Game's over!

Modern Warfare 2 and Kingdom Hearts, that is. The later was a pain to the very end, but I finally put it behind my back. As I said before to my dear friend and KH lover Junlee, I just never got into it. But now I can get it out of my head and put the game to rest peacefully on the shelf. Guess what I started playing next?


Kingdom Hearts~: Chain of Memories! xD Nope, not joking, I'm playing the next games too, hoping that they improved with each new release. And so far this game doesn't look as long as the first one, so maybe it'll be over fast :D Like I said to a friend the other day, casual gamers play what they like, true hardcore gamers play everything, whether they like it or not!

Video Games | Modern Warfare 2 | Flag Runner Multiplayer Gameplay Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

A far more enjoyable experience, and far shorter, was Modern Warfare 2. It gets better as you progress, and for me it only got really interesting by the end of the 2nd act. The 3rd and final act is just awesome from start to finish. Overall though, although it's better than the first, the impact is just not the same after 2 years with the same basic gameplay and graphics engine. It's a pretty good game, but unless you're serious about the online component, at the current price it's just a rip-off.

MW2, W7 and KH

Now that's a cryptic title... But allow me to explain:

MW2 - Modern Warfare 2 - Been playing and so far I've mixed feelings about it. It's still CoD, but after so many games that formula just isn't that impressive or appealing anymore. I'm almost at the end and so far I can count the truly memorable moments on one hand, and there were far more "meh" levels. The graphics engine is still the same, only with a couple of tweaks, and the pc version (the one I'm playing) is a rip-off for a couple of reasons. +10€ than a standard pc game, which makes it as expensive as the console versions, and no dedicated servers. On a fucking pc game!!! The online's ruined...

Still a good game, but don't get taken by the hype, it's not that good. Also, the story, specially the beginning, is even more American propaganda than the first game... Seriously, I could live without knowing that "what happens here matters over there" (great excuse to invade every country in the world) and that "you can't give others freedom but the tools to get it themselves" (because god forbid if we don't all live in a merry democracy). To all my American friends, you know I love ya, but sometimes your country can get on my nerves...

W7 - Windows 7 - Finally installed it, after some months of getting accustomed to vista. Thought the transition would be smoother, since everything's in a different partition (both OS's and my data), but it turned out I had to reinstall every piece of software I had. Also I'm still trying to find out how can I relocate my profile to another partition, but despite all that trouble I'm liking it.

KH - Kingdom Hearts - I'm so close to finally beating it!!! Overall I've spent more than 20 fucking hours with this game and all I want right now is to beat it and forget it, but I'm currently stuck in the many battles against Ansem... -.-'

Left 4 Dead 2 demo is out

Indeed it is. Wanna play it sometime? It's free, so all you need is a decent pc and, of course, an internet connection. Personally I was one of many gamers who felt "betrayed" with the announcement of this game, so early in the lifespan of the first title. It was like the EA approach to games, which I absolutely and utterly despise. Even after playing it I still think this would be well suited for just an expansion pack, not an entirely new game, because it doesn't bring anything entirely new. Just new maps, characters, enemies and weapons. It may sound much, but that's what an expansion pack used to be for, some new stuff but nothing truly extraordinary.



The only redeeming factor about this game is the new melee combat feature + the machete = pure win. Seriously, it's so much fun to go around chooping zombies with this thing, it's crazy! I personally like to run towards a single infected who's also running towards me and slice the fucker. The gore also reached new heights. I first noticed it when I sliced an infected's back open, and noticed I could see an actual cut, not just a flat texture, with the bones shining in the sun through the cut meat. Gross.

McRoll

What's that? I laugh, I lose? Challenge...accepted...

Ghetto literature

For such a busy guy, today I actually had some spare time before lunch, so I gladly took the opportunity to go to the nearest mall to eat and relax a little. Next to the MacD (that's what I started calling McDonald's after watching too many Ali G Show's) is a Bertrand store, one of our biggest book sellers, and ever since I started my course on Editorial Studies I kinda got the habit of going there a lot, even if almost never buy a book (we have a very small market, so they're expensive as fuck).

So, anyway, there I was, being tempted by a 20% discount on Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion (that book has been on my list ever since it came out), which would still make it 16€ (fuck, do they think I'm rich or something? I got university fees to pay), few moments away from finding a recent translation of Sun Tzu's The Art of War (which I actually bought, for 6€ it was a steal), and being annoyed to death by 16 year old's yelling and laughing like they were still 10, when I spotted this guy:


Fuck, I didn't see that coming. Not just the guy alone, but the contrast. On one side you have a bunch of school kids, good looking, well dressed, who look like they can afford all the books they want, and still are just there goofing around, I don't have the slightest clue as to why they entered a book store in the first place, since that was obviously not their place. On the other side you have this guy, probably the closest thing to a real gangsta I've ever seen, dressed like he just came straight outta da hood, and yet there he was, calmly sitting down with a book on his hands, completely focused on what he was reading.

Man, that was a real eye-opener. You definitely can't judge a book by its cover, nor a person by its appearance. Peace out, G's!

What's up?

Work. That's what's up. I'm quite literally drowning in papers, and presentations, and written reports, basically all the shit you can imagine, and sometimes just catching up with the stuff we're learning is hard enough. That's university for you.



But before all that started I was having some fun with a certain game. Can you guess it, Junlee? Yup, Kingdom Hearts! :P I'm not shitting you, I actually managed to pick up that hallowed game for the 4th time and this time take it serious (which basically involves lots of patience, walkthroughs and cheat codes). I went all the way to the little mermaid world before putting it on (hopefully) temporary hold.

Other than that I've just been messing around with my recently acquired Nintendo DS, mainly playing this:



An absolute must for every retrogamer worth its salt.

Other than that there's nothing special going on, really, and right now I should be making a draft of my report on a publisher so you'll have to excuse me. Here, have a song to make reading this post worthwhile:

You know you have friends...

...when you get this in the mail! :D What could have been a better post to inject some life into this little, almost dead, place of mediocrity? But as I was saying, yesterday, when I came back from a fucking tiring day at uni, I had a little package waiting for me. What could it be? :D At first I thought it was a couple of books I ordered last week (in case you're curious, it's Blood of Elves, by Andrzej Sapkowski, and The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie - see here), but oh boy, was I in for a surprise! I knew it was something special from the moment I read Nuno "Nebacha" Almeida in the address of the package :D

What it was is another present from our dear Father Krishna. Not only did that hallowed presence of the internest bestow upon me that most unique of games that goes by the name of Seaman, but now he also felt the need to hook me up with the most essential of accessories to play said title: the Dreamcast microphone (and not even a life-threatening heart surgery could prevent him).

Just plug that beauty onto your controller, bring your mouth close and enjoy the sheer pleasure...of looking like a jackass talking to a microphone while being verbally abused by a virtual fish with a man's face. Lol.



But that was not all, for there was also a hand-written card. Really, nice touch! And indeed it made me smile :D

But, really, there were still other things in there, namely the somewhat rare Bleemcast cd for Metal Gear Solid (I thought I'd never have one of those!) and Area 51 for the Saturn! Yeay! :D

So, yeah, by now you have given me more presents than Santa Claus in recent years. Thank you so much, man. I really appreciate it :)