A while back, I had considered getting Call of Duty: Black Ops, but ended up deciding against it because I thought there was too much language/gore for my taste. For personal moral/religious reasons, I don't want to sit through lines of dialogue in the campaign that would be something to the effect of "Let me the **** out of this ****ing chair you *******!". It wasn't until later that I learned that BO contained an optional "graphic content censor" for the campaign, which removed excess language (all the F's and S's and worse stuff) as well as the excess gore, in a few particular stabbing scenes. I also found out that the game had split-screen online, split-screen offline, and split-screen zombies. AND there was bots. So because it had been a decent while since I was able to play a good, modern FPS with friends/family offline, I decided to give the game a shot. I had enjoyed both Modern Warfare games, so I assumed that I would fit right in to BO.

I started by playing offline multiplayer and the campaign. Personally I found the story to be more complex, but less exciting than what was found in the MW series. Hopefully MW3 can bring back that magic, by the way. Offline multiplayer with the bots was a blast though, and I was addicted to it for quite a while (and I still am, to a degree). Eventually I also tried zombies, which was fun and a nice diversion from the rest of the game. Then finally, I jumped into the online multiplayer, and was as nervous as I ever am when I know that I'm jumping into heated matches in a new game against all the insanely good CoD players out there. As it turns out, I handled myself pretty well. Even with beginner level guns and equipment I was able to finish near the top of my team in standard TDM, and when I got the good stuff, I was leading matches regularly.

I did, however, encounter something that I had predicted. The CoD community players, as a whole, are a bunch of nincompoops. I knew this back when I purchased MW2, and right from the beginning I made the decision to simply set the mic audio transmission volume to zero, so that I wouldn't have to listen to everything that spewed out of the mouths of enemies and teammates. I enjoyed it, and I never found myself wishing that I could hear what they were saying, aside from maybe just a few times when I got a really nice final killcam. On the other hand, when I first played BO, for some reason I decided that I wanted to leave the mic stuff on this time. I wanted to be able to communicate or coordinate with teammates and friends, and I figured that I would simply ignore the other foolish garbage that players discussed, or simply mute them. But as it turns out, there's a psychological problem with doing that. You see, once you've played on a good team where players were communicating and helping each other out, and you easily smash the enemy team into brick dust, you find yourself wanting to do it again. And no matter how dumb the conversations might bethat people have while playing, there's always a little hope in your head that something will trigger them into wanting to play as a team in Team Deathmatch or Capture the Flag, so you never really have the nerve to mute them.

Therein lies the problem, however. Perhaps about one hour ago, I just got out of a match with 11 other mic'd up people. I was the only one without a mic (or rather, the only one who chose not to use it). As soon as I joined the lobby, I immediately heard a barrage of banter going back and forth between several people at once. As I finally began to understand some of the dialogue, I realized that it was a team of players who were attempting to insult a guy on my team for being black. This sort of stuff makes me eye-roll, because I honestly know that nobody in the lobby was offended by the discussion...it was just a pathetic attempt by several people with nothing better to do than make up insults about whatever they could. I decided, as usual, not to mute them all before the game began. I suppose part of me was hoping that the discussion would turn into something related to the match after it started. It didn't. Then, I hoped that perhaps if we won the game, I could at least have a good laugh at the other guys who would inevitably rage about it. Well we didwin,but they didn't rage. Kept right on talking trash. And by this point, the banter had moved from not only being racist, but also containing explicit profanity and extremely explicit sexual discussions/terms. Even though I'm very glad that Treyarch had the sense to make it an option, that "graphic content"censor for the campaign seems a little silly at times like this.

By now, my respect for anybody else in thegame was at 0%, andI'm about ready to quit the lobby and just find another match. But at the same time...I kicked butt in the match we had just finished. I lead our team, and basically won the whole stinkin' game for them. So as I was busy deciding whether or not it was worth staying with these thugs just because I knew that I could wipe the battlefield with them, one of them breaks away from the racist/explicit topics in order to make the comment "RedHawk was the only reason you guys won that match, he's a little camping ****er with Ghost, the ****er". Upon hearing this, it's possible that my ears actually pricked up like a dog's. Me? A camping ****er? Just because I had Ghost Pro? That ticked me off, because I had been running around the map (Jungle) for the majority of the game, using my silenced Famas to quietly remove them from their camping spots, in their little huts. So now, it was on. I stayed for another match on the Crisis map, one of my least-favorite maps. I did slightly worse this time, but only because the other team was...take your guess now...camping on the top of a hill, and camping in the large building, up the stairs. Our team eventually lost the match by a decent margin, maybe 15 kills or so,but again I lead our team.

Back in the lobby after the match (which was still filled with even worse explicit sexual discussions), the other team didn't talk much about the game. The one guy who had been the target of the previous racism had left I believe, and so they just continued with the other conversations. Yet again I consider either leaving or staying, and as I'm doing it, I can once again hear the other team making comments such as "I hate that Red**** guy, little camping ****er with Ghost". I'll let you figure outthe obscene term with whichthey replaced "Hawk". -_- After this, their team began chanting the word repeatedly in the lobby, while waiting for the next match. Once they finally got bored of it, I reported a few of them for offensive language and one of them for his (sexually) offensive emblem, and then quit. Being that I was now a little annoyed and seriously losing hope in my own generation of society, I took out my frustration by playing a match of Gun Game at Nuketown and getting 32 stabs. Nobody raged at me though (none had mics). During that game, I was mildly hoping that one of the guys from the old lobby would send me a hatemail message or something, so that I could finally respond by saying "uMADbro?".

The point of this extended story is thus...why is it that in every online community on video games, there are always people who feel the need to act like complete jerks? Why? Has our society lost all concept of friendly competition, or moral decency, or self-control? I mean for goodness' sake, why would I want to listen to a guy and a girl in a clan discuss their personal sexual preferences openly and make sexual suggestions throughout a simple game of TDM? Note that it's happened to me before as well, the same sort of thing, several times. For as many times as I have had a decent, fun conversation with another guy or two while playing an online game of CoD, I have endured hundreds of matches of the other crap. I don't mind it too much when I have to listen to people spew off simple verbal profanity, and at times, based on the situation, it can actually be humurous to listen to them rage with it (still don't like it, but it's humurous). But when you get into serious racism or sexual discussions or death threats or extreme bashing/insulting for no reason, that's crossing the line. It's been so long since I have heard people using their mics in an online FPS game to actually help the team that I'm beginning to wonder if anybody even does it anymore. The last time it occured was probably BO zombies, when there was a guy who was giving out some orders and actually trying to make a plan. He was still quite rude about it, because I had never played the map before, but at least he was helpful.

I have encountered people being complete jerks on their mics more in CoD games than in any other online game I have ever played, period. More than Battlefield 1943, more than Uncharted 2, more than Bad Company 2...more than anything. Why do all of the crazy people flock to Call of Duty? Why is it that Battlefield games always have glitches, and CoD games always have thugs with mics? When Modern Warfare 3 is released, I guess I have a pretty big decision to make. To mute or not to mute, from the very beginning? I could simply wipe out the mic volume like I did with MW2. Or I could leave it on, so that I could possibly hear discussions that relate to (*GASP*) the match, or get a good laugh from making people rage, such as knifing in Gun Game can do (been called the word similar to "maggot" several times just for knifing, lol).

If you play or have played Call of Duty games, let me know if you've ever encountered these kind of people with mics. If you have, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't...well, you either mute them or you're probably less than rank ten with no prestiges.

Thanks for reading, please comment, and God bless. Also...never take online games as seriously as these guysdo. ;)

21 - Ripto (Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage)

I found Ripto to be quite an interesting antagonist. Despite his rather puny size, he still manages to give off the aura of a tough guy. As he continually takes over worlds in Avalar, you have to continually kick him out. And after beating his two goons, Crush and Gulp, you get to take him on for yourself. And then...spoiler alert here...Ripto finds himself burned alive in a lake of lava. But wait! Somehow he returns without a scratch in Enter the Dragonfly! I suspect he utilized the dark magic that is poor game development in order to do so.

My favorite cutscene from Spyro 2

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20 - Cortez (Timesplitters: Future Perfect)

While Cortex was the main hero of all three Timesplitters games, it wasn't until the third game that the main story mode was really developed well, and thus it wasn't until then that we got to really see Cortez in action. Cool, collected, and a master of disguise, Cortez was the only person capable of transcending time and space to save the world. The voice actor fit the part perfectly, and most of the lines he delivered were actually able to cause laughter from the player, so you know that they're decent enough.

My favorite cutscene from TS3

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19 - Captain MacMillan (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare)

Although MacMillan only appeared in one mission, it was his mere prescence that made the mission so memorable, and also the best in the entire game. You'll find that in the mission "All Ghillied Up", Captain MacMillan is your commander and guide as you sneak past enemy troops and attempt a daring assassination of a known terrorist. His soothing Scottish accent will calm your nerves as you crawl in the grass, three feet away from an enemy tank that's nearly about to crush your head as it slowly tumbles by. And even though by the end of the mission you have to carry MacMillan up to the helicopter yourself, you never get mad at the guy.

MacMillan's best moment

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Thanks for reading, and please comment.

24 - Ryu/Ken (Street Fighter 2: Special Champion Edition)

The reason I bundled these two characters together is simple...they're pretty much copies of each other when it comes to their in-game moves and fighting techniques, and when I was growing up, my brother essentially claimed Ryu for his own, so I was stuck with Ken. :P I enjoyed them both though, and found them to be quite well-rounded characters. They each shared some memorable moves, none of which I could pronounce correctly at such a young age, and I'm glad to see that they're still popular even today in such games as Super Street Fighter 4.

Fight between Ryu and Ken

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23 - Beezwax ( Vigilante 8 )

Those of you who have known me for a while might know by now that when it comes to car combat games, Twisted Metal was never my thing. I grew up with and have always much preferred the Vigilante 8 games, and back in the original, my favorite character when I was young was always Beezwax. The nutty beekeeper and his swarms of mutant bees just seemed cool to me, and the old-school chink sound that they made as they attacked enemies' cars was very memorable, lol. I was sad when he never returned for the second V8 game, though he did return in the newer Vigilante 8 Arcade. Unfortunately that game is only on the Xbox 360. *angry face*

Some Beezwax gameplay

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22 - Sly Cooper (Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus)

This is a really interesting choice for the list actually, being that...well, being that I never played a Sly Cooper game, aside from briefly messing around with the controller in the versus mode of Sly 3, lol. Still, I recognize a good character when I see one. Plus, I spent a lot of time having fun by simply watching my brother play through all three games in the series. That gave me some good memories, and so the slick raccoon can have a spot on my list. Perhaps some day I'll finally get around to playing one of the games in the series. Until then, I admire Mr. Cooper from afar.

Trailer for Sly Cooper 1

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Thanks for reading and as always, please comment.

27 - Spy Fox (Spy Fox 2: Some Assembly Required)

This was probably one of the first characters I knew about while growing up as a kid. The super-suave fox was basically the James Bond for kids, and he was great at it. I probably played Spy Fox 2 so many times when I was like four years old that I could probably tell you almost everything that's in the game today, from memory. Spy Fox games were simple point-and-click adventures on the PC, but in terms of quality they were hard to match at the time. I dare you to play a Spy Fox game and not smile at least once, or find it at least somewhat entertaining.

First 15 minutes of awesome gameplay from Spy Fox 2

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26 - Alura McCall (007 Nightfire)

I know what you're thinking...and no, the reason I chose Ms. McCall for this list was not because of her outfit. :P It was because I used to play against her in the awesome PS2 game, 007 Nightfire, and I know for a fact that she had serious skills. She could whip around and kill you with a pistol from over 100 yards away in one shot, in less than half a second. Now, I suppose to be fair I should mention that the other AI bots in the game's multiplayer modes could do this as well. But McCall always did it in such...well, in such an annoying way. Plus, she somehow managed to wear that outfit in this map. Yeah. Right.

The beginning of Nightfire's 11th mission, with Alura in the 1st minute

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25 - Hunter (Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage)

During the course of the game in Spyro 2, you'll run into a cheetah named Hunter in almost every area that you go. During these encounters, Hunter seems to display an uncanny amount of energy, as he's always challenging you to comeptitions or giving you some sort of interesting task to perform. Whether it's beating him in a race, tailing him underwater while he's in a submarine, or beating him to the punch to grab crystals as they pop up out of the ground, these tasks provided a fun diversion from the usual pace of a level and they were always memorable. I still have his voice tatooed in my head as well...

That crystal challenge I spoke of (person playing it isn't very good, lol)

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Thanks for reading, and please comment.

Well, this is my new blog series. I'll be running through the top thirty characters in video games that have had the greatest impact or impression on me, personally. Please note that this blog series is NOT about who I believe to be the best or most influential characters in video game history. It is purely about the characters with whom I have a good connection or backstory. For each character, I will include (if possible) a picture and video clip. I will also state what game I came to know them in. So without further ado, here is the start of the list...

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30 - Rain (Mortal Kombat Trilogy)

Let it rain! A lot of people who played the MK series are of the opinion that Rain simply didn't fit in with the other ninjas that were present. He was a storm guy. That's the best I could describe him. He used water and lightning as special moves, which is odd because we already have an electric character in Raiden, and last time I checked, water doesn't hurt people. So really, you'd think that Rain is a lame character. That is, until you fight against him. When used properly, Rain can be one of the cheapest fighters in the game. His roundhouse kick, orb-stun, and lightning bolt are a devastaing combo when in the right hands. And although I was never able to master the character myself, I respect his awesomeness.

Rain Tribute

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29 - Red Hunter (Lost World: Jurassic Park)

The Lost World: JP was quite an interesting game. It was on the Sega Genesis, was very long, and used cheat codes as a means to save data. Basically you play as a guy (or pair of guys, in co-op mode) stuck on the island, and you need to fight off savage hunters and a slew of dinosaurs as you attempt to make your escape. During your time on the island, you'll reach a mission where you have to enter a deep, dark, volcanic cave and rescue a hunter who's gotten himself lost somewhere inside. As you fight off raptors for the first time in the game and dodge trecherous lava and other hazards, you find yourself getting pretty ticked off at this hunter dude for getting himself lost in the place to begin with. Add to it the fact that after you get to him, you have to drag his butt all the way back out of the cave, with him tagging merrily along behind you and getting his hide ripped to shreds by dinosaurs as you frantically try to save him before he dies. This is what I remember about the red hunter's normal appearance in the story. What I also remember was that if you entered in the cheat code "REDHUNTR" on the main menu, you unlocked him as a playable character. And believe me, he's a heck of a lot cooler when you get to control him.

Footage of entering the code and a little gameplay at the end

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28 - Tim Kitzrow (NFL Blitz 2000)

Yeah...this guy pretty much made the game good. In fact, he also made NBA Jam good. This is the announcer guy who takes it upon himself to criticize and analyze every time you make any sort of decision on the playing field. And pretty much everything he says is delivered perfectly, and his dialogue just doesn't get old. Basically, this is one guy on the list that you'll need to have your own gaming experience with in order to "get it". And before you say anything, yes, he IS a gaming character. He appeared as one in the new NBA Jam game on the PS3, for your information. >_>

Kitzrow talks about NBA Jam

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Thanks for reading, and pelase comment. Also, sorry it's only three characters in the blog...was planning to do four a piece, but it would not end up fitting evenly with the fact that it's thirty characters.

Hello to all. Did you miss me? Probably not, because I was hardly absent and hardly told anybody I was leaving at all. Regardless, I just got back from visiting my grandparents. While I was with them, I went and saw two movies I had been wanting to see for a while at the theatre. I'll go ahead and give a desciption and rating of each.

Cowboys and Aliens

Did Spielberg finally lose it? After the debacle that was Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, why did Harrison Ford agree to this movie as well? Does Daniel Craig still have that same look on his face for the entire film? These are all burning questions, and I'll do my best to answer them right now: Probably, I have no clue, and yes. All joking aside though, this film was just about what I expected. The plot was rather simple and also a little idiotic. It also gets even more idiotic once you discover the truth about Olivia Wilde's character. The action is typical, consisting of gunfights, hand-to-hand brawls, and of course the aliens, which were admittedly creepier than I assumed they would be. Craig is really the only stand-out actor in this movie, as Ford apparently decided that he wanted to skip most of the major action scenes that would have required physical effort on his part. If you want to see this movie, go ahead and see it, but be warned that while it is only a 2-hour film...it feels like a lot more.

RATING: 6.7/10

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Captain America: The First Avenger

If you're like me, Thor gave you very high hopes for future Marvel movies. It showed that Spider-Man wasn't all that Marvel could give us in terms of feature films, and while it still doesn't give Christopher Nolan's Batman movies a run fortheir money, it was still one of my favorite films of all-time. So the prospect of seeing what Marvel had in store next with Captain America had me quite excited, and even though it doesn't match the quality of Thor, there's plenty to like. The action doesn't begin until later in the picture, which was okay because you're not really bored during the beginning of the film either, because you can tell that the plot is setting itself up. When the action does arrive, it's satisfying, albeit a tad unrealistic at points. This wasn't a factor in Thor because...well, because he's Thor, the god of thunder. In Captain America however, it felt too over-the-top at a few points. Nothing bad enough to ruin your enjoyment of the movie, but still noticeable. Overall, if you enjoyed Thor or any other Marvel movies, Captain America is worth a look.

RATING: 8.3/10

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Now, I want to talk a bit about a certain game I just bought.

Section 8: Prejudice

If you've seen or heard anything about this game, you'd know that on PSN, it's downloadable-only. Remember when I said that I wouldn't be downloading any more DLC until I bought Arkham City? Well, I didn't lie. This is a full-fledged game despite the $15 price tag, and you get a ton of bang for your buck as well. Essentially this is an FPS game, the sequel to the original Section 8,and it has been described as "Halo meets Battlefield". This is a pretty accurate description I'd say. There is a heavy sci-fi influence in the game, but it can also play like a normal military shooter at times. You'll get to play the solo campaign (which I believe is 7 hours long), online multiplayer in several different games modes including Conquest (which will be familiar to Battlefield fans), Swarm (4 player co-op against bots), and more. While playing multiplayer, you can completely customize different loadouts to your liking, whether you prefer to carry an "assault rifle + sniper", or an "LMG + shotgun", or a "shotgun + pistol", or "pulse gun + assult rifle", you can mix and match to play the game the way you like, just as in any other big budget shooter out there. Spawn camping is non-existent thanks to the very cool drop-spawn system, you can rack up points by capturing/completing objectives or by killing people and you can use these points to call in turrets or vehicles, and of course you can get a squad together to play with your friends. Online multiplayer matches can hold up to 32 players, and it's also quite worth mentioning that all the multiplayer modes can be played solo and offline, against AI bots. Personally I'm very happy with my purchase, even though I've only played offline multiplayer so far, and I'm looking forward to delving deeper into the game.

Awesome Trailer

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Finally, before I end this blog, I have a question for any fellow PS3 owners out there. I recently checked my system to see how much free memory I had left, and was worried when I saw that after downloading and installing S8 Prejudice, I would be down to about 7,000 MBs. And S8 Prejudice took about 1,700 MBs by itself. It won't be long into the future before I run out of free space, and I have no clue what to do next. The only thing I could remember was that Sony released an item called the PS3 Memory Stick or something like that, which might be able to expand the system's free space, but I haven't heard or read anything about it since like right around the PS3's launch. Has anybody ever used one of them? Also...what would you personally recommend doing about this memory issue? If you need to know, my PS3 is an 80GB model, with 2 USB ports. Any help would be greatly appreciated. ;)

Thanks for reading everybody, God bless, and please comment.

It's a pretty severe thing to say, I know, and while it essentially is just a catchy blog title I can't help but feel that it's true. Allow me to explain...For at least a couple years now, I've been hoarding my money. I am not ashamed to say that I still receive an allowance at 17 years of age, and pretty much the only thing I ever used it for was video game related costs. I had quite a chunk of money saved over time, and I was getting ready to blow through most of it on games such as Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, and a few more less expensive titles. But lately, I've been having some gaming issues. To put it simply...I'm done with most of the games that I own. I've played through Batman: Arkham Asylum no less than four times, getting 100% in each save file. I've played through Battlefield: Bad Company 2 enough to almost get to Major I believe, and now it takes insane amounts of play-time and points to rank up, so it's pretty much not worth the effort (especially with glitches and disconnects still rampant in that game). I'me done with Portal 2 (aside from co-op, until I'm mentally psyched up for that again, lol), done with inFamous 2, done with NBA Jam...what the heck do I do now?!

I'll tell you what I do, and it's not pretty. DLC my friend. It started off with the First Strike Map Pack for Cod: Black Ops. I have been getting a lot of enjoyment out of playing that game recently, and it's been my main game to tell the truth. Whether it's playing online multiplayer, messing around in zombies, messing around offline with bots or playing split-screen, Black Ops hasn't gotten old yet. The maps however, started to. So I decided that, considering the amount of time I already spent playing the game, $15 for four new maps and a new zombie experience wasn't too bad of a deal. So I splurged for it despite my predisposition that giving $15 to Activision for DLC was gaming treason. And while I still believe that to be somewhat true, my stance on the matter has changed. If you truly do enjoy what you paid for, then the price doesn't seem as bad as you might initially think.

But...this ordeal doesn't stop there. Four new multiplayer maps, especially maps that are so similar size, doesn't magically give the game an infinite amount of fresh replay value. And alas, sitting there in the PSN Store and mocking me and my wallet, was the Escalation Map Pack, for yet another $15. The temptation of the alluring Hotel map and Stockpile map was too much to bear. So yet again, I dished out another $15 to Activision for DLC. At this point, I had now spent $30 on DLC in addition to the $60 I spent on the normal game itself. That brings the total to $90, which it far more than I ever normally spend on only one game. Is it still worth it? Well considering that I generally play the game at least once every day, and sometimes more, I think it somehow is.

So now, I assumed that I was done spending on Black Ops. I had two new zombie maps (which were admittedly disappointing and frustrating), and eight new multiplayer maps. I did my best to ignore the news reports of the new Annihilation Map Pack, and also tried not to drool over Hazard or Drive-In. I kept merrily playing Black Ops on my fancy new maps, and was still enjoying it. I even took a break to play Bad Company 2 again for the first few times in a long, long while, and had a good laugh at all the disconnects and glitches in the game, none of which are present in BO. But jumping back into BC2 came with a price as well. After browsing the store again, I came across the Onslaught DLC for BC2, priced at a mere $5 now. The idea of some co-op Battlefield action enticed me, and considering that it was only 1/3 of the price of the recent DLCs that I had purchased, I bought it. For the most part it was fun, but the lack of available maps for the mode and of course the infamous glitches hindered the experience from having any substantial replay value, or ability to pull me away from other, more interesting gaming pastimes.

And now, this is where my final moment of weakness now erupts. You probably guessed it already...Annihilation released today. I couldn't resist checking out the description for it in the PSN Store, and I also watched the previewtrailer. Before I hardly even knew what happened, my purchase had been confirmed, and as I type this my PS3 system is busying itself by downloading the map pack. That's yet another $15 down the drain, which makes the total price I have paid for my Black Ops experience to be a whopping $105, with the DLC alone being a combined $45 of that total. Add that to the $5 I spent for Onslaught in BC2, and the amount I have paid for DLC in the past couple months or so has been $50. Fifty...friggin'...dollars. If I spend $50 on game-related expenses, I expect a shiny new case to be in the little cabinet where I keep my PS3 games, and yet I don't see it. What happened to me? Where and when did I suddenly get the idea that spending $50 on mostly-overpriced DLC was acceptable?

You know, I really do sort of miss the old days, when I didn't have my PS2 or my PS3 hooked up to the internet. Downloadable games, online gaming, DLC...it was all just something that I wasn't concerned with because I was content to play my offline games over and over again. I didn't need costly DLC packs or pre-order bonuses, I didn't have to worry about connection errors or PSN outages, and I couldn't care less about checking out a digital store every Tuesday for updates. But now...I DO care. About all of those things. And while it has broadened my gaming horizons, it has also seemed to corrupt my concept of what it means to be responsible with my available funds.

As of this moment, I would like to declare that I'mon DLC lockdown. That's it...no more DLC, not until I have at least been able to get my hands on Batman: Arkham City, which is about three months away. New map pack for BO come out? Haha, tough luck, I'm not buying it, Activision! No more DLC, baby! Unless...well, unless the Kessler Skin for inFamous 2 becomes available. Because, you know...I really want that one. >_>

Thanks for reading, and please comment.

To kick things off, I finally saw Harry Potter 7 -Part 2 today. As I expected, it was quite an awesome movie. I felt the same way that many critics did in the sense that the ending was rather abrupt, and should have been further developed. It felt like the director wanted to rush through things by the end, which is a shame, because I doubt that was his intention. Still, it was a ton better than HP7 - Part 1, which I felt was quite a slow movie. Part 2 is much faster, gripping, and full of action. For the most part it also managed to be extremely faithful to the book, even in its short running time of about two hours.

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Nextly, I have a few thoughts on the new Gamespot Fuse that I saw for the first time today, and also a couple questions. First of all, I seriously can't stand the bright white page design. I never liked it on Gamefaqs and I don't like it here. This fact leads me to my first inquiry...how the heck can I change the color back to a black design, the way I kept my old profile page? So far I can't figure out a way to do it, and it seems to be impossible. Secondly, is there any possible way to opt out of using Fuse? I honestly just want to keep my Gamespot experience exactly the way it was before. I don't want Fuse updates cluttering up my screen (especially with the awful white page). I was able to finagle a bit and get my old profile page up for now, to at least write this blog, but I'm not sure if I can stand to do it every time. If anybody has any answers or advice I would greatly appreciate it.

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One last thing I want to mention. I was also able to catch the teaser trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises" which played before HP7-Pt2. It certainly didn't show much at all, but what can you expect from the teaser? The biggest thing I took away from it was the possibility of Liam Neeson returning as Ra's Al Ghul, which would be utterly fantastic, in my opinion. Anyone else have thoughts or comments about the teaser, if you've seen it?

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Sorry for the unusually short blog. I'm still a little peeved about Fuse taking over my precious Gamespot. :P Anyway, thanks for reading and please comment.

The references to gameplay controls listed in this blog use the standard PS3 controller layout/buttons

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Hello everyone. To start things off, I hope you've all had a happy 4th of July, if you're an American anyway. :P But this blog is dedicated to Portal 2. I just finished the game a few days ago, and overall I was pretty impressed with it. There were a lot of really high expectations for the game from fans of the original, and I know that I definitely noticed how much praise it received after it was released. So basically, I'm just going to ramble through some of my own thoughts as I played this game. I'll do my best to keep any potential spoilers to a bare minimum; I don't like it whenever I read someone's thoughts on a game that I want to play and as a result have something spoiled or lessened for me, so I assume that you guys will probably feel the same way, right?

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STORY

In Portal 2, you play as Chell, a woman who has been held in a facility called Aperture Science for who knows how long. She was a test subject like many others, and she has apparently been in a coma (or as the game calls it, "suspension") for an extremely long time. She is eventually awakened by a robot named Wheatley, who (I believe) is the supervisor of all test subjects at the laboratory. Together, the two of you try to escape, and along the way you'll be solving plenty of puzzles (tests) to get yourself out of the facility and back into society. I won't say anything else about the story, but rest assured that it develops a lot more than what I just said.

Being that I never played the original Portal, I am positive that my initial thrust into Portal 2 wasn't as grand as it was for other players who had. While it was easy to understand what was going on, at several points there were references made to events in the first game, and I basically just had to say "Okay..." and move on, because I didn't understand or know what the characters were talking about. That being said, I still found myself easily immersed in the action, and the game does a good job of making you feel likethe human lab-rat that Chell really is. Your desire to escape from Aperture Science and their warped mentality towards human beings might actually become somewhat relative to how you would feel if everything were real.

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GAMEPLAY and THE TESTS

The main element of Portal 2 is...you guessed it...portals. You can make portals in specific surfaces by shooting at them with your portal gun. You can press L1 to fire off an orange portal, and you can press R1 to fire off a blue portal. If you pass through an orange portal, you come out of the place where you put your blue portal, and vice-versa. The game eases you into this mechanic at first, presenting you with very basic examples of how to make portals to move from one area to another, but after a short while you will come to the test chambers where you must put your skills and creativity to the...well, to the test. Other variables during tests include blue, orange, and white gels (each with their own specific purpose), cube-and-button based puzzles, light bridges, turrets, funnels, and more. Each of these elements is slowly eased and incorporated into the tests, so that you never feel lost or overwhelmed. You will gradually learn how to you and adapt to all of them until before you know it, you are solving ridiculously complex tests...without them melting your brain away.

Speaking of having your brain melted away, that's exactly what I was afraid of about this game when I first started it. I don't like games that make me get stuck every 10 minutes, trying desperately to work out a puzzle in my mind (this even occured in Uncharted 2), and so Portal 2 definitely seemed to fit the bill of a game that I wouldn't enjoy. But the concept, setting, and characters of the game, along with all the praise and recommendations it received, interested me enough to make me give it a shot. Thankfully, the developers managed to keep the frustration factor low for the most part of the experience. Only about 3 times did I get seriously annoyed at the game...the first time was a section of gameplay that moved you away from the test chambers for a bit and switched up the evironment on you, the second time was an annoying puzzle which didn't appear to have a very logical solution, and the third time was when I was stuck on a difficult section with no clear idea of where I had to go next, or how to get there (when I finally figured it out, it still didn't seem that I solved it correctly, because I hardly understood what I even did, lol).

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CHARACTERS (remember, no spoilers here)

Along your tour of Aperture Science, you'll meet several characters and spend quite a bit of time listening to their dialogue. Some (or maybe just one, lol) characters are from the original Portal, and some are brand new. Regardless, every character's lines and dialogue are delivered perfectly, and are genuinely treats to listen to. Often I found myself stopping what I was doing and just listening whenever a character started speaking. It's been a good while since I've heard such great lines in a video game, and it's nice to know that at least some developers can still try to be funny without being obscene.

In fact, during many of the game's more difficult situations, one of my main motivations to get through it was to hear the next line of dialogue from the person giving the test. I said this in a previous blog already, I know, but I feel the need to say it again, purely because it seems so odd that even though figuring out a difficult test might seem more like work than fun, it isn't, all because of some game character's speech at the end of it.

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ENDING (again, no spoilers)

Having played through the story, I was pretty interested to see how it would all turn out at the end. And to be honest, when the end finally came, I didn't expect it to. It just sort of popped up in front of me, and I thought "Oh...this must be the big finale then". While it was a little frustrating, playing through the final parts of the game was still easier than some of the earlier tests, and I died less trying to complete it than I did in said earlier tests.

The overall quality of the ending was extremely good, and makes playing through the more challenging bits of the game worthwhile. I would say that it was just about as good as the climax of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I'm not sure just how much it could set up a Portal 3, but I hope that in some way it does, because I for one would like a little more time with Aperture Science.

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VERDICT

Is Portal 2 worth your time, or more importantly, your money? Yes, I would say so. This game is pretty much in a genre by itself, so you have to give it a certain amount of credit for that alone. When you add to it the fantastic learning curve for the tests, the interesting characters and their golden dialogue, the immersive story, and the appealing setting, you get a game that is worth the time and the money.

While replay value for the solo experience is there, it's certainly not as high as in other games that build themselves around it. Take a game series like CoD or Uncharted, for example...these games have clearly attempted to make themselves have a long-lasting appeal by working a heck of a lot on multiplayer in addition to single-player. Portal 2, however, is certainly a solo-focused game. There is co-op, but I have yet to try it. The main story will run you about 8-10 hours (more if you have to take your time with some of the puzzles of course), and in addition to that you can get about 7 hours out of co-op from what I've heard. After all this though, there's nothing left to do but go back and do the same story again, with the same tests again. Some people might still find this fun, but eventually it will have to become tiresome. But if you're of the mindset that spending a good chunk of money for a straight-up solo experience and a dash of co-op, Portal 2 won't be a bad choice. Unless, you know, you have no creativity. Then the puzzles might just start to get to you. :P

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Well, that's pretty much it. I hope you've all enjoyed the overview and will comment. Thanks for reading and God bless.

Before I dig into the main theme of this blog, I want to say that I finally achieved my Platinum Trophy for inFamous 2. For the most part of the experience, I found the trophies piling up without a lot of effort on my part. I simply played through the story twice, and I had already acquired many of the trophies just like that...by playing normally. I climbed chain link fences, jumped from the top of the 3 tallest structures in New Marais, and of course nabbed all the trophies related to completing story missions as both good and evil. The few trophies that I didn't have came very easily, such as destroying 30 large objects ("Big Destruction") and defeating plenty of enemies by chucking cars at them (ahem, eh...I recommend doing this on your "evil" save file). Getting 50 kills in blacked-out areas while no mission were active was slightly harder, and I admit that I died a few times, but all it took was a little patience. The thing that took me the longest, as most of you already know, was getting all the good or evil powers in a save file unlocked, as well as all the neutral abilities. This simply meant that I had to keep playing INF2 for longer than I otherwise would have, and getting as much XP as I could out of the sometimes-awful, sometimes-great UGC missions.

If you compared the entire ordeal to what it was like to get a Platinum Trophy in the original inFamous, it seems like a complete cake-walk in my opinion. There's no "Stunt List" to annoy the heck out of you, Blast Shards are now always easy to find thanks to "Blast Shard Sense", and collecting all the Dead Drops is only slightly harder than back in INF1. But, we also now don't have to get 25 kills while riding on a moving train, or while on the top of a dang car. And...

*Spoiler Alert*

...we don't have to climb the wrong building FOUR TIMES IN A ROW on different save files and continuously miss out on the good karma trophy for trying to save six doctors, until we finally get it on the FIFTH try. I'm looking at you, Kessler.

*End Spoilers*

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Now, on to the main part if this blog. If you guessed what it was about by reading the title, then congratulations, you have passed the test. However, this blog was written before you ever got onto this web page to read it, therefore please disregard any undeserved compliments. If you correctly deduced that this blog was about Portal 2 simply by guessing or by searching for "quantum space-holes" via Google or some other internet search engine, please return to suspension and allow a more qualified individual to continue reading this blog for you.

:P As you can tell...that's a Portal 2-related joke, because I've been playing through the game at a very steady pace over the last few days.

Having never played the original Portal, I can definitely say that I am not able to grasp the full extent of the story. Almost everything in Portal 2 is somehow related to Portal 1, and thus if you haven't played the first game, you feel a little left out of the loop at times. But that being said, Portal 2 is still an amazing game for what it is. I am not much of a puzzle-game fan. In fact, I don't believe I have ever played a game straight out of the puzzle genre, unless you count Columns back on the old Sega Genesis. After hearing the reviews, seeing some gameplay, and having a friend extensively vouch for it,though, I decided to give Portal 2 a shot. The game starts you off slowly, and the "tests" are very mild at the beginning. You will soon slowly build up in difficulty, and before you even realize it, you're completing mind-bending puzzles in less than 5 minutes. At some points, once you have finished a particularly nasty test, you might be tempted to pause at the exit door, look back at the test room again, and say to yourself "How in the world did I just solve that?". The fact that Portal 2 is able to give you this experience is a worthy feat.

I have played through a decent bit of the game so far, and although I can't quite remember which specific chapter I am about to enter, I can say that I am close to unlocking the second gel...I think. If I was to list the biggest redeeming quality of the game, then I would have to say...believe it or not...that it is the dialogue. Each character's lines are so fresh, so original, so witty, and delivered with so much perfection that I tend to stop whatever I am doing at the moment and just listen whenever I hear a voice as I am playing. It's been a long while since I've done that in a game, and it's so nice to see that a new title can exist out there without either cheesy dialogue or obscenities being present. In fact, the main thing that sometimes motivates me to keep playing and push through a tough test is something to the effect of: "I gotta get through this one, I want to hear Cave Johnson's next line!". I kid you not.

If you haven't played either Portal 2 or inFamous 2, then you're missing out on a pair of the best games released this year (so far). I've heard a lot of people debating about which game to buy, and to be honest, it's a very tough call. However, in my own personal opinion, I would suggest going with inFamous 2 if you can only afford one. But that's probably because I am naturally more inclined to that type of game. If you want a game that challenges you to think and be creative in new ways, and you also want to hear some of the best video game voice-acting in existence (seriously, it's pure gold), then I would suggest going with Portal 2. But whichever game you choose, there's no need to worry about it, because there's no real chance of making a bad decision.

Thanks for reading, and God bless.

RedHawk4, we're done here...