Blog Between Blogs: Another Year Editon

Welcome to another edition of Blog Between Blogs, in which I babble on about random nonsense because people like me don’t need structured blog formats, themes, motifs, or datelines; we blog what we want, how we want, when we want, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Word to your mother.

Today is my birthday. Not much else to say about that. I’m 19 now, so I guess its 2 more years till true adult hood. 19 is such an odd number. I don’t know how to get excited for it. I guess I would be more excited if like at the age of 19 you get your own pet kimono dragon or something, but that’s not the case in America. I will change that if I become President of the United States. You can quote me on that.



Anyways, 2011 was last year, and now it’s 2012. As such, I’m sure most of you have hammered out your best of 2011 lists, game of the years, and other such wordage, and are damn tired of seeing people reminisce about last year. So to save you (read: me) the trouble of a long, thought out discussion on why Batman: Arkham City and Bastion tie for my Game of The Year 2011, I’ll just tell you that Batman: Arkham City and Bastion tie for my Game of The Year 2011. Short, sweet, and simple.

With that, we can move on to what’s big in 2012. Obviously, SSX is going to be pre-ordered sometime in the near future because it’s SSX and Amon Tobin has exclusive music on the soundtrack and Singing in the Rain by Mint Royal in in there too. I’m also looking forward to Mass Effect 3 and it’s “finally get to see what Earth is like” finality, DmC because it generally looks more fun than any other Devil May Cry game I’ve played, Torchlight II because it’s better than Diablo-anything, and a bunch of other stiff that’s not coming to me right now.



Add to that list Asura’s Wrath. I played the demo, and my god; I never played anything so damn intense before in my life, and by intense, I mean minute to minute extreme levels on intense, not the slow build up that games like Uncharted and the like have. The game feels like a literal translation of what a Gurren Lagaan video game would be like. I know a lot of people are going to knock it for the obsessive use of quick time events, but I feel they’re done right in Asura’s Wrath. It’s all in the presentation; all the needless anger, unnecessary fury, and righteous testosterone just makes the quick time events feel like incredibly important and intense moments of gameplay, despite them not being anything more than a flick of the stick or mashing a button. All in all, I’m really looking forward to Asura’s Wrath, as that game has hit with the force of ten billion million bricks, each the mass, weight, and density of a super massive black hole, in the demo alone.

But enough about the future, let’s talk about the current. I got The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and so far it’s been a good experience. The game’s ran without many hitches, and with some mods I’ve gotten it to look visually better. I will comment that I do like the UI design method, but I found the lack of options to sort disappointing, which was quickly fixed with a mod. That, and the character creator; I didn’t feel like I was given many options, but the options given to me where enough to give me a good looking character, so I’ll call fair ball for now. I really wish Bethesda would have let me edit more options however.



As such with Skyrim, I’ve decided to wrok on a little project: I call it Postcards from Skyrim, in which (written in the voice of a female Dovakhiin) I write letters to a fictional family back "home". I’ve always wanted to do something similar with Fallout: New Vegas, but never really had the time or the drive. But now I've got a bit more time, and a lot more drive to do so, so I’m doing it. No certain schedule as to when I’m going to update the blog with postcards, but I’ll try to have it down to at least once a week. Feedback on how I’m doing so far would be nice, as well as information on how to make Skyrim look even better without being so taxing on the hardware.

Other games I've aquired include Saint’s Row: The Third; that game, like Asura’s Wrath, is also nasty batshit bonkers, and I love it. Sonic Generations is currently the best Sonic game I’ve ever played; everything flows nicely, the speed is great, and I don’t even hate the Classic Sonic sections, and I despise Classic Sonic. I’d tell you a bit about Uncharted 3, but you already know what I’m going to say about that, and I also picked up Dreamfall: The Longest Journey and Splinter Cell: Conviction from the Christmas Steam Sale. I’ve never played Dreamfall, so that should be interesting, and Splinter Cell is Splinter Cell so I’ll probably be splinting cells and such.



Did I mention to you guys that I’m in college? Yeah, I’m officially a freshman at the Rochester Institute of Technology as of a few months ago, and it’s been a great few months. Met a lot of cool new people, and have received a lot of cool stuff (including a free copy of Skyrim!). Doing Game Design and Development, and right now we’re going though C# with Visual Studio, which is the neatest thing I’ve ever coded in. I love Visual Studio. It helps me do things.

I also need money to get into GDC. Hire me. I write eloquently.

Non academics related, I saw Anamanaguchi this past weekend. It was honestly the most extreme thing I’ve ever seen and participated in. Everyone was pumped, Anamanaguchi was pumped, Revengineers was pumped, Extreme Animals was….Extreme Animals. Best concert I’ve ever been to, and the greatest entertainment decision I’ve ever made in my entire life. Would see again, 30/10.

Only thing better could be Donald Glover…oh wait, I’m seeing him too.

College fucking rules.



So yeah, here ends the paragraph section of this blog. Now follows the bullet points:

• I’m definitely getting a Playstation Vita, just later when cheaper things start happening for it. Like with the Nintendo 3DS, which I’m definitely getting sometime in the near future hopefully.
• I still need to play Bayonetta.
• I also need to play Dragon Age Origins.
• I really, really, really hope to get into the Guild Wars 2 beta. I’ll be all over that shit like shingles.
• I hope DICE has more maps in the pipeline for Battlefield 3. I need more locals. Preferably in the snow.
• Syndicate is going to be one to watch. I’m looking forward to the co-op in that.
• Sound Shapes is going to be amazing.
• The new Hitman is looking to be my instant jam. The more I hear about it, the more I want it inside my eyeballs.
• Give me SSX now damnit.

And boom goes the nuclear reactor. That’s all I wrote and I’ll stick to it as long as you pay me obsessive amounts of money. But in all honesty, thanks so much for reading, and I’ll damn near try my hardest to update this blog more. Because I love you all.

See you on nice side!