Games Galore!

Hey all.
I posted recently about playing RDR and finally, over a long-stretched-out play spanning 20-something hours, I've finished the story. I'm not one for spoilers, but I'll tell you this: it made me cry a bit ^_^ *giggles* I love any medium that has the capacity to do that to me. Just to sum up some of the stuff I really loved (and continue to love) about it:
Graphics: textures are superb, the particle effects really help to capture both the desert and snowy mountain areas. The water effects are excellent, and the faces are realistic, convincing and emotional. Weather effects are awesome.
Gameplay: Combat is fluid thanks to Rockstar's quick-lock-on kinda system thing, and a whole lot of fun. Horses are awesome, as is going out hunting, and all the cool side and main missions. Just going to say, I didn't really like the minigames... especially horseshoes x.X
Soundtrack: Awesome ambience relative to the area of the world you're in, and at certain key points in the story a piece of real music will come in, and these are all fantastic IMO. Also the fight music really gets the adrenaline pumping with it's fast but steady beat.
Sound effects: Awesome ricochets and gunshots help bring all the battles to life. Weather sounds add to the atmosphere and make events like thunderstorms vivid and shockingly cool. Animal noises are very real too (hearing mountain lions and bears still makes me quake in my spurred boots)
Voice Acting: Unceasingly realistic, clever and emotional. Awesome all the way through with all the characters.
Story: Well written, well executed, and pretty much an emotional roller-coaster. As I said, I cried as it came to the end T.T
The only things that let it down in any area for me were the occasional glitches; for example at one point there were two of a certain character (avoiding the slightest of spoilers) and said character's voice didn't work in the next scene. Little things like this are all that prevent this game being perfect for me... aside from the online, but I haven't played enough of that to properly judge it yet.
Basically what I'm saying is: buy RDR if you haven't already. It's a fucking work of genius. And it has.... *drumroll* gay mexicans!
Ima buy the soundtrack too I think ^_^

It's Never Enough...

Hey guys. I would just like to point out that this post is sort of... unconventional. This is not actually something I had intended to write on the blog, but is rather something I was asked to write by a friend for a student publication at our school. It is supposed to be a piece of "Gonzo journalism" i.e. highly opinionated, subjective, and focussing on style to the detriment of accuracy. I was limited to a word count of 350 (which I've actually ended up exceeding XD) and as such it seems a bit... undeveloped to me... but oh well. The theme of the article was the phrase "It's Never Enough...", but I did attempt to bring in some ideas that had been circulating in my head before being presented with the task. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Oh, and anyone that can get the film and song reference wins a fabulous prize! Enjoy :D

For some, it’s not enough that others have their own unique opinions and thoughts. Such people may be more pre-occupied with a person's appearance or popularity. Others may simply be egotists, elitists, and thus refuse to accept the views of others. Some may even be idiots who simply fail to understand the way different people view the world and as such may fear and even persecute them. These people, the shallow, the arrogant, the ignorant… these people are lacking. They have little substance, and thus they are not enough. These are the blinkered. It is unfortunate then that we all exhibit traits such as these to varying degrees. Suffice it to say, humanity is small-minded, not worthy of being dubbed humane. Yet perhaps it is insufficient for a human to make such a claim…

Limit Break, Bulbasaur, Bad Voice Acting and Gay Mexicans

Phew. That was one long 6 weeks. Lost a lot of HP, but now ready to bounce back with 3 weeks of on/off nothing! So awesome! (Limit Break ftw)
All this freedom, however, leaves me with a conundrum: what to do with it?
Sure I can train, sure I'm hoping to go to an open beach party tomorrow, but there's weeks more to go, and I'm not nearly gay enough to write/read poetry.
That leaves me with one option: crack open a can of whoop-ass on the VG front.

I'll start off by discussing what is easily one of the most awesome games I've ever played to date: Red Dead Redemption (which from this point I'll call RDR for short). As soon as I started I became so immersed in this game, that I couldn't stop playing it, and when I finally did I couldn't stop thinking about it. I've already clocked up over 16 hours (that's a lot for me). The whole world, with it's attention to detail (even as far as weather and landscape), huge open area to explore, and stunning realism (especially voice acting) just never cease to amaze me. And the music's cool. Whether you love to track and hunt down bandits for bounties, go out and hunt wild animals, break horses or follow the interesting and original story path, this game will grip you like a horny 13-year-old grips his... Corn Flakes. Oh, and it has gay Mexicans, which just makes it even better.

Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself?

I decided to take a brake from the Wilde quotes and take the title from a rather different yet, in my eyes, nonetheless brilliant lyricist. The quote is from the Neil Young song "Tell me why?", which in itself would also make quite an apt title given this post's subject.
For years now, I've been telling myself that "I am going to do certain things and achieve certain goals in this specific period of time", all the while convincing myself that what I'm saying is true as I apparently believe on some level that I have the kind of self-will and work ethic that will allow me to do so. The truth of the matter is that in actuality I do not, and I've known this for quite some time, and yet every time I want to achieve something I convince myself that it will be different from the last time. I tell myself that, in spite of the past, this time I will succeed, but I very rarely do. Evidently, I find it hard to keep promises that I make to myself.