Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Last week I finished Metal Gear Rising. Upon finishing the game, my hype level (yes this is a real thing) was so high that it has taken me roughly a week to calm down from the high of this awesome game. This game made me feel like such a total badass. It was challenging, cool, just about everything that I would have come to expect from a game by Platinum Games. This review I'm gonna do something different. I'm gonna try to streamline my review while simultaneously describing the hype-ness that I experienced while playing it. So without further ado here we go.

First Impressions

I almost peed myself when I saw this. So much hype

From the moment I bought the game I knew this was gonna be a total badass experience I mean look at the front cover. How fuckin cool is that?! It makes me wanna pop it in and play it already. Not to mention look at the disc! It's so cool! Raiden standing there with a dog thing! It's so epic that you need to know what happened to Raiden that he 1) Gets this new body and 2) Gets a dog robot thing. This is how I felt when I first got the game. So after a mandatory install (thank you Sony. Seriously what is up with that shit) I was able to go to the title screen and holy shit. I almost shit my pants in pure excitement and anticipation. I pressed start, picked my difficulty, and began playing...

Story

I won't spoil any important plot details, so I'll just give a very brief summary of the plot and what the ultimate goal of the game is. In Metal Gear Rising you take control of Raiden (obviously, I  mean, come on), four years after the events of MGS4, who now works for a private military company running protection detail for important politicians and the like. You begin the game in Africa and your client gets kidnapped and you have to go after him. So you get your ass handed to you early on and Raiden's body (which is very reminiscent to how he looked in MGS4, albeit with a few aesthetic changes) gets pretty badly injured. He also loses his left eye. Reference to his roots to Solidus much? So Raiden gets equipped with a new body that is stronger, faster, and better than his previous body in order to go after the people who killed his client. Since "Metal Gear" is in the title you can expect that not everything is as simple as getting Revengeance (yeah used it as a word) on your enemies. Expect the plot to take a few twisted turns before ultimately revealing itself. It's not anything too complicated but for a game that is dropping the stealth mechanic of its predecessors and going for a more action-oriented experience, it works really well.

Graphics

Yeah Metal Gear Rising, much like all the Metal Gear games, has amazing graphics. Everything looks so clear and real. The game predominantly takes place in a war torn area and yet it looks so beautiful. If there weren't cyborgs and unmanned UG's (remember those from MGS4?)  trying to kill me, I would have just stared in awe of how beautifully detailed everything looks. What I find interesting is that in today's world, for something to look good, it should be in 1080p. Yet this game's resolution is 720p and it looks a HELL of a lot better than most of the games that have come out recently. I would go so far as to say that it looks just as great as Metal Gear Solid 4 and that game was came out so long ago yet few games ever reached its level of detail and graphical power. Hell the Assassin's Creed games look terrible in front of Rising. If graphics mean a lot to you, this game has you covered.

Gameplay

Alright so if you have been following this game for as long as I have then you know that it was advertised that as well as letting you control cyborg Raiden, as the true badass that he was in MGS4, there was also going to be some sort of Cut mechanic within the game. "CUT WHAT YOU WILL" is what it says on the back of this box. What this means is that throughout the game, you will be able to go into "blade mode" and cut the shit out of your enemies. It's so satisfying and violent but it never stops being cool. Now remember what I said earlier about Raiden's new body? Well in order to maintain it, he needs to absorb electrolytes from his foes. The most effective way to do this is to perform what the game calls a "Zandatsu". Now you must be asking yourself well what the hell does that mean?! Well often times while you are in Blade Mode, Raiden's body will scan the enemy you are cutting to show you where the electrolytes are hidden. If you slice this area you will have a button prompt and Raiden will step forward and take the electrolytes. The stipulations are that 1) You can destroy the electrolytes if you cut too much and 2) You can also lose the opportunity to absorb them if your foe collapses while in Blade Mode. Thankfully, since time slows while you are in Blade Mode, you have a bit of leeway in how to cut.

This game can be described as a hack and slash and as such, you will be doing a lot of cutting. So you will be stringing combos along your enemies by pressing the square and triangle buttons to attack. This seems obvious, yeah, but you must be mindful of a few things. 1) Raiden does not lock on to enemies automatically. I did not mind this much since in previous games by Platinum, such as Bayonetta or Vanquish, you pretty much were left on your own in terms of taking out your enemies. Thankfully locking on wasn't too mandatory in those games. This cannot be said for Rising. In Rising, locking on is ESSENTIAL. You can get away with not locking on for maybe the first few fights, but after that, expect to get your ass kicked repeatedly once enemies start to grow in numbers and gang up on you. This brings me to 2) Learning to Parry is mandatory. If you skip the tutorial (like I did since I played the demo) you probably will assume that there is not a blocking mechanic within the game. Well guess what there is, and it just isn't a traditional block. It's a parry. Basically if you see an enemy about to attack, you move the left stick in the direction of the attack and hit the light attack button. Raiden will block the attack and you can continue slicing up enemies. If you do not learn to properly parry, you will not beat this game. It's as simple as that.

The game is also very challenging which is a good thing. It isn't the cheap kind of difficulty. It's fair and once you learn to lock on and parry, you can really have fun even when the game is kicking your ass. Which it will. Unless you have the reflexes of a god. Or are in a fact a cyborg yourself. Bosses are also challenging and without a doubt, they are what makes this game excel. Every boss you encounter is accompanied by an epic song that hypes you up and puts you in the mood to kick some ass. Personally my favorite boss fight is the rematch with Jetstream Sam. It's hard as hell but its the ambiance that does it for me. Also, once you beat a boss you gain their weapon to purchase and use.

Ahh purchasing. Yeah I almost forgot to talk about the upgrade system in Metal Gear Rising. OK remember Drebin in MGS4? Well he isn't in the game but do you remember having collect points and then buying weapons from him? Well in Rising you do earn points based on what and how you kill and with these points, you can purchase upgrades. You can do this at anytime throughout the game but there is 1 problem. When you do go to the customization screen mid-level the game sets you back to your most recent checkpoint. It isn't game breaking and it's just a bit of a nuisance, so if you wanna upgrade within a level either 1) wait for a checkpoint or 2) wait till the end of a level.

And again, the soundtrack is also pretty damn good. Nuff said.

Conclusion

If you're like me and you love the Metal Gear series, then following this game has been a bit of a rush. When it was first announced years ago, I worried about it straying too far from the source material and that it would ultimately fall flat of the success that the series is associated with. Thankfully since Kojima Productions collaborated with Platinum Games and let them develop it, the game came out amazing. I know there are some people who see that the game is 5 hours long. This time only takes into account the length it takes you to beat the fighting portions of the game. So think of it this way. The game ranks and grades you in battle based on: Your time, how many "Zandatsu" performed, combos, and damage. All in all the game takes the fastest times and gives you a final time when you finished. This time DOES NOT take into account cutscenes, or farting around with the codec (I like calling people in my Metal Gear games), or the number of times you die and retry a fight. With that said though the game isn't like 20 hours long, the action is so good and the gameplay is so rewarding that you ultimately do not feel ripped off. Plus there is a lot to do and collect after you finish the game so replay value is high. It's a well designed game and if you haven't bought it then I strongly urge you to do so!

Have a great day and GO BUY THIS GAME!!

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go replay this game and regain my hype (again).

Dishonored (2012)

I took this picture in my kitchen. Please excuse this amateur photography. I'm a broke college student.

A while back in December (that feels like a looong time ago now doesn't it?), I bought myself Dishonored for the Xbox 360. Truth be told, I bought it because Amazon was having a sale where it was like 30 bucks and a friend of mine kept pestering me to buy it. Well like I said I bought it and I finished it roughly a month ago. Now you may be asking yourself why I picked NOW to review this game. Simply put, after I finished it I didn't really know how I felt about it until further reflection. I won't say I hated it. But there was a lot about it that bothered me.

Dishonored was made by Arkane Studios (a developer I am not familiar with at all) and published by Bethesda (Fallout, Elder Scrolls, you know pretty much any RPG where you can possibly kill everything that moves) which to me, means that it's a first person perspective. Now I personally am tired of the overuse of first person perspective in today's gaming. I don't really like it all that much especially since nine times outta ten, I also have a gun in my hand and I have to take orders from people. But thankfully, Dishonored does not play like a traditional first person game.

Dishonored's setting is a steampunk industrial city called Dunwall where The Plague has ravaged its inhabitants. There is a hierarchy in place and the people love their queen. You play as Corvo, a dude who's job it was to protect the queen and her daughter. Then these assassins appear, or warp in, and kill her right in front of you and then you get blamed for it by the new corrupt regime that takes over after the queen (he's been DISHONORED get it?? GET IT??). So after you break out of confinement and meet these rebels of the new regime, you have to now assassinate everyone responsible for the death of your lovely queen.

The gameplay, as I said, is in a first person perspective and although you have a pistol (the only gun you actually have), you have a plethora of other items and weapons to help you towards your goal of bloody vengeance. This includes crossbows (with different bolts like sleep dart and incendiary bolts), your blade (which is a pretty badass lookin sword), grenades (which exist for some reason in this world), and a trip wire to set to kill foes. Now along with the weapons, you have these unique magic spells. These spells allow you to slow down time, turn dead bodies to ash, be able to see where your enemies are, turn into a rat (I'm not sure why there is a rat obsession in this game), summon rats (again why the hell are there so many rats in this game? I hate rats in real life), and a whirlwind spell, just to name a few. The most useful skill in my opinion is called Blink. This spell lets you warp/teleport to a given target. Think of it this way: when activated, there will be an orb-like energy floating. You move it to where you wanna appear and then BAM you're there. It's pretty awesome and the game definitly makes you use it quite often. It's especially important if you wanna play the game stealthily. Ahh the stealth aspect. Let's talk about that for a bit.

Dishonored is labeled as a stealth game. Now to me, this means that the goal of the game is to proceed through it without being seen by your enemies. If you are, then more enemies should converge onto your position, thus making your mission extremely difficult carry out. Now for a game that gives you stealth as an option of play, I feel it does not encourage it. Look at the weapons and spells I listed. Do you really feel like you should play the game stealthily? Given the game's setting, I feel that no, it isn't encouraged. If anything, it's discouraged. Now as a fan of Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell, and Assassin's Creed (I know the game barely counts as stealth but you do have some missions where it's required) I feel like I have some general experience when it comes to being stealthy. You see, in those games when you were being stealthy, it was awesome and badass. You felt smarter than your enemy and you felt like a pretty cool strategist for not even being seen. Dishonored is a bit of a drag to play stealthily. It's boring and you constantly have to wait around for guards to move. Now sure, you can knock them out or kill them unnoticed, but the second blood is spilled, two things happen 1) an achievement/trophy is missed out on for not killing and 2) some character  may say something to make you feel like a dick for killing.

This is where Dishonored gets a little more interesting. It's described as a stealth game, yet you can choose how you want to play it, stealthy or not. I honestly feel that after finishing it that Dishonored does not encourage you to not kill or to be stealthy. I say this because 1) The game is not built to support nonlethal combat and 2) The game is such a drag without its combat. Allow me to explain -ahem- Take Metal Gear Solid, Snake has the ability to use CQC (or punch people in the older games) which allowed him to keep his cover and eliminate a guard without killing them. If Corvo gets caught or spotted by a guard he instinctively draws his blade and you have no choice but to kill them, unless you blink away and then wait for the guards to leave, which they will not do without taking forever to investigate. Of course you could save every 3 seconds and then reload your save file every time you get caught. BUT THAT ISN'T FUN. It's tedious and it doesn't make you feel badass so much as it makes you feel like you're being cheated out of playing stealthy or not wanting to kill. The key difference here is that stealth and not killing are being intertwined since Corvo doesn't wanna flip his blade to beat people instead of murdering them. This is what makes the game so frustrating in my eyes.

To be honest if you throw stealth out the window and embrace the combat, Dishonored is a very fun game. It's entertaining but its also short. So I guess the game wants you to learn it so that in future playthroughs, you can perform stealth tactics more easily. But in my opinion, if you're gonna be a stealth game, then reward stealth. Otherwise you're a first person adventure game with shooter and fantasy elements. Give it a shot if you're into that sort of thing. Otherwise if you're curious, rent it or borrow it from a friend. Well I hope this helped you in deciding on Dishonored. Thanks for reading!

The Reverse box art is pretty damn good. It looks epic as hell. Wait he has his blade drawn...THE ART WORK OF THE GAME WANTS YOU TO KILL see what I mean? Again please excuse this amateur photography. I wish I could record footage and make screenshots but I don't have the means to do so. Hey wait a sec I just realized the game takes place in a world where the plague runs rampant. So why the hell does Corvo not have gloves on? What kind of shit is that. It's like he's asking to be infected. I dunno maybe I'm nitpicking but if I were an assassin I'd at least have some gloves on. Especially if the world were infected with DISEASE.

Django Unchained (2012)

Well there's a big surprise right? There were NO hints or suggestions that this would be the next thing that I'd review. Nope, none whatsoever. I'm so cool. Anyway, you know what sucks? Having the flu around New Year's when you make a decision that you post on the internet about doing something with your life. Yeah I've had the flu. It's a pretty bad flu but hey, I survived. But anyway, you know what's worse than the flu?? Come on think about it. It's pretty damn bad.

Ok, you give up?? SLAVERY. Yeah what an excellent segue. Anyway Django Unchained!!

This movie is AWESOME!!! I want a scarf Like Django there.

I have to admit that when I first heard about this film, I was a bit nervous. I figured that Tarantino would get a lot of flak for making a movie dealing with slavery and that people would be throwing fits on the internet and calling it racist or something. Personally, I figured that since Quentin Tarantino was directing this that the movie would undoubtedly be entertaining and that there would be some bloody satisfaction. Fortunately, I was right. As a Tarantino fan, I'm blown away, and as a media junkie, I cannot wait to see it again!

So you must be wondering just what makes this movie so good. Well first off it isn't good, it's DAMN good. Quentin Tarantino has an excellent track record of being able to create insanely eclectic characters in a truly disturbed setting. Take a look at Inglorious Bastards, in particular Brad Pitt's character and you'll know what I mean. Getting back to my point, as a Tarantino fan I knew right off the bat what to expect. Although the film itself is named after Django, I found the character of King Schultz to be the most interesting character. When you watch it, you'll see why, so without spoiling too much let me just say that he has a carriage with a tooth on it, used to be a dentist (so he has the title of doctor), believes in equality and the enlightenment that all men are equal (therefore hates slavery which makes him awesome), and is a badass bounty hunter who can shoot ridiculously well. I also find his accent to quite charming and his beard is pretty badass to me, so yeah.

As for Django himself, I feel that the movie poster says it all. I'll give you like 3 seconds to scroll back up and look at it.....Ok you done? Good! Anyway The way Django is positioned tells you that the film more or less centers around him and while it does do that, I found that it was not so much his character that gets developed so much as his own skills. He goes from being a slave to a truly badass bounty hunter with some of the best lines in the film. He also does not really say much which is a slight shame since Jamie Foxx did such a great job of being Django. Now to be honest I don't really see this as a flaw so much as I see it as a form of assistance. It helps Django to be the badass that he deserves to be. Simply put you can fuck around a bit with Schultz but God help you if you fuck with Django. (*GASP* Phil said -er- TYPED a baaad word!)

I feel that I should mention Leonardo DiCaprio too. You know how in Kill Bill (which you all know I love) the antagonist Bill was in my opinion the best character. Now you have heard me gush about Schultz and describe how cool he is, but DiCaprio plays a real bastard  in this movie. You really grow to hate him and his acting just blew me away. Especially since he says some really racist and messed up things (Eskimo Joe anyone??). He plays a perfect antagonist and fits the setting perfectly. He just seems like one of those truly disgusting people who loved slavery and thrived on racism. Calvin Candy. What a douche and yet he is played by a great actor so kudos to you DiCaprio! Though he plays a real evil despicable person there is one person that I feel is even WORSE than Mr. Candy.

Ohhhh yeah. His character pissed me off. I liked his cane though. It was a cool cane

Yeah Samuel L Jackson is in this too. He plays a character who deeply disturbed me especially given the time. Simply put he's a kiss-ass slave named Stephen. He possesses no desire to be freed and actually suppresses all the other slaves and keeps them in line. Although in a slightly ironic sense he has no problem running his mouth to Calvin Candy about how he wants things to go. Without spoiling too much, let me just say that umm...he fucks shit up for Django and Schultz. You really have to see it to believe it. It's been about 3 weeks since I saw the film and I still get disturbed by his character. It's almost like he pierced his way into my soul and deeply disturbed me...hmm. Well since he affected me so much I have to say that Samuel L Jackson did a really good job with his acting for this role. It worked out perfectly and I really cannot imagine anyone else playing his role.

As for what you can expect from the film's style: well it's a western fused with a lot comedic elements. Now I'm not talking gag or slapstick or stand-up. No no. I'm talking about whole scenes dedicated to jackasses arguing about their white hoods or Django telling a hillbilly the proper way to say his name or a plantation owner figuring out how to tell a slave woman how he wants her to treat Django as his guest. The comedy does not come from anything that can be described as funny, so much as it stems from disrupting the flow of a movie and making fun of a truly messed up time in our country. Anyway the absolute best part of the film I would have to say is the last 45 minutes or so where Django really steps up and shows us how strong his resolve is. He displays such amazing acts of gun play and watching him attain his vengeance is what makes this film work. In many ways it reminds me of Kill Bill Volume 2 and for those same reasons, the film succeeds. So maybe now I got you curious or maybe you have already seen it and agree with me somewhat. Maybe you hated it and think I'm out of my mind. Regardless I urge you to watch this film. I can guarantee that it's a hell of a lot better than what's been released in recent weeks.

If you don't he will haunt you. He will look inside your souuuuuul

So it's New Year's Eve.....yeaaah

It's been a long time since i wrote anything. Too long if you ask me. I haven't given up on this here blog, I just haven't been in the right mindset to really sit down and write. 2012 to be honest has been a real shitty year for me. This past semester has been one of the most difficult I have ever had to force myself to push through. Simply put I'm worn out from all the bullshit of class, papers, exams and such. I guess I should explain just why this semester was so bad, even just a little.

Well the first reason is that early in this semester I lost someone that I loved, my Father to be exact. He passed away in October. I won't delve into all that but it's been really difficult having to go to class with this on your mind. Try taking tests or doing readings for a class....It's not easy. I found myself not caring. I was still trying to process just what the hell happened. I learned one thing though, though your world may be shaken and stop the real world that YOU are a PART of does not stop. Oh nooo that bastard keeps moving at it's pace and you can either give up on keeping pace or try even harder to keep up. Essentially it's sink or swim. Thankfully I was able to swim, albeit slowwwwwly and lazily. What I went through is something that everyone will suffer through in one way or another so take comfort in this. Where there is loss there most certainly will be gain. I'm glad to say that in my loss I gained a lot back. I got old friends, people that I stupidly cut out of my life, back. Things may be sorta weird with us but I'm glad I at least can talk to them. So yeah though the times may be dark, there inevitably will be a light. Just gotta keep walking till you find it. It can get pretty dark though but never give up. Play Earthbound and you'll know exactly what I'm saying.

Anyway tragedies aside, The next reason for my lack of posting is the amount of stress I had with my classes. I only took 4 this particular semester but Goddamn did I have a lot of reading and writing to do. While i wasn't doing that I was dreading about future readings and exams and stuff. Simply put after having to read and write for so long the last thing I would wanna do is sit here and write some more. Maybe that's lazy? I dunno. But I definitely was in no mood to write. Ironically though taking classes that specialized in television and film styles sort of re-awakened this feeling in me to wanna write about different medias. In fact I wanna do more than just write, but well let me not stick my foot in my mouth with that because knowing me it'll be like 17648579 years before I get started on any of that.

As for what I have been doing in my spare time, I played some games, obviously! Watched a couple of movies (literally a couple i have only seen 2 Dredd 3D and Django Unchained- which was so damn good). I have listened to new music as well. Blink-182's Dogs Eating Dogs is like the most beautiful and orgasmic thing my ears have heard all damn semester. Of course a very special person bought me A Lot Like Bird's CD Conversation Piece, which if you like post hardcore I strongly recommend because this shit is blowing my mind with the beautiful noise (yeah I just called screaming beautiful noise...hmm note to self, If I ever make an Album call it Screaming Beautiful Noise). Oh and then Nintendo Power ceased publication which makes me feel old and that a huge part of my childhood just disappeared. But uhh at least it went out with a bang!!! (and I helped with that!!!!!!!! More on that later) I also watched The Sopranos which has been a huge means of relaxation to me as well as a fantastic piece of television. Damn I really miss watching Tony beating someone up....

still got it baby!!! I think this is from the episode where he has food poisoning

Anyway It's New Year's Eve and as such people tend to have resolutions. Now usually in the 21 years of my living I never had a good one. Well I have 2. The first is this. The blog I mean. i wanna do more with it. I wanna be more active with it and dammit I'm gonna make sure I am. I'm gonna do some more things than just reviews, I'm gonna give it more of a personality. Something. You'll see....all the like 5 people who check this lol. The other resolution I'll keep to myself. But anyway please keep checking back on this stupid little blog of mine. I got some grand ideas and unless some more tragedy or laziness strikes me, it wont be too long before you see. Anyways take care, thanks for reading, and above all spend your holidays with your loved ones. Friend and Family alike. Till we meet again!!

Phil

-Django Unchained was an amazing movie....go watch it..NOW seriously go NOW NOW NOW. HURRRRRY ok ok I'm done...bye

seriously go watch it

Let's Talk About: Super Mario Bros. (sort of)

That's what you call Old School.

You see that? That's my Nintendo. I've had it for as long as I can remember. It's also the same Super Mario Bros. game I've had too. One of my earliest memories was me on my mother's lap while she was playing and she had lost all her lives and she let me try. I got stuck trying to get a Fire Flower and so i gave up and she tried to get it for me. For some reason we could not get the flower. So after trying for like 3 minutes on this damn power up, my mother tells me to wait until my dad comes by and he'll get it. Apparently he was the master of Super Mario Bros. while I was 4 years old. While I had just started playing for the first time ever. I remember vaguely watching my dad getting the Fire Flower. It was right then and there where I felt that I wanted to play and beat him. It didn't really take me long before I made it farther in the game than he. Hell I discovered the warp zones long before he did. I also seem to remember him watching me one day and I made it to like world 6 or so. I died of course and he, well, let's just say his expertise ends after the 2nd world. Anyway you may be asking yourself why I am boring you with this story. Well it serves as a testament as to what got into gaming and to a slightly lesser degree, media. It also serves as an excellent example of what I'm about to talk about here.

The NES was around in the 80's and with it Super Mario Bros. Something that I've noticed some 20 plus years after it's existence is that Nintendo games have a unique ability to bring people together. Now my parents are not gamers. Hell even the games they liked they were awful at. But they loved playing Mario with me. Specifically my father (my mother is currently more of a Professor Layton fan but still enjoys the occasional Mario game). Anyway my point being that Mario has always been something that brought people together. Now the difference between back then and now is the difficulty. When I go back and play this game or any Mario game before (and including) Super Mario Sunshine, I tend to die a bit. I feel challenged. I also feel pretty damn hype once I beat a particular level. This is something that has sadly gone away in recent outings of Mario. the games have just been to damn easy. It looks like Nintendo is making their games for inexperienced kids and forgetting about the audience that has nostalgic memories of a mario game that was the perfect blend of tricky dicky and easy. I miss my old Mario games. Nintendo please make your Mario game challenging again. I'll be happy with a Easy, Normal, or Hard difficulty select at the beginning of your game. I wanna be challenged dammit!

Anyway all that aside, I really do find it amazing how simple a Mario game is. Princess Peach gets kidnapped and Mario has to save her. It rarely ever gets more complicated than this. But that just adds to how approachable the Mario series is. The games are fun, imaginative, and they totally immerse you in this bright and colorful world so well. I mean everytime I play I always feel like I have a small window looking into a truly beautiful world. Then I start to think about how boring our world is and then I wanna start jumping around. That's what makes Mario games a beautiful thing. I urge everyone to play at least one game.  Anyway I wanna end this post with this. Whenever I play a Mario game, ANY Mario game. My thoughts always drift to that memory I described earlier. I think it was probably one of the first things me and my father ever shared in life. A love and fondness for good ol' Mario games. Well Dad wherever you are, I want you to know that this one is for you. I love you and I miss you.

Phil

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Well it's the fourth of July today and you know what that means right? Fireworks, hot dogs, hamburgers, beers, more fireworks, more beer, even more fireworks, and finally an accident having to do with beer and fireworks (hopefully not but hey since when does alcohol and fire ever NOT create an accident?). Anyway today I'm pumped as hell. So pumped I decided to watch Captain America since I missed out when it first came out (for good reasons which means mostly just laziness....yeaaah). I mean come on it's America's birthday how else should I have celebrated? The man has friggen AMERICA in his name so clearly it should be like the greatest movie ever made with lots of explosions and patriotism right?? Well I did not like the movie lol (big surprise there eh?). But that's not to say its an all out terrible movie.

I admit right off the bat that I'm not a fan of Captain America. I don't know much about him other than he has a shield that he hurls at people and the shield is pretty much indestructible. There was always one thing that I never understood about him though. His shield is a circle (obviously) and it covers a good portion of his body. You know like your torso, all the important and vital organs. I was always curious why NO ONE has ever though to like shoot him in the foot when he has his shield raised. I mean think about you shoot a dude in the leg he'll drop whatever he's carrying to grab his foot in pain and agony (unless he's bulletproof which I'm actually not sure of wait then he wouldn't need a shield in the first place so what the hell enemies?!). So I was never quite sure why his enemies never thought to do that. I was kind of hoping that the movie would answer that question for me but alas, it did not. Anyway other than that I don't know anything about the guy or his enemies. I had a toy of him when I was younger (and that toy was friggen amazing! It was very well built. Ahh where has the time gone. I sort of miss being a kid and playing with toys). Anyway I also hoped that the movie would make me want to follow the good ol' captain's comic. Well actually the movie succeeded in that regard. If only so I can see how much of the movie was bullshit lol.

aw shit AMERICA!!! (I've been saying that all day)

Anyway before I start rambling yet again. I'm gonna start discussing why I did not like the movie. One thing I always enjoy is to get to know my main characters you know. I love seeing the choices they have to make, some back-story behind their existence, but more importantly their dialogue. For me thats incredibly important and in this movie the Captain barely spoke. When he did it was just answering a question. Rarely did he ever say anything that made me feel like I was actually getting to know good ol' Captain America. When he did it was just some stereotypical heroic statement like how he hates bullies or something. I just never felt connected to him so I found myself not really caring much. Although towards the end of the movie and I mean the end like the last 10 minutes or so I found myself kind of interested with his extremely short-lived romance with Peggy Carter. Anyway another thing I disliked was the overuse of special effects. I'm old school in that sense. I dislike CG effects and 3D gimmicks and all that jazz and this movie had a LOT of special effects. For me it just detracts from the overall experience and magic of movies. Almost like a cop-out. What happened to the old days of building models or making sets or something. Everything is done in CG and it's a it annoying. It is annoying but it still looks damn good so it isn't all bad. Now the final thing about this movie was the villian. I personally felt that he looked really stupid. Besides that I just never quite understood why he's evil. He kind of just is with no real explanation. I mean come one tell me that his dog dies when he was little and ever since then he swore vengeance against the whole world. I'll buy that. It's batshit ridiculous but at least there's an explanation. The whole movie builds up this confrontation with Red Skull and I just never understood why he's so damn evil. It bothered me a lot (and don't tell me it's because he's a nazi. I don't wanna spoil anything but umm yeah he doesn't really follow Hitler's orders much so Agent Red Smith over here just hates the world for some odd reason). Plus every time he came on screen in his mask I kept saying to myself  "Mr. Anderson".

Mr. Ander-AMERICA

Now all that aside Captain America was not a terrible movie. There are a whole hell of a lot more movies that are worse. One thing i know though is that this is the kind of movie to not take seriously. It's much better enjoyed with friends. Maybe I was wrong to expect such complex character development from this but hey I just know what I enjoy. At the same time I understand that one can only do so much with a 2 hour time limit. There is obviously going to be some compromises. So that's why I can say that it wasn't terrible.  I can see the appeal for fans though. If you like Captain America then obviously you would have enjoyed this movie since you know more about him than I do. So enjoy your fourth of July. Set off a bunch of fireworks, drink a lot of beer, and more importantly scream AMERICA out the windows!

AMERICA (ok I'm done with that now seriously)

This Isn't A Review

Ever since my vacation started I found that it's become extremely difficult for me to properly write anything. I have a lot of drafts started. I've taken copious notes and stuff down in my little notebook but I can't seem to string things together. Maybe it's because of the MASSIVE backlog of games that I have facing me everyday that just scream plaaay meeeeeeee plaaaaaaaaay meeeeeeeee (imagine a creepy old man voice or Scooby-Doo villian when you read that). Maybe it's because whenever I'm on vacation i tend to "decompress" (like George Costanza) to such an extent that I get too lazy to do anything (even play games....ohh noo). Or it could have something to do with the overabundance of ideas that I've had. Things for reviews and other purposes that I've put on the back burner for when I have more time to focus on them. Now that I have the time I just feel totally overwhelmed with both good ideas and laziness (quite the difficult combination. I feel like a scientist that just does NOT want to put on his lab coat to like split an atom or something...If that makes ANY sense at all). However I have found in recent times (like yesterday) that if I relax and just play a fun game, I feel a lot better. My head does not feel cluttered with ideas and I can start to form topics and want to write. Of course that's where my laziness comes into play which explains why I'm writing this a day later and after my shower (which tends to give me a LOT of great ideas and observations for some reason. I dunno there's just something about standing in running water butt-naked that gives me great material to work with. Honestly I don't know why. It just does).

One thing I have wanted to do with this humble little blog of mine is demonstrate how far video games have come. If you're a fan of games like I am and have been playing them for as long as you can remember than I'm sure you can relate to this. I feel that video games have slowly been becoming more than just art, but rather the new frontier for some great story telling. But what I have noticed is that only in recent years have video games actually gotten some proper recognition in this aspect. My personal opinion is that video games are far superior to any movie for these reasons:

1) Video games are not limited to a 2 hour time limit, unlike most movies (unless Peter Jackson is involved then it gets pushed to like 5 hours), which allows the writers to properly flesh out themes and character development that they want.

2) Video games are able to engage their audience in a far greater way than movies by not only immersing them into a new world, but, through the controller allowing them to interact with the world and thus develop a connection.

3) When someone plays a video game it's usually done in the comfort of their home. As opposed to being in a dark room that may or may not be filled with a bunch of people that are either talking or using their phones during the movie, which if you ask me is a HELL of lot more annoying.

Anyway what I'm trying to say here is that I feel video games are so much more than simple little distractions. Also just to clarify I don't hate movies or going to a movie theater. What I do hate is what has happened to the industry. It's all about making money not telling stories and entertaining your audience. Not to mention the lack of anything really spectacular to watch. I mean look at how many movies are made nowadays that are based off of books or are remakes of older classics, or are copies of movies that were released not only a year ago (I'm looking at you snow white movies seriously what the hell was that about?). I think Hollywood has tapped out of creativity in their desire for money. I know the ultimate goal of any industry is money but the way I see it is that you need to make a quality product first and to do that you need to put your heart into it and come up with something completely unique. Now with that said, I am trying to get more into independent movies. Or movies that do not get a nationwide screening (as those movies tend to have the heart I look for in media), but that is pretty difficult for me since well I don;t exactly live near any of these theaters that show them. So I'm kinda stuck with Hollywood or games and I think you know what I choose.

When it all boils down I'm not someone who thinks video games are never wrong. What I feel is that they possess much more heart and polish that Hollywood seems to have forgotten all about. That's what I really look for in media. I don't care if it's on television, in a book, a movie, or a game. As long as there is heart behind it I'll always appreciate the effort. I noticed now I keep saying "heart" just to clarify, when I say heart, I mean that there's an effort that isn't fueled by money. The effort is purely for making a great story and telling it in the best possible way they can. For now I'm gonna focus on talking about games that I feel demonstrate this quality. I'm not giving up on movies though. But for now I'm gonna talk more about games since well I love them and have been neglecting them here on my blog. You can expect some interesting views on them as well as something a bit different that I'd like to start. Anyway hopefully I did not come off as some all movie hating person but I do hope that you can see where I stand when it comes to games and stuff. Well thanks for reading and have a great day.