Life with Games

God Bless America (and Japan)

This is what hell would look like for me.

The sad thing is, most of the people in North Korea have no idea that games have advanced so much further than what is in this building. To them these could be absolutely incredible. It is almost kind of amazing to think that we are so spoiled and demand so much from games now, meanwhile the less fortunate could very well be thrilled with 8-bit non-classic games.  It just goes to show you how fast technology has advanced in the past two decades.  What we see as “games of our childhood” could very well be the only games some people in third-world countries will experience in their entire lives, and that’s if they are lucky enough to play any games at all.

NPR is great, and this article definitely adds to it:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94884967&ft=1&f=1006

Just as movies distracted Americans during The Great Depression, video games now distract us from our apparent economic struggle. So basically, we are turning to virtual worlds to ignore the real world. Hmm, funny how majority of people used to make fun of my kind for doing such things. Now it’s all the rave!

Since my last bunch of posts, I have discovered and fell in love with the most delicious dessert on the planet. It has everything delicious: Oreos, vanilla ice cream, vanilla milkshake, hot fudge, and whipped cream. Once the shake is gone and there’s nothing left but chunks of Oreo, it is the most delicious pile of chocolate to ever slowly slide down into your mouth from the bottom of the cup. No matter what the hell has got me down on any given day, this shake could bring sunshine to a septic tank.

Picture stolen from Press-Enterprise

Long time no post. Apparently a lot of stuff happens in life and before you know it, it’s September and you have been playing so many damn games that you haven’t talked about, it’s a sin. This is the first of many, I hope. Unfortunately, this post is of a mediocre/terrible game. It has a fantastic story for the time between Episodes 3 and 4, the visuals are beautiful, and the physics and different engines Lucasarts used are amazing. There are a few other things that make the game interesting, but all of it is held down by the terrible gameplay choices Lucasarts decided to make. The best way to sum it up is, the first level is the best because you play as Vader, and all the power you have during that level is exactly what playing as a Sith warrior should feel like. That’s why I used that picture for the intro to this article, because it is the highlight of the game. But as soon as you are given the apprentice, stuff just starts to go downhill.
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The Condemned series, so far, has been a pretty intense ride, one that has kept me enthralled for the past few weeks. Today I will go over the first game in the series, Criminal Origins. Criminal Origins (CO) is a solid scary ass game, even though the graphics were not too hot, despite it being on the Xbox360. CO introduced us to all of the basic Condemned gameplay elements, which include brutally painful combat, using items you find just lying around on the floor, as well as the Crime Scene Investigation modes, to collect evidence to help solve the game’s overall case.
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I don’t have too much to say on this game since I just started it, but if anyone is on the fence about trying this game, I would definitely push you towards the “get this game” side. The DS controls are great, using the stylus to hack and slash could never have been done better. If only the Wii could have controls as smooth as these for sword slashing games.
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I nearly jumped out of my seat when I watched this video:

http://kotaku.com/371098/leaked-sonic-unleashed-footage

Oh man oh man oh man, the real Sonic might just be back!

Exciting times.

Update: It is official. http://kotaku.com/375652/sonic-unleashed-is-official

I know a lot of people would beg to differ, but as far as my opinion is concerned, Army of Two is a pretty fun game. It’s lacking in a few places, especially the multiplayer, but I played through the campaign a couple times, with and without a friend in co-op, and I enjoyed majority of it. By no means would I ever compare it to Gears of War in overall excellence, but it did have some features that I found pretty sweet (bro).
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Remember that game for the N64 where Nintendo put a bunch of its first (and some third) party characters up against each other in a unique style of fighting game? It was called Super Smash Brothers. The game ended up being one of the reasons why people bought an N64. It had a successor, named SSB Melee, that also was the only reason people bought the Nintendo console at the time, the Gamecube. Granted it had some upgrades, but it was practically the same game. Now the only reason for most people to own a Wii is the next sequel, SSB Brawl. Brawl has a ton of features, more than most games developed today, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it deserves the high ratings and praises it receives.

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Just look at this delicious cereal. Honey Nut Cheerios has always been one of my favorite cereals, but I just picked this up last night and it is awesome. Chex by itself is already one of my favorite, but literally mixing two of my favorite cereals might be borderline illegal. But if it’s wrong, I don’t want to be right.