Hello again, dear internet. It's been, what, five months since I sat in this chair?


But where are my manners? I shall explain.

So. Back in January, I signed up to help as a crew member for an Axe music tour that showcases local bands and such around Canada. It was a great experience and I'm really glad that I did it, my band even got a couple of spots in the roster (pics)

Now here's the thing. The tour ended in Prince Edward Island, I live in Alberta. If you are familiar with Canada, these provinces are basically on opposite sides of the nation. Axe covered everyone's airfare to get where they need to be, but I guess i missed that memo so I spent a month in P.E.I. before heading home.
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But I'm here.

Right now, I'm playing many games.
I'm really into Marvel VS Capcom 3, Just Cause2. I picked up the Square Enix complete pack off steam, many good stuffs. I'm playing Morrowind on PC and enjoying it. In terms of upcoming games, I'm excited for this

DEAL WITH IT. i know i did.

Anywho i want to make a list of...

of...

um

PC. i like PC. why not list my favorite PC game experiences? yea, that'll do.

5 PC Games you need to experience.

so here's the rundown. I'm a major PC player and whenever i think back to the "good times" of gaming, i think of not the games, but the experiences within the games. things that just blow you away or have you come back again and again.

5. The immersion of Minecraft.

if you're on GameSpot, then you've probably heard of Minecraft by now. This indie gem is hastily becoming one of the most played games ever. why? Well i'll tell you. it's hard to define Minecraft. It is a First Person adventure with action and roleplaying elements, but also feels much like a simulation with tasks such as farming and mining. there is a load of things to do in Minecraft, and that's not even talking about the building and customization of your own world. When i play Minecraft, i get into the game and the mindset that i am not "playing a game" but rather, living as the character. this is easy to do because there is no narrative or explanation (for now anyway) as to where and who you are. you start with a blank pallet, making it easy to get into the head of the character, filling their head with your thoughts until it is your head. you can design your character to look like anyone or anything, even yourself. and once you start playing, you begin to feel as though you are this person surviving in the wild, fighting skeletons and harvesting coal. if you havn't yet tried Minecraft, i suggest you hurry.

4. The atmosphere of Kings Quest 8.

I am a long time fan of the point-and-click adventure series Kings Quest. the game flexed your cerebral muscles and providing a whimsical tale of knights and chivalry and magic. The games had always been in the form of 2-D sprite based point and click adventure until the 8th iteration rolled around, drastically changing the series into an 3rd person action-rpg. The game was set around Connor, a man living in the magical realm of Daventry under the rule of King Graham(the hero of previous Kings Quest games). A magic mask is shattered and scattered througout the world, casting evil upon the land and turning the people of Daventry to stone. Connor lucks out and recieves a piece of the mask, saving him from this doom and prompting him to find the remaining pieces and restore the land to it's former beauty. The graphics are long since outdated but they retain a bit of charm that can't be done away with. however the real star of this game, is the atmosphere. Connor travels through many a strange land to find the pieces of the mask, a haunted swamp, a frozen waste, a lost paradise and even the dimensions of the dead. the locales were dark and gothic and the enemies and characters added to the tension of the spooky environments. the sound was crisp and clear, the player could hear enemies long before they could see them, adding to the tension. this is due to the limitations of the game's engine, it coped with the large world map by shrouding Connor in fog or darkness a la silent hill, limiting the players sight. I found this game terrifying, mainly because of the lonlieness of the world, it's well into the game before you manage to meet a friendly character, or a moment of safety, for that matter.

3. The sheer fun of Tribes: Vengeance.

Is it the sense of adrenaline as you plumet fifty feet to escape enemy fire? is it the sense of thrill as you ski down a hill and take off with the enemy flag? or is the sense of awe as you rain fire on the enemy tribe while flying high in your wicked jet-pack? the correct answer, all of the above. Tribes: Vengeance is the latest iteration (by which i mean, 2005) in the long running Sci-Fi shooter series, Tribes. with an array of futuristic weapons and gadgets, you take to the skies over sprawling landscapes on alien worlds, blasting everything to hell. What makes Vengeance so playable is that it can cater to any FPS fan through the use of a custom loadout system. The player has a choice of three armor types; light, medium, heavy. each armor has it's own strengths and weaknesses as well as their own specific weapons. the player can then choose from a variety of weapons (standard fare such as shotgun, machine gun, sniper. and more obscure like grappler, mortar, buckler.). Then finally, the player can choose a support item. known as packs, these can boost your speed, increase your armor energy, heal and repair teamates and friendly objects, and shield yourself. with so many ways to mix and match, there are thousands of ways to play. Teamwork is key to victory, choosing what role you play in your team makes all the difference. Most game types have more than one objective. in CTF, the primary goal is to, of course, capture the enemy flag. But to ensure that can happen, you need people repairing generators, placing defences, building vehicles, sniping, base rushing, destroying enemy equipment. Destroying an enemy generator can cripple the entire enemy operation. so much teamwork and strategy is involved that seeing a plan work without a hitch can bring tears of joy. a game i still play, though sadly, few people still go online. Vengeance does have a stand alone campaign which is a first for the series, but it offers little challenge to veterans of the multiplayer.

2. DOOMed if you don't

if you've been following me for a while, you already know my affinity for the entire DOOM series. But for anyone else, i feel this needs no explanation. if you don't know about DOOM, you can't call yourself a fan of video games.

1. Everything about Half-Life

Half-Life is an FPS series that made it's start on PC but has since been ported to consoles. It may very well hold the title of greatest game series of all time. Half-Life 1 and 2 are carefully crafted works of interactive art, Half-Life 2 especially. Half-Life 2 has very little continuity between it and it's predecessor, almost to the point where it seems like a stand alone game. But the game is beautiful in the way it looks and feels like it could be a real world. Plot essential characters are fun and likeable, beautifully designed and reasonably fleshed out. Action is intense, especially with the gravity gun and the amazing physics. there is really not much to say other than it is perfect. or as close to perfect as possible.

now go away and have a Merry Christmas

As odd as that sounds, i have a major post coming but have had no time to work on it because of my life outside your computer monitor.

So uh yea. Just hold on and be patient plox and all will be well.

also a funny

I don't know if you have seen Zombieland or not, but long story short, he gets his twinky.

I don't know why i feel the need to share this at 7:40. But try it. it helps. Also, take your shoes off. It's good for the feet.

Peace out

I was saving this thought for a more developed blog after the competition was over. but i know you all love to listen to me ramble for no reason so.

I am severely raging right now over the standings of the Villain contest. Partially because of Vader. I could go on for hours about how he is actually a suprise hero or Movie character, but that isn't what bugs me. It's that his notoriety and legacy gives him this free ride.the same (but not as much so) is true about the joker, I could name more than a few characters who had more right than they did to be here.

I'm depressed.

Oh yea. and Raam beat Breen. I find it funny that they chose Raam, A voiceless, motiveless, brick to represent Gears of War. Why not the Locust Queen? sure, she isn't a final boss or anything but doesn't pulling the strings make you more of villain than the people doing the Villaining?

To put it nicely. This is my very angry and blunt feelings towards this...

this

balderdash

Oh well. think happy thoughts. like kittens and ppppppeelz

WEEEOOOW

Growing up as a child in the household of a movie-buff familiy. i was exsposed to many a film that may have permanently scarred my psyche (i watched the wall when i was six). Just recently i re-watched John Carpenter's "The Thing", a film i loved as a child but never quite remembered.

Gaeee-ahh

Needless to say, it was a lot more "graphic" than i recall. i wasn't able to walk straight after watching it again and developed a severe lack of trust for every person around me. Thank you, Hollywood. At any rate, i was reminded of just how much i loved that movie as well, for a number of reasons such as:

Keith David. one of my favorites. But most slack-jawed kids these days would recognize him only as that gap-tooth alien from the halo games. the good alien. not the bad one.

Ennio Morricone. Great conductor. He did the music for The Thing. Very haunting and brutally eerie.

And of course. Lots, LOTS, lots of freaks. I love this kind of Science-Fiction, the design of the creatures is almost Lovecraftian of Giger inspired. Very organic twisted shapes.

Edit: You know what foresight is? the ability to realize that i really don't want to look at the lovely dude above for most of the week. good job on my part

It may not be the best movie for a child but it was certainly a part of my early years. Scares me more now then it did when i was ten

But i digress.

yuppers i got my bracket done for the all time villain showdown. as much as i dislike the fact, i am pretty much destined for failure. There are two ways to go about this contest. Going through the roster and weighing in the potential of each villain and making a logical and probably accurate bracket. or my way, choosing villains based on how much you like them and all the fond memories you have of them. fandom and nostalgia. (of course i did that for the hero contest and suprise, suprise, i chose the winner) You can see my bracket here

Just a quick lil' update and all but so you don't fret, here's a funny

Lolololololminecraftjokelololol

It has been an insightful week to say the least. I learned new things and could very well say that i charted the course for my goal in life.

Okay, not actually. But hey, ENTHUSIASM!! right?

anyway, this past week, spanning only five days apparently, i sat back and enjoyed some time off and it gave me an opportunity to think. through this masterful medatation, i pondered some great issues and concluded five things that may very well be the corner stone of my small, insignificant life.

Five of my biggest revalations:

#5 Mashed potatoes are the greatest food on the planet.

Earth-shattering, isn't it? i know this sounds odd but there is some reasoning to it. Potatoes are a dietary staple in many parts of the planet. growing up, spuds were present at every hot meal, they became so regular that they were as much a part of dinner as was the table. Now that i am older and quote un quote "self-Sufficient" my diet has fallen to simpler meals that take little time to produce. I like to cook, i like food. But i am also lazy so the microwave beats the stove nine times out of ten. the reason i felt this is a revelation is because it is like the old moral, you really don't know how good things are until they are gone. Having some lovely mashed potatoes for the first time in months was disturbingly wonderful. it brought a tear to my eye

#4 Quake messes my life more than i can tell.

How fitting with Quake-con upon us. Well actually thats part of the reason, Quake-con made me realize just how much Quake has bled into my aspects of daily life. Huh, now theres a statement that makes me sound like someone with no grip on reality, but it's true. I doodled the Quake logo on my notebooks in highschool, I rocket-jump in every game that has a rocket launcher. In games with cutsomizable avatars, the Quake logo is a symbol i wear into battle. and most recently:

#3 Minecraft is frighteningly addicting.

This one can't be explained. it has to be experienced

#2 I want to recreate a full scale, fully functioning Darkside.

Two things in this universe are absolute, My love of Semi-trucks and my love of Twisted Metal. In any installment that featured Darkside as a drivable vehicle, i jumped right in. Whether it was Ash or Dollface, it didn't matter. all that did was that the small child in my soul was annhilating people and innocent bystanders in a ten ton truck. and cmon, can you blame me?

#1 Alucard is Dracula spelt backwards

yep. thats number one. Pretty anticlimactic huh? well it blew my mind when i realized. it also made me realize that i hadn't played a Castlevania in a while. well.

Thats uhh, thats pretty much it. if you wan't the time you spent reading this back, kindly move single file to the door and walk out, upon walking out you will realize that you are not in the past and that you have stepped out of a plane and are now hurdling towards the Earth

Have a nice day

HOLD IT. THIS IS NOT THE SUPER BLOG I HAD PLANNED. That idea was scrapped but the general idea of that blog is here: the Doom picture.

Ever have two things that are nothing alike, so radically different that the thought of being able to compare the two would make even the most stern person laugh? Ever notice one teensy, tiny similarity? thus causing you too find more and more as time goes on?

Well before we get on to that, please excuse me while i finish some old buisness:

Had this for a while, isn't it great? been meaning to upload while back blah blah blah moving on.

OK. as most of you smart people may have figured out, (with my user pic and all) i'm a fond fan of the Twisted Metal series, but did you know i am a proud Otaku and purveyer of fine anime? yes it's true. A few months back, i finished watching the anime "Elfen Lied" which was really good and i recomend to anyone over the age of 18 with a fine love for anime. Anyway, after seeing the ending finale, it kind of struck me. I had seen this somewhere before, but where?

Oh i should probably mention that grande spoilers lie ahead for both Twisted Metal and Elfen Lied...

Now, just after E3, i was alie with nostalgic flair for a little game called Twisted Metal. i had long since parted with my copy of Twisted Metal 2 but the nice men and women at sony made it available on the PSN network. it wasn't until i finished the game as Grasshopper that i realised where i had seen that ending before. and soon that one little tick had set off a chain reaction that caused me to connect the perverbial dots. here are some of the major bits i found.

a small similarity between plot central characters:

Take a look at this picture and you will see four boxes. the two on the top row are in fact, the same person. the two on the bottom are aswell. Cosmetically, the top and bottom rows have nothing in common with each other, its the traits of the characters that makes them similar. in the top left we see the lovely Marcus Kane, a homeless crazy with amnesia and a split personality. His alter-ego? the man too his right, Needles kane. Better known as Sweet Tooth. Bottom left, a sweet girl, wait, no, a girl named Lucy. Known for her tendency to kill people and look terrifying at the same time. She too, has a split personality, the girl to her right, dubbed "Nyu". While as Nyu, it's as though she has reverted to an infantile state With no previous memory or knowledge. Though there are other similarities, they are broad statements that could be applied to any two things. the major similarity ends there, and even calling that a similarity is a bold thing to say.

The violence:

The Ultra-violence of both is notable, although in terms of gore, Elfen Lied dwarfs Twisted Metal. no question. (seriously, take the bloodiest thing you have seen, multiply it by ten and sprinkle some exploding bodies for good measure and you've got Elfen Lied) Twisted Metal is centered around a tournament with the sole purpose of causing destruction and turning people into roadkill and Elfen Lied explains the "what would happen if angsty children with superpowers murdered people?" question very oppenly. Regardless of reason, people die, often. A difference however is that in Twisted Metal, any deaths that take place outside of a car are usually shown off screen. Elfen Lied never once shys away from the gruesome details (even if i had too). Twisted Metal black took a darker approach to the series. any contestant wishing for revenge got their wish, usually in the form of an ironic death trap.(for example, junkyard dog kills the pilot who ruined his life by rolling a crop duster plane into him, proppeller in full revolution.) but these sequences usually cut out before any dammage is done

Both series' use cheery imagery to hide darker themes.

I think that this one is rather hard to explain and the title doesn't do it justice, especially if you are afraid of clowns. I am terrified of clowns and Twisted Metal pushed this fear over the edge, but clowns are supposed to be bringers of laughter and cheer. this is why i say "cheery imagery" clowns are supposed to bring smiles. Sweet Tooth and his carny of freaks do the exact opposite. Taking and ruining the lives of many. Now shift your attention to the girl on the Left, Nana. Doesn't she look absolutley cheery? i'd go as far as saying that she is the series' punching bag, she gets brought to edge of death more times than any other character, viciously beaten, arms and legs ripped off like an insect. (see previous picture) despite all that, she doesn't die. and she goes on for more. Elfen Lied is a brutal thing to watch, to see the extremeities of the violence acted out on not just Nana, but many others aswell. At this point i would like to point out that in the anime, the "diclonius" (mutants with telekinetic powers) all have pink hair and eyes. in the Manga, the hair color of Diclonius was varied. the fact that all the hair color is pink, makes it look as thought all these pictures feature the same character but that is not the case. Generally, when violence and blood is present, i usually expect typical action fare, beefy men with grit on their faces, but seeing a pink haired girl violently beaten time and time again is kindof a backwards notion which is why i find it so hard to watch. it's not expected. many other disturbing themes are explored than just ultraviolence. Child abuse, intolerance and moral dilema are just some of the ideas that pepper the stories of Elfen Lied. Twisted Metal also explores heavier themes like depression and suicide and resorting to extreme actions to solve the problem at hand.

Now then, these are just some of the few things i picked up on, for all i know i could be so far off that i'm in space, i don't expect anyone to agree with me. but there is one similarity that can't be ignored. the one i mentioned earlier. Now then before we continue, this is by far the biggest spoiler so far, revealing the death of plot central characters from the two. but it is the only concrete similarity between the two

An ending of sorts:

I don't want to go too far with this one so all i'll say is that a daughter is believed to be dead but this is not the case, the daughter confronts the father with feelings of hatred but eventually gives in to the love of the parent. Tender moment then Plooie. thats it.

IF YOU ARE BRAVE HERE IS LINK TO EACH SCENE

Grasshopper's ending (TM2)

Mariko's death

That's pretty much it. Again, and i can't stress this enough, there is no real evidence to prove any of this. it's just me. And even then, I'm not the figuring type. i'm more of a supposer.

Baipeeps

After reading over some new reviews on the site i've noticed more than a few games that I personally expected to do well have been reviewed a bit dissapointingly. Some of which i beleive to be totally inacurate. Most specifically; Crackdown 2. while all the technical problems that the review talk about are true, I don't believe that bugs and glitches are enough to warrant a 7.0. Crackdown 2 is like Crackdown 1. A game you don't have to think to hard about and it is stupidly fun. infact, most games that are stupidly fun, are games that are usually rated 7.0 and under.

so i pose a question. If a game is so fun that it keeps you coming back, but is not without it's share of technical flaws. How should it be scored, by the amount of fun or it's technical aspects?

and here's this