And I can't sleep, and I have to be up at 6:30 for a rehearsal for some gig I didn't even want to play. The songs in the setlist are awful too. So naturally, I'm gonna post a blog. About stuff I've been doing. Cause that's what blogs are for!



About 20 minutes ago, I got back from driving to a friend's house to give him money I owed him. He also gave me two PS2 games; Dragon Quest VIII and Rogue Galaxy.

I've been planning to write a small journal type blog detailing my recent foray into the MMO DC universe online. Not that I like DC ('cept for Batman), but I can dig super hero MMOs. Guess I'll work more on that.

I just ate some fine toast as well. Wholemeal, and baked fresh this morning from the asian bakery near my apartment. Gotta give those guys credit, they work wonders with dough and water etc etc

I also killed this one cockroach in my kitchen in the process. Motherfuckin' insects, yo.

I also totally destroyed a record player I ordered online the other day. The fact that voltage supplied here compared to America slipped my mind and I plugged it in and pshew. Had to wrap it up and send it back for another due to 'faulty product'. Amazon better damn pay my shipping.

I'm also waiting on my copy of The Silmarillion to arrive. Watching The Hobbit re-sparked my lust for Middle Earth lore, so I bought it for like $5 online. But it was sold out, so I have to wait nearly another 2 weeks. Damn.

I guess that's all

Hi there, my name is RadChiefDude, and I'm an OCD game completionist. If that's a thing.

I mean, on the surface, this isn't necessarily a bad thing right?

Wrong.



So, we're all struggling to get rid of those hefty backlogs we developed over Christmas/Steam Holiday sale, right? I know I am. I purchased around 15 games, including BIT.TRIP.RUNNER for just over $50, I think (bargain!) and got a Wii U with New Super Mario Bros and Nintendo Land. So here I am, spending my holidays playing these games. And whilst playing BTR, I realised something as I attempted a level for the 100th time. Why am I going to such an effort to get every coin and every upgrade in every ridiculous level? Why am I withering away my precious holiday time away on trying to 100% complete all these games I bought?

On reflection, I realised I have been doing this with nearly all of the games I've bought over the past year. I bought that cheap Borderlands 2 in the sale. Clocked around 10 hours into it, and spent the majority of that time completing every fucking side quest I came across. Normally, I would be okay with this, if it was the only game I was playing at the time. But these days, balancing my social life, my gaming life, and my work life is a tremendous effort. And it doesn't help that I have all these games I want to complete, with the fear of increasing my already dangerous backlog.



This is also reflective of my weird relationship with RPGs. Every now and then, I feel a little adventurous. I feel like playing a good J/RPG. Except when I play it, it's comparable to, I dunno, a wife-beating relationship? The game knows my weaknesses. It beats me, with it's massive playtime requirements, and even bigger selection of optional quests to get me distracted. Most of the time, I get so frustrated that I give up and leave. Maybe I'll spend some time with my other, more sympathetic partners, consisting of platformers and nice, linear, mainstream Nintendo games. But the devious RPG lies in wait, because it knows I'll come crawling back for more.

The current offender these days is Xenoblade Chronicles. With it's incredible internet acclaim, how could I not play it? But I've been finding myself on and off the game for ages now, only now am I starting to find myself in a decent rhythm of playing it before I go to bed every day. Except this relates back to the main problem - I've spent so little time on the everything but the main quest, and at the rate I'm playing, It's going to take aaaaages to finish.



I guess the point of all this is to try and establish some sort of belated New Year's Resolution - to stop spending so much time on my first run through of games. Flog through the main quest first, and then If I liked it, have another, more complete run through. Yeah. Nice.

Well, here's to a 12 day late Happy New Year to you guys.

Hey, Destructoid!

So I'm sure none of you know me, maybe a couple of you know me as 'that guy that comments sometimes lol', or 'that guy that posted some blogs that were ok i guess'. I never really introduced myself to the community, and after reading so much more community blogs than I used to, I've decided to give you guys a formal introduction. I feel I owe it to you after stalking the hell out of some of youse guyses blogs.

I'm Rowan, or Radchiefdude, or Radchief to some extent. I guess I just really like the first letter of my name or something. I like video games and arty things too, and I like to intertwine these interests a lot. I'm a huge fan of the indie gaming community, and play a lot of their genuine, 'tough-as-nails' products. I really enjoy the fact that, whilst playing said indie games, the developer has put all their creativity and effort into it, not like some fab AAA company releasing half baked mediocre crowd pleasers. Of course, I do enjoy a good popular game every now and then, I'm a pretty big Nintendo fan, like the rest of my family, probably because we grew up with all their products. I like to think of myself as a hardcore Zelda fan, but really, with all these people out there doing speedruns and long plays and such, I find it hard to determine what is really hardcore anymore.


I wet my man-pants when I saw this little tease here

I really like good music also. I tend to think of myself as accepting and appreciative of all genres of music, except some of this trashy R&B and terrible rap that pops up all the time. I guess, to put it short, I'm one of those people who worships Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, and in contrast, I also love the stylings of the Madvillain's self titled album. In relation to what we talk about on this website, I really dig game music. I find a lot of Overclocked remixes or whatever they're called ending up in my iTunes library, I especially loved the Zelda 25th anniversary remix album they came up with last year. Thunderstruck was amazing. Going back to my other tastes, I'm also really supportive of Australia's independent music scene, considering I too am from that country. Here's an example of what we can produce down here.



In addition to being a gamer, I'm also an impulsive buyer. With a steam account. And the last 2 weeks were ridiculous, as I'm sure most of you can relate. I mean, Darksiders collection for like, $13? How could I not? I guess I'm also a Marvel fanboy, I read lots of comics. I tend to find myself engrossed in some kind of X-Men or other mutant related title, I'm also really enjoying the current All New X-Men series. I work as a Barista too, and the reason why this is related is because recently i've been experimenting with my 'latte art', and just yesterday produced this, which is hopefully the herald of many more to come.


it's mario, in case no one else but myself can interpret my own art

I guess I plan to contribute to the community, I dunno, creative things? I'll post way more video game/pop culture character cappucinos (I'm currently working on a Finn and Jake for when a pair of my friends visit me at work), and I record music a lot, so I'll probably end up making something video game related for you all to listen to in the future some time. I might also make one of those interesting, controversial and original video game related essays that you guys soak up. Admittedly, I love them too, I really respect all the writing talent this community houses! Either this, or I'll end up remaining Dtoid's resident lurker. Nonetheless, thanks for reading my belated introduction!

Soooooo I know how notorious Japan can be for creating poor licensed games, but then i saw this and



and my head exploded and dem graphics and wowowowow i'm such a digimon nerd please take me

Unfortunately, I also know how notorious Japan is for keeping all their licensed games to themselves, so this makes me really depressed. Still, it's a popular franchise in Japan, and since it is based on the original and most popular series, one would assume that it would be a hit in both there and western countries. So I have my hope!

...now I'm gonna go slave away in my room rewatching the original series.

Yesterday was a fairly significant event in terms of modern video games. The next installment of the widely acclaimed Call of Duty series was released, and the fans went berserk. The game was a success, boasting a short but powerful conclusion to the Modern Warfare series and what is apparently the pinnacle of Call of Duty online multiplayer. Nearly all of my friends rushed to the nearest retailer to purchase a copy.

I accompanied them on their short trip, with my intentions unsure. I guess wouldn't have minded getting the game itself, but I wasn't a fan of spending a large amount of money on a game I don't really like. And here's where the issue begins, I don't like fun video games?! Am I ill?

We reached EB games, which was packed full of wanting CoD fans. I cautiously grappled my cash and searched for a better purchase. All of my friends walked over to the counter with a copy of the game immediately, so I quickly followed. One by one, they handed over their cash in exchange for the game. Soon it was my turn to pay up.

The cashier woman didn't hesitate. 'Same as them?' I thought for a moment, looking around the store, and came up with my answer.

'No, actually, i'd just like to pre-order Zelda Skyward Sword'

The lady looked slightly surprised, but completed my request. I walked away with my receipt to meet my friends. They looked at what I had and grinned. One of them said, 'Man, only you would walk into a store full of people wanting CoD and get Zelda instead.'

And that's where I once again come to the topic of this article - apparently this is an issue to some people?



Just to clarify - None of this is because I hate Call of Duty. I do not hate Call of Duty, I do happen to own Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops - I just don't play or enjoy them as much as I would do with other games. So don't just think of me as a hater who's complaining about the series.

The ironic thing is that that no matter how much I seem to pass off these games, I always seem to end up owning one, whether it is on my own account, or a gift from a friend trying to convince me to play (usually the latter).

My experience started some time ago when I was invited some time ago to a friend's insanely nerdy party at an internet cafe, where we all hunched up behind a computer and played us 'dem videya gaems. We started off playing a huge session of DoTA and Left 4 Dead. It was all very enjoyable, when the person next to me, who was browsing the list of available games, suggested we play some Call of Duty 4. Everyone agreed, so we proceeded to play it. It was fun for a while, and everyone was really enjoying it, but after a while, I found myself feeling bored of the repetitive gameplay, and convinced some other people to move over to another section of the cafe with me. Together, we enjoyed an antisocial session of Battle for Middle Earth 2, while the majority of the party remained playing CoD 4.

Of course, I can't argue that DoTA or Left 4 Dead may not share the same repetitive values that Call of Duty had at the time, they probably do for a lot of other gamers. I just think that they're a lot more fun and challenging than mindless shooting.



One thing I do have a problem with though, and I know that this argument has been expressed many times over on this website and probably lots of others, is the fact that children half my age are abusing these types of games - Call of Duty, Grand theft Auto and what not. My issue is not that they are playing them, though, but the fact that they could be having so much more fun playing games that I was exposed to when I was a wee boy, and their parents wouldn't constantly bicker about their suitability for their children.

When I was a child, I was fascinated by nearly every Nintendo game, and a ton of RPGs. I don't see why kids couldn't be playing something like Final Fantasy (Which in my opinion, is a lot more fun and challenging) instead of Call of Duty. But again, I guess if they really enjoy it, and their parents are fine with it, I can't really judge (although that is a strange method of parenting).

It's not that I hate Call of Duty, or the amount of time I've spent playing it, it's just that I think that there are a lot more games out there that are so much better, and deserve nearly twice the popularity and fame that CoD receives. I'd like to hear your opinions, though, what do you think of Call of Duty?

Ok, so admittedly I haven't played through very much of this game, I have been busy with a lot of other things this week, but I did feel it necessary to post a blog on how much I really have enjoyed this game since I have bought it. AND I REALLY HAVE!

To be completely honest, a lot of reaaaaally long games I tend to stop playing about half way through. I never finished FFXIII, for example, but that was probably also 'cause the game was absolute shite. This game, on the other hand, with its nigh unlimited exploration options, unique voice acting and creative weaponry, despite how long it may be (supposedly over 80 hours of gameplay!), I will try my hardest to finish.



A lot of people will complain about the graphics of this game. 'Why the fuck is it in standard definition and why is it on the wii' and all that. To be honest, as much as standard definition games tend to be an eyesore for people nowadays, I think it's actually one of the better looking games period, once you get used to the edgy-ness and blurred faces.

Another great factor of this game, is the fact that essentially everything you see, you can explore, which is the main feature of my article. At first, I was a little tentative, but I first discovered the possibilities walking across a bridge back to the main town. So, usually, take for example in a lot of 3D Final Fantasy games, you can walk across the bridge and marvel at all the surroundings around the bridge, but you are, unfortunately, limited to walking across the bridge. With Xenoblade, however, one can actually jump over the side of the bridge, swim around the lake underneath, find access to secret areas that are usually unseen from the casual bypasser, It's all so huge!

I would talk further into this subject, but i'm limited to my time a home at the moment, so I will probably further expand on this game in the future.