At the beginning of this semester I was swamped. School was harder than ever, because I was taking 20 hours and because my classes were actually tough for once, I was working twice as much as this time last year, and I had something of an axe hanging over my head in the form of a Study Abroad application I had finished over the summer. I had almost no time for gaming and quickly became disillusioned, retreating into books, something that requires less input on my part to get to the story. As time went on I slowly re-entered gaming in general.

About a month ago there was only one game I wanted out of this fall/holiday season, Borderlands. As time progressed I was highly impressed by a few other contenders. DJ Hero grabbed the part of me that loves rhythm games and won't let go, the addition of Daft Punk only adding fuel to that fire. Uncharted 2 apparently looks, sounds and plays gorgeously, with a seamless story and quite fun multiplayer to boot. Demons' Souls looked to quench a thirst I wasn't even sure I had, but the more I saw of it the more I wanted it to hurt me in its beautifully dark fantasy world. Brutal Legend struck a chord in my heart with its reverence for metal and the minds that spawned such a rich and fantastic world.

Essentially my price of admission to this fall's gaming bonanza went from $45 to at least $360, but one little email changed all of that in an instant.



This excited me immensely because I had been waiting for a decision on what could easily have been a life-altering event. So I headed over to their website and found this.



That sentence meant that I was going to fulfill a dream I've had since I found out where the 2010 World Cup was going to be. For at least the past 5-6 years I've told everyone I know that 2nd semester junior year of college I would Study Abroad in South Africa and then stay and attend the World Cup. I was unaware just how much this had been weighing me down, and the instant elation I felt was tremendous. I was literally giddy.



The next day I was still happy enough to say "Fuck it, I kind of want to get Demons' Souls, so I will." I went to Game stop and they were out, but told me to come back the next day. So I did, and again, and again. In all I went to the local Gamestop four days in a row. Each day being told that all their copies had been purchased before my arrival. On Friday I was told to return on Monday.

Over this weekend period my desire has cooled off considerably for Demons' Souls, but it was matching by a ramping up of interest for Uncharted 2 and, oddly enough, Left 4 Dead 2. Saturday night as I watched the USA qualify for their 6th straight World Cup the reality of my situation really hit me. This led me to make a quick, yet torturous decision. No new games. In fact, no more game purchases at all. I have a tendency to only finish more recent games, and ones I've bought in the past or for cheap generally have more trouble holding my interest. It's going to be difficult, but the pay off will be tremendous. Not only will I have the opportunity to fulfill a life's dream, but Cape Town is also something of a mecca for awesome activities, such as cage diving with sharks.



The possibilities for travel are also immense, the ability to see a multitude of things I never have, and probably never will again.



In short, it is a chance I shouldn't squander. So I'm going to make the most of it, and until I get there some sacrifices will have to be made. Despite how inextricably linked gaming has been to my life for so long, ignoring the fact that the run-up to new releases will still make me dizzy with anticipation it is simply one of the easiest things to cut entirely from a budget, so cut it has become. There are things beyond gaming that require my dollars, so for once I'm not going to bow down at the altar of minds greater than my own, pay my $60 tribute and receive a good time.

It's important to remember that there are things that go beyond gaming. It's not just having to pay the rent or get out of debt that should curtail your purchases, there are things in life that shouldn't be missed. I believe that I have stumbled into one of them, and I'm going to let it bleed me dry. I will pick up most of, if not all of, those games eventually, but for now I'm going to step away. I suppose this is more of a personal musing, in that I just happen to be actively breaking what has become a sacred tradition in gaming, but I hope it can get you to take a step back at some point as well, sometimes I feel that I've relied too much on gaming to take me away when there's a whole world out there waiting to be explored.

Don't expect any dazzling reviews or insight into the latest thing from me for quite a while. If I stay strong it'll be nothing particularly new until I leave in January, and I won't be coming back until the end of July. If the reception is friendly I may throw a few non-gaming, but still awesome, related blogs up during that long stretch, but it's still a ways off, so who knows.

Also, I just want to say great job on recent CBlog updates Niero, the picture uploader is super snappy now, along with pretty much everything else.

This was pretty much a last second change to a monthly musing, its original title was Fall Purchase Panacea, but I like to throw something down as a Monthly Musing even if it only barely fits, and truth-be-told this one may only fit in the twisted depths of my mind.

It's been a while since I've blogged at length, but it's also been a while since I haven't not slept because of staggering amounts of homework. Either way I decided to get some quick impressions up.

I was browsing gametrailers earlier today and saw some Bayonetta videos. Up to this point I haven't been particularly interested in the game, despite hearing absolutely wondrous sounding things about it for more than a year. I started watching one of the videos and was intrigued by two things, the fact that all the speech was in English with the text being Japanese, and that it said demo. I paused the video immediately and mosied on over to my japanese PSN account. Lo and behold there was the Bayonetta demo, up for grabs. I had seen zero fanfare regarding its availability, so I felt as if I was discovering a hidden treasure. So, my impressions, let me show you them.



The demo consists of

Tutorial

You can play this, I did, but there's still a fair chance you won't bother with most of what it teaches you anyways. The important thing to remember is that R2 is dodge.

Cutscene 1
Corridors + Fight in Open Courtyard + Big Angel #1
2 second fight in small room
Fight against staircase devouring Big Angel #2
Cutscene
Boss Fight

1.The first cutscene doesn't reveal much, in fact I could barely hear what was being said, so it didn't reveal much at all. Long story short Bayonetta is on a train, there are ghost things behind her being all menacing, someone is saying something, she turns around and the ghost things are lounging as if menace was the furthest thing from their evil minds, train arrives at station.

2.I also spent that time nitpicking the graphics which looked fairly "meh." I was pretty disappointed by them honestly. However, once the train stopped I started to change my mind.


2. Once you exit the train there are a few short corridors that lead into a large open courtyard.

3.It was in the corridors that I made my first major discovery, Bayonetta is somehow related to Sonic. I have no idea just how Sega managed to dream up an even more convoluted family tree for the blue blur, but the fact that Bayonetta is collecting Sonic's rings makes it clear that they are somehow related. The rings come out of most breakable things and enemies.

4."Breakable things" includes vases, crates, benches, the usual basically.

5.Another discovery made in these corridors is that Bayonetta can wall jump. I did it on accident a few times because 3D wall jumping doesn't come naturally right away, but I did enjoy the mechanic once I realized what I was doing.

6. The pedestal that you start on after exiting the train station started to turn my mind around on the graphics. It was fairly ornate and had a glisten that my eyes enjoyed.

7. Throughout this whole area until enemies showed up there were outline-ish things of robed people wandering around. As far as I can tell there is no way to interact with them.

8. Bayonetta has blood! I honestly had no idea. During my first fight I accidentally changed weapons to a totally bitching sword and called forth the crimson rush from the severed arteries of my vanquished foes. While the blood has a think, meaty quality to it it evaporates almost as soon as it makes contact with the ground.

9. The enemies are very ornate and covered in jewels and bangles and all sorts of gold looking things. They're also some kind of bird-angel designed to kick your ass.

10. When you get attacked the game changes. The graphical filters alter a bit and the music doesn't just pick up, it changes pieces entirely. This is good and bad. It's always neat to have a a clear delineation for battles, but it was sort of jarring and the transition was nonexistent.

11. During the cutscene when the enemies were rushing in I realized I had been too harsh on the games graphics earlier. It seems that everything I saw was running in-game and the only changes were through graphical filters. By keeping the foreground clear and blurring everything else it was obvious when the game had gone into cut-scene mode.

12. The combat is fun. I immediately started button-mashing and was doing ok against the smaller minions, but the larger angel-thing was kind of kicking my ass while I did the same to him. It was only as I was about to die that I remembered to dodge.

13. Dodging is half the combat. Once you doge an attack the game goes into witch-time. Here time slows and you can unleash the beast on your enemies. I think witch-time entrance may also be dependent on a series of sphere below your health that you charge up through combat, but I wasn't paying attention, so I couldn't tell you.

14. As you dismantle the health bars of the larger angel fellas, and possibly the smaller ones, chunks of their skin come off revealing the demonic looking carapace beneath. This leads me to believe that these so-called angels may in fact be up to no good.

15. Bayonetta's finisher on the larger enemies is sick. It's massive and ridiculous.

late Addition. The first giant thing I fought had a sweet golden jewel-encrusted axe. Once I dispatched him I was able to use a shrunken version of it for a limited time. It had different attacks and was absurdly strong. In fact, many of the enemies drop usable weapons. I saw a tuba looking thing, the aforementioned battle axe and a staff with the ring ornamental thing on top.

16. The game has some frantic button mashing to get a higher score on kills, as well as some joystick manipulation to get out of enemy attacks. All of these are accompanied by cool looking circular meters that yelled things at me in Japanese or made cool noises.

17. The large angel-demons have weak points but they can also be dispatched by simply slashing at whatever part of them is available.

18. The boss fight was against another one of whatever you are except more pure or something. It wasn't that hard considering I never dodged, but I was one hit away from death.

19. The boss fight was memorable in that you could run around and fight on the walls and ceilings. Think a much faster version of Isaac's mag boots + no gravity from Dead Space.

20. After each section you get a grade. It's pretty much the same as Viewtiful Joe. Minus points for damage or using items, plus points for style, speed and being awesome. The lowest medal I got was bronze, the highest was platinum.

Overall? The game looked good. Once you start fighting you can see where the graphical effort is, and that's a good thing. Fights looked awesome, enemies were massive, ridiculous, and fun to beat down. I would be a bit worried about variation in the environment, but I've heard positive things about that in the past so we'll just have to wait and see. One thing I haven't heard about is variation in enemies, this could end up being an issue if it's just the same few variations over and over.

So far I would say that Platinum games is living up to their pedigree.

It finally happened, and right during Sony's conference too. Those mad men money making wizards over at the big N are going to continue to maintain their stranglehold on the #1 position no doubt.

The price cut goes live on September 27th in the US.

Press release in japanese I think.

Makes me wish I had waited, sort of. Had I been able to predict that my Wii would be passed over most of the time once I got a PS3 and built a new computer it would have been a no-brainer. Oh well, shit happens.

The word straight from the horse's mouth.

"Beginning Sunday, Sept. 27, the world’s most popular home video game system gets even more appealing. On that day, Nintendo’s suggested retail price for its record-setting Wii drops by $50 to $199.99. The new $199.99 Wii price point delivers the full iconic Wii gaming experience, including the motion-sensing Wii Remote controller, Nunchuk controller and Wii Sports software, and furthers Nintendo’s mission to expand the gaming universe by making video games accessible to more and more consumers."

I felt bad not sharing this, hope someone finds it useful.



Check this out.


Perhaps those of us not attending PAX will be able to assuage the pain with a little spending.

I picked up Saints Row 2, Force Unleashed, Dragonball: Burst Limit, and No Country for old Men and Casino Royale on Blu Ray for $60 shipped. Not a bad deal.

The nice thing about this deal is that there's a decent selection of PS3 games as well, something I don't see very often. Also, many of the prices are pretty good to begin with.

Beware, not everything is discounted with the coupon. Make sure you follow the links. I was going to pick up some used Gurren Lagann box sets, but they weren't covered under the deal. Happy hunting!

Also, breasts.

Because FUCK YEAH GAMES.


The end.

Going into District 9 I honestly wasn't sure what to expect. I had purchased midnight tickets solely on Peter Jackson's name and the general premise. Little did I know that I would walk away from my favorite movie of the year so far. Just wanted to get something out there, because my theater was probably less than 80% full, and I really hope this movie reaches a wide audience. It has action, interesting filming style, perfectly executed roles, and social commentary. What more could you want?

I'll split this sort-of review into three bits.





Traditional critical response or something.

The movie is tremendously well executed. It blends a documentary style with the camera of a traditional fiction film. The flash-forwards intermingled with the build-up keep the audience engaged as you begin to puzzle out what is going to happen before it unfolds on screen. This isn't always the case though, as the movie does manage to keep you guessing on several occasions. The casting for this film works very well. The weakest links are those of throwaway characters with all performances integral to the story carried out with nary a hitch. This includes those aliens or "prawns" that become the stars of the latter half of the film. While most are depicted as entirely alien, several convey more human emotion. Human emotion and impulsive response is the crux of the film. It is a commentary on racism through the lens of sci-fi, which stills hits disturbingly close to home. As you watch the choices of the main character(Wikus) unfold your feelings cycle through revulsion, understanding, and even respect. This movie humanizes those who seem to be at first completely alien, while also showing some of the basest, most cowardly levels man himself can descend to.

Finally, the production values are through the roof. While I expected it to have the Peter Jackson touch of the fantastic this movie went above and beyond anything I had expected. The prawns were extremely well integrated and most of the tech looked quite formidable. Despite a few guns looking a little silly, their effects carried enough gravitas to render their appearance moot.


There are probably SPOILERS from here on out.
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS


You've been warned.





Sci-Fi

The idea of emaciated aliens, far from home on the brink of death being stuffed into a sort of slum is taken straight from the annals of human history both past and present. However, the idea still stands as something new. By replacing humans with aliens it is easier to see the revulsion rise and the general hate that people can have for outsiders. The experimentation runs the gamut from weapons testing to genetic engineering.
These two aspects actually go hand in hand through the film because the alien weaponry is locked genetically requiring prawns to activate their tech. By introducing a third element of Nigerian gangsters to the world of District 9 interesting questions such as interspecies intercourse, and the witch doctor practices of offering power and potency through eating the flesh of the conquered are explored. You also get to see some of the reproductive processes of the prawns, and other little details that really bring the film to life. As you discover more about them it becomes clearer that the humans don't have any idea what they are dealing with even after twenty years. While it is unclear if the suggested worker leader class distinction holds true, I believe the movie suggests that it does, since it seems early on the Christopher's son is more intelligent than the average adult prawn. The transformation of Wikus is also quite a thing to behold as it never looks so unreal as to be divorced from the world around him. The plot hinges on a liquid which seems to be a power source as well as some kind of genetic catalyst, another cool piece of alien tech. The genetic locks actually remind me of the nanobot locks from MGS4.

Action, FPS, any game that has guns, gamer.

District 9 is full of weaponry that I would love to get my hands on. Even the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator makes a very brief appearance, The weapons includes stopping bullets then redistributing them in mid air, sonic blasts, and several weapons that seem designed to simply explode humans. Including one the at first seems to be a taser then blows a man's head off. The mech is the most formidable piece of prawn tech and carries most of the aforementioned weapons. Gauss rifles also seem to be a mainstay of their weaponry as well as several grenade launcher type guns that also carry an electric charge. While I thought that the ending bit of the movie, where most of these weapons are used, was the weakest part thematically there were still many interesting concepts.

It would be really nice to see a game that manages to blend the awesome action of District 9 with the social commentary. for a large part of the film Wikus is effectively helpless. His alien transformation doesn't grant him super powers, simply the ability to use their tech. In fact, it makes him a target for those who could kill him even with his access to prawn technology. I think it would be extremely interesting to play a well made game based on this movie, because it would have to include some true stealth sections while also managing the transformation and its effects while balancing basic humans needs such as food and sleep.

Basically, see this movie. Please. I hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and if you come out going "Well it was ok, but those last 30 minutes of action really saved it for me.", which matches some sentiments I overheard as I left the theater, fuck you, that's not what it's about.