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.