So, today I went to my cousins´s house.  There´s actually a pretty high chance, relatively, that you know him through the internet.

For example, there was this one time when at my school a girl from my school, who was sitting beside was looking at her Hi5 profile (we had free time). At any rate, she was scrolling down, and I could see her "friends". I saw one of them and told her:

"That´s my cousin."

She looked back and forth, drawing the comparisons, with a `no way!´ face. She then fixed her sight on me and said:

"Really!?"

He doesn´t look so different from me. Just older, with tanned skin and black hair. At any rate, I went to his house for a few hours. And what did we do for said few hours? Play Reservoir Dogs, for the PS2.

So, he was at chapter nine, I think. A driving mission, about going fast because some mother****ing cops were chasing him, or something. After a few missions, a line appeared.  To the right, "Professional". To the left, "Psychopath". A green line up, a red one down (or was it the other way around?). The green went down a little bit. He cursed.

The next mission was one on foot. When starting, he said, mostly to himself, that he didn´t remember the controls. He opened a menu and saw them (they were quite a bit, mind you). He closed and started playing. Some guy began shooting him from the roofs. He ran to some non-cop guy, and took him as hostage. Then, by using this hostage, he made the guy who was shooting him throw his gun. This is how he played. He always tried not to kill anyone. There was this one time where he was being cornered by a SWAT guy, and he was hostageless, and I told him:

"Why don´t you shoot him?"

"Because killing people substracts points."

At this point I was explianed the Proffesional/Psychopath thing. Apparently, in the game, when you kill people, blow up thing s and such, the bar goes on to "Psychopath". When handling things "proffesionally", the bar goes on to "Proffesional". The ending of the game varies depending on what you are.

I rather like the idea of the "Hostage thing". You see, each hostage has a life bar. When the bar epmties,  the hostage goes unconscious and you are ****ed If you "choke" them, which you´ll need to do to convince some cops and SWATs that you are not **** around, their bar decreases by quite a bit, not to say it decreases just by the passage of time. This can mean great level designs: you have to be switching hostages constantly.

The next chapter was once again on car. This time, you are in pursuit of Mr. Pink. Too bad all the cops in the city are after you. The "objective" is that when Pink gets to the end, there are no cops around. So, what do you do? You take them down of course! I passed this one, in a very psychopath way: I shot them like crazy, I jammed into them after a boost, I went nuts. Seriously, I ended the chapter with the minimal health possble.

The line appeared, and the green arrow moved towards "Psychopath". It seems that for the task to be professional, I`d have to only ram into them. This, I think, is very stupid. That seems much more crazy to me, but whatever.

Then in the next chapter, on foot again, there was this one time he had like half of his health, and passed through a health kit.

"Why don´t you recover?" I told him.

He, without turning away from the game, answered "because it substracts points: I have enough health". A few moments later, he got killed. Heh.

Anyway, it was when he said that I realized two things. One was that he was playing through the game for the second time. The other was that he was playing the game like, well, a game. Actually, he w playing more like a kid who plays an arcade game only to get the highscore. Mariano was hardly ever messing around: which is pretty common in GTA-esque games.

So, in conclusion: the game was good. Much better than what I expected. The only problem is, even at the back on the box, you are told that your actions are being judged and that they affect the outcome of the game. Of course, I would keep this feature: it is awesome. But I would never reveal this to the player. When someone is playing, let him not kill a female cop because he wants to see said ending, but because he really does not want to kill her. She does has a daughter, or so she says. In the same way, let the player kill everyone without making him worry about the consequences.

Now that would be awesome.

Today I did not go to school.

Why? Well, yesterday we went to a mini-book fair organized by our school. During schooltime, of course. At any rate, the books were crap. Books with this size of font, books with 30 pages, and books with ridiculous and childish themes were all I found. Really, the only good books were those from A Series of Unfortunate Events. And they technically are children books.

Just to give you an example, there was a certain editorial that freaking insulted every aged literature book by giving them horrible, computer-rendered and extremely childish covers. When you opened, you could notice the font was huge and there were not even 50 pages long. For god´s sake, they resumed a whole chapter of the metamorphosis in one freaking paragraph.

This prompted a lot of comentaries and laughes (is that even a word?) from me and my two good friends, of which I have a lot of common, which in turned caused ashamed looks from the ones that were selling them. One of the things I said to them that did not mock or insult the books that were being sold was that Kafka is better than Shakespeare (actually, it was more like "Kafka can kick Shakespeare´s ass"), to which they both agreed.

That was one of the three things I concluded from that book fair.

One other was that adventure books shouldn´t be written anymore. There are far better ways to tell an adventure story (like videogames) than books. Books should be focused on psychological and metaphorical stuff. Don´t get me wrong, though. I am merely talking about books whose main thing is adventure, not those that merely have adventure. 

The other one was that they seriously underestimate middle schooler´s psyches.

Oh yeah. And did I mention the mother of my literature teacher was trying to sell her book? A lot of akwardness filled the atmosphere...

At any rate, I told my mother and though she disagreed with Kafka being better than Shakespeare, she said I could skip school to go to the real book fair with her today.

Too bad it had ended.

But where does this go? Well, to know that we have to go to Sunday. I was reading about Goichi Suda on Wikipedia because I think he´s a genius because he made Killer7, Contact and another game that I would like to play. Because I couldn´t play Killer7 due to being at my mother´s house because I refuse to play it on that small TV.

At any rate, while I already knew and was excited about him working with official videogame genius Hideo Kojima, (I´m also excited about No More Heroes) for "Project S", I also found something that made me much more interested: Kurayami.

If case that link doesn´t work, allow me to save you a trip to wikipedia. Kurayami is a videogame concept from Suda based on Kafka´s book, The Castle.

This makes me think of a lot of things. The most important thing is: Could in the future this fine industry retell literature through videogames?

Not all books could, of course (though hey, graphic adventure games, anyone?), but I can imagine Macbeth as a videogame. Just begin before the book begins and add some of the wars Macbeth was in. In fact, start where the book begins and throw the battles as flashback--plus some surreal battles that only take place in Macbeth´s head as he falls into disgrace. It would be awesome. And then when the player finds out it was a book, he might go on and read some other Shakespeare books and be drawn into such stuff.

Just think about it, reader. Think about what Kurayami, and what it could mean to this fine industry.

Going back to today, my mother took me to a library instead. I looked around a bit, and there it was. The Castle, by Franz Kafka. I have read quite a bit of Kafka (The Trial and the Metamorphosis) and he is my second favorite author. So yeah, I might have read it anyway, but it is thanks to Suda and Kurayami that it sits there just now, on top of a pile of Wii and PS2 games (and one DS game).

Before even playing the game, before it even starts development, Kurayami has landed a book in my arms. And even though I will wait to finish Kafka on the Shore and then Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World before I begin with The Castle, I love it. The situation, The Castle, and Kurayami.

Yes, I have a lot of reading to do. But Kurayami is still a concept--I have the time.

Well, I have just written a Wii Play Review and since it is 1600 words and all, I might as well let you know.

It is pretty weird in that it begins with an anecdote, shifts to a humorous review and ends in a sad/disappointed way.

 I´ve been noticing this since before, but it seems that the forums are on a downward curve of activity. Take for example the Top 3 union. The overall number of posts is quite very high, yet the last posts not counting mine or those on the "games" were made most recently at the 19th (It´s february 27 here in the past, if you are scrolling down).

Much worse is the Metal Gear Solid Network. You see, I hadn´t come to my profile and the forums until that Gears of War post down there (that´s over 6 months), and the board has a modest 300 new posts since then. After more than 6 months I found the same topics I had been talking about when I was a year younger. Sad.

Of course, mybe it is just the forums I post in that suffer this curse. I have, you see, this habit to overexplain my answers to single questions and think carefully what I write. Perhaps my long-ish posts just scare people away. After all, to answer something well-thought you have to be either smart or stupid. There is, as such, a good chance that it is I killing that which I love.

Take, for example, a topic I put on the Top 3 not so long ago. I asked my fellow gamespotters whatever they thought about Dragon Quest IX being released for the DS. An officer called -Clarke said this:

"Why make a game that was on a current gen console have a sequel on an inferior system. The game should´ve been on PS3 if DQ8 was on PS2."

She (I am not sure about her being a she, but that is the impression I got) made a few mistakes there, such as missing a question mark. Anyway, I answered her in a long-ish (i will take this chance to say it is -ish because I have read 80000 words features about videogames) way, and this was her answer:

"NFW"

HUH? I don´t even know what that means! No fu(king way, maybe? Anyways, what I am trying to say is that my long-ish answer turned 30 words into 3 letters.

Though don´t get me wrong, I have nothing against her, really. She does seem quite very loyal to her form of entertainment and this website, as evidenced by the fact she has 25 levels and 13000 (!) posts more than I do. She also does seem like a very nice person, as evidenced by the fact her blog has 51 times more views than mine. Who knows? Maybe I´ll leave a comment on a post, and maybe she´ll come here at mine and see this and explain whatever NFW means (though I could just go to the post and ask her--I´m supposed to put some links anyway) or perhaps she´ll say she´s not a she or something.

Yet the point is the forums are low on activity and maybe it is me.

Or maybe we are all too busy with our blogs.

Iam going to KILL my bother. Seriously.

Allow me to explain, if I may.

About a month ago, when I got my very, very expensive PS3 (direct all cursing to my seemingly insane father, please), one of the first things I did was to create my online account.

By now you may be wondering why I bring this up. Well, you see, I did not get a copy of Resistance until recently. And as my review says, I believe it has a great multiplayer.

Anyways, back on track. I was prompted to name my account. I tried quite a few names. And then while I was pwning Viper with my good old MK22, my brother takes the control and inputs random characters. FU(K

And he blames it on the fact so many names had been rejected! Sure, Federico, EVERYBODY is BOUND to have mjpnjw as their name!

And now I am stuck with an unreadable name FOR TEN YEARS (at least that is what Sony says...)! How is anybody ever going to remember my name!?

Well, three cheers for the name that will provoke fear in the hearts of men. Three chears for MPN -- what was it, again?

Through all of my life, I have seen many commercials regarding videogames. Yet, be it those weird cube-themed game showcases, for of course the gamecube, or that sympathic Nintendo 64´s christmas ad, none of lasted long or were particularly strong. In fact, after the NGC ads, I never saw again any TV commercial of videogames.

Until now. Something has changed.

Now, if you live in Mexico, you must know what I´m talking about. Microsoft is backing up its little videogame pet LIKE CRAZY!

I remember the first time I saw a cartoon spectacular. I was left like huh?. Why? Because it wasn´t normal to me. I was accustomed to spectalurars of things I don´t really care about, such as a clothing store, a new kind of shampoo... perhaps a food chain one.

Well, guess what I saw a few weeks back. A Gears of War spectacular. A freaking Gears of War spectacular. Can you believe it? As if people weren´t hyped enough already about that game.

And talking of Gears of War, as I was writing that last paragraph, they showed on Fox a Gears of War ad. WIth a pretty long runtime, dramatical music, and all. While I was writing the last paragraph.

Actually, now that I think of it, Microsoft is backing up that game more than their console itlesf! They have a lot of faith (even if it is graphical heaven and holds great promises of gameplay) in it. I guess they learnt from Final Fantasy VII (which, pardon me, is not the best FF): Nice looks sell big numbers.

Looks sell big. Their strategy is as simple as that. They hype up a good-looking game so much, you just have to buy it--along with the console. I´m not going into whether or not Gears of War is a good game, it most likely it.

But that´s not the point.

Now, let me toss aside all that insight on Microsof´s merchandising strategy, and allow me to declare this; as much as all this scares me, it makes me happy.

And it frightens me mainly because I´m an Xbox hater. It doesn´t really matter--it is a joyous occasion!

It is joyous because normal folks are actually seeing those ads (Fox, remember?), and some of them might actually say "wow, that game seems cool". And who knows? Perhaps a few of them actually bought the 360 just for the ads.

The recognition of games is growing! Nice. Though we are still a long way to find the news reporter saying "it´s like that MGS2 battle in here" (kudos for you if you know where I stole that quote from), we are already advancing. Perhaps some day videogame journalism will actually be considered something serious.

I am smiling as I write this, you know. It is so nice to know Mexico is at last a fairly important aim for the videogame industry. My congratulations for Microsoft; first launching their console a year before Nintendo and Sony, and then exploiting the almost influence-free gaming market of Mexico? God, the people at Microsoft are merchandising genuises! Even my father told me Gears of Wars looks cool, and he hardly ever talks about videogames (and only of Nintendo when he does)!

 In the end, it seems that the casual gamer is the next step in gaming. Though this new generation is not as a big step on itself than last generations were (I´ll write about that some other day), the fact it is expanding our small gaming world and proudly showing it to the rest of the universe, might be even better.

Ok, you have probably already noticed this but...don´t you feel that ALMOST,IF NOT ALL THE MOVIES AND CARTOONS BASED ON GAMES JUST SUCK?and GAMES BASED ON MOVIES OR CARTOONS APPLY FOR THE SAME?

Very few games of this kind escape this destiny.Is it a cultural problem? A transladation between medias can prove such difficulties?Is it beyond programming hands reach?Is the wall to high to even see its top!!!???Well,here are the reasons of why i consider this to be:

1:Time:okay, this should not affect cartoons-game transfer(although it has happened),But what about game-movie transfer?Would you see a 50 hours movie? Would you play an hour and a half game?In result,they must erase many factors, or add dull,boring and time consuming stuff.

2:Interactivity:A videogame is a videogame because of interaction.A game of zelda fully linear would be even worse than the I-CD ones.In this kind of games, you can decide.You can decide wether  to enter a side-quest,search info, train,etc.However, movies and cartoons are both linear.The consequence:Extra work on the transfer, essesnce loss, and more.Even on linear you can decide!

3:Details:Believe it or not, details are everything.Of course you may not notice one detail,but what about 50,000 details?Of course,details are nothing without the main idea,but the main idea is, as well, nothing without details!MANY of the games would be nothing without details.And many games that sink do not include many details.For disgrace,not once a game being transferred has kept their various details.Too many of them die or are left alone during this process...

There are uncountable other reasons,but these ones are which i consider to be more important.

If giving undetailed,stupid,unorganized info to you while reading this,please accept my apologies:|

Ok, i have not been able to connect to gamespot in a while.That is because my fathers live separated, and i am still living with them.they kicked out my father out of his rental depto,partly because his partying,partly because my late,late,late nigth gaming, so he was forced to purchase one.

However, this depto was not even built yet!and my good computer lies within my father`s claws.So i have been force to use a crappy and old MAC.However one day,i could not enter to gamespot anymore!

luckily enough, the depto will be finished in a mere week so my internet surfing activity will reach yet another peak

Unluckily,my mother will move out at the same time that my father, so it will be an all new atmosphere for me and also a time of sligth chaos

i would like to apologize if i wasted your time with my ridicolous life