As some of you may have heard I have been both busy and sick over the past couple weeks. Two weeks ago I started a class that ended, and I got to go home early a week ago Friday. Shortly after I got home I started to itch, badly. I took a nap and when I woke up I went to go to Wes’ house to stuff the copies of The Gamer’s Quarter issue 7 which finally arrived. Then we went to dinner. At dinner I started to feel ill and realized that where I was itching my skin had turned red. Well, I decided to wait it out as I figured it was just a minor reaction to the Smallpox vaccination which I had just gotten ten days earlier. So, I went to see The Host (Korean monster movie which was excellent) at a midnight show and then around 2am I realized that everywhere that was itchy and red had swollen and that I had broken out into hives all over my body. . . great.

So at this point I called the vaccination control center number to make sure that this was normal. It was just an operating service at that hour of the night so I left a message and tried to get some sleep. Around five thirty in the morning I got a call from a nurse who said that “it may be nothing and just a reaction to a change in my soap or just an allergic reaction” to which I realized that I hadn’t come into contact with anything I’m allergic to, nor had I changed any soaps or detergents. So, she said I should go to the closest military clinic as soon as I could. I was feeling a bit better (and very sleepy) so I just said OK and went back to sleep. When I woke up my whole face and scalp had visibly swollen and so had my right eye. At this point my hands were also just starting to swell up a bit. Oh yeah, did I mention the most important part, I was going to be picking up a Wii in about 12 hours.

So I head over to the clinic, they tell me that it probably isn’t related to the vaccination and then gave me some medication. OK, now, like seriously, I don’t know what’s up. I was swelling up like a sausage by this point. I had to take my watch off it was so bad. I couldn’t close my hands. Worst of all, everything itched and burned at the same time. So I go home and take the medicine that I was given. My wife then does some more research and apparently about 1 in 3,782 people has a break out of hives as a reaction to the vaccination (I got a call a day or so later confirming this from a doctor at that number I had called on Friday night). Also, I reacted horribly with the medicine that I was given at the clinic. Worst off I was still swelling and couldn’t even wear shoes anymore. BUT I’LL BE DAMNED IF I DIDN’T GO GET MY WII! Yes, I went, got home, tried it for like 10 minuets and then passed the hell out. Sunday was worse than Saturday as far as swelling and itching. I was pretty much better by Monday as far as the swelling, but I didn’t stop itching until Thursday around noon-ish. I still have a weak stomach from the vaccination but most things are OK in life now. I was able to play quite a bit of my Wii because I could actually hold the controller! So now I move onto some impressions of one of the games I got:

I just finished Twilight Princess, and it was in just shy of 40 hours, a few hours of which I am sure the game was paused for. I will say that I was not expecting much going into the game, I haven’t finished a Zelda game since Link’s Awakening, nor have I enjoyed them (esp. the 3D games). I am tired of either crappy or weak motivation, a lot of time filled with collect-a-thons, too much talking about things I don’t care about, and a feeling like the game is shitting on my memories of the original game.

I had nearly none of these problems with the game. In fact, if I had to list problems with the game it would be small. Hell, I’ll do it anyways. There is no camera control for the Wii version which makes certain things way more irritating than they should be, but most of the time it was bearable. It took me a while to get use to the fact that you now waggle a controller. Every time you load the game it thinks you forgot the value of the rupies, so it re-tells you those once each. That’s it.

The pacing is really excellent in the game. The set pieces are outstanding. The game is hold-your-hand light (it makes Okami seem even worse and more bloated). The dungeon design is fantastic. The story is good and very forward thinking for the “world of Zelda” as it has progressed through Zelda->Zelda 2->Link’s Awakening, as in it never feels like they had to rely on nostalgia or revisiting certain things. The least original part of the game is the first dungeon, but you will forget about that half way through it. Doing things in the Twilight Realm, then going back to the normal realm you don’t have to really do anything in those levels, so it’s not as if the game has been given the TR just to falsely extend the game.

This game is probably the closest game to a “perfect game” I have played in a long time. It also has some of the best pacing in a game this long ever. The motivation is appropriate as well.

So, don’t get your hopes up too high: this isn’t the Zelda you’ve been waiting for that is just like Zelda (or any others since). This game is how the series should progress into 3D, and I finally feel like there is a fourth Zelda game in the series worth noting to others.

EDIT: Wii code! 0664 7875 3389 3518
Give me yours too.

Hey guys, so, like, Gears of War isn’t bad. Well, I guess I should clear this up: it’s not as bad as I expected it to be when I first heard about it and from what little I saw at E3, but not as good as I hoped after hearing a few hands-on experiences. The game is very solidly built and I really don’t have any complaints about it. It just doesn’t feel that special yet.

Gears of War decided to completely redesign how you play a 3D shooter. The controls are very different from anything that I have played. There is extremely heavy emphasis on cover and hiding. It took me quite a while to get use to the controls because of this emphasis. Unlike Lost Planet, which feels very natural like a glove that fits perfectly, Gears of War is not and is more like a really cool glove with flames and skulls on it that is just a little too small but will fit if you work it out a little. If you don’t have good cover and you can’t learn how to stay well covered then you’re dead. Plain and simple. There have been very few instances where I have been able to run into a fray with guns/chainsaws blazing and last more than a couple seconds.

I am playing it in 1080p on my new TV (I don’t know if the game is native 1080p or how the hell the 360 is working it, but either way, my console is set to that) with the color setting on “Vivid” (I started on lucid, but didn’t like it as much). It’s pretty, but no where near what was promised in Unreal 3 Engine shots that I saw two years ago. At the start of the game you’re given two options for difficulty: Casual or Hardcore. There was a third option which was grayed out (I still don’t like how most games now make you unlock hard difficulties), so I assumed casual equaled easy and hardcore equaled medium. After about an hour with the game I’m pretty sure that hardcore is the hard mode for the game and there is no easy mode. But it’s good, and I stuck with it. It doesn’t feel as fair for a hard game as God Hand does because many times in Gears of War I was left wondering why the hell I was able to survive doing basically the same thing as last time when I had died.

If I had to compare this game to other games I would say it is a combination of Doom, Time Crisis, and Halo. The shooting sections feel like Time Crisis because you get to a location, duck, pop-up, fire, duck, reload, repeat. The doom aspect comes from the enemies and their ferocity, also the occasional “ahh, I’m safe… OH CRAP MORE?!” moments. The AI and team segments feel heavily Halo inspired. To say that the game played just like any of those though would be a lie, overall it comes off feeling very original.

This has gone on longer than I intended for a first impression, sorry. The part of the game that I have been paying more attention to than I probably should is the “Destroyed Beauty” theme for the setting/story. So far the game is doing a good job with it IF you’re looking for it. The strength of the game’s story is how subtle it is. Unlike another game with the same abbreviation of title (*cought*godofwar*cough*), the thematic content and underlying ethics/principles is more in the narrative than the story telling. Little things like “this place use to be gorgeous” or “You’re the guy from the Alphon Wars, Coool!” with the response from the main character being “Not really” are where the emphasis lay. Unlike a fair slice of jRPGs which take these ethics and principals and literally spell them out for you, this game allows for you to pick up on it. Most of the back story and history is in the Art Book, and it’s well thought out and implemented into the game impeccably. As an added bonus, the voice acting is on-par with (or even exceeding) most big budget Hollywood action films. The only thing that could make the voice acting better is if they got the voice actor for Brock Sampson to do the main character. Oh, and one of the achievements is an excellent Clerks reference.

I’m going to stand with my initial statement that the game is well crafted and very solid, but not really doing anything that goes above and beyond for me yet. I am only about three or four hours in though, so all impressions are initial. I really hope that the story and narrative stays together here.

Personal stuff: I got vaccinated for Smallpox today. The next 10-21 days of my life could potentially really suck.