would come out.

But that was years ago, and a few consoles later I have the ability to appreciate where my gaming roots come from and the newer consoles as well. I’ve mostly been playing games in the Metroid and Mega Man series, Mega Man, the original on NES is probably one of the toughest games I’ve played so far, and Mega Man X being one of the funnest (on the SNES).

Other than that I’ve played old favorites such as Castlevania, Vegas Dream, Trolls On Treasure Island, Burgertime, etc. I don’t know what it is about older NES games that make them so entertaining still. Which reminds me..

Have you ever purchased a NES game that was remade onto the GBA and you’ve though “They really killed the game with the new graphics and minigames.”?

That’s what happened to me when I purchased Kirby Nightmare In Dreamland. The game still had the loveable Kirby in it but they updated his look with how the modern Kirby looks, and then they also edited and made the levels/skills/screens “prettier.” Something that I thought really took something away from the feel of the old NES version — I enjoyed my crappy NES graphics, they really weren’t THAT bad for the Kirby game, and I loved how everything flowed together so well. I still enjoy the updated version but I tend to go back to the ROM of the older one to remember how it used to be.

But I’m ranting now, so let’s discuss SNES. As I mentioned, Mega Man X has been my main game.. and I’m not ashamed to admit that I play the Sailor Moon ‘Another Story’ RPG game. It may seem kiddy, but if you’re a fan of the series, like I am, then you really enjoy seeing your favorite characters in an RPG setting. Kinda like.. if you enjoy the Digimon or Full Metal Alchemist animes then you might enjoy the video games that were made after them. xD

In case you’re wondering, yes, I’m playing ROM versions of these games. My NES/SNES/SEGA are currently packed away in boxes and there’s no way I’d have the cash to repurchase some of the older NES games that I love. So.. yeah. Please don’t crucify me. ;x Something I would never do though is download/play NDS, PSP, PS2/PSX, XBOX, and GameCube ROMs. I know there are people out there that do it but I just find that searching for the correct ROMs and then adding them onto CD’s or something else to play on your console is too much time and a hassle. Call me lazy, but I enjoy my newer console games on the actual CONSOLE. Via the REAL GAME, not a ROM burnt onto a CD.

That’s enough ranting from me for one day. I’m off to sleep or play some more Metroid Fusion. <3

New Years + Video Games

2010 will be the first year that I’ve actually decided to stick to the resolutions that I’ve made. I had my resolutions in mind way before the end of the year came, and I even picked dates out that I would start them. But this entry isn’t going to be about the other personal resolutions I’ve made, it’s something I’ve been trying to work on for a while and I managed to make a small dent in it in 2009 but thanks to the reminder that my friend KenshinGirl gave me, I’m going to make an effort to complete the many video games I’ve yet to beat. :] So, without listing my ENTIRE video game list, below is the games I need to complete:

PS2:

Legaia 2: Duel Saga
Viewtiful joe 2
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Echo Night Beyond
Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 3
Dark Cloud
Samurai Legend Musashi
Wild Arms 3
Star Ocean: Til The End of Time
Xenosaga Episode I: Der wille Zer Macht
Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerebus
Final Fantasy X-2
Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories
Viewtiful Joe 2

PSX:

Dino Crisis 2
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Origins
Final Fantasy Chronicles
Chrono Chross
The Legend of Dragoon
Threads of Fate

GameCube:

Tales of Symphonia
Metroid Prime
Billy Hatcher and The Giant Egg
Harvest Moon: Magical Melody

Nintendo Wii:

Super Mario Galaxy

Gameboy Advance:

Sword of Mana
Riviera: The Promised Land

So here’s to hoping I complete them all. xD I’ll post updates later, possibly, but I’m mostly keeping track at Backloggery via the username savexkill.

Ciao for now.

The Brave One

The Brave One

WARNING: this entry will contain spoilers. If you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want to know what happens in certain parts, please skip this entry or continue reading if you really don’t care.

All I have to say about this movie is “Wow”. I mean, really, WOW. I went into this movie thinking that it wasn’t going to be all that great I actually thought to myself that this movie was probably going to be another cheapass movie that involves a vigilante shooter that just so happens to be a female, with the added details of her fiance being murdered by some punks on the street while she is out with him one evening.

Although most of us would never consider commiting an actual crime, you can obviously relate to the character in the movie; Erica Bain. She struggles with what most of us would deal with if we had dealt with her situation: depression, anger, confusion, and many other feelings. Erica decides shortly after her attack and the brutal murder of her fiance that she’ll buy a gun. She is told she will have to apply for a license first and then wait 30 days to see if she is “approved” for the licensing.

Erica bluntly tells the gun shop owner she won’t “survive 30 days.” this makes you wonder why wouldn’t she survive 30 days? she’s alive, isn’t she? but as you find out more of the story and you see how things are progressing with all of the characters you find yourself understanding more and more why she wouldn’t survive for those 30 days.  I think the hardest part of the movie to watch is when Erica commits her first “crime.” I think that she doesn’t intentionally mean to hurt the man in the liquor store but you can see through her eyes that she is trying to find a way to release the pain and the anger that she is experiencing from her loss.

WARNING: DO NOT read the following if you do not want to know the ending!

The ending to the movie is probably what shocked me the most; the police officer who had become her “best friend”, and maybe even something more (you can tell in certain parts of the movie that she may be having romantic feelings toward him but it’s not terribly apparent/obvious). He basically tells her to kill the last man who beat and murdered her fiance and herself and then tells her to shoot him in the shoulder so that she can escape and they can both get out “clean”, in other words, only they would know the crimes they had both commited.

I found this interesting because at one point in the movie when they are in the diner, eating lunch together (well he’s eating and she isn’t), he basically tells her that if he found out his best friend had commited a crime or a murder that he wouldn’t hesitate to arrest them — he would have the dedication to his job and the law to arrest him or her. You can tell in these few moments of the film that Erica and Mercer (the officer) are beginning to have somewhat of an understanding of the situation that they are both in: they both know each other now, and they both realize that Erica is the “vigilante killer” that Mercer has actually been searching for after the murders of several men on the street.

You learn in previous parts of the film that Erica has murdered the man that Mercer has been trying to put away for 3 years; as she puts it, he’s been wondering why “someone else has been doing his job for him.” she basically hints at the fact that Mercer wants to put the man away or take care of him himself but he is held back by his attachment to his job/the law. Mercer tells Erica in the diner that someone “did him a favor” the other night, Erica glumly asks what happened and they basically go about their normal day. At the end of this scene you see that Mercer and Erica have an understanding of the situation — He realizes, somewhere deep inside of himself, that Erica commited the crime but he isn’t willing to arrest her without the evidence — In fact, he won’t arrest her at all in the end.

Overall the movie was fantastic. If you haven’t seen the movie, or you are about to watch it, my advice is to put away the video games, step away from your instant messages for a while and take the time to focus on this film, it’s one of the better movies that have come out.

Yes, I know this movie is an “old release” but I still wanted to share how great it is.