Real Moments of Badassery

"Badass" is a term that's bandied about often and oftentimes without too much thought, being used as a simple descriptor for something otherwise positive or good regardless, being merely exaggerated a bit.  Of course, if you really look at things, there are still quite a lot of moments of legitimate, real 'badass' moments, and these are the things I would like to point out in these types of articles, appropriately named "Real Moments in Badassery".  (Which is totally a word now.)  I will preface this with a simple warning, which will likely be repeated in every entry:  Being that these moments tend to deal with story content in video games, there are spoilers in these posts.  There's no real way about it and, since it's fairly obvious as that fact, I won't be inserting a break.  You've been warned.  (Today's games, however, are far from new, thus you might know what's with them already.)

If I could put every moment of every Legacy of Kain game ever here, I would (besides the block puzzles in Soul Reaver 1), because really, the entire series is just littered with moments of badassery.  The majority of which are attributed to the wonderful voice acting and theatrics of the whole series which were miles ahead of their time when the games came out, not to mention the current day.  Kain and Raziel were just fantastic characters all around because of the bond they share, the moments they have with one another, and just how neither seems to tread on the good or bad side of the road, despite their narratives indicating that they might.  The games, the stories, are just made up of so much grey area that it -feels- like it was really thought out, and it's not contrived, not forced, just completely well-written in a way that you just don't see then or now.

This particular scene is pretty great because it explains the majority of the first game, Blood Omen, or at least, the most important bits, which set the tone and the setting of the entire series as a whole.  It also lets Kain be a super-badass, explaining things, albeit cryptically, that are confusing at first but totally pay off in the end of the series in a way that really, truly is amazing.  It really gives off the vibe that the story had, and I know this is a strange idea, but it feels like the story had been constructed before the games were a possibility, rather than the success of the first necessitating more and more.  The latter case, of course, meaning that the writers then have to literally make things up that sort of fit but were not intended to be as such in the first place.  Now, I don't know which case is true in this franchise, but it feels like the better of them at least.

Even without all the other moments making this one that awesome by default, the lines in here are simply fantastic.  "Let's drop the moral posturing, shall we?  We both know there is no altruism in this pursuit.  Your reckless indignation led you here; I counted on it!  ....There's no shame in it, Raziel.  Revenge is motivation enough.  At least it's honest!  Hate me, but do it honestly!"  And then the whole coin metaphor really, really signifies just how different the Legacy of Kain series goes, which is only exemplified with the final line.  "You said it yourself, Kain.  There are only two sides to your coin."  "Apparently so.  But suppose you throw a coin enough times....suppose one day...it lands on its edge."  It really drives home that even when there appears to be only two choices; the 'moral' one and the 'immoral' one, there is usually always a third option somewhere in between.

First off, skip everything from 0:43 to 2:01 because it's fluff.  The meat of the issue here is precisely this speech which is probably one of the most awesome intros for a rather 'eh' war game out there.  (Not my opinion as I've only played half of the first Killzone which I was largely 'eh' about.)  This is one of the many peaks of voice acting in the current generation, and I'm quite frankly amazed that it's for Killzone 2, but regardless of that, it's amazing.  And it's fairly in counter to the subtlety of the Legacy of Kain series as, where everything is rather grey there, there's only hints of it in the set of up Killzone 2 (which, I could be wrong about this, admittedly), but it compensates by making the 'evil' (Visari) so delightfully evil, that it works out spectacularly.  He -revels- in this, speaks it with absolute resolution, absolute belief, and it's glorious for how unashamedly brutal it is, by necessity.

I feel it would be doing it a disservice if I posted mere quotes of the speech without the entirety of it, so that's what I'll do, if just so that you get the full experience of it.

"My people.  Sons and daughters of Helghan.  This much I vow.  The history of these days will be written in blood.  By crushing the armies of our enemy, by seizing the weapons they thought to turn against us, we were fighting for our very existence!  But if there are those who deny us peace, refuse us our rightful place in the universe then we will unleash such terrible vengeance that generations yet unborn will cry out in anguish! [...]  The enemy may shatter our bodies, but they cannot break our spirit.  Even now, they advance on our home world to seize by force what they cannot claim by right.  They cannot imagine what awaits them.  We will Smite the invaders from our skies!    Though they sweep over our lands like the sands of winter, never again will we bow before them, never again endure their oppression.....never again endure their tyranny.  We will strike, without warning and without mercy, fighting as one hand, one heart, one soul.  We will shatter their dreams and haunt their nightmares, drenching our ancestors graves with their blood!  And as our last breath tears at their lungs....as we rise again from the ruins of our cities....They will know Helghan belongs to the Helghast."

There is not one single bit of that that is not fantastic and I can assure that the acting of Brian Cox just elevates it to that next level.  There's not really much else I can say about it that wouldn't be done better justice by just listening to it for yourself, even if you've heard it before.  It just gives me chills even now after listening to it for like, the fifth time in a row (the previous four to make sure I'd transcribed it correctly).  I'm not sure if it's worth getting in on the game just for that but, let's just say, it's a pretty damn convincing argument.

AssBro is Pretty Fun

After my conquest of Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 the other day, I decided to move on to Assassin's Creed:  Brotherhood (henceforth abbreviated as AssBro because it makes me giggle) which I got for Christmas and sort of wanted to play since I got it.  Kind of.  You see, I've had sort of mixed feelings for the Assassin's Creed franchise ever since getting to end-game of AC2 when I realized I just wasn't having fun with it thanks to the stupid tombs and the fact that I really just didn't like Ezio.  (And the ending did nothing to help that, by the by.)  Yet I'm assured that AssBro manages to refine things from AC2 to make it a genuinely good game, as well as the fact that the online mode is something that is both innovative and unique.

Now, my stance on online modes is....pretty well-documented I'd say.  So beyond a cursory interest (which is a compliment) I don't really care about AssBro's multiplayer whatsoever.  That just leaves the gameplay itself which....no, it's not as refined as it is more of the same.  At least, towards the start it is.  Which is...about all I have to judge on, really.  This is a bit spoilery, and I apologize, but I don't enjoy being Super Metroided, game, no matter how stealthy you manage to make it.  Granted, it's not a complete reversion to basic which is very, very much appreciated (as I'm having a lot of fun with Ezio's wrist-gun), but it's -enough- that it bugs me.  Though I guess I'm going to be getting better things anyway, so I -guess- I can forgive it, though I would like a bit of a good faith gesture beforehand at least.

As far as the new mechanics go, I'm....a bit torn, really.  As you might've guessed, I was not a fan of the tombs from AC2, so now that they're back, more or less, in the Shrines of Romulus for AssBro I am not impressed in the least.  They really want you to use Eagle Vision to make sure you get through it the right way in the stupid time limit they impose on the majority of them, but Eagle Vision is so so very not something that is convenient enough to just switch to on the fly and then out of for the rare instances where there's red arrows on the wall showing you where to go.  Strangely enough, going the wrong way usually results in a pocketful of florins which, while largely unnecessary, is still something of a prize for doing the wrong thing and wasting time.  Really, timed platforming/maze-traversing in any form is generally awful and they're certainly not busting up a generalization with that.  They are also sewer levels which adds a whole new level of "urgh" on top of that.

Conversely, the new Borgia Towers are something of a real delight since they really capture everything that was good about the original Assassin's Creed (And, technically, AC2) without any of the additional fluff.  You know there is a guy you have to kill in this fortress-type thing.  You kind of know where he is.  You have to kill him in a spectacular fashion and then fight off the inevitable wave of lackeys who can't believe that you just showed up and assassinated their boss out of fucking nowhere.  My one small complaint about the system is their ability to run the hell away until the next guard change, since the first time that happened to me it took all of a minute for him to disappear and I had absolutely nothing else to do since at that moment, I just wanted to renovate things and this tower was preventing that.  My big complaint about the system is really more of a reflection on the, er, 'refined, smooth freerunning/parkour/climbing' that the game has to offer. 

In all reality, it's not really that refined, nor smooth, when compared to the games out there that do essentially the same thing and do it much, much better.  inFamous and Uncharted spring to mind, though I'm sure there are other competitors for the crown that don't quite meet standards either.  Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, but merely a few notches above 'serviceable' and only really shines when you're doing a fast-paced chase across the rooftops and the myriad of obstacles between them - provided you don't fall during that.  When it's a bit slower and focused on merely climbing something like, say, a Borgia tower, it drags and shows its real weaknesses.  Ezio simply does not go where you want him to sometimes and for very little reason other than the finicky nature of the grab points and how some of them are barely visible - so much so that the first time you get one, you see that same kind where there actually isn't one.  So rather than going around to another side of the building (which you really shouldn't have to do anyway) you spend a few minutes trying to figure out how to get to that obvious goddamn handhold only to realize that it's not obvious because it is, in fact, not somewhere you can grab.

The other place the game really shines, however, is the combat system which you know is a very, very key point of any game for me apparently.  With the addition of Execution Chains, Ezio feels like more of a murder machine than ever despite being a little older and a little ill-equipped.  If I were to judge the system on just how easy it was to walk into a fight scenario and look like a complete badass, it would earn pretty top notch marks, really.  I can walk up to a group of four guards with no weapon equipped, take one of them out with a friggin chokeslam before combat is initiated, take the weapon of the first guy that attacks me and kill him with it and then his buddies with the execution chain, then just drop the weapon and imagine that there is a "Fuck all y'all" emote that Ezio does.  Because that's really the only thing that's missing that would be the icing on the cake.  It's not perfect, not yet, but it's certainly the most fun I have with the game and I suspect that'll only improve as I actually begin to play it.

I'm still not completely sold on the game, really, despite my praises.  There's just something in my head that's preventing me from enjoying the franchise and I suspect that it very well might be the disconnect I have with Ezio.  I'm not playing -as- Ezio, but rather I'm playing around inside his puppet, and I'm not sure I have anything resembling a connection because of that.  I already don't like him because of his attitude/decisions in AC2, so that's another barrier against him, but, hey, maybe he'll get better.  There's a whole two stories worth of Ezio left after all, since I've got this and will assuredly pick up Revelations at some later date simply because, while a bit uneasy about the AC games, I really just can't stop buying them.  And I have fun with them, despite my misgivings, so that's really all that matters.

Sengoku Basara or I Really Just Like Destroying Armies

On the night before I go pick up Dynasty Warriors:  Xtreme Legends 7 I find myself playing Sengoku Basara:  Samurai Heroes for my PS3 which is, for the unfamiliar, Capcom's take on the Sengoku Era ala Samurai Warriors.  (Not sure which came first as both series have been going on for a while, so I'll just state that they're similar and move on)  Now, Samurai/Dynasty Warriors games aren't well known for being "Historically Accurate", but they've got the broad strokes down at least, whereas Sengoku Basara gleefully goes way over the top to the point where Honda Tadakatsu, famous for surviving his part of the war without sustaining a single major injury and being one of the best Officers under Tokugawa Ieyasu (The man who would end up winning the war and unifying Japan), is depicted as a giant robot.

Basara spits in the face of common sense with its story, plot and characters, and it's awesome because while it takes very, very numerous liberties with the era, it still follows the era at least semi-faithfully.  The first person I went through the story with was actually Tokugawa Ieyasu (depicted as a spry, young-ish pugilist which is....I guess on par with his older, more realistic Samurai Warriors version since that version wields a Cannonspear) whose story roughly spans the time between the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and ends with the Battle of Sekigahara which was, basically, the battle to end all battles.  And while it's a very different game from the Warriors series, it's fun enough in its own right in that it does, roughly, what they do.

Sengoku Basara is a much heavier game; not plot-heavy or anything, just every action has more weight to it, which unfortunately leads to a little bit of a slower pace for me at least.  Eventually when I have awesome weapons and super accessories and such, I'm sure it'll be better but for the time being, I was wondering who got their action game in my beat-em-up since that was kind of the difference in speed.  I felt like I was playing Devil May Cry or Darksiders in terms of weight, of every hit having an impact, rather than cutting a swash through the air that felled five people at once, if that makes any sense.  Still, a lot of the fun lies in the fact that you're still beating up dudes in the multiples of 50-100 and a lot of the extra lies in the actual story itself, or at least the presentation.

You see, the games are based on a manga series very closely from what I can tell, so all that Over-the-topness comes directly from that and has actually been developed, rather than KOEI's approach at taking history, running their spin on it and generating dialogue as thus.  So the story is quite a different take from what you might've seen elsewhere (including history).  For any example, in the starting cinematic, it shows Tokugawa Ieyasu standing face-to-face (chest, really, Hideyoshi is really tall in this) during a battle then cuts to Ishida Mitsunari who senses danger and returns to Hideyoshi to find him dead with Tokugawa flying off on Honda Tadakatsu's back.  (Giant robot, remember?  What good giant robot doesn't have flight capabilities?)  So throughout the whole story, it seems more of a motive that Mitsunari wants to get revenge for Hideyoshi's death and chooses to raise an army to do that, whereas Ieyasu harbors Hideyoshi's dream for unification.

Every character has their own quirks and the like (a necessity from coming from a manga) and while some work, others don't and that's unfortunate, but I think at this point the ones that count matter more.  For every Hojo Ujimasa, there's an Otani Yoshitsugu and for every Kobayakawa Hideaki, there's a Date Masamune and it evens out quite well.  Whether or not I'll hold firm to that belief when I have to play the 'lesser' characters is something that remains to be seen, but regardless I'll be interested in seeing what goes on when I do play them.  It's a strange feeling, knowing the era, yet not knowing where they go with it, story-wise.  I know at times I should be getting history snobby, but all I can do is be interested in what they've decided to do or where they've decided to go with something.

Next up when I play will be Date Masamune, so I've gotta be ready to put my guns on.  I will be ready, though.  Oh how I will.

Platinum Get - Uncharted 3

Earlier today, I ended up picking up the final treasures I needed to get the trophy for getting all 100 (101 if you get the Strange Relic as well) treasures over the course of the campaign with a few chapter selections since, even following a guide, I still managed to derp-run past a few ones.  After that, it was just a matter of locating a Mag 5 and shooting enough people with it to get past the 30 toll on it.  (For those interested, chapter 8, stealth kill the first guy you encounter.)  And then finally to dip into Multiplayer for the first time, even though I activated the online pass the day after I bought the game.

I didn't know quite what to expect with Multiplayer as, on one hand I quite enjoyed Uncharted 2's offerings, even going so far as to actively participate in the Beta when it was around and then play a good portion of MP in the actual game well past the single required dip into each mode.  On the other hand, I generally dislike multiplayer shooting galleries because sometimes I am simply not good at them.  Sometimes I am, though!  I think it more depends on the game, really or maybe I'm just better at third person shooters than first, but regardless, my time spent with Uncharted 3's multiplayer was quite enjoyable.  My competitive mode match was fairly uneventful; Team Deathmatch, we lost, bleh.  I was Rank 1, of course, in a match with at least one 47, a 22, and a 55 (Though at least one of those was on my team) so I wasn't really surprised.  The highlight would be that I managed to score a melee kill on someone who I believe was Rank 27 by circling around behind them.

My Co-Op mode match, though, that is what I'm interested in talking about.  In a manner much like how I assume most people got their trophy or at least their start in Co-Op, I simply hopped into the Find Match setting which, quite counter to my Competitive attempt, plopped me right into a Co-Op Arena game with swiftness.  A game where I was Rank Three among two others who were Rank 45 and 42 respectively.  (I believe.)  Needless to say, I was a little nervous at the expectations here since my rank exposed my Multiplayer green-ness, though thankfully Co-Op revolves around more than just the visual representation of how long you've put into it.  Still, were that not enough, when it came time to select a difficulty, two votes were instantly cast for Crushing, near instantly ending all need for further input.  So, sufficiently challenged, I grit myself for the fight.

Apparently in Uncharted 3's Arena (In which you are simply supposed to survive a number of rounds of foes) every round also has a different sort of theme to it on top of that.  Our first round, as far as I could tell was simply "Survive and Thrive", as if any other gimmick was attached I simply missed it.  However, starting our second round, we had the ability to pick up treasures, much like in the mode specifically built around doing so, to take back to a chest for deposit to make some quick money while killing our foes.  I believe we captured two treasures before the end of it, which was fine enough for me.  The third round, however, is where everything went south.  I forget if it was called Siege or Turf War, but essentially, a piece of the map was squared out and only kills made while you were in that zone (you, didn't have to be the enemy as well) counted towards your score.

I'm not sure if it's a Crushing-exclusive amount or what, but we only had three 'lives' for the entire Arena battle, though thankfully the lives were only expended once we were all downed.  Which...well, happened.  A lot.  Enough to end the game for us.  The inclusion of some of the harder troops from the main campaign was definitely our downfall as an Armored Shotgunner invaded our 'base' as it were, very very slowly, and proceeded to murder us all while we were scrambling to kill him and revive our teammates.  The second rounds fared similarly unfortunately, though one loss was directly a case of ending up separated and slaughtered systematically.  Still, it was good fun and in the end, I'd ended up holding my own quite well, having only a $1-2K difference in score from my teammates and Kill/Death Ratios that were similar enough to not be outstanding one way or another.

When the trophy dinged, I was actually tempted to disregard it and just continue on playing, but I'd meant to play Sengoku Basara:  Samurai Heroes for some time now and ended up throwing that in instead to punch mans as Ieyasu Tokugawa.  I think if nothing else, it stands to reason that I like Uncharted 3's multiplayer if I have such a story of personal enjoyment from it and was only tempted away from it by the prospect of punching dudes.  Which, I suppose I could still do in Uncharted 3, but it's not quite the same.  Still, I could see myself coming back to it for Holiday events or the like, or just casually if I ever combat the deluge of games I still have and will still get in the time to come.  And with Platinum Trophy number Seventeen firmly in place, I can move on, for now, with an oh-so-pleasant feeling.

300th Post Special

So, I completely forgot that I actually planned Tuesday to do this post yesterday, but I'm happy with what I did yesterday anyway, so it doesn't matter.  Only reason I'm bothered at all is because I scrambled for an hour at least to find something to write about and then completely forgot that I already had an idea until I hit post and it told me the post was successful.  Right at that moment, even; "Post Successful!" "Damnit, I had an idea."  I briefly considered doing an immediate Bonus Post for this, but then decided to just roll with doing it today, hoping I'd get a little more in mind with the subject here sometime between last night and posting tonight.  I didn't, really, but I've watched 300 enough times that I remember enough.

Anyways, yesterday was my 300th post on here and while I've said I don't want to make a big deal about every iteration of 50 or so, there's kind of a stark difference here between "Yay, I have 150 posts" and "Man, 300 posts already".  I'd venture a guess to say the same gap is present between 300 and 500 and 400 will likely go by without so much as a whimper.  Maybe, I don't know, we'll just have to get that far first.  Anyways again, the idea with this post is that, since it's the 300 301st post, I will spend a little time talking about making 300 posts and then move on to the movie 300 which I am pretty happy with.  I probably won't get as into it as a Popcorn On, but more than just a passing mention.

I really don't know why, but 300 feels like a really important number to me when it concerns the amount of posts I've done.  Maybe it's because it's actually right there on the side that confirms, yes, 300 posts, or maybe it's because 300 is pretty close to 365; the amount of days in a general year.  While I've missed days here and there, I still think 365 posts is a good day since it means, irrefutably, that I definitely kept up my New Year's Resolution and stuck with this for at least a year.  Not out of a sense of obligation or anything like that, but just because I actually, really enjoy doing it and exercised a little responsibility in ensuring that I kept doing something I enjoyed.  Which, while it doesn't sound difficult, I'm pretty sure there are those out there who understand that it really is not easy to keep up with something even if you enjoy it.

Regardless, that's enough of me saying "Yay, 300 posts is cool", time to move onto saying "300 the movie is pretty cool."

So, longtime readers might know that I really value plot and story above all else in such a way that I'm willing to forgive other short-comings if something offers me something well-thought-out, well-performed, and/or is just very good.  Obviously, 300 does not fall into this camp as the story is pretty much history but kind of dumb.  On the other hand, 300 doesn't need to be smart because it makes no attempts at thinking it is more than eye-candy; not in the most obvious way of course, but in the way it's so stylized and the way it unfolds.  An overabundance of  slow-mo either annoys you or brings up that primal satisfaction hiding within us all as slow-mo is pretty much when all the awesome things happen.  Spears impaling enemies, a heroic deathmarch by one of the main protagonists, etc., the slow-mo is there to highlight the moments that might go unnoticed otherwise, for better or worse.

For those outside of the know, 300 was based on the historic battle of Thermopylae in which a small group of soldiers (More than 300, of course, some sources would number the entire force of about 7,000 men, though the affiliations were varied; some Spartan, some Thespians, etc.) under the leadership of King Leonidas of Sparta, survived an attack of the expansive Persian army for seven days before being surrounded and, later, routed.  Though the initial force was in the thousands, after the second day of combat, Leonidas dismissed the bulk of the forces when he learned that they had been betrayed which would ultimately lead to their demise.  Thanks to the strategic location of the Hot Gates, even the small force of ~1,400 troops was apparently able to last quite a while, resulting in a fantastic last-stand tale if nothing else.  Were a road not basically handed to the Persians that allowed them to destroy that strategic advantage, it's difficult to say just how much longer they could have lasted.

Obviously the only thing the movie really captures in relation to actual history is the spirit of the battle and some characters involved, but, well, when it comes to movies not really much else is needed.  When you just want to sit down and watch a badass action movie, that's all you want to do and you sometimes just need to have certain things that fill that niche.  300 will do that and do it well, provided you aren't against fast-forwarding through parts that....really have no bearing on the movie whatsoever and are unfortunate inclusions that serve to only bring the overall product down.  For every scene involving Leonidas' wife, for instance, we could just have more scenes of Persian death and that's what we want from this movie, nothing else.  But again, I make no claims that this movie is perfect, merely a clear choice for someone who wants to sit down and watch a stylish combat movie that doesn't pretend it has a 'deep, involving' plot.

So there's that.  Happy 300 posts to me and such.  I finally found a way to talk about 300 (the movie) without doing a Popcorn On for it, and it's actually double-topical since, on top of the post count, in less than an hour, theaters all across the East Coast will start showing The Immortals which is, if you didn't know already, made by pretty much the same team who did 300 and is kind of the same idea.  In that it just wants to be a badass action/war movie.  So there you go.  Coincidence or carefully crafted plot?  You decide.

(It was a coincidence.  A happy one.)

Uncharted 3's Complaints And Why I Must Be Awesome at Video Games

So, I beat Uncharted 3 earlier today after the fourth or fifth marathon session of playing it since I got it Wednesday and it was good.  It was damn good.  If I may, I would suggest that it is, in fact, great.  Some people would not agree with that, and well, I just don't know about those people.  I physically could not, at any point, picture myself playing Uncharted 3 and saying "I don't like this game."  It was outside of the realm of thought, of possibility, and of reality.  Of course, everyone has their own opinions and are entitled to them, but it's this sort of feeling that really drives the competitive side of us all; we all have games that we 'back' because we love them, we love the experiences they provide, and we can always speak on how the experience it provides is superior to what something else could provide.

This is what really engenders a lot of the bitterness and rage that exists in the gaming community as a whole because, at the end of the day, some people are always going to be there to explain to you why your favorite game is less good than theirs and you will be locked in a stalemate as the Dragon fighting the Tiger.  Your opinion is resolute, theirs unwavering and in the end, it will simply end with saying "Well, you're wrong" and a lot of harsh feelings.  And this is really why I think reviewers out there giving scores are, well, 'doing it wrong' since a score only opens this door wider and mars several games for other people.  As in the case of the Eurogamer Review that gave Uncharted 3 an 8/10 and is no doubt infamous for that fact right now.  Throwing a score of 8/10 on one of the more-hyped games to come out is just asking for trouble, some would say, while others take directly to the numbers and draw comparisons: 

For instance, Simon Parkin has given the following games 8/10 as well:  Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3, Brink, Yakuza 4, Crysis 2 and Virtua Tennis 4.  One would suggest that, since they all rate the same, if you were looking for five 8/10 experiences in a row, you would simply play those which is, of course, a flawed notion.  Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare is not Fallout 3 is not Grand Theft Auto IV (all games to earn perfect scores from various outlets), and that's the simple truth to it.  At it's barest essence you cannot draw such simplistic lines to force different things into.  It's akin to trying to shove the square block into the circle hole;  You should know better not to do it and upon completing the task, you've certainly lost something along the way.

Beyond that, even if there were no scores to make arbitrary comparisons, we'll always have the simple arguments to go along with why game X should be considered better than game Y which will be something else to frustrate us all for ages to come.  I've personally had a little experience with this aspect in seeing people complain about the tiniest technical flaws in Uncharted 3 and then in the same 'breath', so to speak, state "Can't wait for Skyrim" or something akin to that.  Where Uncharted 3 will be trounced upon by the vocal minority for slightly wonked technical issues, Skyrim's technical issues (which, given Bethesda's track record will be various and difficult to deal with until consumers put the required work into a fan-patch) will largely get glossed over in favor of lauding the 'epic scale' the game possesses by having a large map that is mostly made up of inconsequential and unused land. 

Is it because we're taught to expect different things from different developers and, so long as they operate within parameters, we don't mention it?  Possibly.  Is it wrong?  Certainly.  Yet we'll still do it, so I can't rail against it too much, as I'm sure several examples of my own willingness to wave off objectively bad things in favor of a 'greater sum of good' could be pointed out rather swiftly.  Still, I can't help but look at these things, these complaints and these lack of complaints and feel a little annoyed at their mere existence since, as I said before, I am clearly in Uncharted 3's camp and thus destined to be contrary to those who would tout anything above it when its own flaws are so plain to the eye.

Honestly, the biggest thing that's annoyed me about the reception to Uncharted 3 is the apparent internet-proven-fact that the aiming is worse off in Uncharted 3 than it was in Uncharted 2 to a degree that means the overall product and game is bad for it.  So much is this 'outcry' that Naughty Dog felt the need to address it by saying it's actually, factually improved, which frustratingly enough seems to have fallen on deaf ears in favor of claiming something to the likes of "Change is bad and this doesn't work".  Not once in my playing the game had I ever stopped to consider that the aiming was in any way different, because I was too busy shooting pirates, henchmen, and other assorted types of thugs in the face to consider that I was using anything that was lesser than Uncharted 2's offerings.

I would suggest that my ability to point the crosshairs of whatever gun I'm using at the moment at the mound of digital flesh that I want to not draw digital breath any longer and succeeding in that task swiftly means I am just better at games than most people who have gone out and purchased a copy of Uncharted 3.  Of course I'm being facetious, as there's no real way to type that statement out in a serious manner because it's simply a lie.  Still, I have to wonder why this (and several other issues out there that are utter phantoms to me, never once appearing in my sight) is apparently an 'issue' and why I was ultimately immune to it and all the other complaints being tossed at the game.

This is the part where I state that I will in fact not be writing a review for Uncharted 3.  I could press on and on and on about every part of the game that I found excellent and/or interesting and it would likely be a very long post in the process, but in the end I think any complaints I might have would just pale in comparison to the things I can hold Uncharted 3 highly for.  In some ways, I'm sure that's what people want from a review; someone championing just what is good about it while still mentioning the issues with it for those to consider even if they're not really explained well enough to be anything more than mumble when compared, rather than the inverse.  And in some ways, simply stating what I have already in this last paragraph is review enough for some people because it's quite obvious that I think it's a Great game with a few minimal flaws that I didn't even find big enough to bring up almost pedantically as I am wont to do.

Regardless, I did want to put this out there as it's been milling about in my mind for the last night and even more today after beating the game proper.  Even now, my fingers twitch as if training themselves for my next session (which is my Crushing playthrough.  To my surprise, Crushing was unlocked after a Normal Playthrough and while going from Normal to Crushing might be whispered as madness in some corners, I think I'm up to the challenge) in which I will assuredly topple many gun-toting foes with a well-placed shot from a pistol or a volley of shots from a G-MAL fired blindly from cover.  Already, I'm imagining experiencing some of the set-pieces in awe, much as the first time, and already I cannot wait to crush any who stand in my path again.  For Drake's path, under my supervision, was one of victory and so again shall it be.

And Now, I Have Weathered Sega's Worst

So, I'm in the final stretch of Yakuza 4, and with that comes the end of sub-stories and of challenges, which brings rewards and the best challenges that can be offered. Finishing the sidequests is no exclusion to this and is actually probably the best example of when Sega really brings the thunder and puts the 'challenge' into it.  It does this as it has done for the last three Yakuza games (well, possibly five.  Dunno about Kenzan and Of the End) and how it will likely do it again and again for the next however many Yakuza games come from the studios:  With a bang.  A bang by the name of Amon Jo.  (By the way, this is technically spoiler-ish stuff in the very mildest sense, so if you're a purist...)

The backstory to Amon Jo, from what I can tell, is that he is an assassin who has been trying to take down Kazuma every year since he first came back to Kamurocho.  Obsessed with power, he claims that he and Kazuma must continually fight until one of them is dead, but Kazuma refuses to kill him and Amon never defeats him.  (Well, canonically, of course.)  He does, however, put up a hell of a fight; I remember my encounter with him in Yakuza 3 and it.....well, it's not something I'm looking forward to doing again, even though I must.  Not that I would want to do Yakuza 4's encouter again either.

See, now that Yakuza 4 has multiple characters, they had to change up the formula a bit.  By 'had to change' it, I mean, in fact, that they didn't have to change it at all and they just wanted to prove that they can indeed give you yet another reason to shatter a controller into a million pieces.  (Thankfully, Char has not received the same treatment as Sechs.  You remember Sechs, right?)  So when Kazuma gets the customary letter from Amon Jo telling him where to meet, he mentions that he'll be (conveniently) bringing his three apprentices for the fight.  While Kazuma wants to take on the Amon clan by himself, his three companions don't let him and go along with him to the designated meeting spot.

From there, there's a little banter that ends in the idea that everyone will take on one of the individual Amons and you run the gauntlet as Akiyama, Saejima, Tanimura and finally Kiryu.  So instead of a prolonged battle against Amon Jo, you have four, admittedly smaller and slightly easier fights.  Akiyama's fight, unsurprisingly, is based around speed, Saejima's is based around, er...power, in a sense.  Moreso that the game wants to reinforce that it hates Saejima, which I will explain about at a later date.  Tanimura's just kind of against a guy with guns, where Kiryu takes on Amon Jo, finally.  I won't spoil how the fight goes, but I will say that, as Amon fights go, it wasn't the hardest, but it was definitely the cheapest.  Which I guess makes it the hardest by default.

Regardless, the moral of the story here is that I beat Amon Jo and that is always, arguably, the hardest fight you'll face in a Yakuza game.  Sure, the rest of the game isn't going to be a cakewalk, but the difficulty won't come from battles, that's for sure.  If anything, I'm more dreading the next time I go into Club Sega than proceeding with the story for the eventual boss fights.  Goddamn crane machines.  And oh god, Bowling.....and darts.....goddamnit, Mini-games.

Directly after my encounter with Amon, I walked about as Kiryu again and encountered some left over gang members from Kiryu's Gang War challenge, which, compared to what I had just been through, was nothing.  In fact, it was almost annoying, but being able to finally tap into some of the more devastating Heat Moves that I couldn't execute against Amon was well enough of a reason to be good with it.  And to enjoy it, much as I did.  If anything, I should feel grateful though, since from now on in the game, I can feel like that much more of a badass.

Now, let's just see how many more of the side-quests and such I'll get distracted with before I finally just beat the game.  And possibly Platinum it.

A Look Ahead - Lollipop Chainsaw

This is Juliet Sterling.  She's 18, loves pink, school spirit and cheerleading.  She carries around a chainsaw because her school, San Romero High School, has been overrun by zombies.  She also has a disembodied head on her waist because...

....

Anyways.  This was announced today!  Well, actually, it was outed all the way back in February, but somehow a Grasshopper Manufacture project called "Lollipop Chainsaw" went fairly unnoticed.  Games Journalism, everybody.  (I'm kidding, I missed it too.)  And actual screens and artwork went out for it as well.  For the eight screens I saw, only two weren't upskirts, and thus I don't have a lot of link fodder here.  I mean, there's nothing inherently wrong with posting that stuff, and it's not even that I have a personal opinion against it, but, eh.  Just don't feel like posting that here.  Not at this juncture.

For my part, I'm very willing to saw this looks delightfully absurd and outright crazy which, as we know, I quite enjoy.  And honestly, this does more than anything to make me want to go buy Shadows of the Damned if just to get a better chance at this getting localized.  I mean, I want to say this is a shoe-in for getting localized, since it kind of looks made for the west more than anything (And, hell it takes place in the West.  By the way, San Romero High School?  Niiiiiice.), but nothing's certain these days, and I'm sure we all know the things we want sometimes don't always come our way.

Obviously, not a whole lot of information on the game is out just yet, but what we do know is fairly vital; It's a Suda51 game (somewhat.  Enough.  I mean, look at it.), the protagonist is a pink, heart-etched chainsaw wielding cheerleader with a disembodied head hanging at her waist like an accessory, and you're going to kill a lot of zombies in a high school (likely city as well) setting.  I know I may be easy to please with bullet points, but tell me my faith is ill-placed at this point.  I dare you.

A Look Back - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

I know it's a bit early to be referring to Uncharted 2 as in the past by referring to it in a "A Look Back" article, but the game was released in October of 2009.  That's like an eternity in gaming years, especially with the year I've had.  Since the basis of "A Look Back" posts is remembering a game fondly after 'enough' time has passed, well, I believe Uncharted 2 qualifies.

It's kind of funny; the only reason I brought it up tonight was because, at a gathering we had today, I was talking with my oldest nephew about games and he posed to me the question, "What company do you think makes the best graphics?  Rockstar?  Activision?"  And with a knowing little smirk, I shook my head and said, "No, no.  You don't know good graphics until you've seen the latest Naughty Dog games."  He seemed a little confused, "The Crash Bandicoot guys?  What are they working on."  And it was then that I resolved to show him the pinnacle of gaming graphics and Cinematography so far:  Uncharted 2.

....I'm sure you can guess as to how it went.

My nephew doesn't really show a lot of what he's thinking; he doesn't really react outwardly to things, so a subdued response to things is the most you can ever expect, outside of laughter.  So when he watched the opening scene with the train, I could tell he was a little impressed at how it looked.  "You know I'm actually playing it right now, right?"  He looked over at me and said, "Really?  Oh, wow.  Yeah, you are, aren't you?" when he saw that I was, indeed, moving Drake amongst the shattered parts of the hanging train that served as your climbing tutorial.

"That's really cool."

Yes.  Yes it was.

And it's funny; he wasn't the only person to be surprised by the game.  Even though I've played it at least six times through, and I remember everything about the game, it seemed fresh, regardless.  There was a pure joy from playing, even though I more or less remember every line, the cadence with which the lines are said, and how every scene plays out, simply because it's just that good.  Dare I say that it seems timeless?  I dare.  I dare indeed.

We both marveled at the way the game controlled; him because of how responsive it looked and how a headshot actually is a one-hit kill, unlike some other games, and myself at how relevant the gameplay still manages to be, despite everything I've played since, especially inFamous 2.  It's tight, it does what you want/need it to do, and it looks damn good while you do it.  I did stop a few times to point out things to him, like the dynamic water stuff; how Drake's clothes get wet and dry depending on where he's submerged and for how long as well as how varied the combat manages to be.  And the starting scenes make that perfectly easy to do, if I do say so myself.  Going from stealth to melee to actual gunplay (despite only with tranquilizer guns at first, then real ones) allows for a lot of variation and makes an impressive showing of all your options.

My one regret is that I completely forgot to show him the Iron Fist technique - shooting from the hip while you run up on a guy and finishing him with a solid punch.  And wouldn't it figure, as soon as I remembered the move (Long after my nephew had gone) and did it, Drake yelled out "Kitty Got Wet!" which if you remember back when, was a thing.  I could have explained the whole thing about it too; about how it was a thing Nolan North's son said and he just decided it sounded cool, so he decided to use it.  And it is kind of cool.  It's fun to say at least; I'll have to remember it better this time.

A part of me regrets not having played in the Uncharted 3 MP beta, as Uncharted 2's MP was surprisingly fun even if I was usually on the losing end of things because of my terrible internet.  But I think I made the right choice; that just means when I play the game for myself I'll have that much more to be blown away by.  As always with games that I speak fondly of, I would heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a good game, and folks in PAL-Land do have that Uncharted Twin-Pack coming up soon that includes both Among Thieves and the first game, Drake's Fortune.  (I checked, but I don't know if it's actually coming out in NA.)  Sounds like a perfect chance to get in on it if you haven't so far.

Then again, if you haven't, what the hell is wrong with you.

The PSN Summer Sale is On!

 
So, in the PS Store Blog Post today, the previously announced Playstation Summer Sale went live, and it's pretty wonderful.  I already went ahead and picked my purchases (at least, the ones I was sure about, I still have a bit in the ol' coffers) earlier which was just a wonderful feeling, since I'm still in my Free Month of Playstation Plus.  That was a good thing, Sony.  A real good thing.  Unless you activated yours right away, then you might be feeling a bit of a sting now.  Regardless, discounts is discounts and they're on games that people might actually want to buy.

The Full List goes as such:

• Pac-Man Championship Edition DX – Full Game (now $6.99, original price $9.99, PlayStation Plus price $4.89)
• PixelJunk Shooter 2 – Full Game (now $6.99, original price $9.99, PlayStation Plus price $4.89)
• Hard Corps: Uprising Full Game (now $10.49, original price $14.99, PlayStation Plus price $7.34)
• Hard Corps: Character: Harley (now $1.75, original price $2.49, PlayStation Plus price $1.23)
• Hard Corps: Character: Leviathan (now $1.75, original price $2.49, PlayStation Plus price $1.23)
• Hard Corps: Character: Sayuri (now $1.75, original price $2.49, PlayStation Plus price $1.23)
• Chime Super Deluxe (now $6.99, original price $9.99, PlayStation Plus price $4.89)
• Scott Pilgrim Full Game (now $6.99, original price $9.99, PlayStation Plus price $4.89)
• Scott Pilgrim – Knives Chau Add-On (now $1.49, original price $1.99, PlayStation Plus price $1.04)
• Risk Factions (now $6.99, original price $9.99, PlayStation Plus price $4.89)
• Dead Space Extraction (now $10.49, original price $14.99, PlayStation Plus price $7.34)
• Tales from Space: About a Blob (now $10.49, original price $14.99, PlayStation Plus price $7.34)
• Back to the Future: The Game – Full Series (now $13.99, original price $19.99, PlayStation Plus price $9.79)
• Shank (now $6.99, original price $9.99, PlayStation Plus price $4.89)
• Swarm (now $9.99, original price $14.99, PlayStation Plus price $6.99)

I myself picked up Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World:  The Game (Had always been waiting for it to hit a sale), PixelJunk Shooter 2 (Which, I'm glad I hadn't bought it before like I planned), and Shank (admittedly completely on the repeated positive mentions from Chance....and the fact that I completely spaced last month when it was on sale for the same price.  Or around that.)  So, that was $14.67 for all three.  (No tax, for some reason.  I'm not complaining, of course.)  Considering said titles would have set me back $29.97 any other time, I actually saved more than I spent!  (Difference of $15.30.)  I love doing savings math, can you tell?

Of course, it's one thing to buy these games, but entirely another to actually download them to play.  Considering the only one I had pre-downloaded was Scott Pilgrim (had the demo for months), and Shank is....2 Gigs, and my internet is shit from a butt, this might be a problem.  Not to mention that I also bought the Burnout Paradise bundle in last week's update which is 3.5 gigs.....

Well, worse comes to worst, I can always take my PS3 somewhere with better internet, I suppose.  But then again, I already have a metric ton of disk-based games I haven't even touched yet......Blargh!  Not enough time in the day!

Playstation Vita has killed my ability to think coherently.

For the moment, my mind is pretty much stuck at going "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" and not stopping.  Mostly because of LittleBigPlanet Vita.  (Tentative Title.)  But also mostly because of the Playstation Vita itself.  Two models, as we all knew, Wi-Fi only and 3G/Wi-Fi model, with the 3G one using AT&T as its carrier.  The Press Release makes mention of "pricing" through AT&T, so I'm expecting Data plans, so I'm just going to spring for the Wi-Fi only model unless something comes up to change that.

I'm gonna have to just link you to Chance's recap of the Keynote until I can form more and more proper sentences.  But, yeah, I am pretty much super excited at the moment.

Edit:  Alright.  I'm more composed now.  Did anyone notice that I spelled 'coherently' wrong in the initial posting?  Boy, that's a bit embarrassing.   Anyways...

After what I initially referred to as "cockteasing" by Kaz Hirai, who insisted on bringing up the Vita, subtly, talking about the PSP, referring again, vaguely, to the Vita and then bringing up Playstation Suite, the NGP, then announced, finally and officially as the Playstation Vita.  After bringing it up and doing the usual talking on it's high points, I, as I'm sure everyone watching, was just chomping at the bit to know a price.  And when one wasn't provided by the time he was already handing it off to someone else to talk about the games, I'm sure more than a few people felt a creeping dread.  Knowing Sony, this was their ploy to raise excitement and then crush it finally and completely with some insane pricepoint at the very end of it.  It wouldn't be the first time and, unfortunately,  it likely wouldn't be the last.

But rather than some evil ploy to smash dreams and bring ridicule upon themselves, the entire section of the presser was perfectly engineered to bring about the highest amount of excitement one could get from it.  "Here's what it can do.  Here's what the games look and play like.  Here's some of the cross-console possibilities."  Essentially, "Here's all the shit it can do that makes you think we're not going to compete with Nintendo on price."

And then, Kaz came back out, and brought the excitement, the interest to its apex...to then bring down waves of gratification as they did what no one expected, truly expected them to do:  Priced the base model exactly at the price-point of its direct competitor, the 3DS, at $249.99.  Then, less surprisingly, as this point had been mentioned before in the rumors, its partner price of $299.99 for the 3G/Wi-Fi model was announced, with AT&T being tapped as the exclusive provider of 3G for the system.  Still no real word on what all you'll be able to do with 3G on the thing, but a deal with AT&T likely means a data plan, which means a lot of people will likely not shell out for it unless there's something else in it for them.  Still, being that it's got 3G -and- Wi-Fi, so long as you're not supposed to sign up right there in the store and it comes with a little something extra, a memory stick or something, it might not be a bad thing.

So yeah.  With everything we've seen for the Vita so far (Not only E3, but the stuff from waaaay back, when it was first announced, even) and everything we know now, the Vita is looking like a sweet deal.  It's going to be rough for Nintendo to try and convince everyone that you're getting the same amount of bang for your buck; and touting 3D might not be the only way around it.

Konami's attempt at best E3 Line-up is respectable

Do you see this image?  This image right here, above this line?  Yeah.  You see it.  And you better get used to seeing it, because it is officially a thing that is happening.  Contrary to what the tagline says, the Metal Gear Solid Collection (Featuring, as it shows on the image, MGS2, 3 and Peace Walker) will be a multi-platform release on both the PS3 and 360, so not only will 360 owners (who presumably never owned a PS2) be able to play MGS3 without buying a 3DS, but they'll be able to take a swing at Peace Walker as well.  Of course, PS3 owners have the edge, seeing as Konami stated that the version of Peace Walker is 'Transfarrable'.  No, I'm not making that word up.  Anyways, PS3 owners who also own Peace Walker will be able to treat the game as one of the upcoming "PSP Remasters" in that you'll be able to move your save from one game to the other.  If that means PW will be locked out of Trophies/Achievements, I don't know, but we'll see.

Also announced by Konami today was a Silent Hill Collection, which bundles Silent Hill 2 and 3 together.  That's about all that's known about it.  Do you need to know much else, though?  It's Silent Hill 2.  And it's Silent Hill 3.  They are together.  On one disk.  The consoles it'll release on are technically unspecified at the moment, but PS3/360 is expected.

And finally, the third Collection announced was....wait for it...

HELL.

YES.

The Zone of the Enders HD Collection will, obviously, feature Zone of the Enders 1 and 2 (Sorry, no Fist of Mars for the GBA.  Let's all shed a solitary tear.) up-ported in the usual Collection style, etc. etc.  It will be amazing.  Because the games?  They are amazing.  And they will be even more amazing when they're in the Haitch Dees.  The collection also touts another "Transfarring" feature, but just for what, it's hard to say, as it's tied to a "Future announcement".  Say...the Sony E3 conference is in the future...

(I am really, really, really hoping this means a Zone of the Enders game in PSV.  I will buy seven. 

....not really.  I will buy one though.)

Chains of Olympus/Ghost of Sparta Possibly PS3-Bound?

That's what Joystiq seems to think, at least.  Apparently, a few sources in China (Which, from what I know, doesn't instantly mean a lot of credibility and, actually, the opposite, but...) say there's a listing coming up for the God of War Portable Collection which would include God of War:  Chains of Olympus and God of War:  Ghost of Sparta on the same disk with up-porting much like the original two God of War titles have received.  At this time, though, anyone who has previously had their hands in the franchise are busy doing other things (Minus the team responsible for the God of War Collection port, or at least, Joystiq makes no mention of them) so that would mean that another port team would have to step in to do it.

What does this mean for everyone?  Well, first off, if true, it just sort of continues the trend of Sony not really comprehending that if you make a portable game, you make it portable so it stays portable.  A lot of people will place the blame of the PSP tanking in Non-Japan (aside from rampant piracy) on the theory that any good PSP game would eventually make it to the PS2, thus negating the need for the lovely portable.  The Grand Theft Auto Stories games especially made this case.

Second off, on a much less critical note, it inevitably means that many more people will get to experience these two great games.  I'm almost of the mind that anyone who doesn't have a PSP and whines at the lack of ability to play the games it has should put up or shut up, but, hey, I'm also of a mind that God of War games are pretty great and the more attention they get, the better.  If only to make my dream of the next big SSM project come true.  I still think of that multiplayer concept and salivate sometimes.

So we'll just have to see about this.  If anything, this one's an E3 revealer.  Especially since Sony will want as many things as possible to distract from the last month.

My Pokemons, let me show you them.

Well, not exactly, as I don't really have them yet, but I wanted to nerd out about Pokemon tonight (without using the accented e, because I'll be goddamned if I'm going to memorize the code for that and hit it everytime I type Pokemon.) and I figured the best thing to do, rather than another "Beldum" type article, would be to show off my teams, or, rather, my planned teams and to go over the process involved in picking them.  (Protip:  Most of them are picked because they rock in some form.)  As I haven't gotten Black or White yet, everything is just in the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/Heart Gold/Soul Silver area.

Now, my ultimate 'dream' for my Pokemon situation is to have two teams:  An Electric Team and an Ice Team.  Sure, having a mono-themed team is pretty much not the norm outside of if you're a Gym Leader (which, hey, people do that, I guess), but I really like Electric and Ice types, and I liked enough of both that I can't just make a single team with both of them.  Dunno if I'll do both of them in this post, but we'll see.  Definitely, at least, I'll do my Electric team here.

First and foremost, we have a Raichu.  Why?  Because Raichu is a goddamn boss, alright?  Now, I admit, I got my first Raichu allllll the way back in the beforetimes with Red, because, hey it was all new, Pikachu was the hotness, and I didn't care about whether or not my Pikachu didn't want to evolve or not, because I wanted it to.  So I did, and he had Thunderbolt, Thundershock, Quick Attack, and Pay Day because this Raichu knew how to make it rain.  (Oddly enough, Pokemon Stadium later informed me that my Raichu was a female.)

Ever since, I've always mained a Raichu.  No matter what game, my first goal was always, "Obtain Pikachu, Evolve to Raichu."  Sure, it wasn't always easy, but it was always the most important thing.  And it always paid off, in varying degrees because, as I said, Raichu is a goddamn boss.  In Diamond, I found that you could teach it Grass Knot which, for the uninitiated, deals 'more damage to heavier foes'.  Because I guess it makes them trip and bigger they are, harder they fall, etc. etc.  How you trip an Onyx is beyond me, but regardless, it ruled.  That Raichu (named Kaminari for, literally, Lightning God) was nearly indestructible and didn't afraid of anything.

Now, I don't really have this one yet, because I'm thinking about just making Kaminari take a spin with CornerGirl, my resident Ditto in the Daycare Center to send the eventual egg off to my HG game, where I'm actually forming the teams because HG/SS are way cooler and more convenient than D/P.  Not sure about Platinum, but probably.  That way, not only is it straight-descended from the bossest goddamn Raichu I've ever had, but it'll likely come with Grass Knot, maybe.  I don't know how egg moves work.

Next up, we have Ampharos.  Now, I'll be the first to admit, I wasn't a fan of Ampharos, simply because every Pokemon person I knew was a power snob, so they just looked at the straight numbers, and always tried to tell me how Ampharos was better than Raichu.  And I wasn't having that shit, alright?  Do not slander my Raichu, because my Raichu is better, regardless.  Because it's mine.  But then on my Heart Gold playthrough, I caught a Mareep because of the distinct lack of being able to catch a Pikachu for a long while.  I was bummed about that, but went, "Well, I can get -an- electric type at least." and when I caught Mareep, I had the brilliant idea to name it "RobotDream", which is freaking awesome.  (You should get this.)

And as I fought along with it, I grew to like the little guy.  He ended up being super righteous as well, and earned his spot into my Electric team by simply being my Electric go-to in Heart Gold.  Also it is pretty powerful, after all, so it's not like I'm begrudgingly accepting it; it's going to kick some ass for me, so it's plenty welcome round these parts.  By these parts, I mean, you know, my DS cart.

Next guy basically doesn't need any introduction.  This is Luxray, and yes, he is indeed a badass mouse-wolf.  Somehow.  I don't even know, but, y'know, whatever.  The point is, this dude is a bad dude and will not let you forget it.  His purpose is doubly important in the team; Electric pokemon are sort of more favored to Special Attack, but Luxray is more physical and with Bite/Crunch, he's able to flex that in the face of things that might be a little more susceptible to that.

I think I had one of these in my Diamond game the first playthrough and ended up naming it Sonic, because it's got the Sonic spikes going on and is also of the rodent family somewhat.  Sure, given the coloring, Shadow might have been a little more appropriate, but you know what?  Shadow sucks.  He has a shit(tier) game series (were there more than one?) than Sonic, has to be extreme all the time without really looking made for it, and in general suffers from Waluigi syndrome.  (Being made to be a clear foil to a character for no other reason than, well, they needed one.)  But the point is, Sonic is awesome, and so was my Luxray.

Next is the badass Rotom.  Now, it doesn't look like it, but trust me, this thing rocks.  Not only is it only psuedo-legendary (and thus, usually not banned from stuff, I think.  Also, it can breed.), it's an Electric Ghost.  Just wrap your mind around that for a moment.  Here, let me help you with a mental image.  Picture a ghost for a minute.  Got it?  Good.  Now electrify it.  There's Rotom.  Something that, when you think about it in those terms, could really, really wreck your day.

Now, the cool thing about Rotom is that, actually, it's only usually Electric-Ghost.  Being that it is able to possess inanimate objects for a sort of Poltergeist situation, it can change its subtype depending on what it possesses.  Now, this is just in Platinum, which I don't have, so I don't know the intricacies about it, but it can possess an oven, refrigerator, washing machine, rotary fan, or a lawn mower to be Fire, Ice, Water, Flying, or Grass as a subtype to Electric.  Now, I know you're like, "What, but that doesn't-"  And let me stop you there.

It's pokemon, I ain't gotta explain shit.

This one isn't certain.  Electrivire looks like a beast.  I mean, just look at that.  But I never really liked Electabuzz, and to get Vire, you have to evolve one of those by trading it with an item you only have one of (I think), so you've pretty much got one shot with this.  Knowing that drives me crazy, because I know I'll figure out all this nonsense to get it to be the best, EV train it, and end up evolving it at the wrong level or picking something completely awful for it or something.  And that would suck.  So I'm not sure if I want that sort of hassle or not.

But man, just look at him.

Finally, which is in the same 'not sure if want' category with Electrivire is Magnezone.  Which, I mean, look at it, is basically a flying, electric UFO.  With magnets.  Which, as we know, work miracles.  Or are magic.  Or...something.

I'm pretty sure it's easier to get one of these; you just have to level up a Magneton in a specific area (if memory serves correctly) which means it's not as one-and-done as Electrivire, but it still would take a lot of time and effort to do, and when you consider that 1) Magnemite/Magneton aren't even all that good and 2) It's a steel pokemon that isn't Skarmory, I'm not sure if it's something that would fit my style.

Maybe I'll take a look at the electric types again and try to pick some others out, but for now, that looks like the top picks so far.  As in, s'far as candidates for my Electric team go.  I've briefly considered a few other options but haven't really looked into them too much.  And more or less, none of this team is assembled properly, so it's a far-off dream.  But it's a dream nonetheless.

Music! Daft Punk Edition (Also, Whoops)

So, I completely and totally missed a post yesterday.  I don't know if it's because I thought I'd already done one, since I've done a few early ones here lately, or if it's because my subconscious went, "You don't have anything to blog about anyway", but it happened.  And for that, I apologize.  But it's a new night, and for a lack of post last night, I'm going to go ahead and find two things to speak on tonight to catch me up.


So I'll go ahead and get right into it with this post by gushing about Daft Punk, since, well, that's easy for me to do.  By far, one of the only bands I can get back into at the drop of a hat, even when I think I've had my fill lately.

I imagine, given how recently it was, the first thing that comes into most people's mind, regarding Daft Punk is the soundtrack they put together for Tron: Legacy.  Which is fine; I've heard some of it, and it sounds really neat.  I intend on getting my hands on the actual soundtrack to give a listen to eventually, but just haven't gotten around to it yet.  Just a few snippets here and there from a playthrough of the game that I was watching (that hasn't updated in a while) and hearing music from the trailers.

But, and at the risk of being a music snob here, Daft Punk has been in my rotation for years prior to Tron: Legacy.

Way, way, way back in the beforetimes, when Cartoon Network apparently really wanted to get people into Anime, they crafted this block of programming called Toonami, which I have touched on before, and one day, they just decided "You know what?  Let's play music videos.  Cool music videos.  That are animated."  Among them were a nifty Claymation video of a Kenna song (I believe), a couple animated videos from the Gorillaz, and the first four sections of Interstella 5555, which is basically one long Anime music video made for Daft Punk's "Discovery" album.  Like, the entire thing.  Continuously.  Which, I honestly think was my first introduction to Daft Punk.



And it's honestly not a bad intro to them, for the uninitiated.  Which is likely a very small faction anymore, but still.

I don't remember when it happened, only that I know it did, since I have it, but I picked up the "Discovery" album sometime and played the living hell out of it.  But eventually, Daft Punk sort of faded into the distance, especially after the new album "Human After All" came out, leading "Robot Rock" as a single and I didn't really dig it at the time.

Which, honestly, even now is a bit more mood-dependent for me on whether I like it or not.  It's a bit repetitive, obviously, even though it's got a fairly good beat and sound to it.  It just seems to lack that spark that Discovery had en masse.

Years later, and I don't even remember why, but Daft Punk was suddenly thrust back into my life, when a buddy of mine started talking about them and I went, "Man, I haven't listened to them in forever.  I really should."  To which he responded, "So I guess you haven't heard anything off of their live album?" and I said "No, I wasn't aware such a thing existed."  That night became a musical journey, my friends.  He linked me to this song and told me to thank him later, which I am doing the same for you.  However, I must say, if you're going to listen to this song, make sure you listen to Robot Rock first.

Alive 2007 gets even better with certain songs, but I'll never forget hearing this for the first time, being so perfect a blend of two of their songs, and then going on to realize that that was the entire live show.  Remixing songs of theirs into each other for one big musical mash-up of delicious.  If you like this, I would urge you to seek out the rest, especially the encore.

So, there you go.  That is essentially my relationship with Daft Punk; important to me as a kid, not so much as a teen, important again now and likely far into the future.  Carry on, you brilliant robots.

Goddamn, Dynasty Warriors 7 is Good.

I really hate to do a post like this just about one specific moment of the game, but, honestly, I have to.  At the very least (even though I wanted, and still do, to cover the Three Kingdoms era in a series of posts) I can offer a little history behind the whole set-up so that you guys can also know the badassery that took place today.

I will preface this with the fact that I don't even like Shu.  In the novel (which most people take as the actual history despite being made in the 14th century, and what DW takes it's basing off of), Shu is way, way overplayed.  I'll get more into it when I actually get around to describing the events of the era, but suffice to say that, yeah, Shu wasn't nearly as great as Luo Guanzhong wants you to believe.  (Nor were the other kingdoms, honestly.)

But anyways, of the famous battles of the time/novel, the Battle at Chang Ban is fairly known of, where Liu Bei, who would eventually become the leader of the Kingdom of Shu, his followers and peasants that have banded to his cause are fleeing from Cao Cao, who would eventually become the leader of the Kingdom of Wei, and his army.  Because of all the peasants, Liu Bei's army was slowed and Cao Cao's was able to catch up to him at Chang Ban, where Liu Bei's forces stood to hold them off so they would be able to resume their retreat.

This is Zhao Yun in Dynasty Warriors 7.  Not pictured:  His Spear.

 Here's where a bit of the story overtakes the history, where Liu Bei's son, Liu Chan/Shan (depends on who translated) was left in one of the camps.  One of Liu Bei's retainers, Zhao Yun, took it upon himself to go retrieve the baby before Cao Cao's men found him, because, well, who knows what would have happened.  It's a really awesome little tale that's recounted as the first part of the battle of Chang Ban in DW7, where you control Zhao Yun as he searches the bases for the child, eventually finding him and then heading back to the rendezvous site, slaying dudes and generals alike on the way back.

That's not the badass part.  The badass part is what happened after, which, again, is mostly novelized 'editorializing'.  Zhang Fei, one of Liu Bei's two Oath Brothers, waited at the Chang Ban bridge, knowing that Cao Cao's army would pursue Liu Bei by it.  According to the novel, when Cao Cao's army arrived at the bridge, Zhang Fei stood there alone and let out a mighty roar, proclaiming who he was, and daring any to come challenge him.  So mighty was the roar, that everybody went, "Y'know what, screw this" and left.  In the novel, somebody was literally scared to death.

This is Zhang Fei in Dynasty Warriors 7.  Not Pictured:  His Twin Spear.

But, and more preferably, in the Dynasty Warriors series, Zhang Fei has always fought off any who got close to the bridge, whether you were playing as Wei or Shu.  And, of course, if you were playing as Zhang Fei, it was up to you.  The second part of Chang Ban starts by putting you in the shoes of Zhang Fei as he starts the scene described above, which is admittedly pretty impressive.  And when the actual gameplay starts, the Chang Ban bridge erupts in flame (which, Zhang Fei destroyed the bridge after his stand, so this isn't completely bad) and Cao Cao's army approaches.  There is, basically, nothing you can, or should want, to do but face them.

And by God, is it satsifying.  The sheer amount of enemies in this is astounding.  The game usually announces your kills by the hundreds, saying, "(character) has defeated (#00) enemies!", and it's usually prioritized, so it happens basically right after you've done it.  I'm telling you this to let you know just how awesome the moment I had was.  At one point, during the slaughter, I looked down at my kill count.  It was something in the 800s.  The message that came up when I happened to look?

"Zhang Fei has defeated 300 enemies!"

So, between all the chatter that could have put off this announcement, which, there's not all that much, and the point I looked, I killed 500 people.  And it wasn't even a surprise, honestly.  Since it is basically you and one other general versus what is literally meant to be an army, and not little groups of people with a specific general (even if it is a generic one) leading them.

I have never, ever felt so good while playing as Shu.  And I don't think any interpretation of the Chang Ban bridge could top that.

Dynasty Warriors 7 - YES. THIS IS WHAT I WANTED.

So, I got this today.  I tried thinking of something else to post about tonight, but damnit, I can't because I am entirely too excited to do anything else.  Besides, there's not a lot of news going on now, aside from a few people getting some bad 3DSes, which likely isn't enough to bring about cause for concern in anyone, but for anyone looking for just one more reason against dropping $250 on one, well, there you go.  Also, Free Realms, the PS3's very first free-to-play MMO came out today.  As much as I would like to get in on that (given that I have been known to frequent Home every now and again, just to sate my virtual decorator's urge or whatever), if I'm not going to spend the time to DL a gig of data so I can play Heavy Rain again, I'm not going to spend the same amount of time getting a MMO I'll likely not play too much.

Anyways!  None of that concerns slaughtering chinamen by the thousands, so let's drop those subjects.  Now, I'll have you all know, I own just about every single iteration of the Dynasty Warriors series.  2, 3, 3:XL, 4, 4:XL, 4:E, etc. etc.  I have played them thoroughly (aside from 2, just a little too dated to me.) and enjoyed them immensely.  But never have I been this surprised by any of them.  Let me paint a picture for you.

Up to now in the previous games, the layout of starting a level has been pretty simple.  Select the stage, get to the prep screen, equip your weapons, skills, items, steed, hit go.  It loads your level, and bam, you start. 

This?  Not so much.  Gone is the prep screen, for one; instead anything can be done on the fly.  Finally kill enough dudes for enough skill points to get a new thing?  Buy it.  Pick up a new weapon you want to try out?  Equip it.  Right there, right on the spot.

How missions start (at least in story mode so far) is that it loads and places you in the main camp.  You can walk around, talk to the NPCs (who all have voice acting), buy weapons from the vendor, and finally talk to whomever will start the mission.  Now, for any veteran, you would expect a loading screen at this point.  NOT SO.  Upon talking to the starter guy, the gates open and suddenly, shit has just gotten real.  The mission is -on-.  Dynamically.  It might not sound like a lot, but it's amazing in its effect.

Honestly, everything about the effect, the presentation, has been cranked up a notch.  You enter cutscenes seamlessly and leave them just as easily.  Gone is the black-screen sweep to play a little scene showing off something, somewhere or showing off a new enemy.  It just goes right into them, cinematically almost, now really keeping you into the whole thing.

They've also done some considerable tightening on the story; even though I imagine it will still do the normal splintering of "what really happened" towards the end of the kingdom's modes.  Still, I'm impressed that, instead of referring to Cao Cao as "Cow cow", they have gone with the actual "Tsao Tsao", and etc.  It takes a lot of effort to care about your presentation that much and it really helps getting the player to care about it.  (Of course, this may be the fanatical history nerd talking)

While I haven't put a lot of time into it, my first impression is overwhelmingly positive; I haven't been this excited since picking up Yakuza 4 for the first time, and with any luck, juggling between the two of them will be the best of gaming chores for weeks to come.  So if you've had even a cursory interest in the Dynasty Warriors series to this point, I would strongly implore you to seek out a copy at your preferred pricepoint.  It's a keeper.

Quick Note - DST and Yakuza 4

So, I still haven't gotten used to the new time thanks to Daylight Savings Time.  I mean, yes, sure, I look at the clock and see, "Oh, it's 11" and my rational brain goes, "I should be finishing up a blog post by now." But the rest of my brain is like, "Wait, what, no it's 10, we've still got time.  And besides, I don't even know what to -tell- you, man."

And then I look and it's 12:13 and I go, uh-oh.

I meant to make a post like this the other day, pointing out that I am not completely in sorts as of yet, but I was like, "Bleh, it'll never be a problem."  WELP.  Apologies all around on that and such.  I do have a couple notes to cover, though, to have this post have a bit of substance to it aside from me whinging about time.

I was playing Yakuza 4 earlier, unsurprisingly, and I just had one of the, as I call them, "Yakuza!" moments that I've had in the previous games.  Now, for me, the "Yakuza!" moments boil down to "DEFEAT ABSURDITY WITH NO MERCY" and things that just make you say, "HELL YEAH".  Today's moment was the former.

So, there I was, walking about Kamurocho as Akiyama, minding my own business, looking for a thug to challenge me to a random fight.  And did I ever get a challenge.  This guy, titled, I believe, "Rich Man" challenged me to a fight wearing a money-green, garish, ugly suit with a, no kidding, George Washington hairstyle or wig.  So, okay.  He wants to throw down, I'm not about to turn him down (even if I could).  The fight went pretty quickly, since, well, it was just him vs. me, and I ended it with my newly-upgraded "Essence of Finishing" move. 

(For the best effect, you may want to listen to this song while reading what the move is.  Sure, it's from Yakuza 3, but it's badass)

The move, for the unfamiliar, is where Akiyama football-punts the guy in the face as he is getting up.

The upgraded version of the move, is where Akiyama football-punts the guy in the face as he is getting up, then proceeds to handstand and bring his knee directly down on the guy's face.

In that moment, I was just shaking my controller in victory and elation, going, "YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS THIS IS WHAT I WANTED".  And all was right in the world.

The second note, which probably won't matter to anyone reading this, is that, apparently, Dynasty Warriors 7 is coming out the 29th, not the 22nd.  Which means more guilt-free Yakuza 4 time for me!  (As in, if I bought DW7 tuesday, it would not get played right away, and thus, I would feel guilty.)