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About Me

Just your regular, average Everyday Legend.

I play just about anything you sit in front of me. The only genres that I tend to turn my nose up in disgust with are stale, derivative FPS games and yearly-churned-out sports turds. I turn my nose up at them because they stink of the purest of dark beer-fueled shite, and some may call that a strong opinion, but it sure isn't as strong as the smell of the newest Madden rolling out of EA's rectum every August, that's for sure.

I believe in the power of imagination in game design. Say what you want to about GTA IV, but any game that lets you play pool, darts, bowling, crackheaded Tetris, watch TV, see stand-up comedy, date chicks and let you sociopathically murder every person in sight has to count for something. Double bonus points for not involving a Wii remote for the first three and still managing to be quite good in the end. But like my first sentence said, I believe in imagination! There's not enough of it, there's far too much of a "me too" element in modern game design these days. It doesn't have to push any envelopes per se, but it does help if you actually thought to do something a little fucking different, or at least that's how I see it. I think that this entire industry could achieve a renaissance of sorts if that was the primary drive of creating games.

Think I'm crazy? Look at Okami. It's not new - it's fucking Zelda, just done with a little bit of imagination and love thrown into the mix. Imagination incarnate, however, is a term that goes to label games like Katamari Damacy...if we had more games like that, where a designer/developer decided to actually make something that had NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE...then we'd probably start to see a paradigm shift in how games are perceived by the world at large, not just our hardcore niches. But, that too would carry a price, because then everyone would be making Katamari-style games, I guess...whatever makes money is whatever everyone tries to ape. Just for instance, look at Devil May Cry: it begat the remake of Ninja Gaiden, which therefore spawned God Of War, which shat Ghost Rider, which in turn shat Viking, etc. The quality goes down the more that imitation takes place...think of the copier theory: make a copy of a copy enough times and you get a unintelligible, blurry fucking mess in the end.

So, long story short, FPS and sports games aren't screwing up the industry at all, but it's definitely the streetcorners that the whoremongering masses gather around to be the next trick turned. And games like Okami don't sell well - which may not prove that God doesn't exist, but it definitely makes a strong case.

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Games You Must Play Before You Take The Celestial Dirt Nap:
(Disclaimer: List in in constant state of evolutionary flux.)

Megaman 2/3 - NES
Chrono Trigger - SNES
Pilotwings 64 - N64
Metal Gear Solid - PSX
Okami - PS2
Jet Set Radio Future - XB
Rez/Rez HD - DC/XB360
Marvel VS Capcom - ARC
SoulCalibur - DC
StarTropics - NES
Dragon Spirit - NES
Kickle Cubicle - NES
Puzznic - NES
Lumines - PSP/PS2(Plus!)/XB360(Live!)
Street Fighter II: CE - ARC
Aliens VS Predator - ARC
Garou: Mark Of The Wolves - NG/ARC
The Last Blade 2 - NG/ARC
Donkey Kong Country - SNES
Final Fantasy VI (III) - SNES
Panzer Dragoon Orta - XB
Indigo Prophecy - XB/PS2
Mercenaries - XB/PS2
Grand Theft Auto 4 - XB360/PS3
Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec - PS2
Sonic Adventure - DC
Star Fox 64 - N64
The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Wii
WarioWare: Smooth Moves - Wii
F-Zero - SNES
UN Squadron (Area 88) - SNES
The Guardian Legend - NES
Faxanadu - NES
Shadowgate - NES
Ikaruga - DC/GC/XB360
Shadow Of The Colossus - PS2
Ico - PS2
Katamari Damacy/We Love Katamari/Beautiful Katamari - PS2/XB360 (BK)
Ace Combat Series - PSX/PS2/XB360
Portal - PC/XB360/PS3
Rise Of The Triad - PC
Sam And Max: Hit The Road - PC

Capcom VS SNK - DC/ARC
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - DC/ARC
Radirgy (Radio Allergy) - DC
Shikigami No Shiro 2 - XB


...and many, many, MANY more.


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Gamertag: Everyday Legend

Following (24)

Of Souls And Cleavage - Thoughts Upon SoulCalibur IV OhJAM | 6:38 PM on 05.18.2008 17 comments

In all honesty, this is a copy of a comment that I left on Sterling's news post about the costume change on the website. It's kind of lazy to do this for a blog post, and I'm sure I'll catch hell from a few folks, but I don't care. This means a lot to me, and I feel this way about the issue, so I'm saying my piece. --Mission Start-- Yeah, okay. I'm a dude. I'm a big fan of beautiful boobs by nature, in fact, I try to spend as much time between as succulent a pair of them as possible. But I feel that have to say this, because this is really how I feel about this "issue." This is not DOA. I didn't want SC to turn into DOA. DOA is nothing more than tits, more tits and a crap, tacked-on, barely competitive fighting engine - made solely for the kind of person who wants to see tits and violence all in one place. You want a lack of violence, go grab a copy of DOA Extreme, it's the same philosophy of virtual tits overriding everything else in the entire game. It's all about how they can display as much of them as possible without just getting fucking naked, gravity and physics laws be damned. I know that's the lifeblood of the FG industry. I know this to be true, and honestly, it pisses me off. What I love about SC is the fighting. The system. Guard Impact. 8-Way Run. Weapon Break. These things are what bring me to the table every time, not THOSE things. I liked Ivy, Taki and every other girl best when they were in SC1, modest, pretty and deadly. SC2, a little more, but not too extreme. SC3, we're treading on DOA's borders. SC4 is trying to look like DOA, and it's really fucking needless. I'm not hating on tits in any way, shape, or form (except fake ones, those don't feel quite right - they don't "give" the way real ones do). I just don't want to see tits take center stage on the one fighting game franchise that really, truly matters to me anymore. I hope that Project Soul is keeping an eye on the quality of gameplay, particularly online, and not just upping cup sizes across the board. It just seems such a "me too" thing to do, and I hope that doesn't become the same focus that Team Ninja seems to hold so near and dear. It does wonders for their fighting games, because all I've played since DOA2 has been a steaming turd with one hell of a fuckin' rack. Spoken. ---Mission Complete-- So, with that said, I'm hoping that the gameplay focus doesn't shift towards complete T&A. Don't get me wrong, I worship at the altar of the female body as often as I can, but I think that this story doesn't even count as "news." I think that Americans do have a far too puritanical viewpoint on sexual matters when compared to violence, but to take this game and shift its focus to tits and ass seems like a fucking crime, honestly. It's the gameplay that makes SoulCalibur better than every other goddamn fighting game on the market today, 2D, 3D or otherwise. That's what I hope to have a taste of, Ivy's tits defying all laws of existence notwithstanding. Hopefully folks take it to heart as the rantings of a guy who loves his SoulCalibur. I know most folks (read: dudes) are going to take it the in opposite direction entirely, and think that I'm either a hardcore feminist girl or possibly gay. But I said my piece, and I'm a big enough man to stand by it to the death: Gameplay > Sex for sales' sake. Jam.