Technology is wonderful....when it works.

I apologize for lack of updates this month.  With a houseful of people and the laptop still on the fritz, it can be hard to squeeze in time on our desktop PC, which results in the lack of any updates.

We went and saw "2012" about a week ago.  I enjoyed it.  For those that don't know, it is a story about the end of the world coming in conjunction with the end of the Mayan calender, which is December 21, 2012.  While the story itself was alright, it paled in comparison to the special effects.  The effects in this movie were phenomenal.  Watching Los Angeles or Las Vegas or any of the other well known locations be destroyed by Mother Nature was pretty intense.  It is a longer movie, but it doesn't feel like it with everything that is going on onscreen.  So if you are looking for a fun movie to go to, I would recommend "2012".

I've been playing a ton of "Dragon Age: Origins" as you may imagine, and in fact, a few days ago, I ended up beating the game.  What a game.  A lot of the things that happen in the game reminded me a lot of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, which I am a huge fan of.  From the army of evil marching across the countryside destroying everything in its path, to the band of adventurers comprised of men, elves, and dwarves,  this game is epic in scale.  One thing I would have liked to see is there not be so much linear parts to the game and have it be more of an open world type of game like "Oblivion", but this is BioWare, and this game does indeed borrow a lot from "Mass Effect".  It will be interesting to see how much along the same lines "Mass Effect 2" is.  And that is a very good thing.  Even with the linear nature of a lot of this game, I put in almost 90 hours of gameplay.  Not only that but the way you can build relationships with your party members, and with the multitude of job and specialization combos makes for a ton of replayability.  Which is why I started another game, this time as a female elvish Rouge.  On my first playthrough I was a human Warrior, but this time around I'm looking forward to the different play styles between the two jobs,

Then last night I was on Xbox Live and saw their deal of the week which was 50% off of "Peggle".  I've read a lot about this game and it's expansion "Peggle Nights" and they sounded really interesting, so I downloaded and played the demo, and I was hooked.  It's an arcade style game kind of like a marriage between pinball and "Arkanoid".  Basically you shoot balls at a table full of pegs, and every time your ball hits a peg, it disappears.  There are different color pegs on the board, and the object of each board is to eliminate the orange pegs.  This is a lot more challenging then it sounds, and a lot more fun.  And a lot more addicting.

Thirteen is lucky after all

So I was poking around on the Xbox Live Dashboard and saw something pertaining to a special announcement about "Final Fantasy XIII", the next installment in the phenomenal series of RPG games.  So I downloaded the video, and they showed some really, really good looking gameplay footage, announced that Leona Lewis has a new song coming out called "My Hands" which was chosen as the "FFXIII" theme song, and last but most importantly not least, they announced the North American release date.  So if you are a big fan of the "Final Fantasy" series, mark your calenders for March 9, 2010.

Where does the time go

So I was thinking about my blog, and it came to me that I hadn't updated it in almost 2 weeks.  Shame on me.  It's been kind of an interesting 2 weeks though.  It started with some more "Magic: the Gathering", doing some co-op with my son.  That was kinda fun.  I am still impressed at the job they did on that game recreating a good "M: tG" play experience.  Then a few days later I was looking on Xbox Live and I noticed something about "Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2".  And much to my joy, it was the first character DLC pack.  Not only did Xbox owners who did not pre-order the game finally get to play as Juggernaut, but we also got Cable, Psylocke, Carnage, and Magneto.  They also gave us some new Simulator missions which were pretty cool, so once I downloaded that stuff, I played that for a  day or 2, trying out the new characters and playing the sim missions.  The new characters seem to be pretty good, from the limited playtime I gave to them.  Probably my favorites of the group are Juggernaut and Magneto.  Carnage isn't too bad as well, and I really didn't spend a lot of time playing with Cable or Psylocke, just enough to unlock their alternate costumes.

With my wife out of town last week, I decided to go against a rule she set for me a few years ago.  Since I am a huge gamer, and my family knows it, she decided that come November 1, I am not allowed to purchase any new games until after Christmas, since I don;t know who will be getting me what games, if any, for Christmas gifts.  Well, I had a thought, that with so many good games coming out, buying 1 won't make a difference.  So I bought "Dragon Age: Origins".  I fully blame this game for my lack of an update.  This game comes from the same guys that gave us "Mass Effect", the upcoming "Mass Effect 2"  and "Baldur's Gate" 1 and 2.  After recently playing through "Mass Effect"  you can really tell where some of the gameplay in "Dragons Age: Origins" came from.  I am really enjoying this game to this point, even though I am only about 25 hours into a 60-80 hour game.  The game is the story of the Gray Wardens, a group of elite warriors, rogues, and mages, who have one job.  Every few hundred years, an army of evil beings known as Darkspawn bring hell to the world of Ferelden in an event known as the Blight.  It is the Wardens job to eradicate the Blight.  Once you create your character, you start the game as one of the newest Gray Wardens, and you are off and running.  Like I said, this game is a whole lot of fun.  Combat is definitely interesting, with probably the most interesting thing you can do for each member of your party is set up what is called Tactics.  These are different commands you can have each party member do certain actions if certain conditions are met.  These can range from doing certain abilities or using certain spells, to even taking health or mana potions.  You start off with only a few Tactic lines, but can increase those as you level.  This is  a great RPG, and serves as a really un bridge until January when "Mass Effect 2" comes out.

Sandwiched in between this all, I had to replace my old router, when a firmware upgrade crashed my network, making our laptop virtually useless to go online.  I highly doubt I will buy a Linksys produt ever again, and I will leave it at that.

Last but not least, I want to give a shout out to my good friend Oprahruru.  He recently decided to take a leave of absence, possibly a permanent one, from the world of Vana'diel and FFXI.  Oprahruru, take care of yourself, keep in touch on Facebook, here on my blog, on your quality blog, Master of Manipulation, and on the Duskwalker website. 

Haunted house of cards

So last week after playing some "Halo Wars", I decided to finally start playing "Grand Theft Auto 4".  I had bought the game a few weeks ago, a few days before jumping feet first into the"Halo" universe.  I really enjoyed "Grand Theft Auto 3" on the PS2, and had heard and read a lot about "GTA 4", and everything pointed to this being another great addition to the "GTA" universe.  After playing it for a few days, and enjoying it, I decided to download demos of two games that some friends of mine turned me on to. 

The first game I tried was called "Carcassone".  It's a strategy game based on an old board game.  My friend Leo told me about this game, and the demo was fun.  It took me a couple tries to get the hang of the game, and unfortunately the demo was kind of limited.  At some point I think I'm gonna have to buy it.  The other game I tried out, eventually downloaded, and bought the full version of, and have been playing virtually all this week is "Magic: the Gathering: Duel of the Planeswalkers".  Before I talk about the game, I feel I should give a little background info.  I used to play the card game a lot.  There used to be a HobbyTown USA store in my area, and me and a bunch of friends of mine used to go and play every week for a few hours, and many times would even go to each others houses to play.  In fact, my friend Brian is the one who told me about this game, and he was pretty much the one who taught me how to be a better M:tG player.

So fast forward to me and my 360.  This game is a lot of fun, and they did a really good job recreating the card playing experience.  They even gave you access to a few really good decks, along with unlocking more cards for each deck as you win matches against the AI player.  One thing about the AI players is that the ones later on in the single player game can pose a pretty decent challenge.  I was actually pretty impressed by this.  But there is one huge drawback to this game.  In the actual card game, decks are usually constructed using a total of 60 cards.  In the 360 game,  you are very limited to how you can construct a deck.  A lot of the matches I am playing with a deck totaling 70 cards or more.  Not only that, the only cards you can add or remove from a given deck, are the ones you unlock, even if some of the cards in the decks they give you kind of suck.  And the bad part about this, is that a lot of the cards you unlock are actually quite good, so you really don't want to play without them.  But other then that rather major drawback, I really enjoy this game so far, and not even close yet to unlocking all the cards for every available deck.

Earlier today, my wife and I went to see "Paranormal Activity".  I was very surprised that this movie came to my area, seeing as how I live in a smaller area.  When I first heard about this movie, and the strategy they were using to release it, I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I would have to wait for it to come on DVD.  But word of mouth for this movie was so strong that it pushed itself into a nationwide release.  This was a really good movie, filmed in much the same style as "Blair Witch Project", "Cloverfield" and "Quarrentine".  Very fitting that they release such a good ghost story the night before Halloween.  I highly recommend that if you want to have a few moments that make you jump, go see this movie.

So all precincts are in......

Work was kind to me today and I was able to go see "Saw VI" like I had hoped to this morning.  Let me start this by saying there will not be any spoilers about the movie, so this will most likely be a short update.  The movie was really good.  This one was similar to the last 2 movies in that a portion of the film was told through flashbacks, to tie the movies and the total storyline together and "Saw VI" accomplished this well.  They tied up just about every lose end that the previous films had left us, which leads me to my only gripe.  While every plot line was finished, they did unfortunately leave a small opening at the end of this one for a "Saw" movie next year.  I really hope that the series is done.  If they do in fact release a new "Saw" next year, they are gonna be doing the series a disservice. Hopefully the people at Lionsgate know when to call it a day with the series.  I'd hate to see this go the same way as the "Friday the 13th" movies and just become a joke.  The "Saw" series deserves better.

A tradition unlike any other......or not.

Well today marks year number 6 of a tradition that I have come to look forward to every year.  What is this tradition you may ask?  Today is the opening of "Saw VI".  Ever since the first one came out, I have made a point of going to see the new one the day of release every year.  Don't ask me why.  I don't really have an answer as to why.  I will be honest.  While I do enjoy the "Saw" movies, they really need to end the series with either this movie or with the possible release of "Saw VII".  I haven't done any looking into another "Saw" movie release for next year so they might already be planning another movie for next year.  But the series does need to end soon.  One thing that keeps me curious about the new "Saw" movies is how they keep the "Jigsaw" storyline going with him long dead.  I also enjoy the flashbacks into his life they have had in the recent movies, going more into his life before "Jigsaw" and the events that pushed him to his breaking point. 

So, after work today, I will be in the theater, pop and Crispy Critters in hand looking forward to see what "Jigsaw" and company come up with next.  Hopefully the movie can meet my expectations.  Those expectations being just not to suck too bad.

Beyonce would be proud

So I went shopping last week with the family, and I finally became the last person on the entire planet I believe, to take the "Halo" plunge.  Now granted, this isn't the first "Halo" game that I have, since I've had "Halo Wars" since it came out.  I am more referring to the single-player shooter games.  Well, it's been 8 days since that shopping trip and I have played through the main trilogy, leaving me only "Halo 3: ODST" to finish on the single player side.

This group of games has been widely considered as some of the best games ever created for any system.  I had always thought that this hype was a bit much and couldn't understand what all the hype was about.  I mean, could a trilogy of games actually be this good?  Well, after playing through the single player campaign of all three games, I can honestly say the hype might not have lived up to the game.  These first-person shooters have everything you could want in a superb game. The storyline that is stretched over the could have been pulled right from a $400 million dollar Hollywood blockbuster.  The graphics were phenomenal.  The gameplay was some of the best in any shooter I have ever played.  These games had some of the most intense moments I've ever had while playing a shooter.  They really did a great job drawing you into the war you were a part of in the series.  And Bungie (the people behind the "Halo" series) really did an awesome job with the parts of the game involving all the different vehicles you had a chance to use throughout the series.

I really can't say enough about these games other then I wish I would have played them sooner.  I know from now on, I will be there front and center buying whatever "Halo" games are released from here on out.  Now if only I didn't have to work so I could start "Halo 3: ODST".

Apologies

Yeah it's been a little too long since my last update, I know, and I apologize about that.  I place complete blame on Commander Shepard and the rest of the crew of the Normandy.  For those of you that don't know, Shepard is the main character in "Mass Effect" and the Normandy is his ship.  I had yesterday off of work, which was good timing, since I got to the point where I was able to beat the game yesterday afternoon.  I really can't say enough about this game.  Maybe it was a little shorter then I liked, but I still managed to get almost 50 hours of gameplay out of it, and that was with completing every side quest I had access to.

Before I get to what what made this game an all-time classic, I have one complaint.  The inventory system was kinda tedious.  Whenever you tried to sell off some of your old or duplicate equipment you had to scroll through the entire menu.  And when you can hold up to 150 items, that can take a while.  But considering the rest of the game, that complaint is just a pebble on the beach.  What a game.  The story could have been pulled right from a Hollywood movie, and with some of the voice actors they had on "Mass Effect" it basically was a movie.  A couple of the voices I was pretty sure I recognized right off the bat with Seth Green and Keith David voicing two of the characters.  What surprised me when I read the credits is who some of the other actors they had on the game, most notably Marina Sirtis of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" fame, and Lance Henriksen who has been in a ton of movies.  But what a story it was.

One thing I remember hearing about this game was Fox News having a problem with this game, and while I don't remember the complete news story and I don't have time to look it up, it had something to with a naked alien.  After playing through the game and getting to see what the fuss was about, all I have to say is seriously?  That was it?  You see more skin on prime time television and that is free of charge. This is something that has an "M" rating so you need to be 17 to purchase it anyway.  So Fox News needs to get a grip.

I did start a second playthrough already, mainly so I can hit the level cap.  You get capped at level 50 the first time you play through the game, and that gets bumped up to 60 on your second palythrough.  There are also some other things I want to do, most notably being a jerk, and maxing my "Renegade" points.  On the first playthrough, I maxed my "Paragon" points, which means I was a good guy.  The "Renegade" points mean I will be a big jerk at times.

Time for work, but if you read this blog and like games like this, go out and buy "Mass Effect" today.  I promise you won't be disappointed.

Amazing

As I said, if I had Tuesday off of work, I was going to start up "Mass Effect".  Well, I did indeed have Tuesday off, and after laying an early morning game of "Madden" that ended up freezing up before I could save, I erased my old game save and started up "Mass Effect".  This game is amazing.  I could toss every superlative at this game but that would just be boring.  The main storyline of this game is playing out like a sci-fi movie, the cutscenes are really good, and the fact that every conversation that you can carry out with the NPCs in the game are all voice acted only adds to the depth of the story.  The music in this game literally rocks, and does so much to immerse you in the "Mass Effect" universe.  To be honest, I am not all too sure how far into the main story I am, but I am spending a lot of time doing side missions now, and exploring a lot of the other star systems not involved in the main storyline.  But all I can really say is I wish I would have started this game a long time ago, and now I really can't wait until "Mass Effect 2" comes out next year.

Are you ready for some football?

It's been kind of an uneventful week as far as gaming goes.  I ended up beating "Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2" through the Pro-Registration campaign earlier in the week.  And after thinking about this game, I am a little disappointed.  While the story was really interesting, both campaigns played almost the same.  the only thing different was the middle third of the game.  The first third was the story leading up to having you choose which side to play as during the middle third of the game.  And the last third of the game had to do with the two sides setting aside their differences to defeat a common threat.  I did like how the middle part of each campaign weaved together with the other storyline.  Maybe I just had my expectations too high for this game.  I will admit that I haven't had the chance to try playing this over Xbox Live with anyone so that might add something to the game.  I really hope any DLC they add is kick ass, and not just an additional character or two.  One other thing I did notice comparing the two "MUA" games is that the first one, while not based on a particular comic storyline, had a much longer game storyline.  "MUA 2" was a lot shorter from start to finish then I hoped it would be.  Maybe they will add some extra stuff to the single player campign down the road.

So once I got done beating "MUA 2", I played a little "Call of Duty 4" and advanced a few levels.  After playing that for a while, I was looking at my games, and decided to fire up "Madden 09" after not playing it for a while.  Once I played a few practice games, I loaded up my San Francisco 49er franchise to see where I was in my current season.  It was a good thing I played a few practice game.  Once I loaded up my save, I was happy to remember I just finished a 16-0 regular season and was on my first playoff game, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  That game went well for playing my first game that mattered in a while.  I won 23-10 and advanced to the NFC title game against the hated Dallas Cowboys.  That game went pretty well as well, with a 28-13 win.  That is when I got the bad news and found out who my new opponent was.  I was matched up with the 15-1 New England Patriots.  I was dreading playing these guys, and was anticipating a shootout, with the last person with the ball having a chance to win.  Boy was I wrong.  I ended up winning my second straight Super Bowl, winning 13-7.  After advancing through the off-season, doing free agency and the draft I started my next season and picked up on a good note, beating the New Orleans Saints 44-24.  Next up on the schedule is the Denver Broncos.

And no, before you ask, I don't play on the All-Madden difficulty level.  I'm not that good at the game in my opinion.  In this version of  "Madden", they have what is called the My Skill skill level.  Basically what it does, is it adjusts itself to how you play, and adjusts the skill level accordingly, either for the better or the worse.  That seems to work well for me, and just about every game is fun and competitive. 

I do know that the next day off I have, I will be starting up "Mass Effect".  I want to be able to get a good start into the game, so I am saving it for a day off.  Hopefully that day off isn't too far away.

Which side will you choose?

I have really been enjoying "Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2" lately.  I played through the game once already, picking Anti-Registration the first time through and thought the storyline was great.  The end boss was kinda strange, but the overall experience was a lot of fun.  Once I beat the game the first time, then I started the Pro-Registration storyline.  They did a great job incorporating the 2 different storylines into the game and weaving them together like they have.  It's been a lot of fun seeing some of the battles between various heroes such as Captain America fighting Iron Man among others, stuff you would think you would never get to see. 

They really did improve on just about every aspect of the first game.  I am finding it hard to find something from the first game that they carried over to the sequel and didn't improve upon it.  Granted, the game isn't even a week old yet, and we have yet to see any sort of DLC, but I really doubt they can screw that up.

One thing I have given some thought to is to try and find all the comic book issues pertaining to the "Civil War" storyline.  Like I said, I've really enjoyed the game to this point, but since I haven't read the entire story, I'm not completely sure how much of this game is pulled right from the story and what they have added for the game.  The thing that will be really interesting to see is if they make a third game, what storyline will be used.  Will it be a story written for the game like the first one, or pulled directly from the pages of the comics like they did for the second game.  I can tell you about one thing I hope they keep in any other "MUA" games:  the cameo appearance by Stan Lee was genius.

So it's been a month......

One month ago tonight, I logged off of "Final Fantasy XI" for the last time.  And I have to be honest, for the most part, I really don't miss it.  There are parts of it I miss.  For example, Thursday nights had been Nyzul Isle nights for the last year, and we were gonna be starting up regular assault runs by now, to try and get us all Captain rank.  Nyzul nights were one of the only things left in-game that I really looked forward to, and was probably one of the main reasons I hadn't decided to quit sooner.  I miss hanging out with my linkshells, especially the DuskWalkers crew.  I met a lot of amazing people in my time playing "FFXI", and had many a laugh with a lot of them.  I miss the experience point grind as well, the first clue being the 11 jobs I had capped to 75.  Had it not been for the pride I took in making sure my jobs were geared well, I might have had more jobs leveled.  Hell, I even kinda miss the eventing grind.

That said, I don't miss it enough to come back.  It really did get to the point that playing "FFXI" almost begn feeling like a second job.  I had forgotten for the most part how fun it was being able to play and enjoy other games.  And aside from a few events I enjoyed doing, a lot of nights, logging into "FFXI" became a chore.  Maybe in the back of my mind, I had come to the decision to walk away from "FFXI" a while ago, I really am not sure.  The thing I am sure about is that I walked away at the right time.

A very well known and popular thing to say about people that have walked away from playing "FFXI" is that "they always come back".  After a month away from the game, and really enjoying that month, I gotta be honest:  no, they don't.

Game day

Work has been beating my ass as of late, so I haven't got to play as much as I would like, but when I did get a chance to play, I made up for lost time.  Sunday was a "Shadow Complex" marathon for me, and eventually late Sunday night, I beat the game.  I really enjoyed that game, and have the opinion that that is the best game available from Live Arcade.  I will say that I haven't played games like "Castle Crashers" or "Braid" which have also gotten rave reviews from critics and players alike, but I really liked "Complex".  The backtracking got a little tedious at times, but you had to do a lot of the same in "Metroid" and "Castlevania" as well so I was expecting some of it going in.  The way they did it though in "Complex" made it not seem so bad.  For a Live Arcade game, I thought they did a really good job with the graphics, even though it is just a 2-D side scroller.  None of the mini-boss or main boss fights were too terrible, but I wasn't playing on the highest difficulty so I guess that was to be expected.  I will definitely be playing through this again, on a higher difficulty, and try and knock out some of the leftover achievements I missed out on.  That and the game is just plain fun.  And games like these always play through faster after the first time.

As I stated before, I was a huge fan of the first "Marvel Ultimate Alliance", so it shouldn't be a surprise that I picked "Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2" last night, on the day of release.  Now granted, I didn't get a lot of time to play last night, but my initial impressions is "wow".  They took what worked in the first one, improved upon it and gave it a serious graphic overhaul.  It looks amazing up to this point.  I am really looking forward to jumping into this game a lot more over the next days and weeks to come.  One thing that will be interesting is what kind of DLC they will release for this game.  For the first game, they released some hero and villain playable character packs, and I imagine they will do the same thing for this one. 

The movie scene has been pretty slow as of late, but the previews I have been seeing for "Pandorum" look pretty interesting.  It looks like a cross between "Event Horizon" and "The Decent".  And if it is half as good as either of those, I can't wait. 

Everyone should have this "Complex"

So last night I was playing some "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" and I ended up getting my next rank up in the Prestige ranks that they have.  For each Prestige rank, and if I remember correctly, there are 8 of them, you have to level up to 55, unlocking different perks and weapons along the way.  Once you cap your experience points for that particular rank at 55, you get the option to stay at that rank, or move up a rank.  Now the kicker is, if you choose to move up to the next rank, you are, for the most part, demoted.  You get reset to level 1, so you have to go through that next rank, unlocking everything again on your way to 55.  I think I only have 5 more ranks to go......

Now onto the game I refer to in the title of this post, and that game is "Shadow Complex".  It is only available on the Xbox Live Arcade, but at some point it might get released on PC.  This game was partially created witht he help of Cliff Blewzinski (I hope I spelled his name right), or better known as Cliffy B. (I know I spelled that right).  He is the guy responsible for the "Gears of War" games, so I had a good feeling about this game before it even came out.  Then I saw some gameplay during the coverage of E3 over the summer and I was hooked.

But probably the thing that got me the most excited was the style of gameplay.  What they did was go back to the good old days of the 2-D side scroller, bringing back fond memories of the original "Metroid" and "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night".  They used quite a bit of the old school side scrolling gameplay, and added 2009 graphics and that combo definitely works.  Hell, I didn't even start the main game until earlier tonight.  I spent a good 6 hours or so last night just working on what they call the Training Grounds, if I remember the name correctly.  Basically what that is, is a bunch of short, and in some cases, timed and scored mini-games.  And I gotta say, some of them are really hard.  I finally had to shut it off last night and go to sleep, because it ended up getting pretty frustrating.  I did end up beating what challenges I had left, not even worrying about my rank on them, just hoping I would be able to finish them. 

Once I did finally finish all of the challenges, I dove into the main campaign, and it is a lot of fun so far.  They did a really good job bringing a 2-D side scroller into this day and age of gaming.  They deserve a ton of credit for making such a high quality game, and releasing it on Xbox Live.  Most companies would be after the big bucks and releasing a game like this to mass retail, so kudos to them.  The only bad part about that though, is if you don't have a 360, you're kinda hosed.  But if you do have a 360, I really recommend picking up this little gem off of Arcade.

Attack of the Real Life

First I want to apologize about the lull in updates lately.  Had a busy holiday weekend and wasn't home much, so there wasn't really anything to post about.  The only game playing I did over the weekend was a little on Facebook.  However, once the busyness of the weekend died down, I did get a chance to fire up "Oblivion" again.  I've been plugging away on that the last few days, and a couple hours ago, I finally beat the main quest line, and in doing so, got my first Xbox game with all the achievements finished.  I must quantify that statement by saying that as long as you do the main quest, and all the side quest lines, you will finish the achievements off.  I wish more games were set up that way, because some games have such ridiculous achievements.  I will say this about "Oblivion":  that game is HUGE.  I'll go into that more in a later post though.

Once I got done playing "Oblivion" earlier, I decided to fire up "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare".  I hadn't played that in a long time, so it was kinda nice to get back into that for a while.  I'll admit I am not the best at that game, partly because I get some ugly lag in some matches.  If I can get on a game with a good host though, I do OK.  Plus it's a lot of fun.

I know I said I was gonna pick up "Mass Effect" but I might have to put that on the back burner for a while.  One of the games I have been really excited about is coming out next week, that game being "Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2".  The first game was really a lot of fun, and once I heard they were making a sequel, I have been looking forward to it ever since.  Hopefully work cooperates and I have next Tuesday off.....

Two out of three ain't bad

Two "Oblivion" DLC down, one main quest line to go.  I finished off "Shivering Isles" earlier.  It had some interesting moments and some funny dialogue.  The last boss was kind of a pain, posing a bit of a challenge before ultimately meeting his demise.  I finished the other "Oblivion" DLC, "Knights of the Nine" a while ago, so now all that is left for me in Cyrodil is the main quest line, and it's been so long that I have no clue how much of that story I have left.  I haven't really given some thought to what I will play next, but I really should start playing "Mass Effect" soon.  There are quite a few games coming out that I have given some thought to possibly getting, and unfortunately "Mass Effect" keeps getting pushed to the side.  One of these days I will pick "Mass Effect" back up.  No, really I will......

Watch it spin round to a beautiful "Oblivion"

Before I jump into talking about some games, I forgot to mention one thing about "Halloween 2". Any movie that has "Weird" Al Yankovic in a cameo appearance is made of complete and total win.  'Nuff said.

So anyway, last night I ended up finally beating "Fallout 3".  I think when the kid was talking about bad endings he was referring to "Fallout 3" instead of "Halloween 2".  The first ending, the one you get with the original game wasn't the best, but at least it gave you closure.  Once you buy the DLC "Broken Steel" though, you pick up after that ending to try and destroy the Enclave once and for all.  Once you play through the DLC and make your choice of what to do, the main storyline pretty much just stops there.  No ending movie, credits don't roll, nothing.  It was pretty disappointing and left me sitting there thinking "Was that it?".  I actually had to go online and read to see if I missed something, which I didn't.  On the bright side though, it does leave you with 2 new repeatable quests to keep doing, and it also lets you just able to go out and explore, kill stuff and maybe finish up any side quests you didn't get a chance to do beforehand.  I do plan on starting a new game of "Fallout 3" at some point though, so this time I can play through as an evil character.  There are also a few Xbox Live Achievements I missed out on this first play through that I would like to get as well, especially the Bobblehead achievement.

After loading up "Fallout 3" tonight and doing some housecleaning of my inventory and getting back to my house in Megaton, I was trying to decide what to play next.  I decided to pick up another epic game that I hadn't gotten around to finishing off yet, that game being "Elder Scrolls: Oblivion".  It was kinda nice to pick up "Oblivion" again.  I was definitely a little rusty at first, but after a few fights, I got back into the swing of things.  I did forget to repair my armor a lot longer then I would have liked though and did almost die at one point.  So I will be playing that until I beat both the "Shivering Isles" DLC quest and the main quest line, along with possibly some of the side quests I might have missed.  I imagine there might even be a waffle thrown in there at some point just for good measure.

"That was one of the worst endings ever"

This is what some young kid said on the way out of "Halloween 2".  Obviously this kid can't appreciate an ending to a pretty damn good horror flick.  As you can probably guess, I went to see "Halloween 2" and I definitely enjoyed it.  I won't try to say too much about it to avoid any type of spoiler.  This movie picks up right where the first "Halloween" ended, is strong out of the gate and from there to the end, there aren't a lot of dull moments.  They brought back all the actors who managed to survive the first movie which I was glad to see.  Too many times, they try to replace actors in sequels, and rarely does it work.  I think there was one cast change, but again, I don't want to say too much as I don't want to offer up any spoilers, but the character that was involved wasn't really affected by the change.

One thing that I noticed right off the bat was how brutal Rob Zombie made Michael Myers in this one.  Growing up watching the original "Halloween" movies I was so used to seeing Myers walk about as fast as Galapagos tortoise.  Even in the first of Zombie's "Halloween" movies, Myers had a little more fluidity while running around Haddonfield, but in this one, he definitely was moving with purpose.  Not just the way he moved though, but when he got a hold on his next victim, the brutality and vicious nature with which he disposed of these people was far and away the most hard-hitting I have seen Michael Myers to date in a "Halloween" movie.  And the good thing is the way the story is told, it wasn't just for the sake of it being a horror movie.  There was method behind the madness.

Now the ending I heard the kid complaining about was, in my opinion, a pretty good ending.  All I will say is that Rob Zombie left his vision of the "Halloween" story wide open for a third installment.  After seeing the first two, I can say I am looking forward to "Halloween 3" if it ever does get made. In fact I think a third movie needs to be made, just to try and make us all forget about the original third "Halloween" movie......  If you are a fan of horror movies, especially the "Halloween" movies, I really suggest you go see this.

Simple.....yet fun

Just got done going through all my games on Facebook.  I must say, whoever makes those games knows what they are doing.  They are all really simple, all played just by clicking stuff with the mouse, and at the same time they are all pretty fun.  I mean how can you go wrong with farming, vampires, mobsters, street racing and pirates?

Ding dong the witch....err Big Daddy is dead

So it's been a few days since my last post.  Thursday I played a little Bioshock, and did in fact end up beating the game.  There was a nice ironic twist near the end, especially ironic considering some of the things I have been saying as of late about the Big Daddys.  I will leave that there though, so I dont give away too much.  The boss fight was pretty fun, but ultimately not that hard.  The ending movie was also interesting, but for a few reasons.  First reason has to do with the Little Sisters, making me want to replay the game and do some things a little differently.  Again, I will leave it at that, not wanting to give away any spoilers.  Second reason the end movie was interesting is the last scene, taken in the context about what time period the game was set.  But I did end up restarting a game of Bioshock, this time on a little harder difficulty.  That should be fun lol.

I remember saying that after I beat Bioshock I said I was gonna start playing Mass Effect.  Well, I changed my mind and decided to finally finish off one of my favorite games of all time, that being Fallout 3.  Now I should preface this with saying that I have already beat this game.  But I had a game save file from near the end, and when they released the Broken Steel DLC, I just started again from that game save.  What is the significance of the Broken Steel DLC you may ask?  Well, it did 2 things.  First, it increased the level cap on your character from 20 to 30.  But more importantly, it picks up the main story and quest line 2 weeks after the "ending" of the original game.  Good thing too, because the original "ending" of Fallout 3 was really disappointing.  So I am kinda looking forward to jumping back into the Capital Wasteland for the next couple days.  Will be a nice change of pace from Rapture.  I do get to trade Big Daddys for Super Mutants, so that should be fun as well.

As I stated in an earlier post, "Halloween 2" also started yesterday, so I am hoping to go to that sometime over the next few days as well. 

Are we there yet?

Gotta love a game that keeps you guessing.  Twice now, I've thought I got to the ending on Bioshock.  Not so fast my friend......

Haven't I seen you somewhere before strikes back, part 2, redux

First off, I'd like to mention a few movies that I forgot to mention and was reminded about by Lola in my post about movie sequels.  Two other sequels that are far superior tot he originals are "Terminator 2" and "Superman 2".  So thanks Lola for pointing out that oversight.  Funny thing is, those were two of the movies I specifically wanted to mention but just forgot about them.

Now, thankfully for us gamers, video game sequels seem to be a lot easier to pull off and be made into successful franchises.  Halo, Gears of War, Fallout, God of War, Metal Gear Solid and Grand Theft Auto are just a few of the many quality game franchises that come to mind.  And in the next 3-9 months, we will be seeing some phenomenal game sequels, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Bioshock 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and Mass Effect 2 among quite a few others.  At some point in the next 1 to 10 years we will also be seeing Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2, but with the way Blizzard works, no one knows when these will eventually be released.  But we do know that Blizzard time and again has put out some classic games, even with the long waits between titles.  You will notice I didn't mention any of the Madden games, the other EA sports games, or the Final Fantasy games.  I'm not sure if those qualify as sequels, but are more considered new installments in the series.

So what makes a quality game sequel?  A few things do, starting with gameplay.  I don't care how good a game looks, but if it has a crappy control system, most people are not gonna be playing it.  I will admit graphics are important, but you have to have good gameplay mechanics to back them up.  Another thing that makes a good game sequel is the story.  Now granted, games like Call of Duty don't depend as heavily on the story to carry the game, but games like Bioshock and Mass Effect do.  Graphics do end up being important if the game plays well, because if you have both of those going for you, most likely you have a hit game on your hands.  And lastly, the thing that makes game sequels what they are is you don't have to worry about replacing cast members who play important characters because they want more money.  I mean can you imagine if after "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" they had to replace Viggo Mortenson as Aragorn or Elijah Wood as Frodo with other actors?  Games don't have to deal with that issue to quite an extent thankfully.

Anyway, sit back and enjoy your sequels, both movie and video game.  I am off to spend some quality time with the Big Daddys.

Short but sweet

I am really enjoying Bioshock to this point.  This game has an atmosphere that has been able to draw me in like not many other games I have ever played.  The storyline is cool too up to this point, and the Big Daddy's are a pain in the ass.

On a non-Bioshock note, I got the new DLC (downloadable content) for Mass Effect.  I have hardly touched this game, but am thinking I might start this one once I am done with Bioshock.

Haven't I seen you somewhere before?

Before I talk about what I was gonna talk about, I would like to give a big {Thank you.} {Incredibly tough} {Puppetmaster} to my good friend Oprahruru.  He posted a "Trea-bute to Tri-bor" on his blog, gathering together a bunch of quotes I've made over the years in FFXI.  So I recommend taking a peek as they are pretty funny, and for me personally, brought back a lot of memories from my days in FFXI.  Here is a link to his blog, Master of Manipulation.

Now onto what I'm gonna talk about.  Ever since I first saw the teaser trailer for "Halloween 2", which starts this weekend, I've been looking forward to this movie.  But that's not the only sequel starting this weekend, as the fourth movie in the "Final Destination" series starts Friday as well.  The first "Halloween" that Rob Zombie directed 2 years ago ended up being a really good movie, going much deeper into why Michael Myers became what he did.  I had quite a few reservations as to what to expect with Mr. Zombie trying to re-envision an all-time classice like the original "Halloween", but I definitely think he did it justice, which is why I will be there at some point this weekend to see how he tackles the sequel. 

Sequels have always been intriguing to me.  Some of them can be as good if not better then the originals.  "Aliens" and "The Empire Strike Back" are two that come to mind off the top of my head.  Then there are some sequels that are just trash and shouldn't have been made in the first place.  All the "Friday the 13th" movies after "Friday the 13th, The Final Chapter" and "Halloween 3: Season of the Witch" are just a few examples.  One gripe I do have is, especially in the case of the "Friday the 13th" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" is when is it enough.  I keep waiting for them to come out with a Friday the 13th where Jason has to go collect his Social Security check, or buys a cup of coffee with his AARP card.   Sometimes beating a dead horse is kinda pointless, but if there is a buck to be made I guess we will keep seeing movies in the series. 

Another thing I noticed, is that some of the best sequels of all-time are part of a trilogy.  It seems that 3 is the magic number when it comes to movies.  Both sets of "Star Wars" trilogies, the "Godfather" trilogy (which I am almost ashamed to say I have yet to watch any of the "Godfather" movies), the "X-Men" trilogy, and in my opinion, the best trilogy of all-time "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.  Granted, some movie franchises have done quite well with extending past the trilogy, with the "Spider-Man" and "Die Hard" series both highly successful and with good films.

Ironically, this post will have a sequel as well, once I get around to talking about sequels in video games.  And I am pretty sure that post will be as good if not better then the original.  I just hope I can afford to bring back the original cast.....

The Waffle

 

This is not a waffle......

I know its morning and you may think this post is about a breakfast food.  Actually in the MMO world, a waffle carries an entirely new meaning.  It's used to describe someone who falls asleep at the keyboard with their face planted squarely on the keys.  And when they wake up, their face looks like its been sitting on a waffle iron.  I bring this up for 2 reasons.  First reason is that when I played FFXI, I had waffling down to a science.  And sometimes, I would waffle at the worst possible time, like waffling and running away from a one of the Nyzul Isle bosses.  Obviously you can waffle playing other games too, but if it is a single player game, who is gonna notice?  Last night playing Bioshock, which is an unbelievable game by the way (I will get more into Bioshock later), I am having a good old time playing, and the next thing I know, I wake up and its after 4 AM this morning.  I shut down the 360, roll over and go to sleep.  So the art of the waffle lives on.

 This is a waffle!!!

Hello and welcome!!

Welcome to my blog. I have been giving some thought to a blog, but up until now I just haven't, mainly because I couldn't think of what to talk about. Due to a recent event that has changed. First let me explain the meaning behind the title of my blog. Back in September of 2004, I was looking for a new video game to play. Being a big fan of the Final Fantasy series, I noticed Final Fantasy XI Online in Sam Goody. Never having played a MMORPG, I decided to give it a try. Needless to say, I was hooked. I spent a good portion of the last 5 years playing FFXI, having a lot of fun and meeting a lot of people along the way. Well, my time in the world of Vanadiel cam to an end on August 21, 2009. After giving it some thought, I just decided it was time to walk away from the game gracefully. This is what gave me the title for this blog, putting a twist on "the morning after", a start to a new day, but also paying a small homage to all those days playing the MMO, Final Fantasy XI.

So you may be wondering what will I be talking about. Well, just because I stopped playing FFXI, doesnt mean I stopped playing video games. And thats just one of the things I will be posting about. What I'm playing, my thoughts on the games I play and gaming in general, and on occasion, a look back into my life in Vanadiel. I'm also an avid moviegoer, so I will be talking about movies and opinions on those as well. And who knows what other randomness I will throw in here.

So sit back and I hope you enjoy what I have to say.

-Treabor