Student pricing is very modest ($20 a month versus $50 a month for non-students). I literally have so many things I can do now that I've been wanting to experiment with since I first had the pleasure of using Adobe software. I've been lusting after it since Photoshop CS3 and now for only twenty dollars a month I have the whole damn suite. Set aside enough money to pay for the whole year just to be sure too. My creative side is going wild.

A lot of people have complained about the subscription model but honestly it's the only reason I can afford all this software in the first place, so kudos to Adobe for that. 

A lot actually. More than I thought I would. More than Codemasters removing the in-car view would have led me to believe.

Isn't it nice being pleasantly surprised by games? I wish this happened more often...

Like for real guys, why were you all holding out on me on this one?!!1

(to be fair to all of you, I blame my offline friends 95X more than you guys but still...)

For real though, this show is way too damn good. It's like crack. Even more addicting to watch than Breaking Bad, and I didn't think that was possible. Can't believe I've been missing out for so long!

... and yah, that's pretty much all I've got to say about that!

Also, followers of my blog give these guys your money. 'cause they'll give you Arma 3 in return. You're gonna want Arma 3. Trust me. =]

How did this fly under my radar? Either way, thanks to the lovely PC/Mac Games page of this forum, I am now aware that the Arma 3 Alpha drops tonight at midnight! Fate has smiled upon me in that this would occur during a break from classes, which means I'll actually have plenty of time to play and dissect the Alpha, which I fully plan to given the litany of changes that the devs have implemented since Arma 2.

I fully expect the game to be buggy as all hell, but to be honest, Arma 2 was upon release as well and now Bohemia is actually CALLING it an Alpha, which for all intents and purposes the previous version was after it dropped as well. The main thing I'm worried about is the optimization. Arma 2 never really ran well on my PC, even with the settings lowered. Nowadays, I'm sporting the same GPU (GTX480) but a vastly improved CPU (i7 3770K) that is much better tailored to the series' reputation as being CPU-heavy (though how the third iteration will play out remains to be seen).

Either way, the Arma series is one of my favorites, and Arma 3 will probably receive the majority of my playtime in 2013, most of which will probably be spent in the editor making minimissions to play for myself. If I'm so inclined I'll post a few impressions after I play the Alpha a bit tonight! Maybe some screens too - Bohemia has always has a penchant for the graphical side of things.

... amazing game. Well, maybe not such an amazing game. It's a step up from Crysis 2 so far, but it's still kind of average as far as actually playing it goes. I like the inclusion of Psycho, he's almost a likeable character and his presence perks up the otherwise mundane/predictable cast. The plot is no better than Crysis 2's of yet.

About that amazing though... because parts of this game are indeed amazing. I'm talking about the graphics obviously. Playing at mostly very high settings at 1080p on my computer, it looks absolutely incredible. Crytek has outdone themselves. I honestly think if you have the PC to run this, it's worth it purely as an means of experiencing the incredible digital world the devs have created. It's really something that needs to be seen. Crytek deserves any and all commendations for their work in graphics with this game.

Preface by saying that it's not my kind of movie at all, but man did I enjoy it. The film holds nothing back, and it tells an amazing story that still grips you even though everyone already knows the ending. I honestly didn't think I was going to like it, but man was that one hell of a flick. Two thumbs up! 2012 was a great year for movies, and Zero Dark Thirty closed it on the perfect note for me.

'cause it was on sale on Steam and such. I love this series, I really do. I've finished each game except Revelations, which was a little to much of the same old same old for me to complete. I liked Constantinople though, great setting.

I'm very excited to play it. I've heard a lot of mixed things about this game, but knowing my feelings for the series, I'm inclined to say I'm going to like it. I bought the Deluxe Edition too, mostly for the DLCs, which seem intriguing. I've got about a week left before next semester starts, so hopefully I'll be able to get some good play sessions in, between chilling and getting ready to go back to school.

. . . . . . . .

I noted in a previous blog that I bought Far Cry 3. I wanna go on record and just say that I adore that game and that it's probably my GOTY for 2012. If anything, only Dark Souls for PC comes close. Far Cry 3 looks and plays amazing, isn't as stupidly written as Far Cry 2 (though they're both fairly inane in different ways, 3 at least has passable dialogue. 2's rushed deliveries were inexcusable), and just generally fulfills the potential I knew the series always had. I'm glad to see fellow games loving this title too. It's a fantastic experience, one that not many games come close to mimicing. The world just feels incredibly alive and dynamic. Props to Ubi Montreal for stepping their game up. That studio has brought me so much enjoyment through all of their game series throughout the years.

. . . . . . . .

Anywho, what do you guys think of the two 3s? Love em? Hate em? Ambivalent? What platforms do you play them on?

I adore Tarantino. His films are sort've on a different level than most for me. Pulp Fiction stands as one of my favorites movies of all time, and Tarantino's best...

... until last night. I need to see both again to confirm, but I very rarely get as much enjoyment from seeing as flick as Django provided me. Everything was perfect. I won't spoil anything, but it had me wincing and laughing my ass off, sometimes simultaneously. It was a riotous good time, and an all around great movie. I highly recommend seeing it. Even though it was practically three hours long I was enthralled throughout. Tarantino's cameo was legendary too, one of the best he's done.

All in all, great film, totally met my expectations and then some. Go see it!

Wooooo! Now this fact, in addition to heralding the beginning of the consumption of preposterous amounts of alcohol, also means I can FINALLY play Far Cry 3, my vastly most anticipated game of the year!

Oh yeah, I don't think I did half bad this year either! Life is all around good right now.

Needed a game to play 'cause I'm home for Thanksgiving break and my gaming PC is back at my apartment at the university. I figured I wouldn't want to waste money on anything I could already play on my PC, so that left me with Halo 4 and Forza Horizon, neither of which I was particularly keen on.

Still, after playing a few rounds of SWAT, I'm digging Halo 4. It's a lot of fun, it controls really nicely, and (surprise, surprise considering I play all my FPS games on PC) I'm actually kicking some serious ass playing it. This might be the first Halo I ever rock a positive KDR with. I'll probably never play the campaign or those Spartan Ops, but as I see it, for this week and to play with my roommates I made a good investment.

Add me on XBL if you wanna play - my Live name is TranquilityBlue.

Really have nothing better to do right now, so I figured I'd write a blog for everyone's collective reading pleasure. Haven't done a proper one of these in far too long, so by all means if you have any feedback hit me up. Anyways...

Let's talk games. Lately I've been playing a lot of Dark Souls and Borderlands 2. Or rather, a lot of Dark Souls. Borderlands 2 is awesome, but to be quite honest I only have enough gaming time to devote to one versus the other, and Dark Souls takes the cake. Totally just beat the Iron Golem (dude was NOT as tough as I thought he was gonna be when I rolled into his little area), and am venturing into Anor Londo, the most visually spectacular area of the game so far in my opinion. There's so much you can say about Dark Souls. My roommate, a fellow gamer, literally just sits and watches me play sometimes. He doesn't get it though - while the game appeals to him immensely, he doesn't understand why I deal with it, why I repeat section after section again and again. Maybe I don't either. There's something about it as a collective whole that is extraordinarily intoxicating. The art, the organic level design, the combat, it's all masterfully crafted. The game rarely grabs you and makes you look at a cutscene, or an event - instead, the emphasis is on the player finding his/her way about. Story is handled in a similar manner. It's an exceptionally refreshing take on the genre, and it deserves every accolade it's received and then some. Kudos to the PC modding community for helping From Software smooth out some of the kinks in the release too.

Love this game.

I'm curious to see how others feel about this game too. As much as I love it, I can definitely see how it would be off putting to other gamers. In any case, best game I've played this year, and overall a pleasant surprise for me. I honestly didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I am.

Soooo, yeah. That's really the only game I've been seriously playing. I find that college really cuts my gaming life down a notch or two. I spent a good deal of money building a new, smaller PC this summer that I really dont use all that much (I'm over it at this point). I've been having a good semester overall, but it's grown a tad drab of late. I was just smacked into the infamous friendzone by a girl who'd basically been playing me for weeks, which is miserable to deal with to be honest, but eh... I'm getting over it. I'm also running low on money, which is sh!t because I have to choose between getting f!cked up and eating lol, which is a generally wretched position to be in. Still, things are looking up. This past weekend was awful, but I'm going home this weekend which ought to give me plenty of time to clear my head up a bit.

Regardless of my personal issues, I hope you're all quite well. Let me know via the comments what you thought about Dark Souls if you've played it! I'm really curious.

... if I write some blogs, will you read 'em? I'd like to stick around this site, and blogging seems like a good way to drop in every now and then but still participate in the community.

Thoughts?

What's good?

... screw them.

Chemistry is up first. Wish me good luck!

Ok, so I got a fifty dollar Amazon gift card, and seeing as Amazon's selection of most everything I would want is paltry, I've come to terms with the fact that I'll likely spend this on a videogame, which I figured ought to be Skyward Sword. My question is, will it be worth it? I realized there's sort've a mixed reaction going on to the game, with the main issue being the controls? The only review I read was Gamespot's and he didn't seem terribly enthusiastic.

My main question would be, how does it stack up to past Zeldas? I'm one of those people that thinks A Link to the Past was the pinnacle of the series. My favorite 3D Zelda was definitely Wind Waker. How does Skyward Sword compare to those two? How "traditional" of a Zelda game is it?

Help me out here guys!

I don't have it yet! But I will! I'm drivin' to Best Buy the second I finish typing this! Yay!

No seriously though, I can't wait. I sunk sixty-four hours into my first playthrough of Fallout: New Vegas. Sixty-freakin'-four. I get sucked into these games so easily. It's funny, because IRL I am very much the outdoorsy, loves to walk around the woods for hours type, which you guys probably could have guessed from my love for Avatar; these games really capture that part of my imagination. So what if New Vegas had bad combat, awful animations, and like six voice actors? You can go climb over that mountain in the distance and find quests and things that you would never have found otherwise. I remember finding Jacobstown for the first time, or stumbling into the Great Khans camp totally unaware of its existance. Moments like these supersede the elements that aren't necessarily up to par, like the things I mentioned above.

Skyrim, however, looks to be different. I don't have much time to read reviews anymore; all I know is that the general consensus is that this is a damn good game that actually improves upon "everything else," ie the aspects of these games that hold them back from being unanimously received masterpieces. Looking at screens on the PC board, it seems like you can actually create good-looking characters now, which is a big plus - in New Vegas and Fallout 3 I just resorted to giving my dudes lovable moustaches or other goofy features to make them endearing to me, as I could never quite create a character that didn't look like a complete dunce. On that note, I hope the third-person camera is improved. It would be nice to actually be able to play the game without being completely put-off by the fact that it looks like your character is just sliding along perpetual plains of ice. Immersion is one thing these games do incredibly well, and nothing breaks it down faster than that, which is a shame, as having the ability to choose between first and third person is a great feature, in theory. I'm also expecting a litany of quality side-quests. More often than not, the main-narrative is a forgettable experience, whereas the sidequests are the true meat of the game (one of the reasons I disliked Fallout 3 was the focus on the main narrative, actually. I'd prefer to explore on my own). New Vegas set a new standard in this area as far as I'm concerned and I expect Bethesda to exceed Obsidian here, especially as they published such a perfect example of how to do this correctly.

I also cannot wait to delve into the mods that the community has been making. I never buy Bethesda games on launch; rather, I wait two weeks to a month for the loyal modders to start pumping out great content. I ran 16-18 mods at any given time with New Vegas, and it's amazing what they can do for the game. I've already started browsing the Nexus over the past few days in anticipation.

So, yeaaaah, that's what I expect from Skyrim. Tons of sidequests, and an improved "everything else". If you have it, did the game meet your expectations? Do you think it will meet mine? Any feedback is welcome, though it won't change whether or not I buy the game, as I'm about to leave and do just that!

Edit: Oh, and if you guys could give me an assessment as to the length of the game, that would be great. I need to beat it over break preferably, as I won't have much time to play games when I return to college.

'sup guys? I haven't blogged since the summer! I'm planning on being on here more in lieu of the postive changes to the site, so expect some new stuff soon eventually. I've been busy with college, which doesn't afford me much interent time between schoolwork and partyin', but eh... I'm gonna' try regardless!

If you're wondering what I've been playing, I really haven't too much recently. A little BF3 and MW3, both of which run surprisingly well on my MacBook Pro. I want to get Skyrim, but I'd have to decide between that and my social life, so I doubt that will happen until summer. Maybe Christmas if I have the money. As mentioned, my cIasses severly restrict my available time, and as my college life progresses it's only going to get worse. I'm cool with it though. I'm enjoying the 3s; I actually like MW3 a little more - it's a good CoD game, and its far easier to jump in and out of. BF3 is also enjoyable, but it needs patched before I intend to play much more.

Anyways, so ... yeah. I'll try and be around more. At least for break anyways.

... simple as it sounds. I'll be on vaca the next few days so don't expect to see me on here too much, as I shall be loungin' on the beach for the vast majority of the time.

Expect my glorious return come Sunday.