This has been a long time coming now, but I think it's time to leave GameSpot. My interest in games has waned dramatically, I have personal issues to deal with, college applications to write, and school to attend.

Not that anything is going to dramatically change. I haven't written any reviews in a while, and I haven't been interested in doing so. I haven't been interested in playing anything for the past week or so, and before that it was only Modern Warfare 2 that kept me turning on the PS3. I seldom post blogs and seldom comment on everybody else's, so all but a few of you shouldn't notice anything at all.

Basically, GameSpot is not what I want to be about. I don't want this to be a part of what I do or who I am.

That said, some of you are great. Stand-outs: Aberinkulas, AlmightyMax, Korino, GeekyDad, eggmcmuff, and Frame_Dragger just barely squishing into my collective GameSpot memory for some unforgettable intellectual flaming/genuine debating. If anybody wants to stay in touch, let me know (coughaberinkulasifyouwouldn'tmindsendmeapmwithyourfacebookcough)

I may continue to log on occasionally mainly to check out what a few of y'all are up to, but I'm going to try to resist. (Of course, my ego is such that I'll undoubtedly check all your comments to this blog, and maybe even respond to a few. After that though, yeah, for reals...)

- Recently on GameSpot, I've been entertained by Aberinkulas. Thank you. You're one of maybe six reasons I stick around here.

- I've taken up knitting. It's lots of fun. I'm working on a scarf. It's about eight inches long at this point, and I've realized it's going to take a while.

- I get out for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Huzzah. But first, an AP Euro test to deal with. Yech.

- On the gaming front, I've been playing way too much Modern Warfare 2. It's pretty awesome. I thought I would suck but it turns out I've gotten at least respectable. My k/d ratio blows hard (around .5, if you must know. I'm ashamed), but I'm level 21 and I'm consistently enjoying myself. If anybody's on the fence and worried that multiplayer will be too competitive, forget it: the online is surprisingly accessible.

- I'm shamelessly neglecting all my schoolwork.

- I submitted an early decision application to my first choice college a few weeks ago.

- I started watching Dexter. It's awesome -- by far one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. The intro credits in particularly are hilarious.

- I'm trying hard to avoid falling for a girl whom I planned on just hooking up with. She has a boyfriend, which makes things complicated-er. Any advice would be appreciated, I guess. Especially from GamerJM.

And that's it. Back to studying/knitting/watching TV shows online.

I'm looking for a good list of must-see movies. Your input is welcome.

Also, I played a few Modern Warfare 2 matches. I suck overall, but I'm not so bad that online is unplayable. I had a four kill killstreak, which I thought was not bad for my second ever Call of Duty online game. It's pretty fun and I plan on spending a lot of time with this game.

By Fight Club. I saw it for the first time earlier this weekend, and I need to see it again. Holy crap. Wow wow wow.

Okay, got that out of my system.

I also made my third purchase, second impulse purchase, in a little over a month: Modern Warfare 2. I've got to tell myself that this is the last game I'm buying this year. I'm tired of throwing money away on video games.

That said, it's pretty fun. I'm playing the single-player (on Normal difficulty, which is something I seldom do) and it's pretty fun. The plot is a hilarious mess but the action is intense. I've heard it's short, but I don't really mind because I can't imagine mowing down terrorists is going to stay fun for much longer.

The real make-or-break component of MW2 is the multiplayer, of course, and I've yet to try it out. I'm pretty sure I'm going to suck massively for the first few online hours, but seeing as this game is going to have to keep me occupied for the next several months, I think that's fine. I'll post something later on once I've gotten more into the whole online deal.

Pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

The game looks awesome and I can't wait. And the fact that it's a flash demo also seems pretty cool.

Battle for Wesnoth is downloading right now -- I was pretty happy to learn that it works with OSX. It's a fairly difficult game, for me anyway, but it's also really fun and I love the sort of cliche fantasy setting.

I've got tons of work to do today, just because I've been really busy this weekend and haven't had time to start chipping away at it all. Yuck. I've decided on a first choice school, also, so I'm going to need to get my stuff together in the next week.

Dragon Age Origins continues to engross me. Not much in the way of new developments, but the plot arc is entertaining and all the sidequests are similarly rewarding.

Playing this game has sparked in me a desire to get back to Fallout 3. I started it twice and just couldn't get into it, but I feel I might appreciate it more now having enjoyed a sort of quest-based game like Dragon Age.

My last blog on Dragon Age: Origins was pathetically short and vague, so I thought I'd let some people know what I've been up to in Ferelden these days. I've got a three-day weekend and so I've completely put off school work to enjoy this game. Anyway, some stuff I've done:

- Saved an arl (kinda an earl equivalent, I think. Clever, Bioware)

- Protected a village from zombies or something

- Explored a creepy town

- Wiped out a cult

- Ran away from a dragon

- Walked around a temple, naked

- Killed some bandits. Lots and lots of bandits. Also some mercenaries. And some demons. Dragons, too.

- Dumped some bodies down a well

- Killed a dwarf, because he was sassing me.

- Engaged in some political rabble-rousing

- Wanted to kill a little kid, but got talked out of it by his whiny mother.

- "Courted" (i.e. threw a bunch of gifts at) a sarcastic witch.

- Sexed a whore

Etc. Get this game. It's good.

The combat reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy XII's. It happens in real time, and you just target a foe and then watch your character have at it. Unlike Final Fantasy XII, however, there are particular attacks/abilities you can have your character use. There are also Gambit-esque battle commands you can use, and there's an absurd amount of depth here. As in so much depth that I haven't even started messing around with it because I'm afraid it'll hurt me, badly.

You can issue ridiculously detailed commands to each soldier, ranging from "heal yourself when you're almost dead" to "use this skill when a bandit is running after my mage using this other spell." Gawd.

The story's pretty cool, but like I said in the last blog, what's great about this game is that you feel part of a world. The game revolves around you, but at the same time it doesn't, really. You feel there's other stuff going around you, but you can influence these goings-on. Very gratifying and very fun.

Talk about an impulse purchase: I had very little desire to play this game befor this morning, when I decided I'd go get it after school. I did, and it's pretty awesome.

It's a very real-feeling world. I'm only a few hours in but you can tell there's a lot of complexity to the game world and that's what I'm sort of enjoying most. I haven't played an RPG in a while, I'm not sure if I've ever really played a western RPG, and I've definitely never played a BioWare game.

Combat seems pretty shallow at first but it's actually fairly addictive, despite the fact that I'm not really taking advantage of the ludicrously deep AI customization.

The only real problem is that it looks like a PS2 game. The frame rate blows and lots of textures look lame, even from not-too-close-up. Still, it's well worth it for such a deep, engrossing, entertaining RPg.

I recommend it.

I've got to channel my manic compulsiveness somewhere, so for the time being, pity my piano.

I'm re-learning a bunch of stuff I did several years ago and adding to my repertory. Sight reading has come back easier than I expected and while I hate memorizing songs...I'm memorizing songs.

Not much has been going on lately outside of school, but I've seen some movies recently:

- The Exorcist. Meh. I didn't think it was really that scary; parts of it were just funny. I'm unimpressed

- Charlie Barlett. Pretty awesome. Seriously .

- Rocky Horror Picture Show. I saw this at midnight on Halloween with some friends. The movie itself was pretty terrible (but Tim Curry as the transvestite scientist is actually hilarious), but what made it entertaining was all the crap people shout at the movie. I wouldn't see it again, but it was still an interesting experience.

Gaming-wise, I'm slipping back into apathy. There are games I want to play, but I just can't bring myself to actually play them. (Okami and Shadow of the Colossus, for example, are games that I enjoy and want to get back to.) Oh well.

I haven't been around in a while but I feel maybe a little obliged to post something/I'm horrendously swamped in work and want an excuse not to do it.

I've been absurdly busy lately. Schoolwork is this unrelenting, unstoppable force that I'm doing my best to deal with. I'm not even doing a sport, I'm generally coming home early every day, and I'ms till working straight till 11 or 12 every night. It sucks.

What little time I've had to play games has been spent with Uncharted. I played it through a second time (took me about four or five hours second time through) and still didn't really enjoy the single player. I've spent significantly more time on the multiplayer mode and I've been really enjoying it. I've never been much for online shooters so I'm sure novelty has something to do with why it's fun for me, but yeah...it's enjoyable. I'm pretty decent, do well in deathmatch, and some of the objective modes (Plunder, i.e. Capture the Flag) are really, really fun.

Also, my recent lack of a social life is depressing. I've been so burned-out by the time the weekend comes around that the idea of doing anything other than hanging out at home on Friday night makes me laugh, and I've actually found myself doing -- gasp! -- school work on Saturday nights *tear drop*. I've mentioned numerous times here that my relationships tend to crash and burn very quickly but I'm working something out now.

Hopefully in a few months this'll all be over. My early application to Swarthmore is due in a few weeks; after that, it's just six or eight weeks till the end of the semester, and then things will cool down significantly.

This is the last Uncharted 2 post, I promise.

I beat Uncharted 2: Among Thieves last night for the first time; it took me exactly ten hours. I may end up writing a review eventually but until then, regarding single-player:

- It's harder than the first Uncharted. That's probably a good thing, I guess.

-Melee combat has been much improved. Dodging attacks is much more entertaining than mashing a random sequence of buttons.

At least in the single-player department, I'm still convinced that Drake's Fortune is a better game. I just like that title's vibe more, and Among Thieves' ending felt flat. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but I didn't think it was anything special. I'm a bit confused by all these people/game sites going around yelling "2009 GOTY". I mean, it's a fun game, but it's nothing mind-blowing.

The first game was great because it was something special and new. Uncharted 2 doesn't really add anything, except, of course, mulitplayer...

So with regard to multiplayer:

I played a few matches last night after beating the story mode and progressed a few levels. I spent about 80% of the time getting my ass handed to me but I did fairly well at times. Sniper rifles and RPGs are way overpowered. I found a sniper rifle, got to high ground, and got maybe five kills in a row before somebody took me down. And I suck at this game -- somebody who know's what they're doing, has a rifle, and is really dug in high-up is going to be pretty much impossible to dislodge.

I haven't tried out any of the custom games or co-op yet. Deathmatch only for me, so far. Pretty average.

I'd previously heard a lot of complaints about it being too hard to take people down, and I guess that's sort of true. With what you'd think is a pretty good gun, like the Ak-47, actually feels pretty useless. So most matches become races to find the best weapons -- Dragon Sniper, Desert 5, M4. Although I've found that I really like the FAL in multiplayer matches...

At least so far, Uncharted 2's multiplayer feels like nothing special. And that's really the feel I get with the game as a whole. Yes, it's a solid package and it's better than the sum of its parts, but it just doesn't really stand up to the original. I'll keep playing multiplayer because I don't really have anything better to play (but oh good god that's such a lie...), but I'm not convinced this game was worth 60 bucks.

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Also -- tangent time! -- I'm having some problems deciding which games to pick up in the coming months.

- There's Modern Warfare 2. I never played the original and would probably love this game. I really want a solid multiplayer experience which I expect MW2 would offer, but I'd also suck massively at it. There's a trade-off there.

- I could go with MAG. That's not coming out till late January 2010, though, and I don't think it's going to be all that great...I dunno.

- Finally, and most promisingly, there's Battlefield Bad Company 2. I love Battlefield 1943 and my brother played Bad Company (single-player only) and really loved it. The only problem is that it's not coming out till March 2010, which seems like a long time away. I guess my question, pending input from you all, is should I just wait for Bad Company 2? Or should I get MW 2 when it comes out in a few weeks?

- But that's not it! There's also Dragon Age Origins. I've never played a BioWare game but I've heard they're great, and I love a good RPG. Another one that's coming out in just a few weeks.

- God of War Collection. I'm pretty much going to have to get this. I've wanted to play the God of War games for a very long time and just haven't. This seems like an excellent opportunity to do so.

- Finally, there's Assassin's Creed II. Not so thrilled about this one, because I really sort of hated the original. But if the developers take care of some of the original's problems, maybe it'll be worth playing.

I have absolutely no self-restraint.

But I'm still determined not to let this dictate what games I play. Shadow of the Colossus/Super Mario Galaxy/Okami, here I come! Right soon as I'm done with Uncharted 2. Oh, and that God of War compilation is coming out next month, so, y'know...But eventually!

---

Despite general sickness yesterday, I went out and got Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I didn't go out last night or do anything particularly social, given my inability to breathe well, so I played Uncharted 2 a lot last night A lot. As in like maybe five hours straight.

It's a solid game and about what I expected. No one element really shines out -- the combat is fun but repetitive, the platforming is imprecise and oftentimes frustrating, and the puzzles are too simple. And yet somehow this all comes together to create a really cohesive, consistently fun game.

There are lots of little random improvements over the first game. For example:

- You get a better variety of guns earlier on. Plus, the game does a better job of actually letting you use some of the really good, cool, fun weapons

- The Pistole is basically a handheld shotgun. Awesome!

- Tenzin: what a beast. Enough said

The real winner here is the game's presentation. Uncharted 2 is probably the most gorgeous game I've ever seen -- Drake's hair is mind-blowingly real-looking. I never really notice stuff like this, but holy crap it's cool. The environments are extremely well-created and I haven't seen even a hint of a graphical problem so far.

A brief note regarding the game's puzzles: I really enjoyed the ones in the first Uncharted and I was hoping to see a step up with Among Thieves. Unfortunately, at least so far, they're all the same "make the statue match up with the picture in the notebook" kinda thing. Pretty disappointing and pretty lame.

And that's pretty much it so far. It's a fun game and the weapon variety makes the incessant shootouts more enjoyable. There's also a greater variety in terms of environments; normally I'd say this is a good thing, but for me the island of the last game, with it's jungles and castles and ruins, was pretty much unbeatable.

One last thing: I don't want to spoil anything but for people who've played it: you know when Drake goes with Tenzin up into the mountains to find the remains of the expedition? And they find that....um, purple thing? Y'know? Okay caps lock time really quick: HOLY ************* ****. THAT **** MAKES ME SO ******* ANGRY. If Naughty Dog can't come up with stuff better than this garbagethey need to stop making games.

Sorry about that.

Homecoming is tonight, but I'm not going. I wasn't going anyway but I guess being sick makes me feel better about not going. I'll probably just play some more Uncharted tonight.

At least, I'm going to try and stop the reviews. That may seem a little weird, as it's pretty much the only productive thing I bring to this website, but I feel like they're ultimately a bad thing. I'm tired of deciding which game to play based off which games I've reviewed or not. I play games very seldom and when I do play them I want to make sure I'm having fun.

This problem was even worse back at NSider, but it still happens (though not so much any more). For example: I got very caught up in the Super Mario Galaxy hype, played it for a few hours, gave it the obligatory perfect ten and a boring review, and haven't touched it since. Lame. I know it's a great game and I want to really, really play it.

So lately I've gone out of my way to go back and play older games that I really love. I've started a new save file in Minish Cap -- I'm not sure if that's going to pan out or not. I may just end up buying A Link to the Past, since I really did play the hell out of Minish Cap first time through. I'm home from school again though feeling better, so I played Battlefield 1943 for a bit this morning (more on that momentarily). I want to go back and beat Okami and give Super Mario Galaxy the love it deserves. Also, having pretty much given up on Ninja Gaiden Sigma (it has some redeeming qualities, but ultimately I hate it. More in my review. Oh, wait...), I want to get back to Shadow of the Colossus. Such beautiful, haunting atmosphere in that game and it's a real treat to see what the game has in store for you next. I'd argue that exploring the world might be more fun than fighting the actual colossi.

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On the subject of Battlefield 1943: I know this game got a lot of attention when it first came out and I'm sure plenty of you here picked it up. I really enjoyed it, wrote a positive review, but then sort of stopped playing after around maybe ten hours when I started getting a little bored. Lately I came back to it and was shocked at how much fun I was having.

I had pretty much mastered one of the three in-game classes in those ten hours, so I set about working on the other two. It's starting to get on my nerves a little bit, after another five hours, but I can't emphasize this enough: in terms of value-for-money, Battlefield 1943 is one heck of a package.

Yuck. What a miserable start to my senior year.

First, two weeks in, I come down with the flu and am out for a week. Then, two weeks later, I come down with another virus and am out for two days (this is up to yesterday now). Then, last night, I had this sudden, terrible pain in my stomach. I was pretty sure it was appendicitis. I went to the hospital at about 1:30 and got back around 9 in the morning. I slept for about forty five minutes.

It wasn't appendicitis, by the way. The pain subsided after about an hour and I spent the rest of the wee hours of the morning PO'd at myself for overreacting and getting to spend the night in the hospital over absolutely nothing. And it's cold in those rooms.

The lack of sleep isn't doing any recovery miracles for my already-existing bug, so I think I can count on another full week missed. Great. I'm working with maybe a 2/3rds attendance record more than halfway into the first quarter.

I guess at least the good news is I'm at home, it's miserable and rainy outside and nice and warm inside, I'm going to sleep till sometime late this afternoon, and before that I'm going to eat some donuts. I haven't had any food in like maybe 18 hours and have been eating less than usual since Monday. I'm hungry.

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On the gaming front, I'm holding off a bit on Uncharted 2. I still think the game looks great and I'm still going to get it, but here's my slight problem: I loved the first game, but I only paid thirty bucks for it. That's not bad for an eight or nine hour game with substantial replay value (I beat the game twice, which is amazing considering I seldom beat any game just once) and a ridiculous amount of polish. But sixty bucks for a slightly longer game (i.e. Uncharted 2) I'm not quite sold on. Sure, there's the multiplayer, but I'm not sure how much I'm really going to enjoy that -- I've heard sort of mixed things about it.

But I guess this is all really just a charade, because of course I know I'll love the game and will probably play it through at least twice and as long as there aren't any motherfreaking zombies it'll probably be better than the original. I guess I'm really just giving myself an excuse to play some titles I really like but haven't given the attention they deserve, like Super Mario Galaxy and Okami. Oh, and Battlefield 1943. I still play that. It's amazing fun.

And also, I'm in no shape to drive to Best Buy in the rain and actually get the game. Maybe if I'm feeling up to it tomorrow I'll get some time with Uncharted 2 after all.

Because I haven't done any plugging lately, and I've too sick/busy to do any reviewing lately. So, very arbitrarily ordered, here are the five reviews I've done that I think are my best. Also, for the record, I self-judge reviews largely off style/effectiveness (i.e. at capturing that ever elusive "essence" of a game), humor (kinda sorta, a little bit, sometimes), and (more general now) how much I enjoy reading it six months after I wrote it. So:

5.)Okami. I think this was probably the first good review I wrote. I like it because my absolute love and enthusiasm for this game really comes through in the review.

4.) Hotel Dusk: Room 215. I like this review mostly because it's pretty pretentious in what I like to think is a humble, humorous way, if that makes sense. The idea of a rambling analyzation of a video game's plot to maintain a facade I find entertaining.

3.) Battlefield 1943. I think theoretically, my favorite reviews are the ones in which I make some sort of real conclusion regarding the game, aside from "this game is great" or "this game sucks" or something in between. I think I did a good job of that here.

2.) Golden Sun. I like this review because in it I made a point that I hadn't heard made elsewhere. Feeling original and creative works wonders for my ego.

1.) Elite Beat Agents. I don't even really know what to say for this one. I even come out and say that it's useless as a review, but I guess what I find attractive about it is a) that I really love the game I'm writing about and b) I guess I appreciate the attempt in trying to figure out what makes EBA such an excellent title.

Shout-outs to reviews of Assassin's Creed and Metal Gear Solid 3.

I know, that was a pretty useless, terrible blog post. My apologies.

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I've been really sick for the past three days now. Yes, again. Two weeks after having the flu and missing a week of school I've come down with a nasty virus and have thus far missed another two days. This is not a good start to my senior year.

Once I get a little better I plan on making the trip to Best Buy and purchasing Uncharted 2. I don't know how much time I'll have to play it but I'm pretty excited about it.

True fact. It's a collection of essays. I hope to have it done by the end of this school year (i.e. spring 2010). After that I'll see if publishing is something feasible -- I'll have the entire summer to pursue something without having to worry about what looks good ona college app.

In other news, life sucks. I've got several hours of nonstop work a night. Days when I climb (Monday and Wednesday) are even worse, because I get home at 5:30 instead of 3:30 or 4.

I'm also taking the SAT on Saturday, which I'm looking forward to just because I want to get it over with. I've been prepped for a few hours and I expect to do pretty well. Other than that, I'm just looking at a ton of school work (I've got to read a three hundred fifty page novel by next Tuesday, and I haven't started yet) and college apps. At least I've got Monday off to maybe unwind and get some sleep.

I had a recent crisis of conscience regarding college applications but I've got it all straightened out, I think.

And still no time for games. Maybe some day...

Honestly, my schedule sucks. SUCKS. Well I mean the actual classes and all are fine but I am absolutely swamped. I've got a full schedule with a few free periods a week. I'm writing two or three papers a week. There's a constant barrage of tests and quizzes. Extracurriculars are gearing up finally so that's going to be taking up even more of my time.

And I'm not even playing a real sport. My only afternoons are only taken up three days a week.

Plus there's the whole college process, which is making things even worse. I'm having to deal with constant college meetings, college visits, filling out the Common App, writing essays, getting recommendations. It's driving me up the wall.

I guess it's not really necessary to say, then, that I have no time to play games during the week. I did try out Ninja Gaiden Sigma for a few hours on Saturday and thought I'd post some thoughts:

Basically, I hate it. It's way too hard. I mean, I knew it would be a really difficult game but I thought I could deal with it. I was fine with Ninja Gaiden DS. But the boss fights just pushed me over the edge here, and I dropped to Ninja Dog difficulty. Doing so causes the game to make you feel like crap, which isn't cool.

But aside from the really absurd difficulty it's a cool game. Lots of weapons and moves and blood and heads flying all over the place. Although when you're playing on an easy difficulty setting like I am, you kind of realize that difficulty is really the only thing this game has going for it. The combat was awesome on normal because it was tough, and you really had to bring your A game. On Easy, it doesn't really matter, because enemies go down so quick anyway.

But it's not as if there's anyone to blame but myself. I kinda expected this to happen but just hoped that it wouldn't.

I restarted Shadow of the Colossus yesterday after school and beat 9 colossi in one sitting. Crazy, I know.

Of course, I'd already beaten the first five on a previous crack at the game so I blew through the first five in maybe in hour and a half. I still think the game is hugely overrated, but it's definitely growing on me. The satisfaction of figuring out how to take one of these guys down is pretty unparalleled. But of course if you've read anything about Shadow of the Colossus you already knew that.

I might try and beat it today, but that's probably unlikely. I've got not-too-much schoolwork this weekend but I'm doing some SAT prep tomorrow for the test next weekend. And I should probably take advantage of the relatively light workload this weekend to make some more progress on college applications.

Muse's new album, The Resistance, is on right now. It's solid.

Edit: Scratch that. Ninja Gaiden Sigma just came in the mail. If I get any time to use the PS3 today it'll be trying out Sigma, so I guess SotC is on hold for a little bit. Not a huge deal, though. I'll get back to it, and since there's so little in-game context I'll be fine just picking up where I left off.