Heya dudes and dudettes,

It's been nearly a month since I wrote my last blog which was the one about the post-E3 impressions. It's not that I've completely vanished from GameSpot, since I've been around doing the usual things (friend's blogs,unions,news etc) Often, I found myself on the New Blog Entry screen and typing a few paragraphs about random stuff and then just deciding against it. Let's just say I haven't been in the mood to blog.

I've been gaming yea. Occasionally,when I feel like doing it. Mind it the last time I played a game anywhere above 1 1/2 hr was months ago when I discovered all my old PC games. I just feel like this isn't the right time to game with all the tedious studying and assignments,projects--the usual academic pressure one expects in 12th grade.

So,I've probably decided that I won't be buying ANY new games until May 2010. That's because that'll be when my 12th grade ends with all the freaking pressure. And the last thing I need is to get distracted before that .So,that's it. NO new games till then. When May 2010 arrives, I'll buy like a dozen 360 games to fill up the "void" this 12th grade is filling into me. Anyways, I do have my current 360 games AND many unplayed PC games to accompany me until then. So,I'll remain sane! :P

In fact,the thing that has been mostly keeping me sane in the recent year is music. Believe me, I haven't listened to so much music in my ENTIRE life as I have in the last six to eight months. Approxiamately have listened to 110+ complete albums and have come across 59 new bands. I guess that pretty much shows how much of music-listening I've been doing lately.

I am glad I have done that because by doing so, I've come to know about a wider variety of music than the "media" lets us know (that is the commercial music) and I have let such music redefine my tastes. So,yea while I do enjoy listening to cla$$ic rock and an occasional pinch of metal (not much though),my tastes do not remain fixed to any one genre. Sure,I hate hip-hop and R&B but besides that I like a little bit of most of the genres although alternative still remains my choice.

I just thought I'll give a quick review of a select number of albums,old and new I've listened over the past six months or so. So here we go (NOTE : IF YOU ARE NOT INTO MUSIC,THEN SKIP THIS BLOG COZ IT MIGHT BE A LITTLE TOO LONG! :P ):

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn--Pink Floyd--(1967)

I've always wanted to listen to this debut album of Pink Floyd being a fan of them AND because it is the only album to feature it's founder Syd Barrett who later withdrew from the band due to his deteriorating mental health. So,whether you consider Barrett a mad-man or not,his influence in psychedelic beginnings of Floyd is marvelous. Add lyrics about scarecrows,gnomes and space travel and you have one hell of an album.

Must-Listen Songs : Lucifer Sam,Scarecrow,Interstellar Overdrive

Rating : 4/5

OK Computer -- Radiohead--(1997)

While not a concept album, the themes of alienation,modern malaise,political stagnation have never been more clear amidst music that will DIG your soul hollow. A one-of-a-kind musical $tyleassociated with heavy bass and electronica,this is an album that transports you to the world we all live in but yet we choose to ignore it's harsh realities.

Must-Listen Songs :Airbag,Paranoid Android,Subterranean Homesick Alien,Karma Police,No Surprises,Climbing Up The Walls

Rating : 5/5

Fleet Foxes--Fleet Foxes--(2008)

I first heard them when their Giant Sun EPcame out in 2007. They were amazing. But,they had stored their best for the eponymous debut album. Fleet Foxes is one of the freshest things to happen to modern day music in recent years. Soft ballads break into four-chord arrangements which end up into beautiful crescendos. Fleet Foxes define their music as "Baroque Pop" which is definitely what it is. If this band from Seattle stands upto the promise it showed in their first album,then there might be another musical revolution (akin to the early 90s) that might arise from this city.

Must-Listen Songs :White Winter Hymnal,Ragged Wood,Tiger Mountain Peasant Song, He Doesn't Know Why,Your Protector,Blue Ride Mountains

Rating : 4.5/5

Revolver--The Beatles--(1966)

One of the two Beatles albums (the other being Abbey Road) where I think all the four members of the bands were at the individual best and each and every song on the album contributed in someway towards the legacy of Beatles. Electronic guitar,reverse guitar samples,first signs of electronic music,and songs about lonely people,this is without doubt my favorite Beatles album.

Must-Listen Songs : Taxman,Eleanor Rigby,I'm Only Sleeping,Here There and Everywhere,And Your Bird Can Sing,Tomorrow Never Knows,Yellow Submarine

Rating : 5/5

Fantasies--Metric--(2009)

Metric fully realises their potential and the direction their music should take in the fourth album,Fantasies.Often peppered with heavy guitar tones that aim at rocking the stadiums, it is at the album's quieter moments that it really shines. As the name suggests, the music and the theme of lyrics range from hallucinatory observations to real-life emotions. Emily Haines does well to sustain the tempo of the album throughout.

Must-Listen Songs : Help I'm Alive,Satellite Mind,Twilight Galaxy,Collect Call

Rating : 3.5/5

No Line on the Horizon--U2 (2009)

At first you're appaled. Then you feel it's obvious. U2 are at their creative worst in this album. Not that they have done much about the creativity since their 1991's Achtung Baby! but what the hell is this? Bono sounds like he is a mid-40s guy still searching for his puberty, The Edge seems to be suspiciously ripping off his own guitar solos from his older albums and the lyrics are...oh well..just take this example from the album's "leading single"

"Night is falling everywhere,rockets at the funfair,Satan loves a bombscare, but he won't scare you...Sexy boots,boots,Get on your boots!"

That is U2 today,my friends!

Must-Listen Songs : Listen to U2's older albums like War,October,The Joshua Tree,Achtung Baby if you want to.

Rating : 1/5

Pablo Honey--Radiohead--(1993)

It goes without saying that Radiohead are my favorite artists by far. So,Pablo Honey is naturally an album which I HATE. Hate in the sense I don't even consider it a Radiohead album because it's shockingly unoriginal,derivative from the cross-Atlantic grunge bands of early 90s and plain repetitive. All those things which Radiohead are not (and they've been proving that again and again after their second album). So, if you have listened to Creep (which is thankfully the second song on this album),you can shut this album off and keep it hidden somewhere deep.

Must-Listen Songs : Creep

Rating : 1.5/5

Kid A--Radiohead--(2000)

Reviewing Kid A would be an injustice. Because words alone cannot describe the "cold Arctic beauty" concealed beneath the intermittent orchesteral chords,electronic beeps,sweeping crescendos and the beautiful falsettos and generous contributions from the ondes martenot and celestes. Kid A isn't an album by a rock band. No,Radiohead were something else back then. They were a band that challenged the very foundation of commercial music. Freaking genius!

Must-Listen Songs : Everything In It's Right Place,The National Anthem,How To Disappear Completely,Optimistic,In Limbo,Idioteque,Motion Picture Soundtrack

Rating : 5/5

Amnesiac--Radiohead--(2001)

Kid A and Amnesiac make up for the most interesting album study ever. Both were born out of the same recording sessions and have often been described as "disjointed twins separated at birth". While Kid A was gloomy,quiet with occasional bursts of beauty,grandeur and alienation. Amnesiac is a dark,disturbing album with lyrics on suicide and paranoia. While Kid A might be a more "complete album", Amnesiac has powerful songs and hence calling them "b-sides" would be plain injustice.

Must-Listen Songs : Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box,Pyramid Song,You and Your Army,Knives Out,Amnesiac/Morning Bell,Life in a Glasshouse

Rating : 5/5

Actor--St.Vincent--(2009)

Actor is an album of paradoxes. The soft-voiced angelic voice of St.Vincent (real name Annie Clark) is sometimes accompanied by chiming church bells and choruses which suddenly give way to ear-shattering guitars. There are songs where drums gradually rise in volume towards a crescendo with the bass. Lyrically,Actor is a wonder as well. Taking a view on urban romance from a "satirical glass",Actor is an amazing example of indie music in today's age.

Must-Listen Songs : The Strangers,Save Me From What I Want,The Neighbors,Actor Out of Work,The Marrow,Black Rainbow

Rating : 4/5

Hot Fuss--The Killers--(2004)

I still haven't understood why people like The Killers so much and I hoped to find that out by listening to Hot Fuss and Day & Age. Hot Fuss was a sub-mediocre attempt at establishing a foothold during a time when post-punk revival bands like Franz Ferdinand were topping the charts. Unfortunately,The Killers take the wrong road in their first album for me. Brandon Flowers has an average voice that occasionally breaks when he tries to do a wail or a falsetto. Average Joe album.

Must-Listen Songs : Mr.Brightside, Somebody Told Me

Rating : 2.5/5

Tonight--Franz Ferdinand--(2009)

Admit it. Franz Ferdinand's first two albums rocked the house off. And while their third album experiements into europop or the "Duran Duran" territories ( :P ),some of it's best songs are still the ones that sound like the Franz Ferdinand we know.

Must-Listen Songs : Ulysses,No You Girls,Twilight Omens,Send Him Away

Rating : 3.5/5

Veckatimest--Grizzly Bear--(2009)

Some say Grizzly Bear comes across as a boring band. They're probably right. Only that being boring has no relation with how freakin good the music is. In Veckatimest,Grizzly Bear make music that feels claustrophobic with looping melodies and then suddenly clears the way for a sweeping ballad. One of the revelations of this year,IMO.

Must-Listen Songs : Southern Point, All We Ask, Two Weeks Later,Fine For Now,While You Wait,On a Neck

Rating : 4/5

Light Tribe--Shaa'ir+Func--(2008)

One of India's leading indie acts which also happen to be my favorite artists from this country, released their second album last year titled "Light Tribe" which talks of people who constantly reinvent themselves to find their true self. S+F sure hold to their promise and change their musical $tyle from the synthpop melodies of their first album (New Day) to the bass-electronica combo. Talented they are,they handle the transition with ease making almost every song sound freakin amazing.

Must-Listen Songs : Light Tribe,Together Again,Lord Inside,Embrace,Freedom,Selling Our Souls,Across the Universe

Rating : 4/5

X&Y -- Coldplay--(2005)

Another one of the main reasons why I dislike modern rock and the wannabe rockstars. Okay,Coldplay aren't a bad band. They make good music and have some genuinely killer tracks. But coming off the success of "A Rush of Blood to Head", Coldplay thought of themselves as something of rock legends. They get self-indulged,sound repetitive, Chris Martins sounds worse than he usually does and it's an album falling flat on it's own ambitious dreams.

Must Listen Songs : None. Listen to Viva La Vida or A Rush of Blood to Head instead.

Rating : 1/5

21st Century Breakdown--Green Day--(2009)

Green Day try to become the "punk band" of their generation by dishing out another rock opera,this time a slightly stronger one lyrically. Much of the political statements,Green Day makes goes through well,but it's the mid-tempo rock and the blasting guitars and little experimentation musically that often lets down this album.

Must Listen Songs : 21st Century Breakdown,East Jesus Nowhere,21 Guns

Rating : 3/5

Relapse--Eminem--(2009)

I've always liked and appreciated Eminem's music and lyrics especially the ones that critique the government (White America). Relapse is Eminem's return after almost six years and he's at his chauvinistic best. There are various songs that will make feminists pull out their hair and are honestly not likeable at all. I didn't expect Eminem to droop to such levels in EVERY song. But then there are some Eminem specials as well like 3 a.m (about serial killers) and another about child abuse. So,maybe he hasn't lost all his talent in the six years he's spent in and out of rehab.

Must-Listen Songs : 3 a.m,Deja Vu,Insane,Bagpipes from Baghdad

Rating : 2.5/5

Sounds of the Universe--Depeche Mode--(2009)

With a promise to generate music from the "parallel" universe, Depeche Mode sure tried to look cool. And in some flashes in the album they do sound like they might have done something unique but often the heavy electronic beeping that stretches on for seven-minute songs makes this album impossible to hear in one go for those who aren't much into electronic music.

Must-Listen Songs : Wrong,Spacewalker,Jezebel

Rating : 2.5/5

That's all for now,folks. There are still more albums waiting for the reviewing which will be done somewhere in the future.

C ya

Lightwarrior179

Hello friends,foes or fellow GameSpotters in general,

For anyone who's been around the videogaming community for a last few days knows that it has been one helluva time with all the news flowing out of the L.A Convention Centre (some of it sweet,some of it bitter) this E3 and the gamers talking endlessly like a sewing circle about anything and everything related to games.

Nobody can deny the fact that this E3 has stood upto everybody's expectations in some or the other way. Sure there were some absences and omissions in the E3 line-up, but it had enough spice in it's ingredients to cook up a memorable "dish" (:P ) that will keep the gaming world going on for a while.

So let's cut to the chase and I'll start right away with my thoughts on this supposedly crucial E3 of this generation.

Thoughts on E3

The Big 3 Conferences

For many people, E3 starts and ends with the Big 3 conferences. I don't see any wisdom in thinking that way but I can see where their thoughts are coming from. Often, many of the gamers just see these gaming conventions like E3,TGS,GDC as an event where the Big 3 comes to "compete" each other. Since everybody loves taking sides of a particular console manufacturer and loves EVEN more to bash it's rivals (HAH! Take TAHT you NERDIY NINTENDO or YOU MONEY-StEELERs MICROSOFHT or YOU PATHETIC SONY FANBOY (spelling?) :P ).

For most of such people and a few others, they are just interested in seeing what their beloved side of Big 3 has to show and then nervously hopes that the rivals perform better. If that doesn't happen, they usually tend to get depressed and eat tons of pizza and soda, but well that's a story we all have often heard,right?

The Big 3 conferences ARE a vital part of E3 but not the sole important part as well. I think they are important in the sense that if a console is going through a rough patch, these events like E3 are the times when the console manufacturer gets a chance to bounce back. Microsoft and Nintendo found themselves in a position like that this time.

Grading System : Relative Grading

Dunno how many of you are familiar with this but I'll sum it up in short. The topper (or the best conference) gets an A+. Then the other two conferences are graded WITH respect to the topper. Sweet,simple and effective,IMO. ;)

Microsoft Press Conference

Pre-E3 expectations :Microsoft were coming to E3 the first time this console generation with their backs against the wall. It's not a particularly pleasing feeling for anybody in that kind of a situation,but MS knew they had to fight against that. People expected them to fire some of their much-dormant "cylinders" (like Mistwalker,Rare,Team Ninja,Turn 10).

Highs :

Project Natalwas the clear winner of the MS conference for me. I know that there were motion sensing controllers shown from all the Big 3, but for me Natal was a winner not only because it DIDN'T try to emulate the Wii and it's Nunchuk, but also because I see it's application extending to a lot of things which mainly go BEYOND gaming. For Microsoft and it's plan to expand living room entertainment I think this goes pretty much in sync with that. Moreover, I was just wishing that Natal would have been used with some of the mainstream action games like Halo 3 and Gears 2. While not everything might look so goody-goody (look at the Cons section for more), but no one can deny that Natal has got potential. Oodles of it actually. ;)

Alan Wake, the psychological/mystery thriller from Remedy Entertainment finally made it's entry confirming it is not vaporware after all. What we saw at E3 just confirmed that Alan Wake is looking to be worth all the wait with some seriously promising storyline and pretty solid looking gameplay. Plus all those stylishly-shot flashbacks will only add to the "cool" and "wow" factor. This is what we expected as the next-step in narrative from Remedy after Max Payne 2.

Forza Motorsport 3 has been probably the most successful racer on the Xbox and the 360 with probably PGR being the only one holding any contention to the title. But, I strongly RESPECT and ADORE Forza Motorsport to the core. Not only because it's such a fantastic and deep racing game, but because it balances both the "simulation" and "arcade" $tyle driving so brilliantly. FM3 was an expected announcement and outside environments,400+ cars is just something a car-buff wants. But the biggest thing was that it is releasing THIS year. Which strengthens the 360 lineup in 2009 to quite an extent.

Left 4 Dead 2 accompanies FM3 in strengthening the 360-exclusive lineup further this year. I had forgotten until recently that L4D was a 360 exclusive when it came to console,which in my opinion is a HUGE advantage. Because in my opinion,the first Left 4 Dead was quite simply THE best zombie game since Dead Rising probably (which means better than RE5 as well ). More co-op,more LAN parties, more hilarious zombie-battling and CHAINSAWS!! HELL YEAHZ! :D

Metal Gear Solid Rising. Well, concerning all the press rumor and hype surrounding how Kojima was supposedly "jumping ships" for a MGS game on 360,we were all excited. When the announcement was made (in an amazing fashion. I almost had my heart in my throat when the trademark MGS "alarm" sound rang), there was some genuine excitement and some disappointment. A new MGS game on 360 is good. It NOT being MGS4 is bad. But it's game that is supposedly the follow-up to it anyway and it features Raiden (not a big fan of him from MGS2 but usagi say he's great in MGS4).

Mids:(meaning neither THAT good nor THAT bad) :

Assassin's Creed 2, Crackdown 2 and both the Halo games (Halo 3 ODST and Halo Reach)qualify in this category for me. I can't say I am genuinely excited by them since I haven't played Crackdown nor Halo. But I look forward to see how they perform. I was one of those who HATED the first AC for it's awful controls and I am hoping that the game improves this time around.

The Beatles Rock Band saw McCartney and Ringo come to stage with Yoko Ono ( :evil: :P ) and I was amused by McCartney's summing up of the game saying, "It's a good game. It's got good graphics!" :lol: I would still want more songs from Revolver in the tracklist though.

Lows :

Project Natal once again appears in this one as well. For all the praise I mentioned about it, I must also say that I see it's applications in the games "slightly" limited. I think for it to be developed into a proper controller, special games have to be made for it. As for our dream of playing Halo and Gears 2 with Natal, it might take a little MORE vision and approach to do that,IMO.

The absence of major MS-oriented developers like Mistwalker,Rare and Team Ninja (more on the latter in Nintendo section) was disappointing to say the least. Both Mistwalker and Rare were quiet enough before E3 for us to hazard a guess that they might be upto something. E3 has whizzed past and still we don't know what they are working on. :(

While I respect Microsoft's aim to revolutionise "living room entertainment", I thought that they "wasted" too much time on explaining all the new XBL stuff like ability to visit Facebook or Twitter through XBL. I mean, I don't CARE whether I can access FB or Twitter from TV or from Web. Why waste so much freaking conference time on that? I laughed loudly when I heard the few boos and sarcastic cheers in the crowd upon the announcement of Facebook on XBL.

Grade : A-

Nintendo Press Conference

Pre-E3 expectations :They were expected to do a LOT better compared to last year's disaster. Plus they've had a rather mediocre year so far,IMO.

Highs :

Without doubt, Metroid : The Other M not only because it is another impressive looking Metroid game that looked slightly different from it's trailers but ALSO because it's development is being handled by Team Ninja ( :shock: ). Knowing Team Ninja, and the talented bunch they can be, I am sure they can come up with a brilliant Metroid game.

A lot of people expected to see a new Mario game but not many expected it to be Super Mario Galaxy 2, the sequel to 2007's hit-Wii game. From it's promos, it looked to be pretty similar EXCEPT it had Yoshi back and Mario riding on Yoshi across the levels is UBER-COOL...so yeah! :D

New Super Mario Bros. was also another pretty big announcement and that too it's on Wii. I was pretty surprised that this hadn't come earlier. But nonetheless, it's an important game that I am sure many look forward to.

Golden Sun DS is undoubtedly MY pick from Nintendo's conference. I was a HUGE fan of the first two Golden Sun games on GBA, and even my avatar boasts of Isaac, the protagonist of the first Golden Sun ( :D ) . While many Golden Sun fans are groaning over the fact that it's 3D, I am looking optimistically on that fact.

Mids :

Professor Layton, Mario & Luigi : A Bowser Story, Tatsunoko vs Capcom are few announcements I am merely looking forward to in mild anticipation. Nothing else to add here. Dementium 2 and Silent Hill are some of the games in this category as well.

Lows :

Nintendo faced it's woes once again and I knew it the moment they began announcing the women-focused games and the "tween-centric" games called $tyle Savvy. This was Nintendo's mistake last year and this year, they did almost the same thing by taking sides. I don't understand Nintendo's policy on this and while they were trying to please the casual crowd with all this but I still say they went a little too overboard.

Nintendo's conference was better than last year but stilla severe lack in two departments -- FPS and RPGs remained.The Conduit was shown but I still have lots of doubts on how well a FPS can perform on Wii with it's motion-sensing controls. Sure, Metroid 3 was pretty strong in that sense, but really we haven't had much in the FPS department on Wii and that's for a reason. FPS games and motion-sensing controls don't exactly go hand-in-hand.

Wii also needs a JRPG and I don't mean all those awful Crystal Chronicles from Square Enix that is SUPPOSEDLY a part of Final Fantasy series (yeah..right!)

Grade : B

Sony Press Conference :

Pre E3 Expectations :Sony with the amazing year they've had so far were expected to have the best line-up this E3. But numerous leaks before E3 seemed to have severely dampened their "line-up"....or so we thought.

Highs:

Hmm...there are so many things announced in Sony press conference that there's hard to choose any one. But if I am given a chance to choose one, it'll be God of War III without doubt. I mean,c'mon, it's PS3's biggest game in most of the people's eyes. Sony knows that and they had a stunning gameplay video of it prepared which was jaw-droppingly amazing to say the least. The kind of combos and gore on the screen could make any action-minded gamer go wild.

A massive announcement this E3 at Sony's was also Last Guardian, Team ICO's (the minds behind critically acclaimed "arthouse" games like ICO and Shadow of the Colossus...the two games I so badly want to play) new game which was previously titled Project Trico. With a stunningly beautiful trailer,it did well to arouse enough interest in it. Sony knows it's a huge game for them as well.

Uncharted 2 : Among Thieves comes next for me. Besides the much-improved looking platforming mechanics, the graphics swept me off my feet. I have to admit hands down, that this is one of the best looking games graphically in a technical sense. Either this or Heavy Rain. Besides,this game achieved enough popularity with it's first game to warrant enough attention to it's sequel.

A game that took my attention atleast was The Agent, a Rockstar North made PS3-exclusive whose development is supposedly being headed by the Houser brothers (the ones who have made all the GTA games till date). I think this might turn into something big if Sam and Dan Houser put their heads together rightly.

ModNation Racerswas another title that caught everybody's eye. Mario Kart-ish racing! Hooray! Custom made-sackboy (of LBP fame) like racers! Woot! And custom-made tracks which are made with utmost ease! Double woot! That should sum it up. Looks SH-WEET! :P

Square Enix and Sony finally let the lid off some of their older titles. FFVII finally saw the light of the day on the PSN this side of the world along with a few other upcoming games like King of Fighters and almost 50 PS1 cla$$ics. Impressive!

Mids :

Most of the PSP-announced titles cla$$ify into this category for me including the PSP Go! . Being an ex-owner of PSP (would have still been an owner if it wasn't for an "accident"),I think the main gripes of the handheld were it's weak battery and long loading time. With PSP Go! and it's sleek looking control panel and the introduction of digitally distributed games instead of UMDs,the long loading times are eliminated. Yet, I believe it's seriously over-priced and I think the weak battery problem will still exist.

The PSP games like Assassin's Creed, Gran Turismo, Persona, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid : Peace Walker are an interesting bunch of titles but none that really catch my eye.JRPG fans should check out the rare PS1 Persona coming out on PSP. It's definitely worth a play.

Ratchet and Clank : A Crack in Time along with the new Jak and Daxter(it's on PS2 as well) game come in this category for me as well. And the mere announcement of Shirokishi Monogatari (White Knight Chronicles) is an okay news I guess.

Lows :

Sony had the least lows from all the 3 conferences,IMO.

I personally thought that MAG was awful. Lame graphics,cluttered screen, poor HUD layout...not much good to say about here!

Use of iToys as motion-sensing controllers looked intuitive in the beginning but once this fact hits you hard, that it's basically the same emulation of Wii and it's Nunchuk, it doesn't seem a big deal to you. Some of the stuff,they used it for were cool but I said it wasn't an original idea and plus it wasn't implied on mainstream games.

Grade : A+

Multi-platformers were the shining stars this E3 as well. Crysis 2 coming to consoles is A HUGE news as well. Thank god,I won't have to buy a supercomputer now. :P

Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age Origins, Heavy Rain, Modern Warfare 2, Dead Rising 2,FFXIII,the new Zelda game and countless others caught everybody's eye and kept them excited about the future...because hey...after all it is about the future...right? ;)

With that..it's a wrap.

C ya

Lightwarrior179

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Bonus Content :

RANT!!!!!

How do you feel when somebody stabs you once and then stabs you AGAIN at the same point? Painful,isn't it? I have of course not been stabbed, but I think I have felt a pain that is very close to that. In plain simple words....

FINAL FANTASY XIVONLINE MMO COMES OUT IN 2010!!!

This announcement was met with shock EVERYWHERE! After people recovered from the shock, there were all kinds of excited talks and stuff like, "I can't wait for FFXIV...ooh..it looked so awesome from it's trailers!" or some more stuff like, "This is going to be another Final Fantasy cla$$ic. So glad to know that we won't have to WAIT for this one much longer!"

On one hand, someone might rightly say that the never-dying optimism of the Square Enix fans is amazing. Their undying and unquestioning trust and belief on it's company is amazing. Maybe yes,maybe no.

But then there is a stream of pessimism flowing around as well. I don't know how large this "stream" is (most SE fans I've come across cla$$ify in the above category barring a few),but I can say I am one of those pessimists. They say you need pessimists to maintain a balanced society. I don't give a freaking hell about that.

I have problems and a HARD time accepting this FFXIV fact BECAUSE :

A) I don't think JRPGs make good MMOs. Maybe someone needs to whack me or tell me I live in 2117 where JRPGs have advanced beyond imagination, but JRPGs at the present stage do not meet the required conditions to be a good MMORPG in my opinion. 95% of MMOs have hack n slash games with minor variants and a large questing system. FFXI was turn-based and most likely FFXIV will be one as well. Do you seriously think that a turn-based RPG will keep MMO addicts ADDICTED ONLINE for 100+ hours? I say no.

B) Some people say this is good and hope they get to play it for FREE. I say not. PSN is a free service. But since it's free, the developers have to manage their OWN servers online. So, if you play FFXIV on SE's server they will charge you a subsciption fee to play it. On the contrary, Xbox Live is a paid membership. MS manages all the servers for the devs. So,playing a MMO on 360 is free as long as you're a Gold member. So,FFXIV will not be free (also because it's on PC and that's a paid subscription no doubt).

C) My MAJOR problem is something which will come across as me acting foolishly. I personally think that EVERY numbered (in the sense I,II,III and so on) hold a special place in every FF fan's heart. Every FF had something different and something memorable. I see FF I and I am reminded of the simplistic plots which were great in it's heart and so on. BUT, the "tradition" of this broke when FFXI came out. When people tried to think about FFXI,they couldn't remember anything. Because it had nothing that fans could relate to the series (not talking about chocobos and all here). No memorable characters,no emos, no twist endings and stuff like that. NOTHING. Say what, most of the old-time FF fans I know have never even played FFXI unless there was a free trial-period. So, do you expect they will play FFXIV by any chance?

I don't understand why SE are trying to be something they're not. Some call it adventurous. Other pessimists like me call it utter foolishness. I call it "degrading the series by using a numbered game for a MMO".

Alright,forget it. I am being plain foolish or something.

*RANT END*

Hello dudes and dudettes,

It's that time of the year,isn't it? When all the pages of gaming websites are filled upto every nook and cranny about happening in some weird-city called Los Angeles (oh dear :P ) called E3. Well,guess what? I will help the cause and "spam" the gaming sites by writing a blog about my predictions on what may happen over the next four days.

Firstly, many people believe that this E3 is going to be the most crucial E3 of this generation so far. And I second those who say that. Because it's that time of the console wars when each of the Big 3 have had their moments to shine. It will be determined from now onwards that which of the three is going to carry forward the momentum each of them may have built over the past three years and carry it across to the finish line (or the end of the seventh-generation which I assume should be another 3-4 years). Also,this is also an important E3 due to the fact that Microsoft is going to E3 on the back of a poor show for the first time this gen, whereas it's the complete opposite for Sony.

Let's begin without any further ado about a couple of predictions I've got to make about E3. We'll follow the order in which the conferences will actually take place :

Predictions for the Microsoft Press Conference :

Like many have said before, Microsoft is going to E3 at the back of a mediocre display in the first half of the year. Halo Wars and Ninja Blade being at most average hits and only few XBLA titles like The Maw attracting a fair bit of attention. Infact, MS strength so far this year has only been the exclusive DLCs--the GTA one and the Fallout 3 ones (which if I am not wrong are now coming to PS3 as well)

So,that is why Microsoft has to be at their best this E3. I definitely see Turn 10 showing us something related to ForzaMotorsport 3 this E3 and perhaps even giving us a tentative release date somewhere in Q2 2010. Rare has been quiet for sometime,which makes me suspect they might be upto something as well. There are rumors floating that it could be a new IP altogether. I would go along the lines of a FPS that would be along the lines of their old hits like GoldenEye and Perfect Dark with an art $tyle that will go slightly more along Rare's cutesy one..

I'll make a risky guess at this point and say that Tecmo and Team Ninja will announce a new game. It might be a wild guess but I think it most probably should be a new DOA game or something called Project Progressive that Tomonobu Itagaki was working on. There's also a very good chance that Peter Molyneux will show his new "non-Fable" game. It will be interesting to see with what the guys at Lionhead come up with. Besides that MS recently acquired a certain "BIG" studios,so it might announce a new game.

I think that it will also be a great bonus at this point for MS, if BioWare reiterates that they plan to keep Mass Effect 2 exclusive to their console. Because MS know it well, ME2 is a BIG title they have and would like it to remain exclusive. I also expect and AM EAGERLY looking forward to some sort of trailers related to Mass Effect 2. :D

Without a doubt, Alan Wake is the biggest exclusive on 360 that has the possibility of releasing in 2009. Remedy has been very quiet about it for long and I think E3 is the ripe time for them to blow covers of what they've been working at. I am very excited about this and it looks damn promising as well.

Also Hironobu Sakaguchi-led Mistwalker is rumored to be planning to announce one of their own games as well. This might be an indication that their "previously-cancelled" project "Cry-On" might be under works once again,which would be amazing indeed. :D Or it might be the sequel to Blue Dragon?

Other than that there are the usual suspects like Halo 3 : ODST and Splinter Cell 2 which are 360 exclusives and which once again will be something MS should focus on as well. I don't care about the motion-sensing controller MS has been talking about but it's still something that will feature prominiently in their shows.

A slightly over-hyped rumour to say the least has been the prospect of MGS4 appearing a port on 360. I see this as a possibility but doubt it. But then nobody knows Kojima as well as himself, and that man can take wild decisions. So,Solid Snake appearing on 360 may not be a total impossibility. ;)

Predictions for Nintendo Press Conference

Everybody knows that Nintendo made a big and bad mistake last E3. They tried alienating the casual crowd to supposedly "rub-off" the tag of "family games" that they've earned over the years. The result? Nintendo clearly had their worst Q3 and Q4 probably ever and a very poor showing overall. One had to go back to Mario Kart Wii in April to find a big Wii game.

But this year,they've started off in a decent manner once again. MadWorld impressed everyone with it's unique art design of depicting gore. Punch-Out!! is an old cla$$ic revived once again. And House of the Dead Overkill is earning praise in some sections of gaming community as well. So,not a bad year for them. But then,they will have to please both the sides of the crowd this time. I expect them to announce a new Zelda game alongside the supposed Mario game (which shows their desperation in many ways) that's coming out. Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort should keep the casual crowd more than satisfied. The Conduit, a futuristic FPS from Sega looks promising and I think SUDA51'S No More Heroes 2 will also feature somewhere in E3.

An area where Wii is massively lagging behind is the JRPGs. It was never Nintendo's forte but now both of their rivals have gained some sort of influence over that genre. I think at this point,even the slightest hint of that "new Mario game" being Super Mario RPG (SMRPG) would create a massive delight in many fans. I too would wish such a thing would happen. I would also not be surprised to see if the "new Mario game" turns out to be Paper Mario. That would be awesome as well.

I think DS has once again proved why handheld shouldn't be considered any less than consoles and it has already delivered some really interesting games this year. So a few more games to accompany the already announced Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks would be good enough.

Predictions for Sony Press Conference

Sony who were criticised and bashed from Day 1 of the seventh-gen are finally coming onto a E3 with a massive amount of momentum courtesy to their smash-hit exclusives this year so far like inFamous,Killzone 2 and then the PSN ones like Flower. This is the first time since E3 04, that Sony is coming with that much attention and momentum centered around them. Sony's ability to silence their critics is something I applaud them for.

They are also coming to E3 with the strongest lineup to boast about as well. God of War 3 is going to almost prominiently feature anything Sony this E3. The series has almost become like a flagship franchise for Sony. So it's a massive game yeah. Gran Turismo 5 is also a game that has been constantly evading any sort of trailers and info on it. I expect Polyphony Digital (the so-called perfectionists and hence their excuse of taking so long) to reveal something about GT5. This would make a head-on-head battle between the two "simulation-drivers" in Forza 3 and GT5. :D

Heavy Rain : The Origami Killer is a game that drew loads of attention back in E3 06 with a stellar trailer titled "The Casting", back when the "Mad World" trailer from Gears of War 1 was wowing everyone. Heavy Rain is from Quantic Dream,a French-based developer for whom I have a great deal of respect and admiration. They previously made Omnikron: The Nomad Soul and Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit. Having played Fahrenheit, I can easily call it as one of the most immersive "movie-like" gaming experience in recent years. No matter what people say about it's over-reliance on Quick Time Events (QTE), it was a great achievement. Heavy Rain is utilising an insane amout of technology. If you just go through the "Casting" tech demo once again,you'll see what I am talking about. ;)

There has been a lot of hoopla surrounding "a new MGS" game featuring Big Boss and Raiden. Supposedly, a leak has reported this to be a PSP game. I think most likely it will be "a follow up" and not a full-fledged sequel to MGS4. It will be like what ODST is to Halo 3.

We've all been waiting for a long time to hear something about Shirokishi Monogatari (or the White Knight Chronicles),Level 5's RPG that released last year in Japan. I think WKC got a Winter release date in NA, and if that is true then there's a VERY good chance we are going to hear something about it. I wonder if Level 5 will keep the much-criticised online component intact in the NA version of the game.

The new 16GB PSP Go! has already been leaked. My real concern is not whether it's 16GB or 16000GB. My concern is whether it has UMD or not. And even without the UMD,does the long loading times and weak battery issue still exist? Let's face it. PSP would be twice better the handheld if it weren't for those two of it's problems. So,let's hope it doesn't have those gripes.

On the Neutral Side...

I don't think I can even list the possible number of multi-plat titles that can be shown in E3. Because,with each growing day, more and more games are taking that route. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for a few like The Beatles: Rock Band, Dragon Age : Origins, Max Payne 3, Red Dead : Redemption, Ghostbusters :The Game, Mafia II to name a few.

So,let's hope for a swell of a E3 and here's hoping I can once again write a blog similar to last year's when I wrote one while in a state of shock and ecstasy at FFXIII was announced for 360 as well.

Cheers!

See ya

Lightwarrior179

P.S : Thanks to all of you who commented on the last blog! :D

Heya friends,

As you may mostly not know,today is a birthday of someone who I hold very close to my heart here on GameSpot. Before you start wildly guessing as to who that "special someone" can be,or even a more wilder question that "Who is my gf on GS?" let me give you a small hint. This person has very easily defined me into a more sociable and confident human being. I cannot say for sure as to who his parents are, but I can say one thing for sure....this "special someone" is nothing but my alter ego (there goes some of your's wild guesses :P ) often called lightwarrior179 who has turned three today.

What many of you may not know was that lightwarrior was born at a place very far away from where I live right now, and very near to most of you. Yes,that's right,he was born when I was in Los Angeles,CA,during my vacation trip to the States. I don't quite know what made me join GS, but I vaguely remember it was to download a demo of HL2 : Episode One I think.

Well whatever it might be,he was born on that day. And what followed after that and some very awesome and dear friends I made is something I think all of you are familiar with. So,yea, surprisingly, I will not be boring you with stories of my past and how I first met the likes of NeonNinja or queen_valentine. No,all those tales you're familiar with.

What I would like to use this oppurtunity of my third-anniversary here at GS for is to talk something about my future. No,it's not a la-100th blog promise where I said that lightwarrior will become more like the "real" me,I am not talking about those promises which I made and I may or may not have fulfilled (that is upto you to decide,my dear judge-cum-friends ;) ). But yes, I wanted to talk about the future here, or more specifically my future here on GS.

Now,now,there's no need to get panicked. I am not going anywhere....atleast not now. But I will be going. I don't know when that time will come. At the earliest, it may be next year. If I am able to make it past the next year,then I will never leave and I will stay on GS for most likely as long as I am gamer (or in other words I plan to stay here as long as I play games ).

The reason why I said next year, is that next year is a pivotal time in my studies/career or whatever you might call it. The thing is,that I will have to go to a university. Now nobody can predict the future,but we can atleast influence it. Well,I am doing my best to influencing it. Still,there are chances that I might prefer certain universities,where gaming (especially on consoles) is not possible.

Or in other words, there always comes a time in a gamer's life,where life takes precedence over everything else including gaming of course. I've seen some of my best friends going through that kind of dilemma and one of which is also going to quit gaming (please don't leave us,Neon-san! PLEASE! :cry: :P) and as life would have it I will be going through the same phase next year. So,I request all of you to support me whenever I ask you for your help. :)

Some of you have been really helpful to me over my time here,some on a friend level,some others on a more personal level. Whatever it might be I think all of you deserve another lasting salute from lightwarrior179 who has turned three today. As for how long he'll be living....tune in until next year. ;)

Until then,

C ya for another day

Lightwarrior179

P.S : I wanted to confess something but I think I will do it next year. :P

The wind blows fiercely blowing dust into his eyes. Yet such mere winds can rarely distract him from his path that lay before him. He tightened his grip on the shovel. Took a deep breath...it was going to be a long day. Slowly,but surely he walked towards the entrance to a long-forgotten world. He could hear the sound of his mother telling him to clean up his room,but that was secondary for him right now. That could wait. He had bigger and more urgent tasks to handle.

A sweat rolled down his cheek. But he dared not to wipe it off lest he would lose his focus on his goal. Before he knew it,in the blink of an eye, he was climbing up the stairs. Every stair he had to climb felt like a huge task to him. It felt as if the earth was pulling him down with something like 10.9 m/sec2 . But his determination was not to be shaken. The light from the other side was approaching towards him,getting closer by every second. From somewhere he heard Oasis music ringing loudly in his ears. He tried to ignore the nasal tones of Liam Gallagher and chose not to rant on how over-rated they were. Because he had more important things to do.

And then...he reached the other side. Looking around at a room that was long lost in his memories just like the things it contained,he felt that somewhere cobwebs were being swept off in his mind. He finally produced out the shovel,which turned out to be nothing more than a small key. A key to the treasure he cherished. But a lingering question roamed in his mind,as he searched for the "chest of cardboard" that held his treasure. Will his treasure be intact? Will it be in the same condition as it had been when he had placed it there years ago?

Such questions worried him immensely. But he chose not to hesitate any longer. He searched for his "chest of cardboard" and found it in a lonely corner as if weeping from the ignorance shown by him. He felt sorry for it. He placed the "chest" safely on the ground and moved to open it with the key,which had now turned into a pair of scissors assigned to cut through any kind of tape.

With a single swipe of the scissor,the chest was unlocked and bright light filled the entire universe. ( :P )

BEHOLD THE TREASURE!!

With trembling hands,the gamer touched the upper portions of the treasures comprising of all the games that he had grown up on. Games he had played when he was young. Games he had enjoyed. Games he had not understood due to his tender age then. Games that he considers the best he has played and probably ever will. Games,all of which were played with the help of a keyboard and a mouse. ;)

So,the excited gamer/archaeologist (A.K.A me) searched through his treasure(A.K.A the past catalogue of his games) and made a list of all the games he had found in the secret vault (A.K.A the attic of his house),

The Treasure List

System Shock

System Shock 2

Doom

Doom 2

Doom 3

Quake II

Quake III : Arena

Unreal

Unreal Tournament 2004

Half-Life

Half-Life Opposing Force

Half-Life Blue Shift

Team Fortress

Half-Life 2

Prince 1

Prince of Persia 2

Prince of Persia Sands of Time

Prince of Persia The Warrior Within

Deus-Ex

Deus Ex The Invisible Wars

Command & Conquer

Command & Conquer Red Alert

Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun

Command & Conquer Renegade

Diablo

Starcraft

Starcraft Brood Wars

Diablo II Lord of Destruction

Grim Fandango

Myst

Riven

The Longest Journey

Baldur's Gate

Baldur's Gate : Tales of the Sword Coast

Baldur's Gate II : Shadows of Amn

Baldur's Gate II : Throne of Bhaal

Neverwinter Nights

Neverwinter Nights

Neverwinter Nights : Shadows of the Underntide

Neverwinter Nights : Horde of the Underdark

Planescape : Torment

Icewind Dale

FIFA 2001

FIFA 2002

NHL 2000

NBA Live 2000

F1 2000

Cricket 2002

Need for Speed High Stakes

Realms of Arkania Blade of Destiny

John Romero's Daikatana

Syberia

Test Drive Unlimited

I think if I have counted it properly,that list contained 53 games all of which I had previously owned,been gifted or had burnt from my friends. There are few which are now in their backup copy forms since the original CDs were heavily scratched (and some even broken) after heavy use and rough handling (don't blame me,I was a kid back then. :P )

So,as you can see that hugely tells you that I didn't "WASTE" all those years I spent PC gaming. There are games in that list which some of you console-gamers will NEVER get to experience. I can especially name few of the games from the list which I am HIGHLY excited to play like...

Baldur's Gate games deserve to be on the top of this list. Mainly because they are RPGs like no other. I remember very little of BG2,but I know that it was a fantastic game,probably one of the greatest games I'll ever get to play and I am very excited to play it. As my "Now Playing List" indicates I've already begun playing Baldur's Gate 1 and it is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G :D

The Longest Journeyis perhaps a game that heavily BORED me when I played it the first time back then. But maybe that was because I was a kid,and I didn't enjoy text-and dialogue heavy games. But Longest Journey has something..umm..it's hard to say but I feel it has that kind of aura that I sensed in games like FFVIII. Am really interested to see how this one turns up.

So,this is it people. A reason why I was largely absent from GameSpotting for large portions of the last week. Yeah my 7-hour long test on last Sunday went well,but it's the gaming in the following week which has really been the highlight for me. I guess I am learning to enjoy gaming while it lasts...y'know what I mean,don't you? ;)

C ya

Lightwarrior179

Hey everybody,

I noticed it's been nearly two weeks since I last wrote a blog and I have to admit that I haven't been here much during the past week. I do apologise to all the union leaders (that means you Reaper and Symon) for not being active. Unfortunately,this will continue this week and I won't be active at all until next Sunday.

The reason? Well, even though my 11th grade finals are over (no we do not have a SAT-like exam in 11th), my coaching classes are still resuming at their usual fast pace. And since what I learn from the classes is far more important for my career than the college (the system here is quite different from what you would expect. Remind me to explain how and why some other time). So yeah, I've got one of those major tests (yeah those seven-hour long tests we have on Sunday once in two months). So I have to continue my quest to perform better than last time and so I gotta put in more hard work during this week (y'know too much procrastination leads to slogging during the final few days :P )

Besides all that, I haven't really had much time to do some gaming in last week. I've played a little of Mass Effect and RE5 as well as Football Manager 2008. Mass Effect is a fantastic game, and since now I am trying to go through EACH and every sidequest available I am actually finding out how even more amazing the game is. I totally loved the Cerberus sidequest and cant' wait to see what part they have to play in Mass Effect 2. RE5's mercenary mode is addicting and I did do some co-op with my pals (split-screen). On a side note, FM2008 is an amazing game. :D

I will talk more about my plans to do a la-Retro revival for myself for the PC games next week.

Until then,

C ya

Lightwarrior179

Hello friends and foes,

TheGDCcame and went and it brought along some interesting announcements.

GDC After-thoughts

I would start with what I was referring to in the title of this blog. IGNORANCE.

I am talking aboutNinja Gaiden Sigma 2on PS3. Obviously,everyone saw this coming after Itagaki's departure. And there's a little doubt in my mind that the future NG and DOA games will be multiplatform as well. But that's not my point. What I am saying is that I did expect NGS 2 to include some extra playable characters. And the inclusion of Ayane (scantily-clad,typical Team Ninja) and Momiji (whoa...cute looking :P ) came as no surprise. There's also a co-op mode which is a HUGE addition as well,IMO.

But then, I am askingwhat about those who already own the 360 original?I am not part of that group yet (although I want to play NGII so BAD), but I have seen quite a few sad gamers who are moaning about why they are not getting those "extra" features? In today's world of gaming where we have a little something calledDownloadable Content (DLC), I don't see why developers aren't buying into this? When there is a lot of chance to generate revenue through all those DLCs which will be downloaded by those who want the "added features" of Sigma 2 in their NGII game on the 360 as well.

I think the same case applies for some other games which were "ported" a year later to another platform.BioShockon PS3 had "challenge rooms",Eternal Sonataon PS3 had additional content in the form of characters and a few more that come in mind. It could possibly happen to ANY game that gets ported to another console a year or so later. So it still doesn't make sense that when your original game is popular and you're making a revamped port of it on another console,why not make a DLC for the original console as well? :question:

Anyways,I still hope that Sigma 2 turns out to be a fantastic game so that some of the skeptics of TeamNinja-without-Itagaki can be silenced. ;) You know me,I admire Team Ninja's games! :D

On the other hand, I am VERY excited about the prospect of seeingMax Paynereturn in his third game. I was expecting it to be announced sooner or later after Rockstar said they were reviving the series last time. Both the Max Payne were some of my favorite games especially Max Payne 2 which IMO even beat The Matrix in "bullet-time" action-sequences. Plus it's comic-book $tyle of narrating it's dark-themed story was amazing! It's being made by Rockstar Vancouver as well,and they're quite a talented bunch of devs.

I think there were few of us who were expecting a Zelda game on Wii to be announced but it's turned out to be a DS game! Anyways, another Zelda game is always welcome! AlthoughSpirit Tracks(where you have the ability to run a train??) sounds like a little strange,but hell nobody is complaining.

Talking about aDS, my interest in this handheld has recently skyrocketed after all the rave reviews,GTA Chinatown Warsis getting. I was quite shocked to see a GTA handheld being innovative. Rockstar surprises us everytime I guess. So,now I am thinking of getting a DS over a PSP (I need one to replace my broken one). PSP seems to be largely having a poor show,IMO other than a few games like Dissidia that I am looking forward to. DS seems to have a better library with countless amazing titles that I would want to play, TWEWY,NG Dragon Sword,Phantom Hourglass,Pokemon Platinum,Hotel Dusk to name a few. Oh well...we'll see.

Modern Warfare 2got a cool,slick trailer. There has been some silly debate in the forums over why there is no mention of the words "Call of Duty" anywhere in the trailer and whether Infinity Ward and Activision have had some kind of falling out. I say,Call of Duty or not. As long as Infinity Ward is on this,it's going to be great. :D

Hideo Kojimagave an interesting interview as well and hinted at a new MGS game (surprise!surprise!). He's a talented chap,IMO. But since I haven't played MGS4 and haven't seen those "stealth mechanic facelifts", my opinion on the "gaming" part of MGS is quite poor. I think Kojima is a genius of a storyteller and could have done wonders in movie industry,but well he has given gaming industry some memorable stories as well...Ahh nevermind!

Other Stuff

I recently bought U2's new album "No Line on the Horizon". Well, I haven't been the biggest U2 fan but I think they've made some impressive albums over the year. This new one doesn't stand amongst their best though. Although it does have some amazing songs like, "Get on your Boots", "Magnificent", "Cedars of Lebanon", but the album otherwise is filled with filler tracks. Skip this one and return back to the good ol' days of the "Joshua Tree",U2.

I also managed to watch Juno on DVD and it was my first time watching this movie. Pretty good movie. I liked the witty dialogue and how the director tries to send the "positive" side of the message of the quite delicate topic of teenage pregnancy. Ellen Page acts amazing though! :D

I am planning to watch Watchmen (do I smell a repetition? :P ) over the next weekend after my finals are over. I think I might go through the graphic novel once more before I do that. Just for the purpose of clarity,y'know. :P

Alrighty,that's enough for now I guess.

C ya

Lightwarrior179

Hello to all the fellow zombies of the living world, :P

So as you can guess from the title itself I made some gaming purchases finally and it was high time that I did. It's been December (Mass Effect was my last purchase) since I have got myself any game to play. So I decided to shell out some cash.

Let's see. It was a fine Monday evening. I strolled into the game store expecting to see loads of Resident Evil 5,freshly shipped in. And imagine my surprise when I see only two copies lying on the rack and I am like WTF!! I purchase the copy and while on that I ask the cute-looking cashier girl that where did all the RE5 go? I was expecting a shortage of supply. But she said,they were sold! In a country where gaming isn't THAT popular at all,this made me feel proud of the "change". ;)

So yeah,I bought Resident Evil 5 and Football Manager 2008 (Worldwide Soccer Manager 2008 in NA). I got the latter in hope of reviving my interest in sports/management sim.

So here are the impressions of the games then...

Resident Evil 5 Impressions

Coming at the back of a sequel of the stature of RE4, it was not surprising to see people expecting a lot from RE5. After all,it was THE follow-up to the game that single-handedly revived the survival horror genre and refined many of the shooting mechanics in third-person shooters.

So it was no surprise to me as well when I listed RE5 as my second-most anticipated game of 2009 in the list I made earlier this year. Well....to say,that was BEFORE I played the demo. RE5's demo was impressive but not what I was expecting from it. It played too similar to RE4....TOO similar...

And the same goes true for the actual game as well. One cannot call it RE4 2.0, but at times RE5 makes us feel like so. But then being like a game like RE4 isn't a bad thing is it? Well...maybe and maybe not.

To get things straight with, RE5 fails utterly as a survival horror for me. For a series that was renowned for it's thrills and chills seems to have just lost it's "fear" factor (there were signs of it in RE4 as well). Even the light and dark areas indoors and the blurring of vision due to it makes it look like a gimmicky way to create tension in the people. I would rate it as the least scariest game I've played in recent times with only Doom 3 and Left 4 Dead (wasn't supposed to be scary I know) topping that. If you're looking for scares here,then go look somewhere else.

And once again, my chief complaint with RE5 lies in it's control scheme. I know a lot has been said about this already but let me say this that if for even a single moment Capcom though that putting an archaic control scheme that doesn't let you move while shooting and reloading to create fear and tension then they were TOTALLY WRONG. Standing rooted to the spot while you take your aim at the zombies (called "majini" in African native language) might get you tense and adrenaline pumped firstly, but ten minutes later and this cheap trick to increase difficulty and create fear wears down on you.

So after all that ranting about how terribly RE5 fails as a survival horror,does it mean that RE5 is awful????

The answer is no it's not.

The numerous places where RE5 truly shines is in it's action. Despite the constant efforts of the control scheme to get to your nerves,the on-screen action is too good at times even superceding that of RE4. In fact it would be better to call it an action game than a survival-horror game.

The boss battles are majestic,huge and exciting. Most of the bosses are the usual expected lot but some of the bosses appear strangely out of place. I don't know but Resident Evil didn't always have over-the-top bosses. Strangely,it seems like it's getting some influence from Capcom's other game Devil May Cry in the boss design section. :P The inventory system has been revamped a little and I didn't find it to be either particularly helpful or bothersome,so I am not complaining there.

Sheva,the hot,svelte,squadmate of Chris stands as an AI partner throughout the game. Now I found myself drawing comparison's of Sheva's AI to Dom's AI in Gears of War 2. For most of the part,they are closely matched and while Sheva's AI is definitely the brighter amongst the two,she has an annoying habit of shooting with her pistol (even in boss battles) even when she has got better weapons. In situations as those,she becomes a liability. But her ability to revive you is a great boon indeed. :D

One of the things I have to praise is it's story. Despite not affecting the series much, I really loved it's connections to the series past and my favorite moment was when Jill Valentine made her comeback. Yess!!!! I WANT her to be the protagonist of RE6!! :D

So at the end of the day, RE5 doesn't really move forward the series forward in any revolutionary way like RE4 did. It just brings back the things we loved and hated from RE4 back with few revamps to make an action-heavy RE title whose high production values and amazing graphics (one of the best I've seen in this gen,tied with Gears 2) make it a must-play,but it's annoying control scheme might put many people off. Still if you're a fan of RE,don't miss this one! :D

Estimated Score : 8.5/10

Football Manager 2008 Impressions

Most of you can stop reading if you aren't into sports. But if you are then this might be worth a read. Football (and I mean soccer) is a sport that combines action,pace,tension and strategy in a beautiful mix. I haven't been a sports game buff at all. In fact,I've hated every sports game barring the occasional FIFA that I purchase every 4 years. The ones I got in 2002 and 2006 are some of my most-played hours (I clocked like 125 hours in FIFA 2002,so that's insane! :twisted: ).

The Football Manager series has been acclaimed as one of the best PC strategy sims of recent times and I have heard about it being a game only for hardcore fans of the sport. And the last time I checked I WAS a hardcore fan of the sport. So I got this game with little hesitation. And boy was I blown off by it's attention to the TINIEST of all details. I was like WHOA! :P

It felt for a moment I was the manager of the team and not a gamer at all. And this game gets under your skin and makes you get addicted to it. Sure it's got literally no soundtrack and graphics are akin to 2D plane-ish type but for a serious footie fan looking for some serious managing sim...this is THE "it" game,DUDE! Managing club,it's players,finances,resources,and playing mind-games with opposite managers,and building a respected image in front of the media has never been so enticing as it has been here. Plus the strategic options in team formation are countless.:D

Estimated Score : 8.5/10

That's all for the impressions blog.

C ya

Lightwarrior179

P.S: You can't hit me,queen_valentine,for bad-mouthing RE5 a little now. You're in MY patch! :P

Hello dudes and dudettes,

I got tagged by pikastar a.k.a Miss Art Drawing (Now in Color) :P So I had to make a list of 15 random things about me. I am not always in random mood so I had to wait for sometime untilright things came into my mind. So here goes the banana skin :

1) For those who haven't seen me or my photos,I am a slightly "healthy" guy (ahem...neither skinny nor fat :P ). I have never thought of working out in the gym as I am quite a lethargic guy when it comes to excercise but despite that fact I play cricket,football (soccer) and basketball quite often with my pals. :D

2) I am a strict vegetarian. At one point in my life I used to even avoid eating eggs (yeah,that's right!) not because of some religious stuff but just because I didn't like them. I have started eating eggs through pastries,omelettes,pancakes,boiled eggs etc though now. :P

3) I have moved over to different places six times in my life. Moving to different places has always been a little hard on me when I was young as it was always a little sad to bid goodbye to your friends and since I was always a shy and a little introvert from the beginning,making friends wasn't so easy for me as well in a new place. :(

4) I have a sight of -1.5 in the right eye and 1.0 in the left eye which is AMAZINGLY low for someone who watches as much TV and plays as many games as I do. :P

5) Besides the Indian cuisine, I totally dig Italian and Continental. Junk food is the word of the day during weekends and pizzas are the KINGS OF FOODLAND! (I wanted to say Kings of Leon but meh..that would be lame,eh?) :P

6) Some of my favorite movies of all time is Fight Club and Pulp Fiction. I must have watched both of them atleast six times. :D

7) I once tried making a game using a customised 3D game-developing engine that used C++ scripts. Since I was already familiar with C++ during my school days,so I set to make out an action/adventure game (a simple one to be honest). The graphics of the engine were like PS1/N64 type so I tried to make one keeping Ocarina of Time in mind (talk about being ambitious :P ). I ended up making one level where the frame-rate was slightly fast and there were bugs and glitches in the game (READ faults in my programming. :( ). In the end,the main character moved so fast (due to the fast frame rate) that I called him...Hyper-Link! :lol:

8 ) I was awful at drawing. Right from the early days, I always had a bad time making the frame of drawing and would mess it up terribly.So I was always the boy standing facing the corner in art cla$$ :( I was good at shading..though I guess everyone's good at that. :P

9) I share a secret wish of someday meeting with some of you people, and hanging out for a couple of days (it's not a secret anymore... :oops: :P )

10) I am a huge sports buff. Of course, I am a football maniac (a footie) and I think Manchester United are the greatest team ever. I've been watching the sport ever since I was seven and rarely miss a weekend of football. Besides that, I follow cricket (AHEM...it's a religion here),tennis,Formula One and basketball occasionally. :)

11) I had a secret crush on a girl two years ago but unfortunately it could never ever materialise! :( :P

12) Most of the television shows are lame and awful now. But some years ago,when they used to air Seinfeld I used to leave each and every episode of it. AWESOMENESS! :P

13) I am a left-handed when it comes to writing,eating,bowling etc. Don't ask me why. And no I am NOT handicapped. :evil:

14) I would love to go to New Zealand someday. I always dreamt of settling down in a quiet and picturesque place away from all this noise and religious mayhem (in my neighboring countries especially), and New Zealand seems to fit the picture for me. :)

15) I know six different languages (not dialects) : English,Hindi, Gujarati (which is my mother tongue as well), Marathi, Tamil and a little of Sanskrit.

So that was all.

Now for my favorite part. Time to INFLICT this plague started by queen_valentine upon others. :twisted:

I choose to tag these people :

NeonNinja (I know you've got mid-terms and all,but write it punk sir! :P ),Ipodhero176,ShadowLaguna, SymonDezyn, soulless4now

C ya

Lightwarrior179

Hello everyone,

I am back into reviewing mode with a review of BioWare's RPG, Mass Effect. I have written a detailed review which should help you all to know everything good and bad there is to know about the game. In case you don't have time to read through the entire thing, I am highlighting few important lines which will help some of you "busier" people to understand what I am trying to say about the game. It was tough getting back into the reviewing mode so I have put my best efforts in writing the reviews. So if you like it then do recommend it. :)

Mass Effect Review

With it's powerful narrative and high degree of interactivity between the player and the world, BioWare's role-playing games have always had a special meaning to the genre. They have managed to carve out a special niche for themselves which distinguishes them from every other RPG you might come across. The developer who made a name for themselves with Baldur's Gate and the Star Wars based Knights of the Old Republic have repeatedly built up on their forte's and the result has never been more evident before as it is in their latest game, Mass Effect.

From it's very premise, Mass Effect gleams with a promise of doing things differently. And it is quite clear from the beginning that BioWare has put on a lot of effort and work in making this game. Creating a completely original universe with diverse alien species rich in history where each and every race has it's own general personality,their own beliefs,grudges, political agenda and what-not goes a long way in creating the kind of an immersive experience that Mass Effect is. You play as Commander Shepard,a Human Spectre (which is like a law enforcer who is allowed to go to any length and limit to maintain peace and unity). Like most of the BioWare RPGs, you get to choose whether you want to play as the default Shepard or you want to customise him/her. The customisation is pretty deep,complete with six different cla$$es and further options relating to your character's background and past. So if he is an Earthborn chances are that aliens will tend to look at you with a slightly aloof perspective and so on. Needless to say,the customisation is deep enough to ensure you will want to play through the games multiple number of times to see the difference.

Like the recent BioWare games, the highlight of Mass Effect is it's player-NPC interaction and the morality. This time around,BioWare has gone a step ahead with the character interaction and have made it totally seamless. When you initiate a conversation with a character, a dialogue wheel is brought onto the screen with various options of dialogue on it. Upon selecting any one dialogue,your character first delivers the dialogue and then opposite character responds to it.While this is happening,the change in facial expressions of the characters and the different camera angles through which the conversations are shown adds an amazing dynamic effect that is hard to create. This fluid interaction and exchange of dialogues adds an entire new dimension of interactivity in the game.

Morality and dialogues are closely linked to each other. Rather than go for the typecast, Light and Dark ways in Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect blurs morality into a haze that repeatedly puts the player into moral dilemma. Here there are two "moralities"--Paragon and Renegade. A paragon character is a one who is patient,tolerant and who usually stays within his limits. A renegade on the other hand is hot-headed,mostly intolerant person who might go to any limits to get the work done. The moral choices you make throughout the game will give you Paragon/Renegade points which will determine the kind of ending you will get. This added with the fact that neither of the Paragon or Renegade is really good or bad makes some of the decisions harder to make. There are times where you will question your own decision after you've seen it's outcome. Moreover,it's quite amazing to see much of the state of the galaxy shaping due to some of your decisions. The plot is at the heart of any RPG and the same goes for Mass Effect as well. Fast-paced,thrilling,exciting, peppered with adequate moments of tension,dilemma and emotion, Mass Effect's story is nothing short of a masterpiece. Equipped with enough twists and turns,it is needless to say that it's story will keep you engaged till the end. The story missions are one of the highlights of the game and are packed with action and morality choices.

Shepard also meets some really interesting characters along the way some of which join his party. Some of them are aliens,while others are humans. Each and every character has a unique personality which can be easily co-related to their species general personality. Combat in Mass Effect is simplistic for most of the parts. A touch of right trigger switches the player from "interactive" mode to combat mode seamlessly. Once in combat mode,the gameplay works like a normal shooter with few exceptions. Since this is a squad-based RPG where parties of three including yourself engage in combat, you are given the power to issue orders to your fellow squad-mates. These orders are simplistic in nature and can be issued with the help of D-pad. The orders vary from assisting you,to laying down cover fire etc. The drawback to this feature is that these D-Pad orders are followed by both members of the squad. So, it is not possible to separately give orders to your squad-mates.

Undoubtedly,your biggest tool in combat would be the Power Wheel. It is the very heart of the combat and very useful. Pressing the Right Bumper and holding it, pauses the game and brings up a Power Wheel on the screen. Here all the special abilities and powers of you and your squad mates are listed. This comes along with the ability to rotate the camera with a reticle on it, around you while the game is still paused. So you can command a squad member to use their special abilities and powers on the enemies while the game is still paused. Not only does this Baldur's Gate-esque element add a whole level of strategy into the game's combat, it's a very handy and comfortable tool to use without which the combat is quite unimaginable.

After a certain stage in the game, you are given the freedom to explore the universe with your spaceship,SSV Normandy. The game's universe is composed of almost a dozen clusters,with it's local systems and all. When you land on an "uncharted" planet you are dropped off in a rough terrain space vehicle called Mako. Most of your planetery exploration involving sidequests,hunting down criminals for bounties,surveying minerals or lost artifacts for credits will take place in the Mako. Equipped with a plasma gun,plasma jet thrusters and a powerful cannon, Mako is frequently used throughout the game and while it is a necessity, driving it is mostly a burden. It behaves almost like a toy car when driving on the rugged terrain of the planets and has a knack of overturning at the most awkward places. Such instances while aren't that common are frustrating enough to dislike the Mako driving sequences.

Sidequests have always been a major part of any RPG and even in Mass Effect they take up a good portion of the game. They serve as a great alternative to the story in making you familiar with the new universe and the way things work in it. Sidequests are given by NPCs or are initiated by accessing computer terminals or ports at certain places. While some of them are absolutely amazing and offer the level of thrill and excitement equivalent to the story missions, most of the sidequests in Mass Effect are rather disappointing. Most of them are repetitive and usually involve you travelling to a certain planet and eliminating a fugitive/group and earning rewards. There are minor variations among these as well but none of them are as exciting as the aforementioned story missions.

Mass Effect is easily one of the best-looking games this generation. With beautiful alien world sceneries and vistas,great detail to the surroundings and almost real human like facial expressions during dialogues Mass Effect surprises the players at every instant. It's cutscenes are wonderfully rendered and it can definitely count amongst BioWare's best works graphically as well. But even these beautiful graphics are at times plagued by texture popping problems. Most of the texture popping problems usually occur after load times or a cutscene and while they are noticeable they aren't anything serious. All the dialogues are well-written and their sharpness,wit and tongue-in-cheek humor is applaudable. Moreover,the dialogues are well-voiced by suitable voice actors and Mass Effect probably has some of the best voice acting in recent years.

However, Mass Effect isn't without it's flaws. The most evident and annoying flaw is the Mako. Since a considerable portion of the game is spent driving it, it's driving mechanics are often bothersome to downright annoying.The in-game inventory is also a little messy and removing multiple items from is a little tedious than I would expect it to be. Even the "uncharted" worlds one gets to explore are all barren and lifeless and have nothing other than random minerals,events or enemy "hideouts". So even though while BioWare has created a fantastic universe, some of it's parts seem a little lifeless at times. Another BioWare's long-running problem continues in Mass Effect as well. The one of frequent load times which are mostly cleverly disguised as elevator trips. However,wisely so this time BioWare has often peppered these elevator trips/loading times with news reports or interesting conversations between the squad members.

Mass Effect is a breakthrough not only for role-playing games but for the gaming world itself. Fewer games have been able to associate themselves with interactive media without losing any of it's "gaming" part. It builds upon the previous BioWare installments in every imaginable way and more and sets really high standards for the coming games in the genre which will be hard to beat. Mass Effect's potential is hampered a little by it's flaws but if this is to be the first game of the series then one can only imagine the mammoth heights the future games in the series might conquer.

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Score

Hope you enjoyed the review! Do recommend it :D

C ya

Lightwarrior179