• 24Nov 09

  Updates, my random thoughts, and Happy Thanksgiving!

  ~Happy Thanksgiving!!!~

  Well, I don't usually write these kinds of blogs, but I don't have the gumption to write a full length article at the moment. So, you get this!A "Happy Thanksgiving" greeting,updates about me, and other random thoughts I have at the moment.

  First of all, NO SCHOOL FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK! What a relief, time to catch up on unions, blogs, and other stuff. Some of you may have noticed I haven't been active this last week or so. School was pretty hectic these past twoweeks, so sorry about that. I'm back now though!

  I played Far Cry 2 and Modern Warfare 2 at my friend's house recently. Far Cry 2 was awesome! The open world was verycool and theenvironment was reactive to user input. The freedom to go anywhere and do anything combinedwith the fact that yourdecisions affected the story line made it very intriguing.

  Modern Warfare 2 on the other hand...Well, I am going to save my full opinion of the game for a later blog I am going to write. I will leave it at this: MW2 was the most un-fun I have had in a long time. I played seven or so matches online, and in every single one of them, ever single person was camping. Literally everyone. No one moving around, no one fighting at points of contention, no one trying to flank. Absolutely everyone was sitting behind corners, waiting for people to walk unexpectantly by. Plain and simply, it sucked.

  Moving on, I am getting into a new hobby (lol, I get new hobbys all the time. RC cars, Bonsai Trees, Wood Carving, so on, so forth). My new hobby? Airsoft guns! When I had an airsoft war with some of my friends, I knew I was hooked. So I saved up some money and got this:

  

  Its nothing fancy, but it is a pretty M14good rifle for only $60. My friend also got a really nice shotgun, and tomorrow we are having a huge war. We are getting about eight people together to have a huge war in the woods by my friends house. A pretty good section of the woods are cleared out, so we are going to construct some barriers and forts out of scrap wood we have. It just rained recently, so its gonna be really muddy. Its gonna be grand.

  Well, as you guys probably know, I love Capcom. Ever since Okami, I have had an affinity for them. I am looking forward to Monster Hunter: Tri, Lost Planet 2, and now Dark Void. Honestly, six months ago, I thought Dark Void looked lame. Lame cover, seemingly lame concept for gameplay, and lame name. Well, all that has changed. I have been watching some videos of Dark Void, and it looks awesome. Basically, you were working on a ship when it dissapeared sailing through the Burmuda (sp?) Triangle. You end up in a land called the "Void", a land where everyone who dissapears in the Burmuda Triangle appears. The humans who appear there are attacked by the alien race that populates that land, the "Watchers". The human resistance is led by none other than Nikola Tesla. If you know or are even mildly interested in electricity, you know who Tesla is. He was a beast. Anyways, he leads the human resistance, developing new technology with what they can gather throughout the "Void". I will let that be as far as I go. You really got to see the trailer for this, it is looking it will shape into something very cool. Here is a linky to the trailer:

  http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/darkvoid/news.html?sid=6233000&mode=previews

  Yay for Capcom! ^___^

  And with Thanksgiving comes Black Friday. I have never actually done any Black Friday shopping, my parents don't like it one bit, lol. But, this year, Wal-Mart has a PS3 bundle I may not be able to pass up. PS3 + Infamous + Batman: Arhkum Asylum + Batman: Dark Knight on Blu-Ray, all for $300. Very cool. Honestly, I am not interested in the Batman game, so I would probably sell it to GameStop, but I definitely want Infamous. Even so, before I play Infamous, I am getting Drake's Uncharted 2: Among Theives. GOTY, IMO.

  Haven't been playing alot of Video Games lately because of school, reading, and other stuff taking up my life, but Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor is stillabsolutely amazing. This is a hard thing to say...but it might be the best RPG I have ever played. Outstanding. After I beat Shin Megami Tensei, I am thinking about getting Chrono Trigger. Its an Enix ****c, supposed to be amazing. Speaking of great games, I still haven't gotten Mazora's Mask yet. Its only $10 on Wiiware, so I don;t know why I haven't gotten it yet, lol.

  So, whats new with you guys? Anybody got cool plans for thanksgiving? My family is coming over, but nothing that interesting really.

  • Posted Nov 24, 2009 6:35 pm PT
  • Category: General
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• 15Nov 09

  My Fears coming to Fruition?

  Nintendum?

  If you remember in my last blog, I mentioned how I was worried that if Nintendo stayed on their current path, they could end up doing to the industry what, in years bygone, they saved the industry from. Here is my blog where I mention this:

  http://www.gamespot.com/users/VXLbeast/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25752271&tag=all-about;blog2

  If you don't won't to bother reading it, essentially Nintendo saved the gaming industry, single handedly. As trashy, poorly developed games were bought up by the publicon thecheap, more expensivegames that developers poored their hearts into sat on the shelves. Studios went out of bussiness, and the video game industry was literally on the verge of collapse.But good ole' Nintendo came in to play. They inventedthe Nintendo "Official Seal of Quality". If you bought a game with this seal, you knew you were getting a good game, because Nintendo only awarded it toquality titles. In this way (although, for the sake of this article, I have shortened the story), Nintendo saved the industry. Seriously.

  Like I stated before, in my previous blog, Iexpressed my distaste for Nintendo's new business model. I was worried they couldturn the game industry back to the way it was when they saved it. Although it was probable, I didn't think we were anywhere near the point where we would see evidence of of my worries, but check this out:

  http://www.gamespot.com/news/6240132.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;3

  There is the artical if you would like to read it in its entirety, but I will be quoting the most important parts for you here.

  -"True to analysts' predictions, the gaming industry was not able to lure consumers in increasing numbers to retail in October." "...drops of 19 percent...hardware drops of up to 23 percent..."

  Why is that, you say?

  -"According to a pair of analysts, October sales indicate that casual gamers are largely at fault for the continued decline in industry sales. As noted by Electronic Entertainment Design and Research's Jesse Divnich, casual gamers haven't returned to buy more gaming goods this year. Further, he believes this group will continue to stay away until the arrival of new hardware from platform manufacturers, such as Microsoft's Project Natal or a new DS from Nintendo."

  -"The lack of sales continues to be driven down by non-traditional and casual gamers who have failed to make follow-up purchases,"

  -"...deflating casual games bubble..."

  Sound familiar?

  So, how arethey gonna fix this mess?

  -"We believe it will take the introduction of some newtype of gameplay or peripheral before we see a resurgence in the casual and non-traditional markets,"

  Oh gawd...Did anyone else notice the underlined word? How arethey gonna fix this mess that was started by crappy games and an outlandish number of peripherals? Why, by peripherals of course! Endless spiral anyone? Indeed.

  And what do more perihperals do? Reign in more shallow customers, which do this:

  -"We believe these declines represent a current video game economy that is driven by promotions, discounts, or temporary sales,"..."Once the excitement of a bundle, discount, or permanent price drop retreats, so do sales."

  These aren't return customers Nintendo! Can't you see that?!?

  I could rant and rant and rant, but sometimes you can say more with less words. So, I will leave youwith these nice littles quotes and predicitions from industry analysts. Until next time.

  • Posted Nov 15, 2009 5:30 pm PT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 11Nov 09

  I am indescribably happy!

  ~This is just gonna be a short little entry.

  Go to this link:

  http://www.gamespot.com/community/blogs/community-blog/909185261/index.html?tag=siteblogs;blog_title;2

  And look under the "Blog Bunker" section. My blog is there...I can't believe it...honestly, I can't. I am so happy, I can't quite describe it.

  To Gamespot: Thanks for the mention, that makes writing these blogs worth while. Your timing couldn't have been better, as I needed a little pick-me-up. Thanks again, and again, and again. Thanks a thousoand times over!

  • Posted Nov 11, 2009 8:05 pm PT
  • 13 Comments
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