This is the story of a little man, trying to become a big man in a little town. The little man tried everything he could to make a name for himself, but at the end of every day, he found himself with just as much fame as when he began.

Then, one day, the little man had a brilliant idea! He ran over to his friend's house and borrowed as much dynamite as his little arms could carry. After strategically placing it, he ran up the nearest mountainside so that he could get a good view of his ignorant little town. "Now everyone will have to recognize me, and no one will ever forget me!" he cried. Throwing his hands into the air, he flipped the switch, and lit that town up like a supernova *cough cough compensation cough cough*. As the dust settled, the little man made his way down to the ruins and walked through them, looking around and admiring his handiwork. And then he realized the horrible truth: if the town was gone, where was he going to buy his pudding snack packs?

Oh. It's you. How've you been? I've been fine. Well, since you KILLED me. But that's OK. We can still be friends, right?

Ah, it's great to be back. Just a TINY hiatus (what was it, four months?), but hey, high school's a b****. Good times spent away, playing some games, buying some games, getting addicted to How I Met Your Mother, normal stuff :P.

To start: I finished Portal 2. Great stuff, amazing and hilarious dialogue as always, and puzzles that were both challenging and fun.

I bought Oblivion. Haven't progressed that far into the game yet (I don't have THAT much time on my hands), but I figured that getting the prequel to Skyrim at only $20 for the GOTY edition was a pretty good bargain. Skyrim seems to be next up on the "to buy" list though, so I think I might play through Oblivion more in order to get more familiar with the gameplay and lore.

I got Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective for the DS. I heard good things about it, and I wasn't disappointed. The gameplay was exceptional, the puzzles spectacular and the story a masterpiece. All for the low cost of $20 :D. Awesome. And definitely one of the best games I've seen on the DS over it's 5 year tenure. I'll probably get around to rating it sometime soon...

I got Final Fantasy XIII-2. Yep, I had some money to spend. Funny story: I pre-ordered the game for Gamestop/EB Games or whatever they call it, for some cool bonuses like character skins and a new (free!) weapon. After I'd put in the pre-order, I ended up at Best Buy for some reason or the other, and I saw what their exclusive was for the pre-order: a book. Damn. Not to go against any scholarly gamers, but who exactly did BB think they were targetting when they offered that? Corporate North America never ceases to amaze. But yeah, the game itself. From the outset I was almost convinced that I had wasted my money: the story was bland, as were the characters, the music and the general atmosphere. The game was completely linear and restrictive, and had (seemingly) removed some of my favourite features. Fortunately, it got better. MUCH better. The story erupted from its chrysalis and took to the skies, the musical scores soaring with it. (Which reminds me: gawd, did I hate some of the FF XIII music) The world exploded outwards, evolving into true RPG-style gameplay with a more branching crystarium, exciting gameplay, and QUESTS! Gotta love it. Sadly, They appear to have gotten rid of one of my favourite parts of the first game, the component-upgrading system, but other improvements to FF XIII-2 make up for it. I've yet to finish the game, but it certainly looks promising.

Yep. Random.

Oh yeah, sorry for the spoilers to anyone on the west coast for whom it's still Christmas Eve :P

Well, nice to see that GS has so many branches.

Clicking on the link to my NORTH AMERICAN GS profile in the upper right of the page after watching a video, I found myself in Gamespot Asia! Fun times :P Chinese anyone?

Well, I guess this is officially updating month for me. If anyone notices, this is my first blog post in a while...update #1 :P. [edit: first blog in 2 MONTHS :shock:]

Also, I decided to rack my brain to remember what games I have that I never listed on GS; most of the stuff I thought of was Pokemon, so that goes to show how tired I was :D. Update #2.

Finally, Minecraft recently received their massive Adventure Update. Kudos to Notch and the crew on their success with such a bizarre (yet addictive!) indie game. Honestly though, I feel as though the update has wrecked the survival singleplayer for me. Too much new stuff, too many things changed, none for the benefit of well-established players. Really the only thing I like out of there is the Creative mode, allowing for the thing I always wanted out of Minecraft: simply to build. Update #3.

Oh yeah, and I watched a couple of great movies recently: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and 13 Assassins. The former stars Russel Crowe and Paul Bettany, and is one of the finest productions I have had the pleasure of viewing. Great special effects, well-acted characters and a solid plot make for a truly unique experience. Similar can be said about 13 Assassins. I've had my eye on it ever since it came out but, unfortunately, it was decided not to release the film in Canada :(. Nevertheless, I waited, and was finally able to get it on Blu-ray. It was worth the wait. Brilliantly assembled, especially with regards to the villain and the titular assassins. From almost the moment he is introduced, Lord Naritsugu (the antagonist) is completely despicable and easy for the viewer to hate. **SPOILER** The viewer also becomes attached to the 13 assassins, even though he may not realize it until they meet their ends. **END SPOILER** Comic relief is also well-placed in the film, coming in the form of a foolish, yet seemingly infallible youth (whose name escapes me...>_>). To top it all off is a 45 minute battle scene, the epic coup de gras of a spectacular film.

I never believed that Minecraft was a drug. Even when all of my friends tried it, and all got hooked, I was in denial. I figured that it would never happen to me. That I was immune to the power of Notch. But then that fateful day arrived. I was given a chance to play. Just a few moments, I said to myself. That is, if moments = hours = days = weeks.

I'm not quite sure of what the appeal is. The game is just so damn addictive! It's not like there'es any real point, any true objective, any final goal. The only limit to the amount of time you play is the number of meals you have to eat, the number of hours you have to sleep and the confines of your imagination. I used to love LEGO. Still do. And that is exactly what Minecraft offers (albeit with a few tweaks)

Of course, it's possible to continue playing forever, creating new worlds every time you tire of the old one or just feel like blowing something up. It's possible to continue on forever as long as your friend runs a multiplayer server. The only things that could possibly stop the Minecraft phenomenon are as follows:

1) Get a full-time job (even then, you're not playing Minecraft on your office computer, right ;))

2) Get a girl-/boyfriend (even then, you're just going to check your email, right ;))

3) LulzSec reforms and crashes the Minecraft servers (f***ing hackers. Even then, they don't play Minecraft, right ;))

EDIT: My bad, LulzSec actually did take Minecraft down...jerks.

4) The end of the world. (self-explanatory :shock: )

Philip K. Dick once posed the question: do androids dream of electric sheep? While that question may remain unanswered, there is a new one that comes to mind: do Minecrafters dream of destructible blocks?

Yes. Yes they do.

Mind. Is. Blown.

The only three words that can be used to describe that game, the ending, and how awesome it was in general. Time for another playthrough :D.

Now that the hindrance which is better know as school is over, it is finally time to return to the ol' console. I took advantage of the PSN Welcome Back offers and got myself Wipeout HD and InFamous, a game which I've wanted for a while, but never felt compelled to pay for. Thank you Sony for keeping my wallet $30 heavier :D.

Anyways, both games are fantastic. Wipeout is a well put-together racing game, with a variety of fun modes to play aside from the traditional race mode. This mostly means the modes in which the primary goals are to blow $%^! up, such as demolition and elimination modes. The weapons added in by the devs are imaginative and fit incredibly well with the style of "driving" required of the player to succeed. I say "driving" mainly because you're in a hovercar, and, as we all know, hovercars are awesome. I haven't put a ton of time into the game yet, but I am really enjoying the time that I've put into it so far. Definitely the best deal on a racing game that I've gotten since the Burnout: Paradise compilation package.

The reason for not putting more time into Wipeout is simple: InFamous. That game is a freakin' masterpiece. I'll post more when I finish the first playthrough of the story mode, as I am about 3/4 of the way through right now. The game produces a spectacular emulation of post-apocalyptic society, right down to the reactions of the people and the effect of your choices to the lighting and overall atmosphere of the game. The powers available are also great, being both effective, useful and inventive, and are one of the many reasons for why I'm currently hooked on it like Charlie Sheen on Charlie Sheen. The other great mechanic is the karma system. I know it's not exactly the a new creation, but it is one of the best applications of the system that I have seen. It really adds a compelling factor to play the campaign more than once, just to see the effect of swinging to the opposite side of the Karma meter and choosing a different path. Currently I'm working on full postive karma (that is, being a "hero"), and am really looking forward to the contrast that will be reflected by becoming "infamous" instead. Yet another interesting part of the karma system is how your decisions are weighed. Depending on the scenario it can become incredibly difficult to determine whether your actions will have a positive or negative effect on your reputation, making you more conscious of your decisions.

Until next blog.

Wow, I finally figured out how to get my PS3 trophies posted on GS. Turns out my system just needed a good reboot to stop Raptr from lagging so badly, and POOF, there're my trophies. I guess that's what I get for rarely turning the computer off.

In other news, I finally went up a rank! Lucky number 13 right?

Also, I just started (rather, picked up where I had left off) Final Fantasy IV on the DS. Great stuff, I find it so easy to just pick up and play again, even though I haven't touched it in half a year. The characters and battle system are incredibly well developed, and certainly deserving of the 9.0 that GS gave it. I have yet to finish the game, but it will be up in my rankings when I do.

And on that note I bring to a conclusion the (at least temporary) return of the short blog. Time to get back to FFIV.

NEW BANNER!

I finally got around to doing one, something I have been thinking about for a while. In other words, I was supposed to be working on a project when the ADD kicked in and I started up Photoshop, placing images right and left like there was no tomorrow. Anyways, the banner is pretty much a visual version of that song that goes, "these are just some of my fav-our-ite things".

As can be seen, my username and PSN ID is written on the top, above the symbol representative of Code Geass, the most awesomest anime series of all time. No joke. And if you have read the last few blog entries you will realize that I am quite obsessed with that show. To the left of the Geass symbol is the Black Knight from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. To the right, going in order is:

• A stargate (more specifically a "spacegate") from the TV series Stargate: Atlantis
• Cloud Strife, from FFVII. Really, even though he's awesome he's here mainly to represent every FF game, a series that I am a huge fan of. Shame I couldn't get a pic of Lightning...:(
• Sora from Kingdom Hearts II (this specific image anyways), another spectacular Square Enix accomplishment.
• Above Sora is the logo of my fav NHL team (that's the National Hockey League for all you heretics :P) the Montréal Canadiens.
• Starkiller from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (for some reason I always try to abbreviate this title to STFU :?). I haven't actually played the game (my friend who's a huge Star Wars fan said it was boring as hell), but he is representative of the Star Wars saga, and he looks pretty badass doing it doesn't he :D.
• A black hole. 'nuff said.
• The logo for Assassin's Creed. Also 'nuff said.

I changed my avatar as well, to Zero from Code Geass. I think this obsession may be getting unhealthy...