Delay

So I have had a bunch of things happen over the past week and it has taken up a lot of time and put a lot of stress on me. Hopefully by the end of this week I can have most of it figured out and have up some of the blogs I wrote about earlier. Thank you for your patience and I will see what I can get up by the weekend.

Alpha Protocol Review

So I recently rented Alpha Protocol even after I had heard some complaints about the games controls. After completing the game in a few sittings I really don't understand where any of these complaints come from. I did have some issues with the cover system every once in awhile but it was only during very fast boss battles and other than that I had no issues with the controls. The complaints that I heard were based on the shooting mechanics and how they weren't fair and even if you are a dead shot you can still miss due to the skill system. I however used my skill points in assault rifles and pistols and fairly quickly I wasn't missing any shots.

This game above all else makes you feel like a spy. You have your black market for weapons, armor, mods, gadgets, and intel. The game is rather linear with it's areas. You can decide how you want to go about missions but for the most part the levels are straight shots with a few extra places for hidden items and intel to hack. The hacking and lock picking games are fun but they can get frustrating in the later levels due to it being difficult while being shot at.

The talking mechanic for dealing with people feels very much like having an actual conversation. Unlike in most games you don't choose what to say. You choose the way you say it such as suave or aggressive. Also the good or evil mechanic works very very well. The choices you make have a huge impact on gameplay. My first run through I let most of the people I was chasing live. Because of this later on in levels I had massive help running through missions. This could mean I have back up or in some instances most of the enemies were friendly.

I had an absolute blast with this game and I recommend this to anyone who wishes they could have been a spy...or you know...you like RPGs such as Mass Effect. The game a lot of times reminded me of playing Syphon Filter for the Playstation. Overall the game has a few bugs here and there but I never really noticed them. I got into the story as cliche as it is and couldn't pull myself away. I beat this in 3 sittings. The game is about 20 hrs or so long.

9.4 out of 10

E3 2010 Day 3

The latest videos I have watched are all spotlighting games off the floor now since the main conferences are over. I will sift through all the footage and compile my day 3 list.

Rage - Id Software's new title and for once they decide to do an outdoor game. It is an FPS Post-Apocalyptic game ala Borderlands and Fallout 3. The graphics are absolutely beautiful and the frame rate appears very very smooth. I am doubly impressed that it's running on an Xbox 360 and not a PS3. The game to me looks a lot like Fallout 3 and Borderlands with a different art style. I keep hearing that it isn't like Fallout 3 but in all honesty it's Id Software and Bethesda. Last word on this though is that it looks great and I look forward to hearing and seeing more. Sometime in 2011 Release

Star Wars the Force Unleashed 2 - Holy crap. The intro of the video alone was amazing watching Starkiller destroy Tie Fighters as he falls through the air. I was disappointed with the first game and some of the glitches but so far this one looks amazing and I can't wait to see more on this one and hopefully it's a bit better than the last one. Oct. 26 Release

True Crime - Was never a big fan of the early games but the combat kind of makes me curious as to where this one will go. Will have to wait to make an opinion on this one.

Gears of War 3 - One more reason for me to want it...Beast Mode. Online multiplayer where you get to play as all the Locust creatures...Holy Shit. April 8 2011 Release Date.

Rock Band 3 - Not just a new keyboard. The new guitar features strings and the fret board is entirely made of buttons to simulate a real guitar. Wow. The Doors and Queen as well. Holiday 2010

Brink - Looks like Mirror's Edge meets Unreal Tournament. Free-running similar to Mirror's Edge but class style FPS. Once again Bethesda. It also looks like it has a bit of Team Fortress 2 in it. I am very excited about this game. Keep an eye on it. Spring 2011 Release Date

Devil's Third - New game from Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden creator. It looks like Ninja Gaiden with swords and guns. It looks great so far and I'm looking forward to it.

That's what I saw today. I will watch tomorrow as well and see what else I can find.

E3 2010 Day 2 Pt. 2

So I fell asleep before the Sony conference but I am currently catching up while watching the current E3 gameplay footage live from the floor. So after going through the Sony speech and picking out what I noticed here is my Sony list.

Twisted Metal - Finally a Twisted Metal for the new generation.

Infamous 2 - Already read about and excited about.

Gran Turismo 5 - It's about time they release something on this game...it has taken long enough.

Final Fantasy XIV - No real new info just more teasers.

Portal 2 - From what was said the PS3 will have the best version.

Playstation Plus - same price as Xbox Live. Essentially looks like they are just including Qore as their plus system.

Time Crisis - MORE ARCADE/DREAMCAST ports...YAY.

Heroes on the Move - Ratchet, Clank, Jak, Daxter, Sly Cooper, and others all in 1 Playstation Move game.

Sly Cooper HD Collection - Not a huge fan when it was out but may have to check this out.

So I apologize for falling asleep right before it but from what I am reading I didn't miss much. From what I could tell Sony relied heavily on their Move controller and to be honest I don't really like it. I am sick of motion controls and would just prefer a regular controller. I am now watching the live games spotlight from E3. I may post again about it if I see anything. If I don't I will post tomorrow about the conferences. Thanks again.

And it continues...E3 2010 Day 2 Pt. 1

Here is day 2 pt. 1 of E3 with my picks. Among the press conferences today are Nintendo and Sony. Here goes.

Golden Sun DS - It's been many years since the original 2 games and from the looks of it they are making sure it meets expectations.

Goldeneye - I want now...and it comes out this year...multiplayer...and Odd Job.

Kirby's Epic Yarn - The first Kirby game in 7 years and it looks fucking amazing. Brand new art style with new gameplay with the same charm. I need this now.

Dragonquest IX - Huge amount of community content and play along and I'm sure just as addictive as it's predecessors.

Donkey Kong Country Returns - Along with Kirby another side scrolling platformer. Thank you Nintendo for going back to your roots.

That is just after the Nintendo conference. The Sony conference is still to come as well as a bunch of gameplay footage from the floor. I will stay up to date.

And it begins...E3 2010

E3 Day 1

So far I have been watching all the latest gaming news waiting for the first conference on G4. In the next 5 min. of this writing I will start my I want this Games of E3.

Halo Reach - The game was shown with in game footage and to me it looks a lot like playing Halo 2. Halo 2 was really the only Halo game I enjoyed playing and after seeing the video I think Halo Reach might be the next one to play.

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit - From the makers of Burnout - Criterion Games. The game looks fast, great, and it brings back memories of playing Need for Speed 2 back in the day.

Dead Space 2 - Looks as terrifying as the original did and it really makes me want to jump back into the series.

Crysis 2 - PS3's answer to Halo. It looks great and for once I don't need a $4000 computer to play it.

Bulletstorm - Cliffy B's newest project. Also from the makers of Painkiller. It looks fun as hell.

Star Wars the Old Republic - I need a new computer. We will leave it at that. It looks amazing.

Ghost Recon Future Soldier - The only series of Tom Clancy games I actually enjoy. The game looks smooth and fun.

Other than that I liked the EA conference but the Ubisoft conference was kind of a downer for me. They didn't really blow me away like the EA conference did. Ubisoft focused a lot on PC games and don't get me wrong I like PC games but for me E3 is more for consoles than anything else. Hope if you watched you enjoyed and I will have Day 2 up at the end of the day tomorrow.

A Quick Movie Rant - "Chick Flicks"

So before I get into the rant I'd just like to note the new layout of the blog. I played around with the templates a bit ago and I think I like this one. What do you think? Let me know. Alright let the rant begin.

I was brought into a discussion at work the other day about the movie The Notebook. My opinions on this movie are not good. So I begin. Essentially Nicholas Sparks has made a living off of telling the same story over and over. The Notebook's plot revolves around bad boy meets nice girl. Conflict pulls the two star-crossed lovers apart but at the end through fate they are brought back together. Here in lies my issue. Nicholas Sparks also has released Dear John and The Last Song. The plot for these movies is the exact same.

Boy + Girl / Conflict + Fate = Happy Ending

But Zach it works for him.

I'm sure it did but I shall continue. Twilight has the exact same plot as well only this time around: Dead boy falls in love with live girl...conflict speaks for itself...fate...yadda yadda yadda. So once again the exact same thing. I wouldn't be so mad except for this last little tidbit here...SPOILER ALERT to Twilight Fans...I am ruining the ending.

This plot has been used before and the person who is most famous for it didn't even come up with it...here goes. Romeo loves Juliet but their families are at war. Fate brings them together in the end...in one way or another...but WAIT...TECHNICALLY: In Romeo and Juliet the couple follows the standard plot except they all die in the end. In Twilight "Romeo" is already dead at the beginning of the story and at the end of the story...so is "Juliet".

I'm not hating on love movies and do like quite a few. However I like to think the ones I like change the story up a bit. Just because it stars the latest heart-throb doesn't mean it's a quality piece of writing. All it takes is a few name changes and a conflict change. Nothing more nothing less.

End Rant...next time...Eminem - Recovery Review

On the agenda...

So here within the next few days I should have up a few new blogs. They include:

Eminem - Recovery Review
A quick rant about how all chick flicks are the same.
Blur Review
Possibly a new quote blog
Possibly a new demo review

So keep an eye out on Twitter at @zombi3bait

Scott Pilgrim

So recently I started reading the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. I had never heard of them in all honesty until I saw the movie trailer. From the movie trailer I found out one of my favorite indie animators, Paul Robertson, was doing the visual style and animation for the tie-in game. This got me intrigued as to what the comic is all about.

So far I have made it through the first 3 books in the series. There are 5 currently out and 1 forthcoming at about the same time as the movie and game. The first thing that I noticed when I started reading was that the comic comes off like a more pop-culture heavy FLCL. This by no means is a bad thing. This is just the way it feels for me.

The main plot follows Scott Pilgrim, a 23 yr. old bassist. At the beginning you learn all about his life and his ex's. From there we get to meet his 17 yr. old girlfriend Knives. Also to avoid anymore from there's I will just say at this point you get to watch his life spiral out of control as he meets a rollerblading delivery girl, her 7 ex's, and at numerous points watch his ex's talk mad shit about him. All the while picking up hints as to if he himself lives in a video game.

The comic is filled with homages to video games. Whenever a fight is finished the winner gets coins and the possibility of an item drop. There is also a very dry sense of humor going on in the comic. Most of the jokes are very in your face and they don't play around to be subtle. To me it comes off once again to be very much like FLCL with the over the top but still believable to an extent and all the pop culture references. It also plays around with the 4th wall and messes with the comic visually once again going back to FLCL.

Overall I would recommend this to anyone at anytime anywhere. It is a great comic filled with romance, drama, comedy, action, nerd humor and so on. Go out, get it, support it. Bottom line is...Scott Pilgrim is awesome.

10 out of 10

Insights from the POOH

So I like to read quotes quite frequently and as such I have posted a blog of quotes not long ago and I believe it is time for another one. Here are some quotes I like from Winnie the Pooh.

"Rivers know this: There is no hurry. We shall get there."

"Those who are clever, who have a brain, never understand anything."

"Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you suddenly know everything there is to be known."

"One advantage of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries."

"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along and not bothering."

Hope you liked these words of wisdom from a wise old bear. See you next time.

TV...oh...TV

I'm a sad sappy sucker at best but I just can't get over this oddity I have about me. I get so into certain TV shows and become so engulfed in the story that I hate to see it end. This has happened to me on numerous occasions throughout my life with certain shows. It happened with Daria and again with That 70's Show. I am no longer ashamed to say it has also happened with Degrassi. I don't fully understand why I do this or if this is even by any means ordinary. The reason I bring this up is that the g/f and I have found one that is going to prove to be a much more difficult show to pry ourselves away from.

Skins is a British teen drama. I know what you are thinking...just a Degrassi clone for Britain...wrong. The only way that this can classify as anything close to that is that it has 16, 17, and 18 year old people in the show. After that the similarities disappear. It follows a group of kids through sixth form. I have not done a massive amount of research but from what I can tell sixth form is kind of like a 2 year degree here. The characters all have massive personal issues to attend to along with family, school, work, and love issues. Each episode focuses on 1 character and shows what they go through and how they see the other characters.

Since sixth form only runs for 2 years after every 2 seasons you get a new cast. Due to some technical issues we have had to skip the first 2 seasons and go right to the second generation of characters but soon we will backtrack. The show sets you up to get involved with the characters and as soon as you do they are gone. Maybe I'm just a sad sappy sucker as I said before but I hate saying goodbye to characters. It's like saying goodbye to friends once every couple years and never getting to see how their character lived out the rest of their story. It makes me sad we can't have stories with full lives, stories that grow with us.

I got off track there but I do just want to say if you have the time to check out Skins. It does have a lot of cursing, drug use, and sex; so no children. Also if you ever feel this way about shows let me know. Hopefully I'm not the only person capable of becoming attached to a fictional character and their day to day adventures. One other thing is that as far as I know Skins is not airing on American TV as of yet and if it were to it will probably be edited. If you can purchase it go for it, if not I believe you can watch it for free linked off the Skins site here.