My Trip to Stratford and Seeing Tommy

The rock opera Tommy. Maybe there was some guy named Tommy there too, though. I don't know.

Anyway, yeah, yesterday I went to Stratford Ontario and it was pretty fun. We went to see Pete Townshend's Tommy with my Dad for his birthday and Father's Day present. We went in the afternoon and walked around a bit before seeing the show, and saw some cool stuff. Unfortunately I'm not much of a picture-taking guy (that is the technical term I believe), but I did manage to get a few pictures, so I'll show those off and talk about some other stuff.

So we started out driving in and parking beside the City Hall, which is a really cool looking building. We saw a bunch of really neat looking old churches and other buildings too, giving the vibe of an old timey town. The illusion is kind of broken when you come across the Subways (sandwich shop), but y'know. Still neat. The Avon Theatre where we were going to see the show was nearby, so we went and scoped around there a bit, then decided to go checkout the river.

The river is supposedly kind of famous, and may have actually been carved out? Not too sure, but it's supposed to emulate the river going through the original Stratford in London, or something like that. ANYWAY, we were promised that swans would be there. And swans there were! Originally, we only saw one from afar, but decided to cross a bridge to the other side to get a closer look at it. Turned out it was a parent swan with four little swanlings. They turned out to be quite friendly, used to people being around I suppose. Check 'em out!

The mom was cool with us going right up to the babies. We didn't try to touch them, though.

The babies! So fluffy. Apparently young swans are called cygnets. Weird huh.

As we walked a little further down the river we came across what appeared to be a war memorial. It had a cool statue on the top, and the names of a bunch of people that fought in World Wars I and II. I was really struck by the statue, so I took some pictures of it.

A triumphant looking man and another with a broken sword and a sheet over his face. What could it mean?

Hell yeah. *salute*

The other side of the memorial with some more names. Cool stuff.

So after that we ate at Boomer's Gourmet Fries, which was just a stone's throw from the river. It came highly recommended, as it was on the Food Netword's 'You Gotta Eat Here'. Well, it lived up to the hype for me. I got what was called the Poutini Martini. It ended up being just regular poutine, except also with onion rings and a couple of olives (hah, get it). The onion rings were a genius addition, I couldn't believe I'd never heard of such a thing before. But they had tons of other types there too. If you're ever in Stratford, I can definitely add my recommendation to Boomer's.

So then it was on to the show. We had pretty good seats, on the balcony level but up towards the front and right in the centre. As I said before, I didn't really know what to expect, having never seen a rock opera was before, but it ended up being pretty much that. An opera with rock music. I don't know what I expected *Arrested Development*

It was great though. The music was cool, and the actors all did an amazing job. I was really impressed by how well they were able to sing while also acting and dancing around. The story was pretty good too, from what I interpreted. Kinda weird in spots...but I still definitely enjoyed it. One thing I wasn't expecting was how LOUD it was. I'm not much of a concert-goer at all, so that took me kind of aback, but it wasn't SO loud that I didn't get used to it quickly. However, there were a few times when guns were shot, and that was like next-level loud. Like, you could hear it from space. Yes I know that doesn't make sense - that's how loud it was.

So yeah, for my first time at a rock opera, and at Stratford, it was a great introduction. Definitely would like to go back sometime to see something else. And of course, as a person of suck weak will, I couldn't leave a place like that empty-handed. I bought a graphic novel version of MacBeth, which was one of my favourite Shakespeare plays that I read in high school. I also got a manga version of The Merchant of Venice, which I have never read before (and had actually not heard of before), but I thought the art looked cool, so I decided to give it a shot. It was ten bucks, so what the heck, right? Hopefully it'll be good.

Then finally, I bought something that struck me right when I walked in the door. In fact it was the last one they had, the lady actually took it off of the wall to give me to buy, haha. Check it:

If you hear the jingling of the bells, don't bother turning round. You're already dead.

Pretty cool, right? Sorry the picture is kinda dark and grainy (thanks Samsung), but I guess it kinda adds to the creepyness. And yeah there are little bells on the end of each of the...protrusions. But who needs stealth when you've got style, right?

Anyway, yeah. It was definitely a cool experience - it's always nice to get slightly more cultured. Apparently there's some Shakespearean festival that goes on there, but we didn't get a chance to check it out. I don't know the details but it sounds like that would be really cool to see one day.

*EDIT*
Crap, I forgot to put this in. BONUS DUCK

Quack.

On Worrying Too Much

Hey guys, so sorry but today's going to be a bit of a short post. Have some things to do around here today then have to go out. Also, small update on my SUPER SECARET project, since I'm so busy this week doesn't look like it'll be ready yet. But it is progressing along and should be ready to post next week. Please look forward to it *bow*.

Anyway, today I thought I'd just talk a bit about worrying too much. It's something that I am quite familiar with - I am and always have been a very worried person. Even as a child, if my parents were a bit late getting home from something, my head would always be filled with terrible thoughts, thinking they would never be coming home. As I grew older it turned into a fairly crippling anxiety problem. Those problems are improving now though, since I've managed to get some help with them, and so I just wanted to talk about one of the biggest things I've learned.

So, as is common, the main way that my anxiety manifested itself was worrying about things before they would happen. Like, before I would go to something, anything from a party/friends gathering to something as simple as going to a store, I would think about all the things that might go wrong. In my sick mind, I justified it by thinking that I was just preparing myself for the worst, so if something DID go wrong, I'd be ready and be able to handle it. But what I've learned now, is that it's just not worth it. See, potential problems aren't actually problems at all. They're problems that you're making up for yourself. And if you go through life looking for problems...well, that's all you're going to find.

So I'm not saying that we should all just go through life all devil may care, just taking everything as it comes. Some form of planning and forethought is needed. But I've found that having a bit of that attitude just makes things...nicer. Let's take an example, if I am going somewhere that I have never been before. In the past, I would be all worried that things might not go as planned, and I might get lost or something. But now I just think...well, if something happens, I can just ask someone for help, or look up what to do on my phone. So now when I go somewhere, I put a lot less thought and planning into it. And you know what? It's always turned out perfectly fine. I always get where I'm going, and I feel a lot more happy and relaxed while getting there.

This all may seem kind of obvious for some people, who don't have anxiety problems. And you're right to be confused, it's a weird thing! But even so, maybe it's just something to think about. I have found that thinking about stuff like this has improved my life, so even if you are in a different position and situation than I am (well, you almost assuredly are), maybe it could help you in some way. Hopefully! (Apropos: Swedish House Mafia's Don't You Worry Child was in my head while writing this post. Hah.)

Anyway, that's about it I think. An exciting thing for me is tomorrow I will be going to Stratford to see Pete Townsend's rock opera Tommy. I'll be going with my family, as it was a father's day and birthday gift to my Dad from us. It should be an interesting experience for me, as I've never been to Stratford, nor seen a rock opera before. So on Friday I'll make a post writing about how it was. Should be good times!

Monday, The Day of Mons

What even is a mon anyway.

SO today I don't really have anything specific to talk about today, so I'll just do kind of a stream-of-consciousness thingy and talk about what's goin' on these days. Well not really a stream-of-consciousness...that would just be weird. Trust me.

So first off, I'm gonna be starting work on a SUUUPER SEEECARET project that will be appearing on this blog! I'm actually kinda excited about it, I hope it works out well. It MIIIGHT be appearing this week sometime, but I have to get some other things done in order to set up for it, so that might take a while. Considering how lazy I am.

What else...well I started playing Remember Me last night. Played about an hour or so of it, and I like it so far. I have my complaints, but I'll talk about those later on, I'm planning on doing kind of a post-mortem thingy once I finish the game. But overall so far the world is pretty cool, and the combat is tolerable. I can see the potential for it even being kind of neat, but we'll see.

I am using a Mad Catz FPS Pro Xbox controller (wired, playing on PC) to play, and it's pretty cool. It's shaped just like a regular Xbox controller, but with rubber grips on the side (which are kind of pointless I think, but don't have a negative effect, so I'm cool with it), and more importantly, an actually functional D-pad. That was the entire reason I didn't go with the official Xbox wired controller, because as is well known, the D-pad is terrible. I don't even use the D-pad that much anymore, but it's just the principle of it. It's weird, Microsoft released a new wireless controller with an improved D-pad, but never an updated wired one. I guess they like selling those rechargeable battery packs. Anywho the sticks light up, which is kinda neat, and there are two extra buttons on the back, but that's kind of neither here nor there for me. Overall though it's a nice controller for a good price.

Hum...nextwise...OH YEAH. It's goddamn hot as hell right now and I hate it. The summer had been sooo nice so far, down around 20-25 degrees, then all of a sudden the solstice hits and BAM, NIGH ON FORTY DEGREES. God. I have a new summer weightloss program now: Step one - go outside. That's it. Ugh.

And it wouldn't even be that bad, since we have air conditioning here, but I have to go out on Wednesday. Well...I don't HAVE to, but I want to. I'll be goin down to the olllld comic book store. This week the first trades are coming out for the Before Watchmen series (plural). I've not read any of them yet, but I think what I've heard so far was fairly positive. Being a huge fan of Watchmen though, I had always planned to pick up the trades no matter what. It's sad that Moore and Gibbons were not involved, but I think it could still be neat to see more into the world. Of course the first ones to come out aren't the most interesting ones (Rorschach and Comedian are the ones I'm most interested in), but hopefully they'll still be cool.

There are also some adorable Final Fantasy plushies coming out this week. Two moogles and a cactuar. I don't even like moogles that much, but one of them looks exactly like the moogle doll that Lulu carries around in FFX, so...I may fall prey to that one (little known fact: I LOVE Lulu). I also may look for a figure of Faora from Man of Steel. Which I saw this week. It was good! I'm not a huge Superman fan, but I definitely liked it. The highlight for me was definitely Faora though - she was pretty hot I guess, but the best part was she was SUCH A BADASS. Taking bullets in the face while barely noticing, blinking around knocking fools out, and sticking her hand out to swat a missile with no effs given. Sure it knocked her unconscious, but you gotta appreciate the moxie.

Oh yeah, speaking of Zack Snyder, I also saw the trailer for the sequel to 300. I'll see it. There was one part where a spartan front kicked some guy in slow motion and I was like 'yep, I'm in'. So yeah that should be fun when it comes out.

Well I guess that's it for today. Sorry for not much of an interesting post but I'll try to make up for it as the week goes on. Keep looking for interesting news to talk about but it's all just negative stuff and I'm not down with that. Anyways, see ya next time!

Gaming Confessions

So this one might be kinda fun. I think we all have those things that we do in games or related to games that we're not terribly proud of - I know I definitely have a few. I think it can be kind of cathartic to get these things out into the world. And it might also shame me into reversing my behaviour. Well...that's probably not too likely, but let's see anyway. I'll start with the two biggest ones that are more general, then go into a few that are more specific.

I have a terrible habit of not finishing games
So this is the one that I think hounds me the most. As we all know, lots of games are coming out all the time, and a fair number of them are pretty good. So I like to get lots of games and try them out, but then, often, I quickly lose interest. It's pretty sad the number of games that I've stopped part way through, and even just played a couple of hours of before stopping. I don't know why this is! Many of the games I really like and actually enjoy, but for some reason I just can't get myself to go back to them. Maybe it's the immature fascination with new things, I dunno. But right now I've dug myself into a hole so deep with my backlog of unfinished games, I don't imagine I'll ever get them all done.

I sometimes buy games and then just never play them
So this is kind of similar to the first one I guess, but it's even worse. I mean, sometimes this can make sense when you buy stuff in Steam sales, or bundles, but there are some games that I have bought for full price, fully intending to play them, but then just never get around to it. Then months later you see them for heavily discounted prices, and a part of your soul dies.

I mean I guess there are a few games for which this is okay, like when I got FFX2 for example. I bought it at the same time that I got FFX, and obviously I can't play X2 until I finish the first one. But I decided to buy it then anyway, since I wasn't sure I'd ever see it in a store again (and I don't think I have). And then there's The Darkness 2. Again, I haven't finished the first one yet, but I got 2 at launch because it was a free limited edition, with some digital crap and a REALLY nice poster. So I'm glad I got that one. But the rest...yeah, it's just sad. I guess there could be some sort of collector's mentality there, but games should be played! It's not like they're going to appreciate in value.

I have never finished a main series Final Fantasy game
Okay so this one is kind of bad for me, because I am a really big fan of JRPGs. But for some reason, I have just never been able to complete a Final Fantasy. 'Well, sure,' you might say, 'Final Fantasy isn't for everyone'. And that's true, but the thing is, I have started a LOT of them. I've played IV, V, VI, VIII, X, XII, and XIII, with varying levels of progress. None of them finished. I'm still hoping to finish X someday, so that I can move on to X2, but we'll see. By the way, I say I've never finished a main series game, because I HAVE finished Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Which I almost feel like is even more of an insult to the series somehow :/

I'm that guy who never did research when playing WoW
So this might not make much sense if you never played in a raiding guild in WoW, but there was a lot of stuff to research. There were tons of thread on the official forums, and an entire separate unofficial forum called Elitist Jerks where there was information on the best and most efficient builds and gear for each class. There was stuff about strategies too, like downranking spells and whatnot. And I never read any of it. It was just so boring to me. Of course I DID read strats on boss fights, but that was about the extent of my diligence. For the rest, I pretty much relied on my fellow Paladins (especially Rothir) to tell me what to do. And it worked out fine I guess, since I was always one of the strongest healers in the guild, but I always felt kind of guilty about it. Haha.

If there is a click-to-activate item for me to forget to use, I will forget to use it. Always
Another one that is kind of specific to certain games, but has happened in WoW and League of Legends. Especially the latter. I always try to use items that have a passive effect over ones with active, because I know that I can't screw up with a passive effect. But in LoL, when you die and then look down and notice that you never used your Zhonya's, Randuin's, Locket, etc....it's just the worst. And I never seem to learn.

So many 'essential' game series just don't interest me at all
So I may sadly sound kind of like a hipster for this one, but I have to admit it. There are tons of hugely popular and beloved series and franchises that I just have no interest in. I've never played: an Elder Scrolls game, a Mega Man game, a Call of Duty game, a Civilization game, and I just couldn't finish any of the Half Life games due to boredom. There are probably tons more but that's all that comes to mind right now. I dunno man! I recognize that they're good games, since they're so popular, but...just not for me.

So I think that's all I'll put for now, since nothing else is really coming to mind. I just thought it might be kinda fun to talk about, though. If I can think of any more good ones, maybe I'll do another post of these.

EDIT: WAIT ONE MORE

The first console I owned was an N64
Which, for my age, is kind of sad. I played a bit of NES when we borrowed one from a friend of ours, and played a tiny bit of Genesis at a friend's house, but that was it. No PS1, no Dreamcast, and if I remember right, I have actually never played an SNES. Crazy, right?

Short Story: General Malaise and the Sad Day

General Malaise signed as he stood over the hidden trap door in his office. He eyed the button on the controller in his hand, and hovered his finger over it. Sure, he had it alright. He was the General and leader of the second biggest sect of the Conclave of Villainy in the entire world, and commanded thousands of underlings to perform his nefarious affairs. But there was just something so...unfulfilling about all of it. Just as he was working up the nerve to press the button, he heard the beep of his intercom.

"General," the voice called. "I brought you some lunch, if you'd care for some. Peppercorn ring-tailed lemur!"

General Malaise recognized the voice, and knew that the time was not now. "Lieutenant Badman, of course. Come on in." He crossed the room over to the table, and slipped the controller into his pocket.

Badman entered and placed the meals on the table. He was a large man in a navy blue officer's suit trimmed with black. He had his medals hanging on the front of his jacket, though it wasn't clear what any of them was for. He had his salt-and-pepper hair cut short, with an eye patch over his right eye and a monocle over his left. "So, how's everything going? I heard the whole mobile network-transmitted VDs thing is looking pretty good, eh?" He sat down and the two started into their food.

"Oh yeah," Malaise replied, allowing himself a little smile. "It's pretty terrific. Subtle. Genius." That project was still in the research department, along with many others. "All our new projects are progressing nicely, the rate of fatal accidents downstairs has skyrocketed."

"Oh! Nice." The two kept up the friendly smalltalk for only a few more minutes until there was another obnoxious beep from the intercom.

"General, it's Snivens", called the voice. Malaise instantly groaned.

"Oh sweet lord in hell what?" The general was not terribly fond of his squire. He was a young, pompous, self-important brat who was only here to learn the family business. Despite his feelings, though, Malaise had to put up with him.

"Well General, it's rather important, if you would be so kind as to let me in." There was something in his tone that suggested Malaise's day was about to get a lot worse. Reluctantly, he let Snivens in.

"What is it you-" Badman cleared his throat loudly to cut Malaise off. The general just grumbled and finally spat out "What is it?"

"Well sir, it's come to my attention that your report to the Dark Lord is imminent, and you seem not to have prepared anything at all." Snivens said.

General Malaise's face froze in a startlingly neutral look. "I'm sorry what."

"Your report with the Dark Lord. I'm sure I mentioned it to you." Snivens tried to hold back a grin, but not too hard.

Malaise started shaking from a combination of rage and fear. He struggled to keep his composure. "No...no I can't say you did, you..." He trailed off.

"Oh gosh, how forgetful of me." Snivens' enjoyment was palpable. "Well we all make mistakes, don't we? Especially you. Don't worry though, the Dark Lord has already been informed of all of those."

Malaise simply remained silent and completely still. Badman decided to chime in. "Uh...well when is the report to take place, exactly?"

The giant screen behind General Malaise lit up, and the image of a man sitting behind a large desk appeared. The man's face was completely hidden in shadow. Malaise remained completely still save for his eyes, which grew as wide as saucers.

"Ah, General Mayonnaise, how nice to see you again," the Dark Lord said almost offhandedly. He appeared to be fidgeting with something hidden behind his desk. Malaise steeled himself, and then whirled around.

"Dark Lord Lordship! The pleasure and honour are mine, as always. I have been greatly looking forward to speaking to you!" The General's mouth was working on autopilot as his mind tried to figure out what the hell he was going to say.

"Very good, son, very good. Son of a..." he muttered the last words and brought his hands up above the horizon of the desk, revealing that he was struggling with a Chinese finger trap. There was then a long, awkward moment where the Dark Lord seemed to forget where he was. The fluffy white cat on his desk looked at the monitor, then at the Dark Lord, and meowed. "Mmm? Oh right, of course. So General, I hear things are going a bit rough over there."

Malaise swallowed hard. "Well, sir, it is true that there have been some...mishaps. I mean, the radioactive flying squirrels..." He paused for a moment, trying to find his words. "We knew about the enhanced intelligence, but...who could have known that rodents had such heroic tendencies?"

"Well I should think that you should have known, General. What are my research and testing budgets going towards, anyway? OW! You stupid..." He yanked at the finger trap clumisly. Here Malaise saw his chance to spin the conversation his way.

"Oh, well, just let me tell you, your lordship...Lord...ship." Malaise glanced around awkwardly, but kept going. "We've got some great stuff in the works. Have you heard about the new team of supermen? They're so incomprehensibly evil, it almost made me sick. It's something else." For once, the general lifted his head and stood proudly.

"Supermen, eh?" Lordship seemed to be taking the bait. "What are they called?"

"Called? Oh, well..." Malaise had hoped that this wouldn't come up. "I mean it's not final or anything but...currently we've been calling them...Team Evil." Malaise winced as he said it. He knew it was going to be bad.

"Mhm, mhm..." Lordship held his bound hands still as he glanced off to the side of the monitor. "Are you...are you kidding me? The second largest sect of the Conclave of Villainy, and THAT'S what you come up with?"

"I know sir, I know," Malaise said apologetically. "It's just that...well, creativity has tested badly. I..." The general paused and shook his head slightly. "I don't know what to tell you."

"Uh huh...well testing be damned, come up with something better. I'll not have a bunch of generically named buffoons representing ME. Anonymously, of course." The fluffy cat nodded in agreement. "Well, fine, but my time is running short here, Mayonnaise." A small grunt was heard from the general. "I've got...other things going on here." He tugged at his fingers again, in vain. "Is there anything else you feel fit to tell me about?"

"Oh yes, sir, we've got tons of things going on in R&D. I mean, the mantis shrimp cannon? You've got to see it to believe it, sir. The-" Lordship cut him off.

"Listen General, tests and prototypes are all well and good, but I need to see real world RESULTS. This isn't the Conclave of...freaking...testing stuff." He seemed a bit unsatisfied with that, but kept going anyway. "I need you to step things up, or I'll find someone else who will. Oh, by the way, how's my little nephew Snivens doing?" Snivens was off to the side, out of view of the monitor, but gave Malaise a cutting smirk.

"Oh, Snivens, well...I mean...he's definitely...like...yeah...what can I say? Heh..." Malaise knew what he had to say, but he couldn't seem to do it. The words caught in his throat and meant to choke him.

"Preferably something that answers my question." Lordship said, though he was looking at his trapped fingers.

"Ah, yes. Well..." The general took a deep breath. "He's doing well beyond expectations, my lord. I wouldn't trade him for anyone." He felt like weeping.

"Excellent! Glad to hear it. Now, as I said, I must go. Grrrr." The Dark Lord seemed to be getting frustrated at the finger trap. "I'LL BE WATCHING." He bellowed. "This stupid thing...GLADYS! WARM UP THE TABLE LASER." The fluffy cat looked into the monitor dryly and hit a button on the console. The screen turned black.

"Well, that went pretty well, eh?" Snivens sounded a bit disappointed. "I'll just be going, then." He started out of the room.

"Snivens, wait," Malaise called, and Snivens stopped. "My hatred for you," the general paused thoughtfully, a finger on his chin. "...is unbounded. Do you hear me? I need you to understand that."

Snivens let out a snort of a laugh. "I shall consider it deeply, sir." Then he left the room.

"He's lying. He always lies to me, that's one of the reasons why I hate him." General Malaise glared broodingly at the door.

"Yeah...too bad he's the Dark Lord's nephew, eh? Elsewise you could just like...kill him." Lieutenant Badman had started back into his lemur.

"Yeah...too bad." Malaise looked over at his plate, but found he wasn't hungry anymore.

"But hey," Badman said in between bites. "Mayonnaise, that's pretty close, right? Getting better!"

Malaise glowered at him for a second, but then collected himself. "Say," he said incidentally. "I wonder how the wolversharks are doing."

"Well, I mean, they're probably fine, right? They're like-" Badman cut himself off as he saw the look that Malaise was giving him, which almost seemed to push him back slightly. "Ah, yes. Why don't I go have a look? It's about time for an inspection, I'd say." He nodded respectfully to the generally, and strode out of the room.

When he was gone, General Malaise sighed and walked back over to the trap door. He produced the controller out of his pocket, and hovered his finger over it again. He closed his eyes, and pressed the button.

Then, a large yellow balloon with a happy face on it fell slowly from the ceiling and bumped gently off his head.

"God damnit..."

END

WELL...I don't think this turned out quite as well as I was hoping it would, but eh. Still feels kind of good to get back into it. Hopefully I'll be able to start doing some cool stuff in the next few days and going forward from here.

On The Xbox One DRM 180

So...I originally wasn't even going to make a post about this because I would vastly prefer to make posts about positive things, but I really feel like I just need to get my thoughts out. They stir within me! So I think I'll just try to make it a short and to-the-point post. Then tomorrow I am hoping to post a short story that I have been thinking of for a little while that will hopefully be kinda funny. I think it's funny, anyway!

Anyway, so yesterday (I think? Or was it the day before...maybe it was Tuesday) Microsoft announced that they would be removing the twenty four hour check-in, and the DRM on games. This means you won't be registering disc-based games to your account, and can trade and share them all you want. Just like this generation.

And that's the thing that really rustles my jimmies. I really just don't get how people don't understand that Microsoft was trying to move consoles forward with their former policies. Why the heck do people want things to remain the same as in this generation? Do we really want to spend four hundred bucks on a new machine that just makes our games look prettier? I guess that would be cool but Microsoft was trying to do so much more, and now it seems like that progress is in jeopardy.

As a bunch of articles posted yesterday pointed out, we're going to be losing some features with this change that were actually pretty cool. Registering your disc-based games to your account meant that you could play them without the disc being in the machine. You could play them on any Xbox One just by logging in to your account. Those things will still work with digital games of course, but as a person who likes to buy physical things (especially as a sucker for collector's editions), that's kind of disappointing to me.

It just really really bothers me that the whiny vocal majority won out. And even worse, it seems like this majority wasn't even well informed. Was the twenty four hour check-in thing really that bad? I feel like most people just cried about it without actually thinking about WHY they were crying about it. Like, they were against it on principle, when in practice it would have been completely fine. And as has been pointed out many times, the DRM thing was basically like Steam. There is no problem with that. It could even have been good! Steam-like sales on Xbox? Come on, that would be awesome.

So, it's kind of disappointing to me that Microsoft are changing their policies and removing some neat features. But I think the thing to remember for everyone, on both sides, is that Microsoft has been very adamant in saying that the Xbox One platform has been designed to be flexible. So, depending on how Microsoft handles things in the coming months and even after release, we could end up with the best of both worlds. I don't think that is impossible.

Some Thoughts on Stories and Characters in Games

So this is something that I have talked a little bit about in a past post I think, but I guess today I can go into a bit more detail. What spurred this idea in me was that today I finished Fire Emblem Awakening, which is a fantastic game that has a lot of focus on the characters. I feel like it did a really good job of not only having great gameplay, but also having a good narrative, in a certain way. So I'll start talking about the game first, then go into my thoughts on how it applies to games in general.

So Fire Emblem Awakening, for those who don't know, is a turn-based strategy RPG in which you have an army of characters that move around a field and fight each other. It's kind of like chess, in a certain respect. However in this game (if you choose the option, which is recommended), if your characters are defeated in battle, you lose them forever. This makes you care about the characters more than usual as you try to preserve them, but it's not the only way the characters are featured.

There's also a relationship system in the game. Basically, the more characters stand next to each other in battle, they build a stronger relationship. When their relationships reach new levels (literally), you can view a little discussion between the two characters that reveals more about each of them. There are a lot of characters, too, maybe around 40 or 50 in total, and while not every character can have a relationship with every other, there are a LOT of relationship conversations. Like, so many, it would probably take several dozens-of-hours playthroughs to see them all. Learning more about the characters and finding out unexpected secrets about them as they talked really made me feel more connected to them - there are quite a few characters in the game that I really, really like!

But, in the huge quantity of content lies my 'issue' with it. There are SO many conversations that I will never be able to see all of them, because I simply don't have the time or patience. And this is where the weakness of narrative in games comes in for me - in order to make a player feel like they have real agency, you have to give them a HUGE amount of content. And then after making all that content, most players probably won't even see the vast majority of it, they will just see the content they get on their specific path. Indeed, you even probably have to put a lot of that 'flavour content' and text out of the way, so as to not bore people that don't want to read it at all. So it just seems like you'd be doing a lot of work that most people won't even see.

Some people would probably see that as a good thing, to have tons of variety, but from a storyteller's standpoint (or at least, from this one's), it's not so great. I feel like having so many options in a story really just dilutes it, and makes it so that you have to generalize lots of things to make sure that everything makes sense no matter what path the player took. That's one of the things that has always frustrated me when trying to think of stories for games, I believe that a storyteller having full control over the experience will generally result in a superior story.

And really, this kind of shows in Fire Emblem Awakening. As I said, I loved the characters and interactions between them, but the story itself was kind of...meh. It was even kind of incomprehensible at times. And, it's hard to say if that was because of the huge variety of experiences that players might be able to have, but I definitely think it had an effect. Like, you can only have a certain number of characters that are involved in key moments in the story, because all the rest of the characters can die.

And then there's the issue of cost - generation so much content takes a lot of time, which of course takes a lot of money. The guys who make Fire Emblem were able to do that because Fire Emblem is a hugely successful franchise that's been around for I think around 20+ years. So for someone like me, the feasibility of doing something like that is pretty much...non-existent. People always seem to be lamenting the fact that stories in games are kind of meh, but it's no wonder to me.

And to be clear, I'm not really calling for some sort of change or shift in the industry here, I'm just mainly trying to get my thoughts out, just for the heck of it. I mean we are starting to have more games with strong stories, like The Walking Dead episodes from Telltale, and supposedly The Last of Us has a strong story, but those are definitely pretty linear affairs. Usually gamers tend to complain about those - remember what happened with Final Fantasy XIII? But maybe we're starting to see a shift where games like that are more acceptable. That would be cool I guess.

I dunno, I still love games, and I think it would be fun to keep working on games. I think there's a lot you can do, and having the player actually interact with the world is a big plus in creating an immersive experience. But whenever I'm thinking about a story that I'd like to write, it almost always feels like it would work better as a book or comic or something.

On...Stuff...

Well I haven't made a post on here since like FRIDAY. I dunno man, I just haven't been feeling it lately. It sucks! If there is actually anyone who reads these posts, I must say that I am sorry, and I am going to make a concerted effort to post regularly, and more importantly, to come up with actually interesting things to talk about. Failing that today, I guess I will just talk about some stuff I've been doing lately.

I've actually been playing a fair bit of League of Legends these days. I stopped playing a while ago, but I still kept up with the game because I like watching LoL streams on Twitch. Like watching sports I guess, I found it more fun to watch than to play. Now, though, Riot released matchmaking for a mode called ARAM, which if you don't know, means All Random All Middle. Long story short, instead of having a big map with all three lanes in it, there's only one lane. So with all ten players in the same lane, there tends to be a lot of fighting. It's fun. I also like it better than normal games because there's no fighting over spots - it doesn't really matter what everyone plays (and in fact your character is given to you randomly from the ones you have available). Sometimes you can get a team full of characters that aren't very good, but it's usually still fun to just play it out. So yeah.

I have also started back down the home stretch of Fire Emblem: Awakening on my 3DS. It's a really great game, I'm not even really sure why I stopped playing it for a little while, but now I'm back into it. I'm actually on the last mission (the prefix for the mission is 'Endgame'...lol), but right now I'm working on some side-missions to get 'secret' DLC characters. These characters were free though, which was pretty cool.

The thing about these missions though - they're hard! You're put up against powerful enemies, which would be fine, but you also have to protect the characters you're trying to recruit for the entire mission - if they die during the fight, you don't get to keep them. And of course, the characters are either completely helpless, or ridiculously reckless, so it takes some finagling to figure out the best way to beat the mission with everyone alive. The mission to get Aversa I think is the hardest mission I've done in the game so far, I probably had to reset it around 20 times. I spent the whole afternoon pretty much on just that one mission! But when I beat it, it felt really good, and I'm happy cause Aversa is hawt. lolololol

But yeah, Fire Emblem is great, definitely recommend it to turn-based strategy RPG fans. That's about all I HAVE been playing, but there's plenty more I've been meaning to play. Remember Me, for one, still haven't started that yet. Also Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. I bought it back when it came out and played it a bit, but then I think Halo Reach came out and...yeah. So then recently I got back into playing it, since the sequel is coming out this year, and it's really a cool game. It's just so looong though! It's one of those situations where even though I like the game and enjoy playing it, it feels like playing through it will just be a grind. I hate it when that happens :/

And I mean there's plenty of other stuff I need to start and/or finish, my backlog is like a mile long. There's so much to choose from it's like paralyzing, you know? And it really sucks because I don't have a job right now, and plenty of time, but I'm still not even able to put but a dent in my To Play stack. Especially with new games coming out all the time. It's frustrating!

Eh...so can't decide on something to play, can't think of anything good to work on. Definitely in a bit of a rut right now. But I'm keeping my head up! Going to start doing my best to get myself back into a good creative state of mind so I can keep moving forward. Here's hoping, anyway.

Post E3 2013 Thoughts

Welp, I kinda broke my semi-promise and haven't made a post for two days. Still going through a bit of a lull creatively, so I haven't really been feeling much like writing. It's kinda like writer's block I guess, but not just one one project, just in general. But I think I'm starting to get myself out of it, seems like I'm just gonna have to force myself to push through it.

Anywho, E3 ended yesterday I think, so at least I can talk about that. Obviously I made the posts about the press conferences, but now I can talk about stuff after having actually gotten some more information on them after the excitement of the big reveals and announcements. I'm gonna mostly try to talk about stuff I liked today, cause I'm sick of all the negativity coming out of 'fans'.

So overall I think that the show was pretty good. I wasn't, like, super blown away by anything, but I think there's a distinct reason for that. Basically, I was hoping that after E3 I would have a better idea of which next-gen console I want to get, but unfortunately now I'm even more torn. On the one hand, XB1 has some questionable policies with their DRM and online check-ins, but it also have Halo and Titanfall. Then on the other hand, PS3 has more relaxed policies, but I wasn't very impressed with any of their exclusive games. It's turned into a really tough choice!

As far as the Xbox goes, I've always been a huge fan of Halo, so that's a significant point for me. Then there's also Titanfall, which is also coming out for PC, but for that, I'd have to get a PC that could run it. To make it look as good as it would on the Xbox, it would probably take a much stronger rig than I have now. And then, there are the policies, which everyone has been complaining about, but I'm not even sure they're so bad. With the check-in, I mean, I don't ever plan to be without a constant internet connection, so that doesn't bother me too much. Then with the DRM and used games policy...it just sounded almost exactly like Steam to me. Even more relaxed even, since you can share your games with family members and one friend. Then they also showed a few more exclusives for Xbox that I wasn't totally blown away by, but some of them looked pretty cool.

Then there's the PS4. They don't have the online check-in, which is nice. But with all the talk from both companies about cloud computing giving more opportunities for better looking games and more features, wouldn't you need to be always online anyway? And they're saying they're not going to have any DRM or used-games policy, but...like I said, no one seems to have much of a problem with Steam. And with no used games, Xbox games could be cheaper! Then there's the PS4 games - none of the big name exclusive interested me at all (except one, but it was just a very early trailer). There were cool games that I liked at the Sony conference, but they are all coming out for Xbox too. However, one of the big plusses for PS4 for me is that it sounds like a lot of my friends are going to buy it. It'd be a lot more fun to have friends to play multiplayer with than to just stick to single player games on the Xbox.

Then there's the Wii U...well, Bayonetta 2 looks amazing, but that's pretty much it, and I can't justify buying a console for just one game. The 3DS is looking good though, so I'm definitely glad I picked one of those up. Especially Pokemon X/Y - it seems like they're really putting a lot of effort into moving the franchise forward with this new generation.

So, as far as consoles go, I'm completely stuck in the middle of PS4 and Xbox One. I guess I could always get both, but I really don't think I can justify spending that much money, at least in my current situation. Maybe over the next few months Microsoft will be able to win gamers back, but if not it's going to be a tough, tough decision.

Well let's talk about some games now. I think that my game of the show was definitely Final Fantasy XV. That's actually really surprising to me, as I'd never taken a huge in FF Versus XIII. But after seeing the trailers and the new action-heavy combat, it looks totally awesome to me. And if this is the start of Square Enix making an effort to revitalize the franchise, than I'm REALLY excited about that. Titanfall was also really cool, with it's freerunning, jetpacks, and friggin' awesome mechs really tickling my fancy. I'm a liiiittle worried that the shooting itself seems a bit generic, but hopefully we'll have lots of opportunities to ride in the mechs. Destiny and Smash Bros. looked really cool too, but that's none too surprising.

Then there were two games that really just had more teasers than anything, but I have high hopes. The first was the Halo trailer - interestingly, it wasn't called Halo 5. I mean, it probably is, since I think they already announced that 4 is the start of a new trilogy, but who knows, I guess. After 4, I think we can trust 343 to make another great game. Then the other really exciting new announcement for me was Mirror's Edge 2. Like I said in my other post, all they showed was combat footage, so that worried me a little. But then later, EA said that it was going to be an open world action/adventure game, so that gave me a little relief. The open world part sounds especially cool, so I'm hopeful. I really need this game to be good...

So, I think that's about all I have to say for right now. We'll probably see a bit more info this weekend and into next week as the journalists write up all the notes they took, but I don't expect there will be any more huge announcements. It was a huge whirlwind of new stuff, so it'll probably take some time to take it all in anyway. I'll have to take some time over the next few days to organize stuff I want and see when they're coming out - maybe that will help me decide what I'm going to do in the next console generation.

On E3 2013 Part 2

Here's part 2 starting with Ubisoft. Now, there's something you may not know about me. I worked for a company called Gameloft, and I didn't like it very much. I won't go into why. But that company is owned by the same men that own Ubisoft. So my feelings towards Ubisoft are a bit, hm...rough. With that in mind, let's look at my notes for their conference. I shall post the raw notes, as that is all the effort I feel like putting in.

Ubisoft
Rocksmith
- they are starting with a rock thing and I hate them already
- Aisha Tyler, oh good, this shouldn't be awkward at all
- music game, who cares

Splinter Cell Blacklist
- is this splinter cell or a bad movie
- facial animations terrible
- aisha tyler we know you play games its ok

Rayman Legends
- wasn't this supposed to be out already?
- coming out on september 3rd why my birthday YOU DONT SPEAK THAT DATE
- I mean it looks nice though, but like 4 player platformers, pretty over that

The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot
- that name i hate it and i hate you
- tower defense and dungeon runner, sounds kinda neat
- then you just ruined it with a stupid movie. who was this for? it just gets worse wow

South Park The Stick of Truth
- looks pretty okay but you have nothing to do with it but money ubisoft

Yves Guillimot
- I hate this man legitimately and actually have a good reason

The Crew
- wow you made need for speed how revolutionary
- why are these drivers goign around killing people
- you expect that many people to play on uplay? lol
- god this is sad
- uh bro ever heard of test drive unlimited?
- not impressed with graphics
- unsurprisingly this is not as exciting as he explained it would be
- customization sounds boring for a non gear head
- who is paying for this property damage? isn't it you? you're supposed to 'own' these areas?
- this guy cant even catch the target
- customize a car on ipad oooohhhhhh

Watch Dogs
- protagonist looks dumb
- people/graphics look great
- wonder what makes this guy so special hacking/fighting wise
- sounds cool i guess, if they did all the writing
- AISHA WE KNOW YOU PLAY GAMES
- not totally sold, but it does sounds pretty neat

Just Dance 2014
- it is what it is i guess, not for me
- 'dance master' really like really

Rabbids Invasion
- TV ARE YOU DUMB DID YOU WATCH THE XB1 REVEAL SHUT UP TARDS
- this guy's flower shirt my god
- looks fun for kids, god awful for parents

Assassin's Creed Black Flag
- is it going to be about a real assassin this time? no? ok.
- pirates are cool, call it fkin pirates creed
- is that sigur ros again? neat.
- i ask again what is sneaky about goddamn tallships
- "we dont need to show gameplay because you've already played it"
- oh damn they are showing gameplay
- nevermind just cinematicy in-game footage har har
- nice song though

Trials Fusion? Frontier?
- one next-gen one mobile, look the same
- more trials, never played but looks ok
- 'complement and interact with each other' i know these words, they are meaningless

The Division
- wow theyre just going all out on scare tactics
- shut up already borrrred
- trailer sucked
- look at this asshole and his scarf
- augmented reality looks neat
- graphics really nice
- wow destructable stuff
- mmo shooter eh
- how could you make such a terrible trailer for such a cool looking game
- Ps4 and Xb1

Sony
Awesome!
The Order 1886
So here we have a new exclusive IP, cool! I really liked this trailer because it had one of my favourite things - mixing technology and themes from different eras. So there were knights and carriages and castles, but also guns, airships, and like, intercoms? There were also glimpses of what looked like werewolves and like...a Tesla gun or something. There was no gameplay shown, so it's hard to know for sure how this will turn out, but it looks promising based on the themes so far.

Final Fantasy XV
So Tetsuya Nomura started out showing us Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which if you're not aware of the story, it's been in development for a loooong time. Like, since before FFXIII came out. We saw all the stuff we'd seen before, the awesome airships, castles, and big ass knights, and it all looked gorgeous. But then it got into some action sequences, and it looked more like a Devil May Cry game than Final Fantasy. It looked really cool! Then we saw that the game is now Final Fantasy XV, which I think is a great idea. FF definitely needed a mixup, and this looks like it might revitalize the franchise. Though it was only featured at the Sony conference, it will be coming out on XB1 also. Regardless, it looked amazing to me, really excited for this now.

Destiny
So now onto Destiny, which looks unsurprisingly great. The graphics look amazing, though it still has the gun bob animation when you run, which bothers me. Your head is attached to your body, devs! Anyway, it looked like exploration is going to be a big part of the game, with lots of cool environments to dive into. The shooting looked pretty standard, but the class powers and abilities look like they will mix things up nicely. Then there's the loot, which looks pretty standard by Borderlands games and the like.

Then we saw what was a 'Public Event', which look like pretty much the same thing that happens in Guild Wars 2, though they may be more dynamic, it wasn't really discussed that much. Anyway, the public events in GW2 are pretty cool, so they are welcome here in my eyes. There were also hover bike mounts, so that's cool. One of my favourite things about this game is how the armor looks, and all the armor I saw in the demonstration just cemented that. They like cater directly to my tastes somehow. Oh yeah, it looks like there's a story too. Not sure how strong it'll be, but can't hurt, eh? This one is definitely looking amazing.

Launch
So the PS4 is coming out in the holiday season, for 400 bucks. That's a good price, I think!

Pretty Cool
Vita
So Jack Tretton started out the Vita talk by speaking about stats, which was really boring. Then he started talking about some new games that are coming to Vita, but he only said the names of the games, and we just saw a short clip/screenshot of them. So it was kind of hard to get excited about anything there. Then he mentioned the God of War I/II and Final Fantasy X/X2 HD remasters, and those are all definitely great games. Finally he mentioned that the new Telltale Walking Dead series (as well as the original) are coming to Vita, and that just seems like a really good fit to me. So I'm not sure if I'll ever pick up a Vita, but it looks like things might be improving for it. Could be interesting.

PS3
Then Tretton started talking about some PS3 games. There were a bunch, so I'll just put down my raw notes for it.
- The Last of Us - it's already out..but damn I want to play it
- Puppeteer - another platformer..? yawn
- Rain - not much info but looks interesting
- Beyond: Two Souls - I WANT THIS
- Gran Turismo 6 - meh car game, def looks current gen
- Arkham Origins - black mask looks cool. looks neat. wonder how it connects to arkham. exclusive dlc
- GTA5 - exclusive ps3 bundle for 300. HMMMM
Considering my desire to play the last of us and Beyond, that GTA bundle (which also comes with a set of big, neat looking headphones) looks mighty tempting. We'll see what happens, I guess...

Hardware
They showed what the PS4 will look like. Here was my reaction:
- its a rhombus
- looks cool i guess, no better or worse than XB1 imo

Other stuff
So Sony mentioned some extra stuff about the platform/system which I will mention here. First, they said that there will be no used game restrictions, but we found out today that that's not strictly true. First party games will indeed have no DRM or restrictions, but third party publishers can choose whether or not that is true for their games. But there were some other good things, like no need to check-in online to use the system, Playstation Plus carrying over between PS3, PS4, and Vita, and 1 free game per month for Plus users. That may sound worse than MS' 2 games per month, but the games Tretton were NEW games, so that's better in my eyes.

Transistor
One of the indie games that Sony showed off, coming from the creators of Bastion. I haven't played that game, but it looks pretty cool, I should sometime. Transistor looks pretty neat too - it has a really cool art style. I'm not sure about the gameplay I saw, being an isometric shooter, but I'm still somewhat interested in it.

Indie Studios
- secret ponchos looks cool
- others look pretty okay
- all the games get 'exclusive debut'. i guess that means timed exclusive?
Sony also showed a montage of other indie games that are coming, but we only saw short clips. The standout game for me was Secret Ponchos, the rest looked...pretty okay. They said that all those indie games will get an 'exclusive debut' on PS4, which I guess means they're timed exclusives? That doesn't mean much to me either way if it's the case.

Kingdom Hearts 3
Well I have never played a Kingdom Hearts game, but I am aware how much fans wanted this game, for a LONG time. I have actually wanted to play them, but the games are so long and there are so many of them that the series seems kind of impenetrable to me. They didn't show much of it, but it still looked really nice. Surprisingly, we found out today in Square Enix's talk that it will be coming to XB1 as well as PS4.

Watch Dogs
So here we got to see an extended gameplay demo of Watch Dogs, and it actually looked really cool. The graphics looked great (especially the rain), and we saw some driving, which actually looked kind of refreshingly realistic. The idea of hacking stuff as you go along seemed really cool, but almost seems too good to be true for me. It seems like it would have taken WAY too much work to put in enough stuff to give you lots of different possibilities. If they can deliver on what they promise, it will probably be a great game. But can they..? I guess we'll see. Oh yeah, PS4 is getting exclusive DLC. Rather a bit of a trend.

Mad Max
So this was kind of a surprise, though no gameplay was shown. Because of that, it's hard to tell what kind of game it will be, but I just automatically think of a bland, mediocre open world game. Not sure why. Mad Max is a cool world, so it could be really neat, but there's no way to tell right now. PS4 will be getting exclusive DLC for it. Cool.

Cloud Service
So I didn't really totally absorb this, but from what they said, you will be able to use PSN to stream PS3 games to your PS4, or even other devices like tablets. That sounds kind of cool I guess.

Meh
For most these I'm just gonna put my raw notes...I think they are pretty self-explanatory. And I AM TIRED.
Platform
- saying 'entertainment' a lot. wow after the XB1 reveal
- exclusive...stuff? zzzzz
- that was boring
- video unlimited - netflix?
- music unlimited - internet radio?
- sports movies musiSHUT UP

Killzone - Exclusive
Was never really a fan of any of these, an see no reason to get excited about this new one. I mean it looks nice, but so does everything else. Just another military shooter to me meh.

Driveclub - Exclusive
- nothing new shown...just a pretty car game

Infamous - Exclusive
So this had pretty great facial animation, but other than that just looked like another super power open world game, like the previous ones and prototype and whatnot. Never really been interested in those. Plus, they made a grave error that is highlighted in my raw notes.
- great facial animation
- looks pretty standard open-worldy...like prototype and whatnot
- YOU DO NOT COVER NIRVANA YOU ARE DEAD TO ME

Knack - Exclusive 
Honestly wasn't really paying attention during this game's time, but that time was short and what I saw was...
- ok? boring

The Dark Sorcerer
- uhh tech demo really
- well yeah looks pretty nice, still looks...animated
- kinda funny but..what's the point

Diablo 3
- gets ps3 exclusive items - unless theyre unreplacable, pretty meh

FF14
- only on pc and ps3/4 - meh

Assassin's Creed Black Flag
- whoa driveby assassination
- this section looks more like ac1, but not convinced
- yeah okay boat now
- wow the 'gameplay demo' keeps freezing

NBA 2K14
- um the facial animation looks terrible
- meh

Elder Scrolls Online
- looks very rift-like
- first person though of course, interesting
- fantasy mmo...wonder if they can bring anything new
- timed exclusive beta for ps4

So, overall Sony's conference was cool, but it kind of struck me afterwards that I really didn't like any of their exclusive games. The definite highlight for me (and actually the highlight of the whole show so far) was FFXV, but that's coming to XB1 too. Well actually 1886 is exclusive and looks neat, but might end up being so-so. So...I dunno, it's still up in the air between Xbox One and PS4 for me right now.

Nintendo
Awesome!
 Pokemon X/Y
So we probably all saw this coming, but it was still cool. The only thing that I wasn't super excited about was that the new Pokemon I saw looked kinda meh, but there are obviously gonna be way more. The new type - fairy - looks interesting, and it has a new minigame that lets you pat and feed your Pokemon with the touch screen. It looked adorable. There are also upgraded graphics (unsurprisingly) that looked really nice. I wasn't too gung ho on these games at first, but now they look kinda neat.

Bayonetta 2
Okay so I absolutely loved the first Bayonetta and the fact that 2 is on Wii U makes me SO SAD. But ignoring that, what they showed looked awesome. Bayonetta herself has a new look, and it looks great. Ironically she has short hair now, but I dig it. It looked like the same crazy action as in the first game, but with even more abilities. Basically, it looked amazing and all I can do is hope it gets ported to something else. ANYTHING. Or maybe I will buy it and play at Jon's house.

Xenoblade Studio Game

So this game doesn't have a title yet, but I think it's codenamed 'X'. It looks like an anime style mech game, which is pretty cool. The gameplay itself looked kind of Monster Hunter-ish, which I've never played one of those games, but their reputation speaks for itself (THEY'RE GOOD). You fight on foot and in the mechs, which can transform into vehicles and fly as well. There are huge, awesome bosses, and a seamless open world. This looks really cool.

Smash Brothers
Well we knew this was coming. The levels they showed looked really cool, and there are different versions for 3DS and Wii U. Both looked great. The new characters are an Animal Crossing Villager, Mega Man, and the Wii Fit Girl. Not so sure about the last, but the first two looked neat, Mega Man especially - he seemed to have lots of different modes to represent the boss powers. It's Smash Bros man, it looks great. I will likely get it for 3DS when it comes out next year.

Pretty Cool
Super Mario 3D World
So this is another Super Mario Game. Doesn't excite me terribly, but you know it's gonna be a quality game. The new suit is a cat suit, which gave Mario some Taokaka-like moves, which I can get behind for sure.

Art Academy
 Well this is pretty much what it sounds like, you can draw on the Wii U gamepad. Seems like a great use for it, and I support anything that supports the arts.

3rd Party Stuff
They showed off a bunch of 3rd party games like Arkham Origins and a bunch more stuff that's out already or also coming to the other consoles. There were some cool games in there but nothing too exciting.

The Wonderful 101
Now this is an interesting one, coming from one of my favourite studios, Platinum Games. By the looks of it, you have a big group of little guys that you can command around. As you draw stuff on the gamepad, the little guys attach together to form weapons or other abilities that you can use to defeat monsters. It's an interesting idea, but in practice it looked kinda meh to me. Still, always a fan of original ideas. Might be cool!

Meh
Mario Kart 8
More Mario Kart. Yeahh..well except now you can glide around, and drive on walls and ceilings. That sounds kinda neat but just looked disorienting in the trailer. Might be cool but I'm not really interested.

Wii Party U
- minigames..
- multiplayer games with the pad looks kinda neat
- looks fun for those that like it

Eshop Releases
So for these they showed a bunch of games coming from small studios and independent developers. Some of the stuff looked kind of cool, but they only showed really short clips, so it was hard to get excited about anything.

Wind Waker HD
Urgh...this game. I don't like this game, because one of the reasons they had for using the controversial cel-shaded art style (which I am not a fan of) was that it would be timeless. Now they're remaking it. MHM. It doesn't even look all that great in my mind, it looks sharper sure, but other than that it just looks like they cranked the brightness and bloom. There are some new features, like multiplayer features through Tingle, and the prospect of a new sail to go faster but...those things can't sweeten the sourness I have for this game.

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze wii u
Never been a huge fan of DK games. I mean it looks nice, and it's cool that the enemies are vikings, but...it's still just another platformer. It looks like they're adding a lot of stuff which will be awesome for DK fans, but it's just not for me!

Well, Nintendo didn't show a ton of stuff that I liked, but the stuff that I did like, I liked a lot. I really would have liked to have seen a new non-mobile Zelda, or a new Metroid ANYTHING, but oh well. I never played LTTP so I'm not that pumped about the new one coming out.

Well, that's it for the E3 conferences. Obviously there's gonna be a lot more stuff coming out of  E3 this week, and maybe I'll make a post at the end to talk about my favourite stuff. Overall so far though, it's been pretty cool. I'm not convinced to buy a Wii U though, and I still haven't been swayed by the Xbox One or PS4 yet. Oh well, there's still the better part of a year before they come out - lots more time to decide.

On E3 2013 Part 1

So E3 starts today, and an easy thing to do is to give my thoughts on what's coming out of it. So today I will give brief thoughts and impressions about Microsoft's and EA's conferences, and tomorrow I will do Ubisoft, Sony and Nintendo. I will divide everything up into categories based generally on what I think of them, and then go into (slightly) more detail. Let's go then!

Microsoft
Awesome!
Metal Gear Solid 5
Well the day started off with seeing MGS5, which I assume will be out for XB1 and PS4. It looked really nice. However, while I am interested in the world of MGS and the story and characters seem really interesting, I am TERRIBLE at playing it. So I don't know if I will pick this one up. But what I saw looked really neat, great graphics, and the characters looked neat. A sniper in a bikini (ok!), a guy(?) that looked like psycho mantis, I'll take that. And we only heard one line from Kiefer as Snake, but it sounded okay to me. This one is looking cool, unsurprisingly.

Killer Instinct
Well this WAS a surprise. Unfortunately my stream cut out for the trailer, but I saw some of it when they did the awkward battle with the producer and community manager. I actually have never played a Killer Instinct game, but I am a fighting game fan, and am aware of KI's great legacy. Interestingly it seems to be an XB1 exclusive. Will definitely be keeping an eye on this one.

D4
This might be an XB1 exclusive? I think so, but not 100% sure. Anyway, coming from the developer of cult hit Deadly Premonition, we didn't really actually see much of this game. But the art style looked really, really nice to me, so I'll have to see more but for now I'm intrigued.

Partnership With Twitch
Well I don't stream currently, but I've always thought it might be fun, my laptop just can't handle it. So I dunno if I ever will stream, but having the option on XB1 might be cool. Also a nice slap in the face to Sony, who partnered with Ustream (lolololol).

Crimson Dragon
XB1 exclusive about flying around on dragons fighting bigger dragons. Sign me up, man. The graphics oddly looked a bit dated, but I think this title may have been in development for quite a long time. Anyway, the enemies looked awesome, so I will be keeping a close eye on this.

Halo
Well, it's Halo. I like Halo. I think my raw notes will suffice for this one.
- ooh cloth physics
- MASTER CHIEF
- AW SNAP HUGE ROBOT THINGY
- CORTANA'S CHIP?
- bonnie ross fk yeah
- 60 fps halo - take that cod
- they didn't say it was 5 - interesting!

Titanfall
So here we have Respawn's first game, coming to XB1, PC, and...360? Weird. Anyway, we see a game that has jetpacks, freerunning, and mechs. That definitely throws a bit of a curveball into the military shooter formula, which is nice for me. I thought that it looks quite Halo- and Destiny-like, interestingly. I was a bit worried when they started showing gameplay, as it looked quite CoD-like, but I guess that should be expected. Once they started using the jetpacks and freerunning, though, I started to get more into it.

The mechs are actually called Titans, and we hear one of the characters say 'Titanfall', which is when one of the Titans gets dropped down onto the field. Being inside a mech looks REALLY cool, reminiscent of the Metroid Prime games. That's a very good thing, if you're lost to that reference. Also cool - the Titans seem to have telekinetic powers, catching bullets and missiles and shooting them back at the enemy. You can stomp on guys too - I feel that's pretty key. Then at the end, the guy's Titan was destroyed, but he managed to eject up into the air. But then, he landed on an enemy Titan, and proceeded to rip something off it, and shoot it until it exploded. Badass. This is one I'm definitely excited about now.

Pretty Cool
New 360 Stuff
Surprisingly, they announced some new stuff for the 360. Including a new model...which is REALLY weird to me seeing as how the XB1 is coming later this year. Whatever, though. Also, Xbox Live Gold members will be getting two free games per month! That's neat. The first two games are...Assassin's Creed..2...and Halo...3... Um. Yeah. Maybe I'll be holding off on that Gold subscription for a bit. But there will also be new games coming out for 360 in the next year, which is nice since I own one.

World of Tanks
Tank game. You drive a tank around and shoot other tanks. Looks pretty cool. And it's free to play...with a Gold subscription! Oh. Ahh...MS, so close.

Dark Souls 2
Well I haven't played Dark Souls yet, even though I own it. But I have seen a fair bit of gameplay from it, and I love the world and the art style, so more Dark Souls is good in my book.

Forza 5
Well I'm not really a racing game fan, but there was some cool stuff in this presentation. They actually had a McLaren P1 there, about which they said only two exist in the entire world. Neat! Then there was cloud processing stuff, which sounds kind a neat I guess. It takes a look at how you play, then gives you a 'Drivatar' which mimics your playstyle. Then it goes around and plays as you in other peoples' games. That's kind of cool, honestly. And it looks really good, but you can still definitely tell it's a game. I guess we'll have to wait for another generation to hope for photorealistic graphics, eh?

Quantum Break
This game looks intriguing to me, but I'm not sure about it. They promise interplay between the game and a TV show of the same name, but...I'll believe that will work when I see it. The game itself looked neat, with the characters running around in frozen time and changing stuff. We still haven't seen much, though, and I'll have to see more to decide whether I'm on board. I'll keep my eye on it, though.

Upload Studio
With this thing you can record your gameplay and share it with your friends. I've never really felt the need to do that, but I guess it might be cool.

Extra Features
They announced a few new features for XB1 which were all pretty good. No cap on friends, no more MS points (woo!), and being able to share your Xbox Live Gold account with anyone in your house. That's pretty nice! Would've been happier if they'd done away with Gold or done something like the Playstation Network did, but oh well.

Dead Rising 3
This is another one where I haven't played either of the first two games, but it looked pretty cool. The graphics looked great, and there were a LOT of zombies on the screen at one time. You can pick up anything as a weapon, combine weapons, and drive around. You can also use Smartglass to do stuff like call in air strikes from a tablet or other device but...that seems kinda meh to me. Overall it looks cool, but I'm not seeing much new besides the updated graphics.

The Witcher 3
I'm pretty much in the exact same boat with this game - haven't played the first two games, but this one looks pretty cool. Nice graphics, probably cool open world and story.

Below
So this is a new game coming from Toronto studio Capybara Games, so that's really neat. They didn't show much, other than saying it's a roguelike game. Your character seemed really small in the footage they showed, which put me off a little bit. But we'll have to see where it goes, definitely sounds like it could be cool. Might be XB1 exclusive.

Black Tusk Studio Game
Another one where they didn't show much. We just saw a really pretty city with pretty fireworks. Then they showed some characters with weapons, and we saw some cyberpunky elements. Cyberpunk is okay with me, folks. Keeping an eye on this one.

Meh
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood
Well this looks like a platformer with somewhat charming graphics. But just didn't grab me at all, definitely didn't see anything new or exciting here.

Ryse
Announced alongside the Kinect, it strangely never came out. Now it's coming out for XB1, and looking...very meh. It looks pretty nice, but uses quicktime events HEAVILY. Not a fan of that at all. The combat just looks bleh and it looks really scripted. No thanks.

Sunset Overdrive
Had a bit of a unique art style, but I was not a fan at all. The weapons they showed looked somewhat interesting, but they didn't show any gameplay, so it's hard to tell. Overall just felt meh to me.

Minecraft XB1
Raw notes:
- ok?  bigger worlds? whatev

Project Spark
Guuuh. Games for making games. Just not convinced by these. It looks pretty nice, but just seems like something you'd play with for half and hour and get bored of it. I dunno man...just not feeling this kind of thing.

Smartglass Stuff
So if you're not aware Smartglass is a thing that lets you connect to and interact with console games from a device. It sounds kinda cool I guess, but it all just seems kind of superfluous to me. And I don't have a device that uses it, so...definitely a meh for me. I can see how others would like it, though.

Battlefield 4
Military shooter. I am not a fan of military shooters. Raw notes:
- snore
- looks nice, what else is new
- still with the bobbing gun huh

Launch
Launching November 2013 (ok cool) at 500 bucks. Yikes.

So overall I think MS did pretty well. Just talked about games! And had more cool and pretty cool stuff than not, so that's good. Highlights were Halo and Titanfall for me I think.

EA
Awesome!
Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare
A real surprise, this one! Coming to XB1 and 360 only, too. Weird! The first dude that came up and spoke was super awkward, but the next guy had a Grass Effect shirt, so that was fine. Anyway, the trailer was pretty cute, and the gameplay looked funny and fun. It's like a 3rd person shooter with tower defense elements. Pleasant surprise!

Titanfall
Nothing really new from the MS conference, except that they possibly hinted that it will be multiplayer only. Not pumped about that...but the game still looks really awesome.

Mirror's Edge 2
Ohhhh yesssssss. Finally. What we saw looked very similar to the first game, but I'm okay with that. I am a bit worried, though, actually...because all they really showed was a rendered cutscene of Faith getting her tattoos, and...combat. Combat was something I wished they'd not even PUT in the first game. But...I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. I have to...

Pretty Cool
Peggle 2
Just an announcement, no footage, or trailer, or anything. But, it's Peggle, so...cool.

Dragon Age Inquisition
I was actually going to put this in the Awesome! section, so you can think of it as being in between the two. The only reason I didn't put it up there is because I haven't finished 1 nor played 2, and I heard 2 wasn't so great. But this intrigued me enough to make me think that I should finish the first and get the second on sale, so...that's worth something, I think.

Madden 25
First, Madden 25? Weird name, maybe it's the 25th one? Huh. Anyway, I'm not actually a Madden fan, but this new game kind of impressed me. The graphics and animations looked really amazing, and were all in-game. The new AI of the linemen sounds really neat. And then they announced Adrian Peterson as the cover athlete and...ehhhhhhh. Still though, I dunno if this game will get me into Madden, but it looks cool.

EA Sports UFC
Kind of in the same boat as Madden for this one. Never played a UFC game, but this one looks pretty cool. The features seemed neat, though we didn't see them in the game specifically. The footage we did see looked nice though, and the animations looked a lot less awkward than in UFC games from this generation. Also, Bruce Buffer announced the speakers for this game, and Dana White told a hilarious story. Overall I enjoyed the presentation.

Meh
Star Wars Battlefront
Never really gotten into the Star Wars games, not played Battlefront or KoToR or anything like that. And they didn't do much to convince me here - they showed a snowy environment (Hoth, I guess),  an A-Wing (?), and an AT-AT. That's it. Will have to see, I guess.

Need for Speed Rivals
Oh look, it's cops vs racers...again. The new feature - it's all online, but so what? You can call in helicopters with Smartglass...yawn. I have to give it credit for looking really nice, but it's still doing game-y stuff like having a helicopter fly down low, through trees. Uh yeah, no. Also they talked about a stupid movie? Bah.

NBA Live 14
I like my raw notes for this one.
- slam poetry - digging it but its not about the game dumb dumbs
- awkward 'interview' with a pro
- physicsy ball...show it plz
- up to the hour roster and stats..ok
- no in-game footage

FIFA 14
Like my raw notes for this one too.
- couldnt care less
- DRAKE LOL
- well he's actually speaking pretty well I guess
- alive stadiums - thinking back to NHL 99 that's cool I guess
- other stuff meh

Battlefield 4
Well EA, if you were trying to convince me, you failed miserably. They started off by coining a new term 'levolution'. I now hate all of you. Then they talked about Commander Mode, using a tablet (or you can do it on the console, but why), where you get a bird's eye view of the battlefield and can give orders and intel. Woo? Also, are all the bullets in this game tracers? Just notice this stuff when they are always trying to make games more realistic. They showed a 64-person multiplayer mode, which had some neat stuff to it, but in the end it's just another military shooter. Oh, and at the end, they had a girl soldier! Who says "you'll back me up, right?" LOL. Gee I just WONDER if she'll die in the campaign!

So that's it for EA. PvZ and Mirror's Edge were cool, Dragon Age was alright. Otherwise pretty meh for me. Ah well, it's EA, right? I guess I should start building my homemade bomb to blow them up with when they screw up Mirror's Edge 2.**

Tune in tomorrow for thoughts on Ubisoft (ugh), Sony, and Nintendo.



**I will not actually do that. Though they will screw up Mirror's Edge 2.

Blarg

Gawwwwwd. Feel like I'm in a bit of a rut lately. Like, creatively. Don't really feel depressed or anything, but I just haven't been doing any drawing or writing lately, and any ideas that I've thought about for writing, I haven't really liked too much. I dunno. Also feel like I've just been sucking at everything lately, like games and whatnot. Kinda weird. Maybe I can take this time to catch up on some reading I've been meaning to do, like starting reading A Game of Thrones and a sci-fi book I got, Leviathan Wakes. Maybe doing some of that will help me get inspired and get out of the rut. Hopefully!

Anyways, I guess I can talk a bit about some stuff that's happened this week. One of the most prominent things in the games area of things was a bunch of announcements/clarifications about the Xbox One. People seem to be pretty pissed off about them, but I really don't see what the big deal is. Like, the thing about the Xbox having to connect to the internet every twenty four hours in order to play games. I guess that's kind of weird, especially for single-player games. But...is it a problem? I guess some people would have legitimate complaints about that, but personally my internet is always up, so...my Xbox would be connected every time I use it anyway. And I feel like that would be the case for most other people, too.

Then people are complaining about the fact that you can't share the disc-games with friends. Well, you can, but only once. Again, I guess I can see how that might be a problem for people that trade games a lot, but think about this. Steam games can't be shared at all, and that platform is pretty well-received and successful. It's the same kind of thing, really. Actually it's better, because anyone in your family can play any of the games on your list. That's pretty cool. And then people are also complaining about not being able to trade in games or buy used games. Personally I don't mind...I prefer to keep my games and support the developers rather than retailers.

What else...oh yeah, people are also moaning about the Kinect camera always being on. That one I can agree with, but if you're worried about it...maybe just put a towel over it? Unplug it when it's not in use? Turn it around to face the wall? I mean, these aren't genius ideas, people. And the main thing is, if you don't like it...here's an idea, don't buy it. I understand that people want Microsoft to hear their opinions, but I feel like all these negative comments are really doing are making people who are actually excited about the Xbox One feel bad. It's like people need other people to feel the same way they do just so they feel validated. I dunno, there's obviously nothing anyone can do to stop people from saying things on the internet, but all the complaining and negativity from the 'community' just really grate on me.

Well, enough about that, let's get on to some more positive stuff. The Last of Us came out this week, and it's been getting amazing reviews. That's great for the industry, but bad for me, because I don't have a PS3! There are few times that I have lamented that fact, but this is one of them. I'm also sad because Beyond: Two Souls also looks really good but will be PS3 only when it comes out. I don't actually have anything against the PS3, I just don't want to spend so much money on it. There's buying the console, then buying all the games for it that I missed...it really adds up! I dunno, maybe if the price on PS3s goes down with the coming of next-gen consoles I'll cave and get one, but it would still feel weird buying a console at the end of its generation.

Another small point about The Last of Us, that was pointed out by a guy I was watching on Twitch.tv, was that it's getting great reviews, but no one seems to be complaining about the violence. It is definitely a very violent game, as we have seen in trailers and screenshots, but that doesn't seem to be affecting the reviews. Like it did in, say, BioShock Infinite! The guy was saying that the two games are very similar in the area of story and violence, so he thought it would be hypocritical if people complained about the violence in Infinite and not in The Last of Us. I thought that was pretty funny and definitely agreed, so it'll be interesting to see if anything like that surfaces in the next week or two.

Another neat thing this week was that I read a comic called Daytripper on the recommendation of my friend Sarah. It's a story about a writer who's trying to find his place in the world. Kinda struck home for me. Each issue centres on an important moment in his life, and focuses on how it changes him for the better or worse. I don't want to talk too much more about it so as to not spoil anything, but I absolutely loved this book. The writing was really good, the story was thought-provoking and really affecting, and the art is really nice too. Definitely recommend this book to any comic fans who are looking for a good, solid story.

Finally, if you read my previous post talking about the game Remember Me, you'd know that I had kind of mixed feelings about it. After reading the reviews, the consensus seemed to be that the story and world were really amazing, but the gameplay (mostly the combat and platforming) were pretty mediocre. Funny that, eh? BUT, I still decided to pick it up anyway. I thought it might be good to support the game, since if they are able to work on a sequel, the gameplay might be able to be improved. And also I got it for 25% off from greenmangaming.com, so that was a plus. I haven't played it yet since I'm waiting on a PC-friendly controller I bought to get delivered. But once I get into it, I will likely make a blog post on my thoughts.

So, I guess that's it for today. Now off to try to find something to do.

On BioShock Infinite's Boys of Silence

So you may remember (or see in the archive) that a while ago I talked a bit about BioShock Infinite. It wasn't really about the game as a whole though, and I haven't talked about that at all actually. Maybe I will someday, but not today! Suffice it to say for now that I really liked it, though. But, as anything in life, as always, it wasn't perfect. One of my biggest disappointments was actually one of the enemies, the Boys of Silence. So today I want to talk a little about why that is, and what I would have done to fix it.

I should point out that there will be spoilers for Infinite in this post. HOWEVER they won't really be story spoilers, and may even be stuff that you've read about in articles or reviews. So if you haven't played the game but aren't too worried about hearing about the Boys of Silence encounter, you should be safe to read on. If there is anything super spoilery, I'll make sure to give another warning.

So anywho, if you're unfamiliar with the Boys of Silence, let's take a look at 'em.

Well, that's the action figure (which I own :D) but it shows the full body. So there ya go.

So yeah, kinda freaky right. Now, if I remember correctly, I read that these guys were blind from birth, and for some reason harnessed into those huge freaky helmets. There's probably an entry on the BioShock Wiki that explains more, I'll probably read that some time. But what's important for now is to know that ORIGINALLY, they were supposed to be blind and be really good at hearing, because of the big sound funnels.

Why do I say 'originally'? Well, because in the actual game, their role is bizarrely completely reversed. Basically, they stand in the centre of a room, with a light coming out of their mouth-hole that acts as their line of sight (???). So, while he's looking away, if you're quiet, you can sneak by him completely (??????). If he DOES see you, though, he doesn't even attack you himself! He just raises a bunch of corpses conveniently splayed about his room. It makes for a reasonably fun encounter, but given what the character was supposed to be, it was a pretty big let-down for me.

In fact, it has been confirmed that the Boys were supposed to be completely different. In the mini art book that came with the collector's edition, it describes how originally, the Boys were supposed to be fought directly. They would absorb sound and store it in their helmets (I guess), then when they had absorbed enough, they would open their mouth hole and release it all in a devastating attack.

That seems pretty cool to me, but I can see how it would be problematic design-wise. See, in an FPS like this one, any form of attacking (shooting) is pretty loud. In this case, being loud would cause the Boys to use their big attack more frequently, which would prompt you to try to be quiet. So this creates a bit of a paradox for the player, where they would need to attack the Boys, but do so without using any loud guns? I'm not sure how well I'm explaining this, but I just see it as the design being a bit contrary to itself, which is counter-intuitive. And in games, counter-intuitiveness generally leads to frustration.

So, yes, I understand why they needed to change the original design. But I still think they could have done something more interesting than turning the Boys into security cameras. What I would have done is played on their name, Boys of *Silence*. Remember in BioShock, those splicers that were covered in plaster in Fort Frolic? They never made a sound, even when attacking you, which made them particularly creepy. That's what I would have done with the Boys, made them move around quickly and erratically, but completely silently. That makes sense from a logic perspective (they can hear really well, so they would want to do things quietly so as to not annoy themselves), and would be a cool homage to the first game.

So I would have the Boys running around, maybe not being as agile as a Big Sister in 2, but still being kind of similar to that. Then, every once in a while (maybe after taking some damage), I would have the Boys open their mouth hole and let out a piercing shriek, which blurs the player's screen for a second. When the screen unblurs, the Boy would be gone. Then, as the player runs around looking for him, eventually they would turn and the Boy would be right there in front of them and shriek in their face or something, and the fight would resume. That's about it, would obviously need some more polish and tweaks but I think that would have been a pretty neat fight.

**BIGGER SPOILAR BELOW, SKIP NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU HAVEN'T BEATEN THE GAME**

I mean I pretty much got this idea from a moment that IS in the game, when you see Elizabeth in the big machine through the security camera, then turn around and a Boy is right there. That scared the bejeezus out of me. And I thought, that was such a cool moment, why couldn't the Boys' actual fight be more like that, right?

**END SPOILARZ, UR SAFE NOW**

So yeah, it really feels like the Boys were a casualty of deadlines. It seemed like they had a cool concept, but just didn't have the time to make it work. Which is kind of weird to say considering how long the game was in development, but what can you do. It's just a shame to me, since I think they had one of the most interesting visual designs and concepts of any of the enemies in the game.

BUT like I said, it was just a small blemish on a brilliant game, and I still consider BioShock Infinite to be one of my favourite games of all time.