Full Tilt: Blog #6: Ride #5: The Kamikaze v2

Hmmm...ummm...this ride is cool but after the last one I don't have any really high praise for it. I guess I prefer it to the sixth ride, but still, it's a letdown compared to the fourth ride. The thing that comes between the fifth and sixth rides makes up for that though. That part is AWESOME. Too bad I'll never talk about it. The fifth ride starts off bad with the lap bar in Blake's seat not going down. Then the ride begins it's 10 minute ascent to the very top, and then when the ride did it's rediculously huge descent down, the ride, of course, shifted shapes once again. The individual cars turned into a Japanese Zero plane. The relation to Blake this time is that Blake has a model of a Japanese Zero plane in his room. Blake also was in the plane that led the squadron of the other riders on the Kamikaze. The fact that he was in charge also delved into his deeper fear: the fear of failing and taking everyone down with him. To Blake, it actually feels like he has control on the ride, but then Cassandra appears again and begins on a 1 on 1 fight between her and Blake. She eventually shot him down, but as he was flying towards the ocean, he was reminded of what Cassandra said to him before: "There's a way out of every ride." Frantically searching seconds before the crash, he found a button with the ride symbol on it on the instrument panel of his plane. He immediatly hit it, which ejected his seat up into the air, and out of the ride. Nothing really too interesting to discuss on this ride. I guess one could draw a conncection between the Japaneses Zero planes, which were suicidal bombing planes made to take out enemies. To some, maybe the huge descent on a roller coaster feels like a suicide attack. Going staight down, rediculously hard to see due to velocity, and fear for some. I guess that could be similar to what suicidal pilots would feel like before they crash into an enemy ship. Done.

Full Tilt: Blog #5: Ride #4: Mirror House Maze

Ahh...the Mirror Maze. This is by far my most favorite ride in this book. The concept for this ride is really awesome, plus the interaction between Blake and Maggie is really cool in this ride as well. Just gonna start with the very weird part of the ride: there are commando clowns. Yeah...commando clowns in the ride. They are clowns in commando outfits with bazookas. Of ocurse, since the rides in here are so dangerous, the shells don't just hit the glass and explode, or even better, break the glass. No, they bounce off the galss mirrors and keep bouncing until they hit someone in the maze and then the unfortuanate person dies. Anyways, now for the summary of the ride. Blake quickly notices how something is odd in the ride. Some mirrors are like fun houses, where they just make you look strange, but others were much more...sinister, I guess. When Blake looked in some mirrors he felt hopeless, weak, and doomed to fail. The mirrors acutally could change the way you felt about yourself. Also, some others make you look like extremely disfigured monsters. So, after wandering around for a while Blake saw some disfigured monster walking around in the maze, and long story short, realized it's Maggie. Then, shortly after, he realized the coolest and most devious part of the maze. None of the mirrors are solid and there are no walls holding them in. Of course, this doesn't make it easy to get out. As he and Maggie walked through mirrors, they became even more disfigured to the point where it's hard to move, or feel so hopeless they want to give up. In the end, Blake and Maggie get separated at the very end of the ride. Blake escapes but Maggie gets stuck in there, sees a mirror that made her completly lose all confidence, and soon she was gone. So, this ride is awesome. The concept of going through mirrors that change the way you actually think about yourself is awesome. Amplification of one's own personal weaknesses shows how devious this park, and Cassandra, can be. Dang, I think this is the longest one I've ever written. Why do these seem to keep getting longer and longer... Done.

Full Tilt: Blog #4: Ride #3: Swinging Boat

So...ride #3...exciting isn't it? At this point, it has become apparent that the rides are slowly getting more dangerous, the mysteries of the park are being revealed, and new things about Cassandra are being learned. Unfortunately, I won't be discussing any of those ideas in this blog post. The third ride that Blake goes on is a swinging boat. Unlike the other rides, Blake actually doesn't start on the ride. As he enters the area of the ride, the boat becomes a giant ship in the middle of an ocean. Instead of beginning on the ship, he starts in the water surrounding it. When he gets on the ship, the captain tells him how they're going after the great blue whale. It is at this point that it is apparent this ride is made from the book: Moby Dick. He sees the whale and the captain describes her by saying, "See how she opens her mouth to filter life from the sea! I'd hate to be a krill caught in her baleen." This line is very reminiscent of the one said before by Blake, which was, "You see, my Mom is sort of like a blue whale...Mom filters losers through her baleen as if they were kirll." It is at this point that Blake realizes that the whale in the ride is his mom, and the captain is Carl, her current boyfriend. This makes is apparent that Cassandra not only knows about Blake, but she can read and use his actual thoughts and things he has said. This makes her almost invincible, and gives her a huge advantage over Blake. Anyways, Captain Carl of course, like Moby Dick, fails to defeat the blue whale, but Blake escapes. So, is there an established meaning behind Carl "losing" against Blake's mom? Most likely. To Blake, and most likely to Quinn as well, Carl has no chance with Blake's mom due to her going through a string of relationships that don't seem to have much meaning. Oh my god I wrote a lot. Done.

Full Tilt: Blog #3: Ride #2: Bumper Cars

To start off for this, an update. Apparently I don't need to summarize what happens between rides, so that won't be in these as I said in the last one. But, I still will summarize the ride, otherwise it would all just sound really weird. So, the second ride in Full Tilt is the Bumper Cars. Like the first ride, and like all of the other rides in this book, this ride transforms. As Blake, Russ, and Maggie get on, the bumper cars turn into Volvos, and the enviornment turns into a gangster war in Chicago. The riders in here (with the exceptions of Blake, Russ, and Maggie) all get way into the ride. Their previous anger shoots out and all they can think of is to kill the others, and destroy the opponenets. For example, some 10-year old girl rams into Blake and flies off the road onto a bench. Even though her head is bleeding, and he car is crashed she still is obsessed with anger. She says to Blake, "I'll get you, you stinking lousy...oh, man, you're screwed! I swear I'll get you!" She said all this in pure rage, her mind is lost. For conclusion to the ride, Blake escapes and is separated from Russ and Maggie. Oh, and of course, Cassandra attacks again. Anyways, I guess I could discuss the idea of the rides centering around Blake. This ride relates to Blake because he drives a Volvo. Also, he has many vintage models of cars in his room, and those cars are the cars that are driven by the other riders. Why this ride takes place in Chicago, I don't know. I don't believe he has any relation to Chicago, but many it's something not as important, like he watched a movie about it, or read about old wars in Chicago. Either way, it's not mentioned in the book. Woah...I went way over the amount of words needed this time. 314 words. Not counting this sentence, the previous one, or the one before the previous one. Done.

Full Tilt: Blog #2: Ride #1: The Carousel

Now that the intro section of this book is out of the way, I can move on to what I've been planning to do with these blogs. As I mentioned in the outside reading reflection, this book contains 7 rides, all of which have a deep meaning with the main character, Blake. These rides are very deep and I will analyze these rides in each bog, one at a time. Maybe provide a little back story between rides, if it's necessary, although (typically, one HUGE exception) not much happens between rides. The first ride that the Blake goes on is The Carousel. The Carousel is very important because it is the first real ride that Blake goes on in the park. Looking at it, it looks like a normal carousel, nothing special. Blake notices one thing about it though, and that is that all of the animals are mascots for the colleges he's considering going to, since he's leaving in a month or so. As soon as the ride starts though, it is very apparent it isn't normal. The ground beneath Blake, Russ, and Maggie (his friends) disappear, and rocks and a grassy plain appear. Soon, everyone on the ride was riding an actual animal, and those who flew off or were knocked off...to put it simply, or as simply as possible: die or "become a part of the park" (ex: they become the rocks in the ride, forever). Also, the being of Cassandra will basically attack Blake on every ride, and she tries in this one. I'll get more into that later. I guess in addition to talking about the rides I can talk about Cassandra. Anyways, now time to analyze. Think of the thoughts going through their heads as the ride transformed: it's amazing that they didn't freak out and die. Also, in terms of Blake noticing the mascots were all from colleges how knows, do his friends notice? What could they do even if they did? Why/Why would/wouldn't he tell them? These are all good questions and I'll simplify the answers cause I'm probably already done. No, not much, because he wants to, because he's afraid they'll react badly. Done.

A Sad and Tearful Goodbye To Chosen Articles About Videogames....and Blog #1: The Kamikaze

*cry, cry, cry, whimper, whimper, whimper* No more chosen posts...no more video game topics...no more...uh...PS3 related-stuff. It's sad really. At least the book to read can be chosen, unlike past years. I don't want to read The Complete Works of Shakspere: Volume XXXXXXXXXXVVVVVVI. The book I'm reading is Full Tilt, by Neal Shusterman. Some other famous books by him include Downsiders and Speeding Bullet. Anyways, this is Blog #1 and the topic in this book I'll be discussing for this is the ride that Blake, Quinn, Maggie, and Russ (the main characters) go on: The Kamikaze. To be honest, I still don't know what I'll be talking about at this point, but whatever, I'll wing it (that expression makes no sense). Okay, so The Kamikaze is a rollercoaster that the main characters go on very close to the beginning of the book. It is a rollercoaster with a thematic show: the track appears to dissapear as though you will...well...DIE, but it's not real. Of course, the main character Blake knew nothing about this shows, and was terrified when he saw the track fall. He actually thought he was going to die. This raises the question: What if he responded differently? Differently than just basically praying to god that is. What if he actually tried to jump off the rollercoaster during the ride, or somehow messed up something by trying to get out, and created some deadly chain reaction? By deadly chain reaction, I mean think like Final Destination 3...then again, I really doubt you've seen that Ms. Jarrett. Anyways, if he had responded differently, and somehow was injured or died, what would then happen? Could he sue them for not knowing what would happen, or is it all his own ignorance and fear? We will probably never know...oh look I'm at 301 words. Well, I'm done.

Outside Reading Reflection

The book I chose for outside reading is Full Tilt, by Neal Shusterman. I picked this book to read for many reasons. First of all, I really like the cover...wow that sounds dumb. But it’s true. The cover looks cool. Also, this book overall sounds really good. Going by the description on the back: “In order to escape, Blake must survive seven deadly rides by dawn, each of which represents a deep personal fear…” That overall sounds really awesome. To me, and I don’t know why, I like the sound of the structure of this book. I like things where there is like a structure, a list of levels (kind of like a video game). One final reason that this book interests me is that it sounds like a thrilling book. Not scary, but thrilling. For some reason, no books or movies seem to scare me. Anyways, due to these reasons, I chose the book Full Tilt, by Neal Shusterman to read for outside reading this quarter.

Blog #15: The many ways to die in N+

Blog #15. YAY the FINAL blog...for this quarter. So, to celebrate the final blog, we have a completly random topic. Yep. N+. Blog#15: Find a text about someone overcoming odds. Yeah. I noticed that this one and Blog#2 are basically exactly the same thing. Just worded differently. Very slightly. Anyways, N+ is game about a ninja guy. He tries to collect money...and gems...and...uh... This is to hard to explain. Here's a video showing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ5slv3RDqA. N+ started as a freeware pc game, then went to the Nintendo DS and PSP. The game is notoriously hard, but still very fun. As the title of the blog says, there are many ways to die. Many many ways. Now that the summary is done, the general opinion topic for this post: difficulty in games. Personally, I like to play different games with many varied difficulties. I like games from Mario Kart (racing game, very simple, easy pick-up-and-plauy) to Devil May Cry 3 (Action-adventure game where on the 2nd highest difficulty you die in 1 hit, and enemies are super-powereful). Overall, we should not complain about difficulties too much, because it is good to be challenged in a game, and to many people, it is also fun. If we didn't want any challenge at all then we'd be playing "HAPPY HAPPY FUN FUN RAINBOWS BARBIE AND MY LITTLE PONY I-X" for the next 890,756 years.

Blog #14: This week's SingStore update is full of love songs

Blog#14. Yay only two left! Oh, wait. Nevermind. We'll still have another 15 blogs next quarter. I seriously do not see the point of these blogs. Then again, I'm not even sure if you read these or just check them (Ms. Jarrett). I suppose me saying they are pointless won't get me anywhere though... Lame. Blog#14: Find a text about love. Unfortuanently, Resident Evil 5 is not (that much) about love. I guess I could talk about *HUGE SPOILERS* but those would be *spoilers*, and that would be bad. So..now we talk more about Singstar. And love songs. Lame. Short Summary: Singsatr is a singing game that now has many love songs available for purchase, such as The Bangles – Eternal Flame, Westlife – If I let You Go, Will Young – Leave Right Now, Frankie Goes To Hollywood – The Power of Love, and Sara Bareilles – Love Song. Um...I know I'm supposed to have some opinion about it, but...nothing comes to mind. People want to sing love songs, whatever, fine with me. I won't stop them. But there's no way I'm singing them.

Blog #13: Yes, Resident Evil 5 has a 5GB install

Blog #13: Find a text about war. Guess what? This means....more Resident Evil 5 topics!!!!!! Yay! This is great timing though, since Resident Evil 5 comes out this Friday. I'll be getting it in about, oh: 2 days, 21 hours, and 3 minutes. Give or take a few seconds. So, the next Resident Evil 5 topic: Yes, Resident Evil 5 has a 5 GB install. In case one doesn't know exactly what that means, I'll explain. Let's use the PS3 as an example. The PS3 has three different versions: 40 GB, 60 GB, and 80 GB. I personally own the 60 GB one, and for some reason I actually seem to go through the GB quickly. Probably because I download demos, games, videos, trailers, and install games. When you get a PS3 game it automatically installs itself on your HDD (Hard Disc Drive) which makes the load times between levels more faster, and overall makes the game perform better. Unfortuanently for me, I will have to clean out my PS3... Anyways, although the install is sometimes annoying in how one has to make room for it, it does overall benefit the owner of the PS3. Sometimes though, the game installs can be annoying because (ex: DMC4 took 30 min to install) the installs can take awhile. Overall, in my opinion: Installs are worth it, sometimes annoying, but overall very benefical to one's gaming experience.

Blog #12: New PS3 sci-fi action RPG heads to 'Mars'

Blog #12. You know, I was just thinking how nice it was when we could write about anyhting we wanted. Ah, the good old days. As in a few months ago. Blog #12: Find a text about imperialsim or colonization. Now, this blog actually made me have to look. By typing "impearialism" and "colonization" in a search box. There was only 1 videogame realted article. That's it! Not good enough. Mars is a future PS3/PC sci-fi rpg coming out, that I've never heard of, that takes place...on Mars. Oh, and the colonization piece of it: 'The game takes place 200 years after the colonization of Mars. Inexplicably, the orbit of Mars is altered, causing a communications breakdown with Earth and exposing the inhabitants to solar radiation.' Yep. Now, this is actually fairly interesting. If we tried to colonize mars, would it negatively affect us? Could Mars actually be physically altered by our presence there (i.e: orbit changing)? If we did have the ability to colonize Mars, would we consider the outcome? I personally believe (in order): Maybe, yes, and most definently not. So, either way, no matter what...Earth is screwed.

Blog #11: PS3 contributes to global warming?

Blog #11: Find a text about a global issue. So...this could be anything essentially, due to one's definition of a global issue. Anyways, the issue in this post is global warming. Now, this article is about the idea of PS3s causing global warming. This is because the PS3 uses a lot of energy, and takes a lot of electricity. Here's a part of the article: "Have you pre-ordered your PlayStation 3 yet? If you have it recommends you top-up the pre-payments on your electricity account at the same time. The US version of the PS3 comes with a whopping 380 Watt power supply. That's over twice as much as its main competitor the Xbox 360 with its 165W unit, and over seven times more power hungry than the PlayStation 2. If you were to combine a PS3 with a LG 71" HD Ready Plasma TV to take full advantage of the amazing graphics you could be burning 1.4kWh (kilowatts) of power per hour and if you're a serious gamer that could cost you £1.19 for a five hour session." So, opinions, opinions... Well, ANYTHING could be contributed to global warming. Anything that uses energy could be linked to global warming...so I wouldn't consider this article very valid. Of course, using "buzz words" like "PS3" and "global warming" will get people's attention, but hopefully most people can look past the buzz words and instead look at the pointlessness of the article.

Blog #10: PS3 Fanboy Holiday Buyer's Guide 2007

Blog #10: Find a text about holidays - national or religious. See now, THIS is much better than the Bollywood topic. THIS, I can work with. Unfortuanently, not with Resident Evil 5 though. Anyways, Christmas is a great time for gamers. Christmas is typically when big-name titles come out, such as Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, Resistance, and God of War. Many people will decide on their own what they want, and probably make a list for Chrsitmas. Some though, need some extra help, so they look at holiday buyer's guide, to help them decide. The website PS3 Fanboy created a Holiday Buyer's Guide for 2007, and while I won't go over everything in the guide, I will say the general categories. The categories are: Hardware, Accessories, Peripheral Gaming, Software, and Blu-ray Movies. I think that these guides are useful...but still...unneccesary. People can decide on their own what they want, but for completly indecisive people I guess it could work. With or without the guide, people are going to spend (most likely) tons of money around the Holidays. Nothing will prevent that, but almost anything could amplify it.

Blog #9: SingStar Bollywood shuffles into Europe this Friday

Blod #9. Busy work, busy work. Feels so pointless... Blog #9: Find a text about Bolloywood... Bollywood... That's absolutly rediculous. Ludicrous. This topic is waaaaaaaaaaay too specific for my needs. I cannot link Resident Evil 5 to Bollywood. I can't link ANY games to Bollywood! At least, that's what I thought... Singstar is a videogame. Where you sing, into a microphone to go along with the music on the screen. It's a very "meh" type of game in my opinion, but some people really like it. Anyways, there have been many types of Singstar games. Examples would be: 90s, Decades, Classic, Rock, Country, etc. Now, apparently, there's a Singstar Bollywood. Amazing. Side note: This game can only be in found in Europe. All of the games' songs come from Bollywood films, like Bride and Prejudice. Ohhhhh....I see what you did with this article topic. You had it be this week so it would go together with the movie that we're watching. Clever. Okay, moving on, the songs found in this game are numerous, but they all have non-English titles so it's not worth it to list them. Aw, whatever, here's a few: Aashiqui - Nazar Ke Samne, Askar - Jhalak Dikhla Ja, and Chalte Chalte - Chalte Chalte. Translate it if you want. Anyways, I guess this would be a challenge to play, considering the unique ways they sing, I can't imagine playing it.

Blog #8: Joystiq interview: Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi

Blog #8. Meh. This is the only homework I have...without it I would have none... I was so close. Blog #8: Find a text that addresses culture - this could be food, clothes, traditions, religion, etc. Guess what's coming??? Yay, that's right, more Resident Evil 5 topics! So, in order of culture ideas expressed on the blogging sheet (and I will describe things beyond the article, since I've played the demo around 10 times): food - watermelons and apples, clothes - somewhat ragge shirts and shorts, some nicer things like dress shirts less common, traditions - um...killing people (IN THE DEMO! IN THE DEMO!), culture - cults (again in the demo). Now remember. This is a demo. For a game. About zombies. Out of all the things I listed, the true ones are probably (roughly) food and clothes. Apparently, a while ago, Capcom employees went to Africa to see what it looks like, and what is common in Africa. They tried to make the game as much like Africa as possible...besides the killing of people and zombies and murder and explosions. I think that it was a noble effort of Capcom to actually make the effort to go to Africa to notice deatils and imrove the game. For example, since Africa is not actually completly composed of African-Americans, Resident Evil 5 has multi-cultural people in Africa.

Blog #7: Metareview: Street Fighter IV (PS3, Xbox 360)

Blog #7! Oh man! Oh jeez! WOO HOO! I'm joking, it's really not that exciting. The EXCITING (joking, joking) topic for blog #7 is anything about change. My mind fills with ideas as the EXCITEMENT (joking still) fills my body. So, for change, let's talk about Street Fighter IV. Street Fighter is a long-running series of fighting games, and since...well, now, the games have always been 2D. Also, by 2D, I don't mean any of that 2D/3D stuff. I mean pure 2D. Well now, the game graphics have completly changed and the visual style of the game is basically completly different. To many hardcore fans (not me), the question may linger: Was the change neccessary? Some praise this new style, while others may spit and yell at it (well, not really). This game is not alone in changing dramatically, it has happened to many recent games. Example of this are: Resident Evil 5, Metal Gear Solid 4, and some other games that I can't think of at this time. Personally, I don't really feel strongly about the change, as I am not a long-time fan of the series. But I will say this: I believe that many developers believe that for the next-gen sustems, change is neccessary to keep up. It's true in some cases, yet wrong in many others.

Blog #6: God of War III official site is now live

Blog #6. Whoop de razmatazz. This time the thrilling topic of extreme thrillness is...hope. Thrilling. While the title of this may not seem like it relates to hope at first, it actually does. God of War III is a highly-anticipated PS3 game coming out...well, we don't know. This is where hope comes into play. Many MANY people hope that this game will come out in 2009, while many (some of the same people) hope that the game will be great. To some this would seem to be contradicting because frequently when a game is rushed, the game is left unfinished and much worse than it could be. A perfect example of this is Sonic The Hedgehog 2006. Had the game not been rushed by...A YEAR...it would have been much better. What typically seems to happen in cases such as this is that everyone says things like "We NEED this game NOW!" and "OMG this game better come out in 2009!" But the irony of the situation is that those same idiots will say things like "OMG this game sucks so much, why didn't they fix the glitches and make the graphics better?!?!?" Personally, in my opinion...I want the game in 2009. But I also wouldn't want it to come out early if it would stop the game from reaching it's full potential. (Yeah, I basically just said "I want it soon and I want it perfect")

Blog #5: Muslim group disagrees with LittleBigPlanet delay decision

Blog #5 topic (oh boy oh boy) is: Find a text about religion/spirituality/belief/non-belief. Although this seems really vague, it actually took me a little while to find one. Anyways, I did. A while ago, right before Little Big Planet (a big-name PS3 exclusive) came out, there was a dispute. And a delay. One of the songs in the game (and this game has tons of cultural songs) had direct quotes from the Qur'an in the lyrics. When developer Media Molecule and Sony chose to delay LBP because they needed to fix the song, they did it because they thought it would offend Muslims. They were wrong. Actually, the exact opposite happened. M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D., president of the non-profit American Islamic Forum for Democracy actually said that he was offended by the delay, saying that it went against free speech. I really find this interesting. I probably would have done the same thing as Sony, but I wouldn't know why I did (if that makes any sense). I would feel like people would be offended, but I don't know why. People are WAY too sensitive, let's end it with that.

Blog #4: The Resident Evil 5 FAQ

Okay, blog #4. Whoop de doo. Anyways, the topic this time is: Find a text about gender and gender roles. It may be specific to one gender, or address both. Well, guess what? Resident Evil 5 (yet again) has characters in it. These characters are both male and female (gasp!). So, I will discuss Resident Evil 5 again. But with a different article this time. In Resident Evil 5, the main characters are Chris Redfield and Sheva...something. I think Alemar. Sheva Alemar. Anyways, Chris (the guy, obviously) is shown as the strong, serious, intelligent guy. He has cantelopes in his arms. Now, in most games, the female character would be weak and scrawny. And cry a lot, dependant on the guy constantly. But not in this game. Sheva is (almost) as strong as Chris, as intelligent, and serious. They both depend on eachother equally. So, at this point, we wonder why not have all females as a strong character? Well, there have been some strong women in games, and many not-so much. Not-so much: Princess Peach (Mario games), Zelda (EARLY Zelda games). Strong women: Colette and Raine (Tales of Symphonia), Meryl (Metal Gear Solid). The weak woman in games used to be common, but now, not so much. Maybe people complained. (wow, what a crappy ending)

Blog #3: TGS 08: Resident Evil 5 trailers

Blog #3: Again with the forced stuff. Well, this time the topic is: culture different than my own. Easy. Resident Evil 5 is a game coming out soon that takes place in Africa (Gasp! A culture different than mine!). Yes, the majority of the people you fight are african-american, which did spark some controversy at first, but people got used to it. Anyways, in RE4, all of the enemies were Mexican, so... In the new trailer (since we're talking strictly about culture here) you can see how the houses are simple and one-level. Of course, trying to compare this game to real Africa is a stupid attempt, for in real Africa, I'm almost certain that the people aren't infested with parasites, and there aren't chainsaw-weilding guys with bags on their heads. Although they are not comparable with specific characteristics, or people for that matter, the look of Africa is easily recognizable in the trailers for RE5. Overall: General looks are found, specific characteristics are mostly lost, and the people...well, I'll say it like this. If that was what the actual people of Africa were like, I think I'd never go there. Ever.

Blog #2: Alma's back in latest F.E.A.R. 2 trailer

Yay! Blog #2 of forced topics! Woo hoo! No longer can I discuss reviews of games! Awesome! So, the topic this week is: Find a text about someone overcoming struggle or facing a difficulty...wow, the way this is phrased, it could be linked to anything...whatever. So, for this one, I found an article about Fear 2...wait, wait, wait...sorry, I meant F.E.A.R 2...I think it stands for something. Fea...F.E.A.R is a game (now series) with a creepy little girl called Alma (these games might as well be called The Ring/The Ring 2. Anyways, the game is supposed to be scary, as the article says, but I personally don't find it very scary. Then, again, I've played the Silent Hill games which are some of the scariest games out there... Anyways, this game relies highly on pop-up scares, which (in my opinion) are cheap scares, and not atmospheric like the good scares. Also, the whole little girl thing is really a cliche. That's been overdone so many times, when is our osciety going to get past the idea of "Holy crap...little kids are so scary!"? Anyways, that's about it for this post.

Blog #1: No duh your PSP won't survive a disaster

So, the first blog in a new system of...restrictions, I guess. Excitement overwhelms me. And the topic is...natural disasters. Great. This article is a stretch, but it works. So, game systems and natural disasters. Fairly obvious to me, but it seems some are stupid enough to think their PSP/PS3/Wii/DS could survive tornados/hurricanes/earthquakes/world blowing up. The article discusses how the DS is more probable to survive a disaster than the PSP, due to the design. (It was at this point that I realized I was supposed to not summarize the article, but kept it anyways.) The PSP has been able to live through things, as can most game systems, but natural disasters? Please, who would believe that? Well...morons I guess. This would be comparable to a guy saying, "Don't worry buddy, you cat will survive being lit on fire and thrown over a clife. He's durable." That would also be stupid. Much moreso though. Okay, so, moral of the story: don't be stupid. Seriously, don't. Otherwise smart people like me will laugh at you. Actually, that entertains me... On second thought, go ahead and be stupid.

What Rock Band Can Help You Do Musically (kotaku.com)

(more kotaku stuff) So you've probably heard of Rock Band. Or Rock Band 2. Or Guitar Hero. Or Audiosurf. Or any music game...meh. Many people have said that playing with plastic "instruments" gives none of the real feel of playing an instrument. Well, that's mostly true. If you played Guitar Hero, and then tried a real guitar, you'll notice there aren't 5 brightly colored buttons that you press. On a real guitar, there are like 200 buttons. For this issue of real vs. fake, Harmonix boss Alex Rigopulos said, "First of all, in Rock Band the singing gameplay is really singing, and the game feedback on the singer’s pitch really does help people become better singers. And while the drumming gameplay isn’t an exact replication of real drumming, it’s certainly a sufficiently close simulation that players develop skills which they can directly apply to real drumming. I am continually seeing people migrate from Rock Band onto real drums naturally." But, as I mentioned before, the guitars are really not similar. Overall, in list of most realistic for instruments: microphone>drums>guitar/bass.

Street Fighter IV controllers (kotaku.com)

(Having not gotten any of my magazines in a while, so...back to articles on kotaku) Okay...heard of Street Fighter IV? Or any Street Fighter game? Or...a fighting game? If you've ever played a fighting game in an arcade, you've most likely seen the button layout and joystick. Those big red buttons that glare so harshly when you lose. Anyways, Street Fighter IV is coming out soon, a game that many are looking forward to. It is similar to the old games, but has a new art style and online play, and is coming out for the PS3 and 360. In case you're one of those arcade-addicts who refuses to play a fighting game without the arcade layout, don't worry. You're in luck (...lack of humor today). In Japan, Hori has developed an arcade controller for SF4, one for the PS3 and one slightly different one for the 360. The 360 one has just 6 buttons, while the PS3 has eight buttons and a turbo that enables 20 presses-per-second button presses....I could make a joke about that, but...meh. The 360 one will cost ¥7,980 (US$89) while the PS3 one will cost ¥9,800 (US$110).

Oh man...so tired (Reviews, part 2)

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...ugh, now I'm really getting tired. See all the z's? That means I'm tired. Ok, Chrono Trigger, for the DS. This was a GREAT game on the Super Nintendo, but then came the PS version, which was just not as good. Chrono Trigger is an RPG about a group of time-traveling adventurers. OH, but see BACK THEN, that was COMPLETLY ORIGINAL. Never been done before. This remake for the DS, is actually true, and great. This is everything the original game had, but slightly more. In a good...great way. The game got an A+, and a Gold Award. Okay, the next game = terrible. Okay, average...but terrible in my opinion mostly because I hate football. (If anyone didn't know that, I'd actually be fairly surprised.) Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff, for the DS, is a remake of (I believe) a SNES game. It was cool at the time, but now...well, short answer: No. Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. To start off with, the game has terrible music. Also, there are unneccesary changes to the game that only worsen it. The game got a C, C+, and B-.

Oh man...so tired (Reviews, part 1)

Ugh...these blog posts are really starting to get annoying. Okay, first up is Valkyria Chornicals. (Hope I didn't talk about these before.) This game is a PS3 exclusive and is a tactical-rpg. If you don't know what that is, sorry, there's nothing to compare this game to. This game is already really unique as it is. This game is praised for being extremely varied, and for it's beautiful visuals. The game combines tactical game play with third person action, with role-playing elements as well. One flaw of this game though is that there can be too much text at certain times, and with a lack of many cutscenes, that can be annoying. The game got an A-, and got the Gold Award. Next, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, another PS3 exclusive. Hearing the word Naruto in here may make some go, "OMGOMGOMGOMG! I LOVES NARUTO!!!!!" but it may also make others go, "LOL! NAURTO IS STOOPID!." I'm perosnally somewhere inbetween the two. This is a fighting game for the most part, but also occasionally an adventure game. The fighting system is fairly intricate, and is pretty fun. The game also has great graphics, and a fairly good story mode. The game got a B.