Well yesterday went well… until I tried to fall asleep.

I woke up at approximately quarter to 11 am and proceeded to get some coffee. I then took out Siren from my PS2 (Sara had been playing it prior to me waking up) and placed MGS3 into my PS2. For the next 9 hours MGS3 did not leave my PS2 and I hardly left my couch.

I stated this morning shortly before turning into a scientist. (That took me longer to remember where I started playing than I thought it would.) I ended the day not knowing exactly why I died.

I am taking in MGS3 slowly. There are points to it that are quite difficult. Most of the time I am just giving the guards a bit too much credit for their new AI and being over cautious. The difficulty is not why I am taking it slow. There is just so much to do in this game it would be a shame to rush the game your first time through, as in life.

The Fear down. So far the hardest of the boss fights. It took 3 lives to get a good tactic down for him. This fight also taught me how to use the motion detector best. I don’t use the battery operated gear a lot. I have only talked to the tech. Guy once over the codec. It just does not feel like a part of the game.

The map does.

I can’t explain why, but the map really works. It is a kind of black and white topographic map that is not very specific. It also is not convenient enough to check frequently. When I do end up looking at the map it is usually if I get turned around in an area after taking a few turns evading enemies. I just points me back in the right direction.

The End down. I was nervous, I had heard many a time from multiple sources that this was an extremely difficult fight. Well I think I pissed him off. While thinking that I was shooting one of those green frog things… I hit the parrot. I actually felt bad for the old bastard in the way he mourned for his bird.

This must have pissed him off.

I ended up putting the scientist outfit back on 2 more times before finishing the battle with The End. It took quite a while because when he only had 1/3 health left my run-around-till-he-shoots-then-hone-in-on-the-sound tactic (surround sound is better than the mic) no longer worked. My wife stopped back about an hour after I made the comment that “I am a bit disappointed, I was told this was difficult ” to ask “well, were you disappointed?” “I am still fighting him so, no.”

The Fury done. I have something to say here, this was too easy. Right off the bat I got hit because I missed a column. I had a total of 3 hits worth of health left. I only got hit that one time. While a cool fight, this was disappointing.

The mountain side was much more challenging.

The mountain side had helicopters and more men than you could throw a stick at. Some of these men had RPGs that really hurt. You also get to eat buzzards, and buzzards get a free lunch from you. But the ladder getting there was better. Then you get tortured. Well first you get to be Raiden, then you get tortured.

The Sorrow. I got to The Sorrow, and not knowing what I am supposed to be doing I just trudged forward. I held these spirits at bay with a fork when out of bullets. Probably should have saved some bullets. Then I get to what is mostly likely the end and hit a … something and just die with about a quarter my health left.

The soldiers are just too corny.

I wish that I could take this part more seriously, but can’t. I think some soldier was moaning about me shooting his dick off and now he is worthless. The ghosts also act like people in a haunted house where the sort of follow you for a bit once you get past them, then give up.

So I ended up saving after going back to the beginning of a fight with a man who has not health and no stamina. “SNAKE!!!!” indeed.

I think I like ellipses too much in my … on line speak. I wonder if I use ellipses in my day to day conversations or if I am just using ellipses wrong. Nope, I am using it right. I know I do not use ellipses in real life as Snake uses them, he has more of a “hrmummhhh” than a …

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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: I saw this flick on Friday night. I have been on a should-have-seen-in-film-crit.-class kick lately. I was not expecting too much, but it usually ends up in a Top XX list somewhere so it went up on my Net Flix queue. I did not only enjoy it, I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. I can not believe that the caliber of acting that Jimmy Stewart gave for this being made in 1939. If you ever want to see a good b&w movie I would put this up there on the top of that list. 3.5 out of 4 stars.

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Well since DW7 is the semi-hot topic around IC and I finally found disc 1 (in Rayman for the PS1… what?) I decided to see if I could regain some interest in it. Well I finished up what I left off doing when the company was still Enix, and found the cure for Pepe. I then went back to the town in the present and got the last Wind Shard… but alas it was not the last wind shard. I missed one somewhere. I think it was in the volcano in current time (I have the Guide Book, and thank god for that). This will be a good test to see if I can rekindle any interest in the game. The test of Shelf VS Rotation!

See this game kept me up a bit later than usual. Till after midnight, which is not bad… unless you have to wake up at 6am for work. But I though, what ever. Then when I got to a good save point I turned it off (Thank you for Playing) and tried to sleep. Well the birds cage got cleaned on Sat and the finches decided to get upset about the placement of their sticks at about 1am… What. The. Hell. I got like no sleep last night and now I have too much work to do on my desk and I can’t wake up.

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One final comment, something that stuck with me but I forgot to work into the flow of the MGS3 bit above. When fighting The End I really got the sense of being “schooled” as a rookie. It really seemed to etch that in my head, now I am just looking for reasons to re-confirm that with the dialog between self and The Boss. See my recolection of MGS and MGS2 story is vauge at best and I only recall certain aspects of it. But enough to put a few peices together early. Man this game is great.

Ok, sweet. I just acquired Castlevania AoS complete for $25 shipped. I am excided (and glad I waited and did not pay inflated ebay prices).

Also Sara and I finally finished up Silent Hill 4 last night. What a ride. I know that we got the game back in… Sept. of last year? I don’t remember exactly but I got it on release day. Sara is sometimes a bit slow with finishing up games but this was really slow.

Nonetheless that was one of the scariest experiences of my life. This may sound strange or cheesy or something, but there were parts in the last 4 hours of that game that scared me unlike any other game or movie (well not including since I was about 10) previously had. I am sure other people would disagree with me on this, but I can’t put my finger on it precisely either. The ending (we got 21 Sacraments) was beyond unexplained, to the point of bizarre.

We looked up the other endings on gamefaqs just to see what we had to do for other endings and I was not correct on any of my theories. I still need to play (not watch) SH3 someday so it will probably take for ever to get back around to SH4, but I will remember quite a few things.

I know most of you have probably seen this already, for those of you living under a rock I present Aria of Sorrow Sequel videos.

I don’t know if this started in AoS, the death animations for everything (well most things) looks so extravagant. Is it like this in AoS? I got out bid on AoS again last night. I still need to procure this game and play through it. I also need to play through LoI, at lest I own that one.

I managed to play MGS3 for about 3 hours last night. I got a call towards the end of that time about 10 till 8. I had to leave at 8. It was a good thing I got that call or I would not have left on time. I did not think I had been playing for more than an hour at most. I had not even craved a smoke, and I am addicted to those thing. This game is by far the most absorbing game I have played in quite a while. It is sad that one day I will reach the end of the game.

Well, I know I don’t normally post twice in one day, but I just got this picture. My smile is… odd, very creepy. This is me and my nephew Orion. Here is a link to the large picture. I don’t look fabulous or anything, but I feel it captures the moment as I belive this was the first time I held him and you can see the tears welling up. I also just got done with about 18 hours of driving.

So I have been reading The Ultimate History of Video Games, bet you did not know that. I have been reading it most of the month on and off slowly.

See up until last night I was reading a history, but now I am involved. Sure I heard about the boom of arcades from my parents, relatives, and friend’s older siblings. I had a Pong and all that fun stuff, but I don’t remember the Pong, seriously. My dad keeps trying to convince me that I remember all the times we played pong…

My first “game system” was an Apple ][e (II). While my dad used it for work, I use to program games and play things like Conan, Apple Panic and Archon. I remember going to CompUSA with my dad and having games be packaged in plastic bags for the computer. Trip Hawkins was telling me about how he challenged that with his “album covers” for games. It all came together. I was there, I remember it. Page 264.

Reading about Nolan Bushnell is one thing. I know the name, knew a bit about him. It was a history lesson of a game designer, Atari owner who worked and lived like a rock star. Atari was a fucking ride. Man that would have been great to be there for that ride. Alas, it is just a history lesson.

Until now, as stated. This is when I start hitting the heavy nostalgia. I remember the house we lived in when I played my Apple ][e, the smell of the cedar beams, the - “top quality” - speaker sounds from downstairs, the light brown carpet stairs to my back. I remember it, and how big things were; the keyboard, the monitor, the sprites.

It was like a flood of memories I have not looked at in years. All because of one word, Archon. I have a feeling this is not the first time it will happen from reading this book. I have a feeling it may be overwhelming, to the point I may emulate some games that I had forgotten about.

Although I have passed this book up more times than I can count because of the cheesy cover I really wish I had not. I am halfway through a 600 page book, and I just came into the picture. Granted this almost a history of video games as seen by Atari (at this point anyways) it is a much better read than I ever though.

And yes, there really is a land fill in New Mexico where Atari would dump old carts. Yes, people found this place and dug items up.

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The Gamer’s Quarter is going really well right now. Unfortunatly I had to push the release of the site back again to next Monday, but it could not be avoided. I may end up pushing it back until Feb. 15 once and for all just to put a firm ass deadline 1 month before the issue is released. There are a few bugs with the forum, and they take for ever to to find and fix. I have also picked up a bit more staff.

Things are going well.

Lessons learned from Snake Eater:

1: Attempt to take on no more than one (hopefully not looking) enemy at a time with only a knife.

2: Attempt to take on no more than 2 enemies at a time while you only have a pistol.

3: Never attempt to take on a crocidile in the water.

4: Crocodile hats are in season.

Ok I finished up part 3 of JoJo. While I enjoyed it, part three was not as good as part 2. Most of the enemies were extremely under developed compared to part two and many of the characters were underdeveloped. Plot items would be brought up and then they would just jump to the next fight and assume that everyone was properly informed. Not that I wanted to see that everyone got informed it was more that there was no planning involved… It did pick up after the Tarot card stands. I don’t know, I enjoyed it just not as much. Joseph is a much better JoJo than Jotaro (I know, sue me).

Also I just started up Part 4, and I don’t know if I can read this… seriously “WHAT R U DOING!?” …?! did they not even try? I am also not sure that all the uses of “fuck” are really in the manga, it seems excessive.

I also watched The Village last night. I was not really expecting much, but I was surprised that I enjoyed it, until I reflected upon it. Something struck me. The movie takes place now, and the only people who know that are the elders. So why blatantly trick the audience with the 1837 date on the tombstone?

See this M. Night bastard did this for The Sixth Sense. I hate this movie and all that it tried to do. The revealing point of the movie is that Bruce Willis is dead too. Now this is a really nice twist, but while I was sitting in the theatre and this was revealed something did not sit right with me. After reflecting on it in post movie conversation I pinpointed it: the kids mother looks at Bruce Willis in the fucking eyes and says, “You have one hour” or something very similar.

So people have tried to defend this; “How do you know she is looking in his eyes?” Well just look at the screen seriously (I got to really prove this when it came out on DVD). “So maybe she was just looking away and it was coincidence.” Well then I respond, why did she pick 1 hour? Why did she pick the exact time that most therapy sessions last? This could be defended with, “That could be how long it takes to cook pancakes!” No.

I tested this once. Taking my sweet ass time (not needing to run out to buy anything) and I made about 12 triangle shaped pancakes (assuming that that is what triangle pancakes are, they are never shown in the movie) in just under 30 min. This is probably the third time in my life ever making pancakes; she has done it countless more times and could probably do it much more quickly.

So what did I get from this? Well M. Night was not confident enough in his ability to build a willing suspension of disbelief. So he cheats. This is underhanded and I did not enjoy it. That was the feeling in The Sixth Sense. He could have done with out that small bit and when the time came for everyone to go “Ohh snap! Willis is a ghost.” I could have looked back and gone “man he got me. Wow that was clever.”

So now M. Night made one great movie; Unbreakable. Signs was utter tripe. Now The Village was too good to let the cheating in this movie get to me. But he did it and I can’t help but feel cheated. There was NO reason to set the audience up from the beginning with such a poor trick at to tell us that it is the early 19th century to get us to believe that then reveal that it was current day at the end. Why? Does he not feel confident enough in his skills?
Now let me set up some hypothetical retaliation to this. William Hurts character said that he teaches history, and uses the book. Could he have not just decided to use this time period so that the book would be accurate? Well, let me explain something, his book would either A be hand written or pressed specially for him before starting the town; he would not need to make up dates. This is the only one that sort of makes sense, but then how would he have updated history from the last 20 years anyways? This theory holds up the most water, but seems pretty stupid and not likely. Nonetheless it goes further into the background than needed or revealed.

Only the elders knew what year it was, why not just tell them? It is not like I would know any different if it was 2005 or 2055 what was supposed to be happening 150 years in the future. Why not just tell them it was 2004, like they would know they were supposed to have cars by now.

Here is the kicker, why even put it in there? Why? Seriously, this just leads me to believe that M. Night is just a person who loves to slam you in the ass and steals candy from children or that he is weak in his confidence to build a willing suspension of disbelief. I can’t say for sure, but it is nowhere near as bad of an offender as The Sixth Sense. It had enough originality and violin to make it enjoyable.

This Bast fight is the funniest thing ever. Although I do not like Part 3 as much as part 2, it has improved since the beginning.

I know that I have not been updating as much as I use to. Sorry to any who looked forward to my posts.

Anyways, I finished up Jak 3 last night. Honestly it felt like they dragged it out a bit.

This was what, a week after I started to play, about 15 hours of play. The game changed from night to day more times than it did in the real world, and I was in the middle of a battle that started before I arrived. As reminded by Daxter they had been on three total adventures together, but I could not share.

The game was defiantly part of a series, all the elements were there. Everything from the exile to the desert for allowing the enemy in from the very start to the reminder from soldiers as you walk past the, “We lost this war a long time ago.”

I had little to no connection with the story or most of the characters. There were moments where I could feel that I should have hated someone, but they ended up just feeling out of place. I knew that when I was to battle one of my old friends I should have felt conflict on the fight. Finding out that persons were really spies when I met them the first time should have led to a bit of betrayed feelings. Nothing.

All these things must have been great to a fan or at least someone who had previously played it, but I just felt like I was playing a game.

I still liked it.

Daxter started out to be something that I was sure would make me shut the game off. His clever remarks start off the game in abundance but get toned down quickly. I actually ended up liking most of his witty remarks when used in moderation.

There was really only one (well two, but the second was not important) new relationship set up in the game, but you still needed previous information from the other games to appreciate it.

I just could not get into the story of this game no matter how hard I tried. The ancient precursors and dark eco things were there. Metal-heads were… metal-heads and got blasted. I don’t really know who or why I was shooting half the time. This world was established, and well established as it was quite large.

I still liked it.

See, I have not played a 3D platfomer in a long time. I was not really sure what to expect. A Mario 64 clone? Nope. This game packed in a great many different styles of play and changes them up so quick it all seems fresh. I would not even go so far to call this a platformer, although there are many platforming elements.

You can go from a race, to a shooting gallery, to a platforming level, to a hang-gliding area. This feels like it is trying to be a focused Jack-of-all-games, pun intended. There are a few disappointing aspects to this. You are given many abilities that you can use in the platforming bits, but there are so few. Then in those few there are certain abilities that only get one or two times of use in the game.

I still liked it.

I don’t know what element grabbed me the most. Until the last couple of hours the game constantly felt fresh and always new. It has been a long time since I have played a game that felt so fresh for so long. But this is not an element of the game, it is the result of cohesion between elements.

I know it was not the frame rate. I go no less than 2 headaches from frame rate and screen refresh issues in the game. When it was running in wide open areas with many enemies I would not be surprised if the frame rate dropped below 30 fps. When there were more than a dozen enemies on screen the game will slow down, easily. When there is not too much happening, the game looks wonderful.

But you see most people will probably not get headaches. The first time it happen for me was Quake 3 for the DC. I did not get a headache, but one afternoon I played a good 3 hour multiplayer session and got really sick. It did not click with me that I got sever motion sickness from it until I played it again and had the same effect. Then it happen again with Half-Life for the PS2. I realized that it was mainly from indoor areas and fast movements. Can’t explain it for sure, but it also happens mildly in the apartment in Silent Hill 4.

So next I move onto Metal Gear Solid 3. I am pretty excited as I wanted it more than Jak 3, much more.