Top 5: Stupid Facts About Me That You Don't Care About

I'm a lazy shack of dog shit. Yes, I admit it, I'm a lazy fuck, which is why I'm going to do a list of things about me, we're moving into Facebook now people!

5- I'm and "Actor"

Ever since I was young I've always wanted to be in movies, on stage, or whatever. By the time highschool came around I decided to get serious about things and actually try it. It's been about two years now that I've been participating in my school's Drama programs and frankly, its contributed some of the most memorable experiences of my life. Through acting I've met a lot of people who I've learned to really care about, its changed me a lot. I'm a lot more outgoing than I used to be and I'm actually around a group of people who I like, in short: Theatre good.

4- I do a couple of video game podcasts


Apart from rambling about video games in written form I also ramble about video games with my mouth. Back in the day I did a podcast called "Bomb Should Have a Face" (BSHAF for short), it was a community podcast for a game website by the name of Giantbomb.com. We had a couple of semi-famous guests on the show, one episode we had former Gamespot writer and Giantbomb founder "Jeff Gerstmann" on. That was the past though, now you can find me on the "Minor Issues Podcast" (See Banner) and "The Broken Lampcast". The hosts of the show are semi regular Giantbomb.com users who decided to start their own podcasts, once I decided to stop doing Bomb Should Have a Face the hosts of the aforementioned two shows offered me spots on their podcasts. Its good fun, go listen! *Note, on the majority of these podcasts I go by the monicker Tokyochicken if you're wondering who I am.

3- I'm a former World of Warcraft "Addict"

Yup, one time I played WoW like it was crack. That shit was my lifeblood, I would play 8 hrs a day, every day. It was starting to become a problem for me; I would ditch friends for my online ones and ditch them when they wanted me to hang out, I would ignore school work, I was a mess. I had to quit, it was destroying me but the weird thing is, I didn't actually quit because I felt I needed to, I quit because I had gotten bored with the game. Once I started the whole hardcore raid scene I grew tired of being bossed around. One day, I missed a raid, and after that...I just never logged on. I didn't quit because I needed to or anything, I was just bored. Funny, eh? Went out with a whimper and not a bang.

2- I play guitar

I've been playing the guitar for a year and a half now. Since this point is stupid and boring I'll spare you too many details but just so this links to video games, I learned to play because of guitar hero. There you happy you monkeys?!?!?!

1- I collect toys


I collect A LOT of toys, much like the one you see above (I actually just purchased this guy a few days ago). This year I've spent up to $2000 on collectibles alone, yes I do have a problem. I like it though. Its really fun collecting these things, its like gaining a new piece of art to have lying around the house. I always liked toys because of the styles of certain figures but never decided to buy them; one day I decided to give in. Now I'm happier with my life!

Top 5: Atmosphere

Let's face it, atmosphere is important. A game can go a long way if the developers take time to build an intriguing, well thought out world. Today I'm going to list off the top 5 games I feel achieved a level of excellence when it comes to atmosphere . (Don't be too surprised to see Atlus appear a lot in this list).

5- Persona 3

One of the most notable qualities of Persona 3 was its presentation. Because of its unique character design, story, and music, Persona 3 had left a mark on every one's radar. If you had purchased the FES version of P3 you were given the treat of a new remixed music track that consisted of catchy J-pop /J-rap. In combat you would summon your inner persona with an "Evoker", which resembled a gun. Your avatar would aim the Evoker to his/her head and force their persona from out of the depths of their minds, this alone made a big impact on players for obvious reasons. P3 had an aesthetic appeal to it that kept people coming back for more.

4- Psychonauts

When Psychonauts came out on September 21st, 2005, it had reached a high level of critical acclaim but in turn had poor sales. The most intriguing aspect of this game was its great use of metaphor in terms of its level design. In Psychonauts you would travel into the minds of your fellow camp-mates. Each level was a completely new and surreal experience. The levels would vary depending on the person's personality; One character is a paranoid conspiracy theorist, so his level is filled with undercover agents pretending to be suburbanites, another character is a self proclaimed war hero, so his level is a military training ground, what Psychonauts lacked in gameplay prowess it made up in thematic elements, each level really felt different and fresh, no two levels were ever the same. The world's were so out there, and well designed that you truly felt compelled to go on just to see what else the game had in store for you.

3- Persona 4

What Persona 3 achieved in aesthetic design Persona 4 achieved in ambient design. Persona 4 did some great things when it came to contextualizing its gameplay. In P4 you play a nameless protagonist much like its predecessor, you're apart of a group of friends who decide to investigate on a missing persons case. You later find out that these people have been missing in an alternate dimension, how did they get there? Well, they went through their T.V s, isn't it obvious? Of course it is fucking deadbea--Ahem, excuse me. Inside these alternate dimensions characters are forced to face their true selves; their Persona, their other self. The game goes to great lengths to explore the concept of the other, fake halves of ourselves that we project onto the world and the real person deep down inside of us. P4 is extremely interesting in this sense, it tends to go into some dark, and even phlisophical territory.

2- Bioshock

Bioshock will forever be ingrained in my mind as the best example of developing strong atmosphere in a game (Apart from Half-Life 2). In Bioshock you travel through the underwater utopia "Rapture", broken down from its former self, now in ruin. Rapture is designed with one concept in mind: Environment telling a story. In Rapture you'll find audio files from the previous residents of the city, giving you a glimpse into its dark past. Each level of Rapture has an eerie feel to it, you can almost picture each room in its former glory but now all that is left is rubble. The guys at 2k did a great job in giving the player enough room for themselves to create their own image of the Rapture prior to this one, by doing this it adds a layer of mystery to itself, something that a lot of games don't necessarily try to do now a days.

1- The Metal Gear Solid Series

I still believe to this day that Hideo Kojima is a genius. He has this thing about him where he can write the most ludicrous, out of this world shit that I've ever heard of and he still finds a way to make me all fall for it. In Metal Gear Solid 2, Liquid Snake allegedly is still alive after his death in the first game, he's still alive because he is actually Revolver Ocelot's arm. Pretty god damn stupid sounding coming from my shitty writing, right? The scary thing is, when I heard this line in MGS2, I bought it. I didn't bat a fucking eye lash to what has just been said. I think this is a testament to how well Hideo can write a character and develop a world. He does it so well that he can make the most outlandish garbage sound...believable.

Top 5: Beating the Dead Horse *Bioshock Spoiler Warning*

Ever since the birth of the internet we've been given the ability to transfer information with our fellow man and in turn it has opened our eyes to a brave new world. Sadly; the harsh, cold, and stupid truth is that, as humans we love to beat a dead horse and thanks to the internet that fact is illuminated for the whole world to see. In this top 5 for today I'm going to list off all of the video game trends/memes that I believe should die.

5- Atlas is who?!

Bioshock Spoiler Warning by the way.

Yes we get it, big Bioshock twist, "Atlas is Fontaine!". It was funny then but after a while you get completely sick of hearing about it. I have to note that you don't hear it very often anymore but at the time of release it was a stupid device people used to make fun of others. What bothered me is how high and mighty people acted when they used this minor spoiler and then acted like jerks to people who got angry about it. Sure, it wasn't a big spoiler but just because one person is bothered by spoilers doesn't mean they're stupid in any respect. Some people just can't help but sit on their high horse about not caring. I say bullshit, these things do have the potential to ruin a player's experience in a game, if you end up losing all interest in something when you already expect it to happen then that's fine. I personally don't worry about spoilers, I like to enjoy the journey of the game, but I do understand how a minor spoiler can ruin a person's interest. There's no reason to act like a dick about that.

4- Aerith dies?!?!?


Yes, she's dead and she's not coming back.

3- 3rd Person "Stop and Pop" Gameplay

When Gears of War first came out the concept of "Stop and Pop" gameplay was only explored in one other game (Kill.Switch) but now its found in nearly every 3rd person shooter. Here's my problem, this mechanic was interesting when it was first done in Kill.Switch and then improved upon in Gears of War, but now its become over done and boring. I want us to be able to move on, go on a see new things, meet new people, but no we get this, we get the same trite with every other release .

2- Portal Memes



I once had someone say to me that, "The internet ruined Portal", I wouldn't go as far to say that memes ruined the game but it definitely hampered my enjoyment. I want to mention that I'm not really a puzzle game fan, actually I despise them, but I did want to give Portal a chance. After hearing "The cake is a lie" the umpteenth time I ended up growing sick of the damn game. I just want the memes to die out so I can stop thinking about them, I want to enjoy the game!

1- Mini Game Compilations



Since the Wii's launch mini game compilations have been topping the charts in sales, this bothers the fuck out of me, because of the "Casual Market" developers have been churning out iteration after iteration and making bank. I'm starting to fear the market saturation might lead to something bad occurring in the future. Its the same reason why I'm bothered by the overuse of "Stop and Pop" gameplay, everything is starting to feel boring, people don't want to innovate because they don't think innovation will sell. There is so much good that can come out of the Wii but as long as we continue to churn out the same old garbage we'll never see it.

Summer Long Back Block Part 4: It's Finally Over!

Its done, its over, Final Fantasy 7 has been completed. I'm surprised by how little time it took to finish the game, when I first played FF7 3 discs of content seemed like a hurdle I could never get over. It's an odd feeling actually finishing the game, I've spent over 8 grueling years battling with myself, trying to force myself to reach the end, but each time I ended up unsuccessful. Now, I've done it, its over and it feels...like I achieved nothing.

You know that feeling when something has become so over hyped that when it finally comes its extremely underwhelming? Yeah, that was the situation here with the ending of FF7. I've always wanted to finish this game. So much so that once I did, I ended up thinking to myself, "That's it?". It was just another game, and that's it. Not some life changing experience , no grand finale...Well in all honesty I didn't expect it to be life changing but with all this time leaving it undone, the ending feels like it falls short.

The last dungeon in FF7 bothered me, the foes you encounter tend to be a lot more difficult than what you're used to. Many enemies would use strong one-hit moves and overly powerful skills. Here's what bugs me about this, throughout the bulk of the game the enemies are fairly forgiving, you begin to understand how they all think but by the last dungeon they ramp it up two folds. My problem is that there isn't any gradual build up, they just spike up. I wasn't prepared. This last level was a shock to me, out of nowhere I was getting hit with attacks that have only been used against me in a boss battle. After my frustrations levels increased I nearly quit all together. I was ready to drop the game, I was done for good.

I think this is where, what destructoid writer Jim Sterling calls, "Final Dungeon Syndrome" comes from. Its when people drop a JRPG when they reach the final dungeon. I find that they end up becoming too overwhelmingly difficult , to the point where a player may be too uninspired to continue on with the game. I had to muster up a lot of persistence in me to continue playing FF7.

But yeah, bitching aside, the game was still time well spent. I'm glad I'm able to knock a game off the list.

Speaking of which, I realize I'm completely moving away from the games I put on my list. In retrospect the list thing was a bad idea in general, there's no way I'm going to dedicate my time to the same 10 or so games. My mind changes, you know?

Which also bring me to my next point, next week I'm going to be updating on two games, Persona 3 and SMT:Devil Survivor. Yeah I know, two games, I don't think I can do it either. We'll see next week.

In other news, I figured out what I want to do on the whole daily article thing. I'm going to do daily articles but there's going to be a twist. I'll be doing a certain theme each week. For example, the first week I'm planning to do are daily lists (Lists I know sorry, I wanted to start with something easy). So yeah, be expecting one of those...today.

Summer Long Back Blog Part 3: The Final Fantasy 7 Just Don't Stop!

Its been a slow week. I've ended up having to do real life stuff so the gaming has been hampered slightly this week. Good news is, I still made some good progress in Final Fantasy 7 and I have to say, I'm really starting to enjoy myself.

You know what I said about the materia system last week? Yeah, I take that back. I've learned that even though you can put apply role to any character you feel like, it doesn't mean that its the best idea. I knew this before but each character has stats that cater to a certain role. Turns out that's making all the difference for me. I set up Cloud as the main fighter and he tends to excel much more at that then as that, I just didn't think he'd be this effective.

I'm starting to get into this groove that I normally get into when I play JRPGS. Its the groove where I'm able to grind for hours on end. I've managed to hit the sweet spot and now I find myself grinding for 5-6 hours.

There's one thing that's bothering me about the game so far. I've picked up the two optional characters: Yuffie, and Vincent. Now, out of the fact that they are optional characters they don't really have any impact on the main story. They have sidequests but when its time for dialogue to go on with the main characters for the main story, those two characters tend to add nothing. Yuffie's dialogue consists of her talking about how she wants to find some materia. The weird thing is, Yuffie ends up saying that at inappropriate times, during a dramatic scene if you go talk to her most of the time she'll comment on being bored and wishing she could get her hands on some materia.

I'm grinding through it but I'm hoping to have it done by next week. After I'm going to finish Metal Gear Solid 3 and then Yakuza, so stay tuned!

Also, I'm planning on doing a new feature for this blog. I'm still not sure on what I want to do but I think its going to lean towards doing something on a daily basis. I've been reading this small blog (DownWriteFierce.com) and they do a daily feature and "One Paragraph Game Reviews". I think it might be fun to do something like that to help update this blog more often, as it stands all I'm doing is updating the blog weekly. Who knows, I'll update on that topic a little later into the week.

A Reaction to Racism

Alright, so there was this article written by Willie Jefferson on the Houston Chronicle's game blog (I didn't even know they had one) about how the writer thought that Left 4 Dead 2 was racist and insensitive. I felt really strong about his article and deicided to post a comment. And since I'm lazy and didn't want to write a blog post, I've decided to post my comment here also. Here is the link to said article by Willie Jeffereson for your reading pleasure.

Now before I say anything I'm going to mention that I'm a 16 year old Canadian Highschool student with little understanding of the Confederation as it stands so I will try to avoid it in my post.

That being said, I want to just make a comment on your disgust with the thought of playing a confederate officer and your statement on how setting a game in New Orleans is insensitive. First off, I think you're being somewhat closed minded towards video games. Its almost as if you're disgusted that a game is putting you in these certain settings or situations because it IS a video game. How come movies are able to deal with topics like racism and video games can't? I think this is the main problem that the game industry seems to be having in terms of being able to forward the medium. If we're all afraid to put an African American Zombie into a game, then how in the world will this medium ever be respected as an art form? I think its silly and ignorant to instantly think that a game isn't allowed to depict such imagery.

I understand why you would be reminded of Katrina by the Left 4 Dead 2 trailer. But honestly, do you REALLY think that was the intention, ostensibly the trailer seemed like a zombie game set in New Orleans. And even if themes regarding the tragedy that was Katrina were even explored in the Left 4 Dead 2(Which I doubt will be the case), don't you think the people at Valve are the right people for the job? I couldn't think of any other developer in the world that would treat the subject with the utmost respect and integrity. The people at valve have proven to be a great , intelligent group of people who make games. You seem to have a problem with these ideas being explored at all but if its handled with respect and care, why is it wrong that a video games moves into this kind of territory? The distraught you're filled with while playing a Confederate in Call of Juarez is proof that video games have the ability to really illicit emotions through gameplay.

I just think you're being too touchy and that you're reaching for ideas a little. I mean, why all of sudden is a game set in New Orleans so offensive to you. Why this? Why not talk about the Stereotypes and Archetypes that black, and even female, characters fall under in video games. Have you ever played any of the games in the Gears of War series? Augustus Cole is depicted as a football loving, loud mouthed African American. Or the African American character in House of the Dead:Overkill. Honestly, you can't get any more token than that. To me these characters are far more offensive than RE5 or L4D2 will ever be.

A lot of your criticisms are not unwarranted at all, a lot of them just seem...misplaced. The things that are bothering you are just a product of the current state the industry is in. We haven't dealt with difficult subjects in games yet and we all jump at the sight of anything that seems controversial, anything that isn't what we'd expect from our same-old Halo shooter. We're too afraid to go into new territory because of the potential backlash that we're likely to get if we do.

Frankly, I want us to be able to depict serious images and have serious stories in our games. We'll never get anywhere at this rate if we continue this way. I understand your feelings, but honestly if things are dealt with respect and are done right, then I don't think there should be a problem. But that's just my opinion.

Summer Long Back Blog Part 2: Spikey Haired Addition

Last week I mentioned that I probably would be changing up the list this time around and well, I did. I added Final Fantasy 7 and decided to play it this week. Only about 12 hours were spent on the game so this will probably be a short blog.

Final Fantasy 7 is...well, its Final Fantasy 7. That's almost all I can say. Its really hard to make any comments on a game that is so widely talked about and as old as FF7; nearly everything I have to say has already been said. That's really part of the problem I have with Final Fantasy 7. Its been talked about so much to the point where the game almost feels uninteresting to me. It doesn't excite me anymore, I'm bored of it. Every character and story point has been discussed so much that its reached this point where I, first off, know everything there is to know about the game, and I'm already so utterly sick of hearing about these characters that I don't want to see them.

That being said, I'm still finding the persistence in me to keep going. I'm even starting to enjoy the characters a lot more than I originally thought I was going to. The characters have a certain charm to them, a certain aesthetic appeal to them. Squaresoft really had a good vision of what an aesthetically pleasing character is supposed to be. Each character in the game has a certain feature that is memorable: Barret has a Gatling gun in place of his missing hand, Cloud has his iconic spikey hair and Buster Sword, Red XIII is...a talking lion thing. These characters are what people consistently reference when they talk about FF7 because of their amazing designs. I admit the graphics are extremely dated but the idea still stands as it is.

The last thing I want to comment on is the Materia System. I hate it. Since the game is so dated I wont go into full detail as to how the system works. You can probably check it out somewhere or I'm assuming you know how it works already...also I'm a lazy writer. The Materia System holds many similarities to Final Fantasy 8's Junction system, in that it allows you to apply any skill you choose to any character that you want. Sure, certain character's stats cater a certain set of skills but it still feels like it doesn't really make that much of a difference. I find it very easy to turn every character into a magic user and spam magic attacks. I tend finish fights with this method just as efficiently as putting characters into their proper roles would. Cloud doesn't need to be a front line melee fighter, I get the same affect from using magic with him, sometimes even a better affect. It begins to lose its challenge and it feels cheap after wards. I prefer Final Fantasy 9's combat system where it applies certain roles to characters, that way I actually am making some differences in my character choices. In FF7 my characters are just stock characters, I can make them what ever I want because their roles in the party are completely flexible. I REALLY don't like that.

Okay I guess that's it for now, like I mentioned its a short one, not much to say in regards of the game. I've found myself buying too many games as it is. I'm having a hard time catching up with my back log...I should stop doing that, maybe just a bit.

Summer Long Back Blog-Part 1 + Game Documentaries

Not my actual backlog but I wanted to put the image up just to say, holy fuck.

Finally part 1 of my summer long journey to finish of my back log of games has come to its beginning and a roaring one I might add. I finished Rogue Galaxy. It took a surprisingly short time. Its still about 40 hours long but I managed to clock in those 40 hours in 5 days.

Rogue Galaxy was okay. Its what you would expect from a jrpg, its really nothing new. If you've ever played any of the Dark Cloud games you kind of know what your getting into. The combat is simple hack n' slash with a few RPG elements. Combat is incredibly easy to learn and mastering it is hardly an achievement of any value. A lot of that could come from the fact that I ended up grinding my characters to the point where they were stronger then most foes that I encountered later on in the game. It didn't hurt that I managed to create a weapon that ended up being the strongest weapon in the game, I kind of made the experience less challenging for myself.

That reminds me though, the weapon creation system is great. To fill you in, at one point early in the game you meet a toad named toady (how creative!) and he offers his services to you. What does he do? If you make him eat two different weapons he'll mix them together by the means of indigestion, well not really indigestion but he spits a new weapon out after chewing the two together. Whatever, its hard to explain, all you need to know is, chew and spit and voila new weapon. This mechanic was preposterously addictive. Back in my World of Warcraft days I was a serious loot whore. I loved making new weapons and things of that nature in Rogue Galaxy. I ended up accidentally making one of the strongest weapons in the game, I figured this out after I checked a gamefaq on it.

The story is kind of "Meh", I mean its kind of what you would expect from a jrpg. The only really interesting thing is the story's similarities to Star Wars. You start off as a rag tag kid whose an orphan on a planet that's essentially a desert. You have a robot friend who has a pseudo-British accent and is very formal and all that. At one point in the story the words "I am your father" and "That's not possible!" are said in the game in a way that just sparks off memories of Star Wars. The one big gripe about the story I have is the ending and a big plot hole.

First off, the plot hole. During your adventures you meet an archaeologist in the game named Burton. You end up bumping into Burton a fair amount of times during your journey. During a sequence in the story he finds a tablet, its regarding a planet (Called Eden) that the group of protagonists are trying to reach to find an amazing treasure. On the tablet is a message about the planet. Burton reads the message and seems terrified. He says something around the lines of "Eden isn't actually a planet" and "I have to warn the group about this danger". What bothered me about this moment is that by the end of the game the developers completely ignore the scene I just mentioned. They never tell the player what the tablet said. Burton is even found on the planet Eden and he doesn't say a damn thing about what the "Danger" is. Its almost like something else was supposed to happen at this point in the story and the developers scrapped it. There was never any danger. The game ended after I explored through Eden and did what I had to. No danger or secret, that one scene is completely left ambiguous and unanswered.

I've played some bad boss battles in my time but ,my god, is the last boss of this game terrible. The battle is divided into about 10 different sequences. Now this part is fine with me, I likr long boss battles, but I also like checkpoints and saves. All of the fights are in succession of each other with no saves or stops or checkpoints. If you fail one of the fights its straight back to the start. What's worse is that the last fight is super frustrating and difficult. The last boss battle turns the gameplay into a completely different direction as well. It takes away most of the RPG elements the gameplay had and turned into a reflex based action game. Also the ending of the story is essentially a big "Fuck you" to the player. One of the characters in your party (named Kisala) goes off and leaves the group to become the queen of the planet Eden, the game ends the group of main characters going separate ways except the final 3 characters, your character, a character named Zegram, and the ship captain who is the man who adopted Kisala, go off to take back Kisala. The game ends with a screen of text saying that the party's mission to take Kisala back was "Their last mission as pirates". It ends with that piece of text. Literally that's it, no closure at all. An ending open for fanfic. Such bullshit.

For the most part the game was fun but a lot of the content at the end really ruined it for me but that's one game off the list nonetheless. I was thinking of changing up the list, I want to add more games to it. 20 hours of game seems to be an easy feat for me so I'm thinking I might be able to to more jrpgs. I'm thinking of doing Final Fantasy 7 but that's up in the air for now. I'll give an update on that later.

Jason Rohrer and his wife

On a totally unrelated topic I watched a German/French documentary today called "Into the night..." its a documentary series where two people in a related field have a conversation together for the span of a day. This time around they had well known indie game designer Jason Rohrer and game designer Chris Crawford who has become well known for his criticisms of the game industry.

This episode of "Into the night..." has an extremely pessimistic atmosphere to it. It wasn't a surprise to me after I read up on Chris Crawford a little more after I watched the documentary. They discussed a lot of interesting topics that you would assume to hear from indie game designers but what really had me thinking were their criticisms on current game design. I wont go into all of them but I do want to talk about one point Chris Crawford made specifically.

During a dinner with Jason he mentioned that he hated the "Techie" approach to game design. This is regarding how game designers like to, as Crawford referred to it as, "Fucking around with computers and when they discover something somewhat interesting they try to build a game around it". I'm paraphrasing but you get the point. Adam Sessler did a Soapbox a while back where he discussed the idea that video games, apart from being a technical media, that they are also a creative medium mentioning people who learn to code and think they can be game designers.

I know these people. I know these "Game Designers". This concept of the techie approach to games becomes all too apparent to me the more I grow old. People seem to think that if they are good at coding they can make games when that's far from it. Sure, coding is an essential part of creating a video game but you are also creating. You're not just fucking with numbers, you're creating a piece of work that can illicit emotion and share ideas. You're making a piece of art. When someone wants to be a film maker do they just learn how to work a camera and get straight to work? Fuck no. They go off and learn about other forms of art. Video games are a creative medium as I feel this techie approach is really a product of the mainstream perception of video games: Tits guns! Lawl Halo! I definitely disagree with a fair amount of the points these two games devs made in this documentary I can whole heartedly agree that the medium has some growing up to do.