Coming Soon: When I Don't Feel Like Hell

While it would have been super awesome if I were back 100% from my little sleep schedule debacle, I am not.  It is rather unfortunate since these last couple of days, I have felt nothing but sleepy, unmotivated and grouchy, which doesn't lend itself very well to productivity.  This is a shame, of course, as I have been lacking in that lately because of other issues...also this issue, so a lot of issues and it is bugging me.  Because clearly, I don't want to neglect this, it's just hard to think of something to write about, much less find the will and drive to do so, when you wake up at 2:30 AM, disoriented and wondering what the hell happened to the 'hour long nap' you laid down for at 7 PM.

Even though I couldn't think of something to talk about tonight in a sense (actually, I had an idea, but wasn't really feeling it tonight), I figured something out in that I can kind of give you all a little insight into what I want to get posted up in a relatively soon-ish manner which means it could be between now and...er....the end of April.  We'll go with that to stay conservative because I have no idea what's going to happen between now and then, clearly.  Thankfully, unless there's something I forgot about, there's not a new game in sight that I'm picking up until April 30th when Soul Sacrifice drops, so I can play a little catch-up on my backlog.  Which generally means fun times here.  Since if I am focused on games that I've been simmering on for a while, I can generally form them into coherent words moreso than new games.

As I've stated, I have been playing Deus Ex:  Human Revolution lately and while I'm not quite sure -what- I'm going to write of it, I'm going to write -something- about it, even if it's just a few more collection of "Adam Jensen:  Jerk with Super-Powers" stories, since that post was rather fun and I -did- manage to keep it fairly spoiler-free.  I don't want to say here that I -won't- Review it, because I just might, but every time I've considered doing so thus far, I just...haven't been into it.  I dunno, perhaps it is due to the fact that I have two other games that I want to do things with here (that came out wrong) and I want to get them out of the way first.  Or maybe it's just because I feel like I want to play the game on Normal or Easy before actually trying to make an argument of its values.  We'll see how it unfolds.

No matter what I decide, I -am- going to be talking about the game, as I said, because there are things to be said.  Things that have likely been said millions of times before already since I am a bit late to the party, but things that are still ringing out now after the whole test of time and such has passed.  I..guess.  In any case, a playthrough on Normal or Easy will likely allow me to have fun with the game rather than the current 'almost not-fun' I am in a constant state of while playing it on Hard or "Give Me Deus Ex" difficulty.  Prepare to hear me repeat myself again as I whine and grumble about the merits of making Hard Mode Hard and not Bullshit.  That is a little spoiler alert.

One of the games that I have certainly played quite a bit, yet talked almost zero about is the Tomb Raider reboot that I bought purely on a whim.  I intentionally saved my talking about the game for a review that I haven't yet written because of reasons that -should- be obvious by now.  What with the being in an up-and-down mood and sleep-issues thing going on.  Regardless of whether or not I have been able to do so before now, the intention -is- still to write a review of the game because I think I delved enough into it that I think I can speak on its positives and negatives easily enough.  When I play it a little more to...you know, remind myself of them.

Not because I just want to play the whole damn thing over again.  C...certainly not.

Er, I'm getting rather dangerously close to letting you fine folks know what I thought of the game.  And it would be a sad thing indeed if I let it slip that I think it is a wonderful game and certainly worth a purchase before I actually say that in a review.  Even if the multiplayer is a steaming pile of butts.  And steamed butts are, in fact, the worst butts known to man.  Oh, whoops.  Well, anyways, that's certainly on the agenda for some time in the near-ish future.

While I have been a little bit more vocal about REVENGEANCE, it too was a game that I was looking forward to attempting to review which I simply haven't gotten around to doing.  Of course, I'm...not quite sure on this one.  I might just have to go the Sleeping Dogs route with this and just dedicate a couple of posts to just gushing about it because the damn game is that fun.  Yet, I -do- have my gripes with it and they are well-reasoned ones, so perhaps I will manage to be unbiased enough to present something that I am comfortable with labeling as an actual review.

I will say now, however, that I hope they release they Gray Fox/Fox Blade DLC as a paid option for folks who didn't pre-order the game.  This is because, quite simply, the Fox Blade is Over-powered as shit and also provides me the experience I specifically grumbled about way back when I wasn't sure about this game.  With an upgrade to its special effect, the Fox Blade will slice and dice something fierce.  As in, you cut, things fall apart, no muss, no fuss to it.  This is, of course, game-breakingly powerful since it only -doesn't- work on bosses, but it is also pretty damn fun to mess around with.  As I told a friend:  "Throw on the Gray Fox Outfit, equip the Fox Blade, run around cutting people and yell "Hurt me more!" and you have the Frank Jaeger experience."  It is a pretty fun experience, all told.

As for what is essentially the elephant in the room at this point, I have absolutely no idea just what I'm going to do about God of War:  Ascension.  There are things I can say about the game, things I -want- to say about it, big things, but I usually reserve those big things for at -least- until after I have beaten it.  At that point, I usually know whether or not I'm even going to attempt to try and review it, if not before it.  However, that's sort of the rub:  I -can't- say those things because I -can't- beat God of War:  Ascension.  Or rather, I can, in theory, but I'm not willing to expend the effort in the attempt until I know that the game works.

I hit a rather nasty glitch in which I got to the literal end of a chapter or what have you and, for whatever reason, the doors that are supposed to open will not open.  No matter what I do.  Logically, I know that the thing I -should- attempt to do is replay the chapter to get to that point and it will likely work properly, but the thing is...well....Ascension just is not fun enough to make that a viable option.  Yes, I'm playing on Hard Mode, yes, it's another game that doesn't really get that right, and yes, it's because of those elements that I'm just not happy with the game at all.  It doesn't help that there are other problematic factors mixed in, but those are for another night.  I have the game on my "To Play" stack where it will remain until I have heard that a patch is out that fixes a bunch of the issues people are having with it.  And likely for a time thereafter.  Because I'm really not expecting them to fix re-balance the gameplay with that same patch or any other patch for that matter.

So there you have it.  I -do- have things brewing and these are certainly not all of them.  It's simply a matter of being able to sit down with a clear enough head to translate those things in my brain into words on here.  It is not always an easy task, as I'm sure you're aware, but it's something that I enjoy trying to do, at the very least.  With any luck, I'll get normalized on my sleep at least, and figure out something to do for the burgeoning allergies that will likely follow my normalization.  Since nothing can be easy or let up and just let me be because why would it.  I'm not bitter or anything, of course, why would you ask that.  You're silly.  That's silly.

The Next God of War is "God of War: Ascension"

So yesterday, in the wee hours of the Eastern Time Zone morning, God of War:  Ascension was leaked with a mock-up box art and a teaser trailer.  And quite shortly after, it was officially announced by Sony who I'm sure didn't plan on announcing the game at 1 AM PST.  That alone seems pretty much enough to state, coupled with the above trailer but, as we know, I try not to just plop down a trailer and walk off (Not that there's anything wrong with that) because I like to pretend you guys enjoy my breakdowns of them.  And I kind of like to do them since forcing myself to pick away at a trailer lets me pick out pieces I might not see if I just watched it a couple times and was done with it.  It also just makes me feel like I -did- something instead of just found a trailer for a post.  This is a writing blog, after all, so I like to be writing in it.

Anyways, before I really get into the trailer, there are a few interesting little tidbits to share before we get into the meat of it all.  The first, and likely most important bit is that Todd Papy, former Design Director for God of War 3, has jumped up into the big leagues, apparently, as he seems to be the Director of God of War:  Ascension.  I mean, he said it and everything.  This does mean, of course, that God of War is still in the hands of Sony Santa Monica, despite the trailer lacking said branding.  If you don't want to check the blog post linked above, the direct quote is, "For those of you who haven’t had a chance to check out what the team at Sony Santa Monica Studios has been working on", which is pretty indicative there.  And more news about the game is incoming, as soon as April 30th where a live-stream event will take place, showing off the game and answering select questions from Twitter that are submitted between now and....tomorrow.

Now, the fun bit.  For the trailer itself, it's quite lovely to look at, using the same sort of art style that 3 used a lot of at least (I don't remember currently if the other games had it as prominently) which was quite neat.  Of course, we don't really get a lot from the visuals and thus must then pay attention to what the trailer is saying to get the idea of the next game.  And the idea, in keeping with the name "Ascension" seems to revolve around the time before Kratos became a servant of Ares to begin with, and was but a regular Spartan Soldier (General?) fighting against the armies of Mortals.  Or, at least, part of the game will likely be that, as the Ares part might happen towards the middle rather than towards the end.  Maybe.  This is all kind of conjecture at this point, but really, it seems to hammer in the point of "Before Ares", which means a Human Kratos without the Blades of Chaos.

This presents a sort of schism in the schools of thought going into the game.  Some people think that, since in this, Kratos would be essentially a 'normal' human (overlooking that even as a Human, he was pretty much King Badass) which might lead to a different kind of gameplay overarching the game.  Really shaking up the formula instead of having it be another foray into the semi-cinematic Action scene.  Others think that it will retain the God of War spirit, but embody that with a different weapon to start, perhaps a normal Xiphos blade, or the classic Spear/Shield combo that we've come to envision as standard fare for Spartans.  Myself, I'm firmly in the latter camp, but I can understand why there is the hope embodied in the first camp, since some people, crazy people, can't allow themselves to get excited for the type of combat that has been prevalent in the God of War series from its inception.  Or, they say they don't want it, but when it comes down to it, they buy it anyway because it's friggin' God of War.

Now, as this has all been purely conjecture more or less, it leaves one wondering just how much of a prequel the game will -actually- be.  Will it contain itself into a single tale that sits before Chains of Olympus?  Or will it have a connection with God of War 3 in a sense that it will eventually place down a hook for the 'eventual' God of War IV that has made the internet rounds so extensively?  With whispers of a Spring 2013 release, as well as the idea that some First Party devs have already gotten their hands on theoretical PS4 dev tools, it could make a lot of sense to throw Ascension down as a piece to keep the God of War brand in peoples minds so that, perhaps in next year's E3, they show off a God of War IV made for the PS4.  With just so many fours, it looks so tantalizing.  Before I get too conspiracy theorist, however, I believe I should stop, since it is a bit off-topic anyways.

The big bullet points here to encapsulate one last time, I suppose, would be:  God of War: Ascension is the next God of War game.  It will be for the PS3, made by Sony Santa Monica with Todd Papy at the director's helm.  Tomorrow at some point, we'll likely have a little more info thanks to the Live Stream event, but for now, we don't have a whole lot to go on.  It -seems- to be a prequel from the teaser trailer, but anything beyond that, even trying to state something as a supposition or 'fact', is purely conjecture.  Personally, I just can't wait to play another God of War game as, unlike the majority of people who see fit to comment on Gaming News Sites, I still have deep deep wells of excitement that I tap in for the franchise exclusively.  So long as the game is as brutal as the last, if not more, I'll be happy!