Just looked down at the clock, it's 2:41 am, last time i looked it was 10:30pm, i'm trying to figure out where all that time went...of me just doing nothing. I think i write to much, and use too many pictures.

Max Payne

So, the other day, i decided to break out the Max Payne series and play them again. Those 2 games kick so much ass; the dark brooding noir atmosphere, the clever and well written inner dialog, and the incredibly visceral gunplay. If you haven't played these games, please go out and buy them...it's like 14 dollars for both of them together on steam. I'd easily place Max Payne 1 and 2 in my top 5 favorite games of all time.

Not sure how Max Payne 3 will turn out though (Remedy is not developing it, Rockstar Vancouver is), I hope it turns out good. I'm not expecting the writting/story to be as good, because, obviously Sam Lake is not writing it, BUT i'm sure the gunplay will be as good as always. Here's what Max looks like though, not sure if i like it:

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Final Fantasy X

I dusted off my PS2 the other day and started playing FFX again, bruddah. Made it up to the temple of Macalania, bruddah. Spira is one of the most beautiful video game worlds ever created, architecture is just awesome, bruddah. Wakka is a piece of ****, bruddah.

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Arma II Demo Impressions

This is the first military sim i've played...and it'll probably be the last.

I tried out senario mode first,not sure what that means, but i was thrown into Chernarus(fictional world the game takes place in) and asked if i wanted to play as commander, or give that job to the AI. I decided the AI was better off giving the commands. After that i was told, with my squad mates, to capture various small towns on the map. Everytime i hung out with my squad mates, i ended up first to be killed. I figured chilling with them wasn't the best idea, they're bad luck.

I restarted the mission, waited for the commander to build an Armory (I guess when you play as the commander its kind of like an RTS, like in BF2, but with base building), and headed on overthere to get myself a new gun. I chose the sniper rifle, and ran off into the forest by myself to go kill some commies. I found this castle overlooking a small village area that was surrounded by Machine Gun encampments. Perfect sniping position. The bullet drop was hard getting used to, but i eventually took out all the MG placements.

Not too long after the aforementioned butchery, i saw all my AI pals(convoys of them) coming over the mountain side opposite to my castle, down into the village. Too late **** i did it myself. HEY BUT WAIT, then i glanced to the left of the village and noticed a convoy of troops from the opposing army entering the city.

So my team was coming into the village just as Opfor was, this meant war. So I watched the two armies duke it out and after that i ending playing.

If i had to pick one thing to award the game on, it would be the atmosphere. It's scary immersive. The sound design is the best part. All the guns sound insanely real as they leave the barrel, fly by, hit different surfaces, etc. The graphics are also really good. They easily rival Crysis, aside from being less stylized andhaving more photorealistic lighting. The scale is just immense as well, Chernarus feels like a living breathing world.

The controls were a bit difficult to get used to, i'm pretty sure all the buttons on the keyboard do something, some of them even have secondary commands binded to them, i.e. hold the right mouse button to zoom in, tap it to use optics. You can change that of course. The default headbob in the game was giving me a headache, so i had to turn that down.

Judging from the demo, the game is very well put together, but the learning curve here is just way to high. Unfortunatly, it's not something i want to invest my time in. I can see the appeal, but it's just not for me. Maybe if i play the demo some more it MIGHT grow on me, but i don't know. Right now, i'm just feeling itstoo realistic to be fun. I'll give them demo some more time before if decide if im going to buy it or not.

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Upcoming movies/movies i would like to see:

• Moon
• The Road
• Public Enemies
• Shutter Island
• Inglourious Basterds
• District 9
• Na srebrnym globie
• Le Donk
• PU-239

Out of those i'm most interested in seeing Moon, Na Srebrnym Globie, and PU-239.

Moon is a film directed by Duncan Jones and staring Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey(voice). Sam Rockwell plays the employee of the company "Lunar". Sam's job is to extract helium-3 from the Moon in order to help fix the energy crisis on eath. Accompanying him on the space station is a robot by the name of Gerty. The plot develops from there as Sam begins to hallucinate.

Na Srebrym is a polish movie directed by Andrzej Zulawski. I'm not quite sure what it is about...but judging from the trailer it looks really interesting. All the shots are first person.

The main reason i want to see PU-239 is because it stars Paddy Considine. He's one of the best actors i've seen, and all of his performances are very different. He played a Vet out for revenge after returning home from the war in Dead Man's Shoes. In Hot Fuzz he took on the role of a sarcastic/mocking investigator apart of a police force. A mentally disturbed character in A Room for Romeo Brass. In theLe Donk trailer, he also plays a pretty interesting character. I've loved all of his performances.

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Bought some flicks this weekend, Best Buy was all "Hey! Buy one get one free!" so i took advantage of that:

• Unforgiven
• Angel-A
• There Will Be Blood
• Leon The Professional
• Escape from New York
• Mad Max 2: Road Warrior
• THX 1138
• Severance
• Wall-E

My favorite off that list would be either Leon or Mad Max.

Leon is the story of a hitman who takes a young girl under is wing after her parents are killed by corrupt DEA officers. Awesome revenge story. Thetwo main characters and their relationship is also very interesting. I'd say it's Luc Besson's best film...that's actually hard to choose, i love all his films; Nikita, The Big Blue, 'Subway, Angel A.

After losing his family, Max Rockatansky wanders around the post apocalyptic wastlands of Austrailia as an empty shell of a man. The chase scenes in this film really are some of the best. The atmosphere is also incredibly well done.

I strongly recommend that everyone sees these two films...actually, i recommend all the movies I listed. They're all great.

And if anyone is reading this, any movie reccomendations or films coming up that look interesting?

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Pixar

Wall-E was cute, but I think the praise Pixar receives is completely overblown. Every new Pixar movie announced is hyped to be their best one to date...no matter how subpar the trailer that's shown is. Any critizisms are instantly and blindly attacked. If i ever posted how i felt about Pixar in Off Topic lurkers would make accounts just to attack me.

I'd like to see them take a risk. They have all this money lying around. They have the talent. I think they should make an animated film noir. At least SOMETHING different.

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If anyone read, thanks! Sleep time now.

Pics stopped showing up, re posted.

Basically, here are my thoughts on this year's E3

The Good

Alan Wake (PC,X360)- Alan Wake was FINALLY at E3 this year, and judging by what was shown it looks absolutely amazing! They've really nailed the psychological thriller atmosphere thatso many games have failed at recently. I also expect the narrative to be top notch, considering Sam Lake is writing the script. He also wrote Max Payne and Max Payne 2.Remedy has yet to dissapoint.

One thing i did notice was some people are worried about theaction heavy nature of the demo, and they feel the rest of the game will follow this route. This is not the case though as Rememdy has explained that the demo was designed to show off action, muchlike most other game demos shown off at E3.

Left 4 Dead 2 (PC, X360)- I really enjoyed the first one, not sure why they felt the need to put out a sequel this early.I kind of wish they would complete Half Life 2 Ep3 first before putting this one out. Not sure about thesunlight either : BUT I'm sure it'll be an awesome game though, especially with the new melee weapons! I'm looking forward to chainsawing some zombies with 4 of my friends.

Oh and also I think all the over the top L4D2/Valve hate going around is a bit pathetic. Really c'mon.Valve is not the new EA. Shut up. I almost find it offensive that people are actually comparing thisone time incident to 2005-2006 EA's business practices. Valve has been nothing but good to it's fans for a LONG time, just look at all the FREE updates Team fortress 2 is getting. So please stop with this boycott ****.

Splinter Cell Conviction (PC, X360)- I was very surprised by this showing. It actually looks really well done. I lovethe approach to narriative they are taking, by projecting cutscenes onto the walls around Sam insteadof removing the player from the game.

It seems like devs are focusing a lot on making the player feel as if they are Sam Fisher, which explains the mark and execute feature: Easy to pull off, but something Sam fisher would totally be able to do. I know a lot of people feel like this is "dumbing down" the game, but it's an optional feature. You don't HAVE to use it. The player shouldn't be bumbling like someone who has no clue what they are doing, they should feel like the the definition of badass.

Hopefully the game still provides some challenge by focusing more on your tactics than ability to aim a gun. I hope to deliver the Justice Hammer of Ass-Kickery to Sarah Fisher's killer this fall!

Assassin's Creed 2 (PC, PS3, X360)- I really loved the first Assassin's Creed...in short bursts of play. The real problem with the game was the repetition. Each mission had you investigating your targetin the same exact manner you did your previous target. That was incredibly effing tedious. BUT AC2 sounds like itwill be completely reworking this by including 16 new mission types that can be combined in various different ways,so color me hyped!

Oh and Italy looks WAY more fun to explore, much less drab and brown than the cities in the original. I'm really looking forward to this one now, the flying machine looks helluhsick!

Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC)- At first, i wasn't really looking forward to this game, but after reading some previes, it has caught my interest. Apparently the game is very story driven, and i'd love to see how the works since this game is an MMO. MMOs aren't usually story driven. They're also saying there will be "moral choices" ala KOTOR,Mass Effect. Everything about this sounds good. This might be the only MMO i'm willing to pay for...

Mass Effect 2 (PC, X360)- I loved the first, and it sounds like they're improving on every aspect of ME1 for Mass effect 2. The dialog system looks much more fluid and cinematic than in the first. Combat alsolooks like it got a bit of an overhaul. What i really want to see is how my choices from the first gameeffect this one. :)

Crysis 2 (PC, PS3, X360)- Multiplatform development BETTER not restrict the size of levels anddestructibility compared to the first game. I mean, i dont mind that this one will be on PS3 and 360, JUST aslong as it doesnt effect the PC version. I'm really hoping for more destructibilty and larger levels. Other than that i can't wait, Crysis was one of my favorite First Person Shooters ever! Maybe this time we'll be able to dual wield chickens, like they claimed was possible in Crysis 1, but it actually wasnt :x

Uncharted 2 (PS3)- Uncharted 2 looks to be improving on the first in every way imaginable. Platforming transitionsinto shooting much more seamlessly. It also looks like Naught Dog is incorperating shooting into the platforming and vica versa. The cinematic camera angles as you play are also a very nice touch. I also loved the characters from the first game, very Indian Jones and Romancing the Stone vibe. This game makes me want to buy a PS3 again.

The Last Guardian (PS3)- One of the most unique games shown off at E3, Team Ico finally revealed it's newgame. It looks like it's almost a combination of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, two of my favorite gameslast gen. I'm sure this game will be just as beautiful as the previous two Team Ico games.

Announcements like this also bring out the fanboys unfortunatly. Here is an actual quote from after some kid witnessed the trailer:"O-M-G, I need to sit down and take a break for a second. The depth and meaningfulness of those pictures right there have literally made me go faint, just look howbeautiful they are, the Mona Lisa is going to have nothing on this.":|

New Zelda (Wii)- So, the above was the leaked concept art for the new Zelda title. Notice how Linkdoesn't have sword. Miyamoto says that's important. My theory is girl is gonna be his "sword". She is juxtaposed "on" his back. Legs have hilt pattern. Diamond on center is consistent with other sword designs in the Zelda series. Her Hat looks like the tip of a sword. I'm definitely interested in thisgame now, even after the disappointing Twilight Princess.

The Bad

Metroid: Other M (Wii)- Nothing about this game reminds me of Metroid. It looks like Ninja Gaiden with a Metroid skin. The art sty1e looks completely uninspired compared to past Metroid games.

I'm also trying to figure out what the hell those "cinematic" CGI cutscenes are for. The Narritive inpast Metroid games has always been delivered to the playerthrough his/her own exploration. You scan objects, read logs, and find bits and pieces of story strungthroughout the environment. This was an awesome form of story telling. Cutscenes, to me, are the absolute worstway to progress the story in a video game.

It's not that I am afraid of change, i was completely open to the change the Prime series brough forth. This wasbecause Prime looked to be the perfect transition from 2D to first person, and it was. It felt like a Metroid game. This game is not giving off the metroid vibe. Nitendo, what are you thinking?

MAG (PS3)-For this game to work, the community has to take off. I'm not sure i see that happening, especially when my experienceswith Sony online left me feeling lonely. They really need to bundle a mic with this game, or the team work is going to beextremely limited and teams are not going to be coordinated. Also, unless the Maps are larger than the mapsfound in BF2, 256 players seems like a big much. I honestly don't see this game working. Just sounds like a lame version of BF.

Wii Vitality Sensor (Wii)- Really? This is just silly.

The Ugly

Ubisoft conference -So Ubisoft, first you hire the worst comedian ever, Joel McHale, to host your conference...it was really embarassing watching joke after joke pretty much fail. Then you put James Cameron up there for 30 mins to tell us about his Avatar game/movie. He didn't even show us anything. He just stood up there awkwardly talking about this game. I'll be honest, I lost interest 2 minutes in.

I seriously hate James Cameron nowadays. He used to be cool. Terminator was brilliant. Aliens was amazing. Terminator 2 supassed the first. The Abyss = Awesome. Titanic...WTF? And ever since Titanic it's all be downhill. Now he has some weird facination with 3D. All his movies have to be in 3D now :| 3D really is the biggest gimmick ever.

Half Life 2: Episode 3- It didn't show up :(

Activision sues Double Fine(Video game developer founded by Tim Schafer)- This doesn't really have anything to do with E3, but i'm putting it here anyway. Like i said earlier, Valve is not the new EA, that's because Activision is the new EA: So basically Activision dropped Brutal Legend, Tim Schafer's br00tal new game, so Double Fine went to EA as a publisher. Now Activision is suing to stop the release of Double Fine. Here are a couple links that give you the whole story, and a better told one:

LINK1

LINK2

This is complete and utter BS, Tim Schafer does not deserve this kind of ****. Especially when he gavethe gaming industry one the most original and amazing games ever, Grim Fandango.

Oh, and you should all read about Activision's publishing philosophy: "The games Activision Blizzard didn't pick up, he said, "don't havethe potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises. ... I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus... on theproducts that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we'll be working on them 10 years from now."

Activision sucks. Do not feed them. If you want any games they have coming out, buy em' used or whatever. They make no profit off used games.

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So, Gamespot keeps messing up my paragraphs lately. Removing them when i clearly hit the enter button.

Basically, i chose any game from 2006 to Present. I only chose games from the PC, X360, Wii, and PS3, didn't include any handheld games. So here are my picks:

Top 20

• #20 Braid
• #19 Dead Rising
• #18 World of Goo
• #17 Uncharted: Drakes Fortune
• #16 Gears of War 2
• #15 Dead Space
• #14 Super Mario Galaxy
• #13 Lost Odyssey
• #12 Battlefield 2142
• #11 Grand Theft Auto 4

#10 Zeno Clash (PC)

First Person Fighting in a 3D environment done right. The combat is actually surprisingly deep. The artstyle and character design are just very imaginative and cool. I really reccomend this game. Short, but worth the 20 bucks.

#9 Portal (PC, X360, PS3)

Portal is a charming, and unique experience. I'm getting lazy on the explantions here.

#8 Team Fortress 2 (PC, X360, PS3)

One of the best ****based multiplayer games out there. There are 6 ****s. Scout, Heavy, Sniper, Medic, Demoman, Pyro, and Spy. Each have their pros and cons. The game is balanced to perfection. Teamwork is a must. Oh, and the Art****is phenomenal.

#7 Mirror's Edge (PC, X360, PS3)

First Person Platforming done right. This game is a really amazing and fresh experience.

#6 Half Life 2 Episode 2 (PC, X360, PS3)

Yeh, another Valve game on the list. They do no wrong.

Dear Valve,

After playing this game, the wait for Episode 3 is going to be even harder. :(

Alex

I loved this game, the pacing, the missions, the level design, etc. It made me love the characters even more. It's basically the same as the the past expasion and HL2, but this time they made the environment MUCH more open, it's a very nice change of pace.

#5 Mass Effect (PC, X360)

Another great RPG, not as deep as The Witcher, but still a really good experience. The shooting and RPG mechanics are solid, but what really makes this game stand out is the universe Bioware has created. The story is also very well told, and has some great moments.

#4 The Witcher (PC)

Deepest RPG i've played this gen. Manuel is the size of a ****ing dictionary. But anyways, unlike other RPGs there really isnt a "Good" and "evil" side to your choice. Not black and white, but gray. You're kinda screwed either way. Your choices really do affect the game more than in any other RPG this gen.

The story is very good. The combat is great, really grounded and violent.

#3 Left 4 Dead (PC, X360)

You and 3 of your friends get to kill hordes of zombies. AI director makes the experience somewhat different everytime you play. Dynamic music. Set up like a campy zombie movie. No further explanation needed. Oh, and the characters are awesome. Especially Zoey and her movie quote dialogs.

#2 Crysis/Warhead (PC)

A lot of people seem to think these games are "all flash, no substance", but they could no be more wrong. You play as a soldier who is wearing a top secret hella ****ing expensive state of the art supa dupa suit. The suit has 4 modes: Strength, Speed, Armor, and Cloak. Strength allows you to jump high and pick up heavyobjects. Cloak allows you to turn invisible. Speed is obvious. And Armor lets you take more damage.

These powers PLUS the extremely open environment and large assortment of weapons allow for a **** load of freedom to complete your objective in a huge variety of ways. Crysis delivers an experience encourages you to playcreatively. Its only limited by how creative you are, or how many things you can think of.

Crysis needs helluh pictures though, since it's so beautiful:

#1 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl/Clear Sky (PC)

Stalker is a FPS with RPG elements(such as being able to upgrade your weapons, etc). The developer, GSC gameworld, has pretty much created an extremely accurate model of the Zone(chernobyl and it's surrounding cities, such as Pripyat.)

It is THE most immersive game i've played. The zone is full of interesting environments, characters and monsters. Not only is it an extremely beautiful game, but it also has awesome gunplay and RPG elements. You're weapons will weaken overtime (just from general use or being damaged by a bullet in fire fight). You'll also have to accomedate for bullet drop and wind.

It is these touches that just make the game feel so much more visceral and fun.