No Lives Left

“Honk!” exclaimed the Goose as it lurked behind the park bench. The soccer ball dropped as the kid threw his hands up in fear.  Where was that horrendous noise coming from? And whatever is making it- is it coming for me?  The boy slowly turned around and… “Honk!” “Honk!” The goose popped out from behind the wall flapping its wings wildly. The crazed look in its eye signaled to the boy that this goose was out for blood-at least that’s what the boy thought. F orget the ball, forget the toy plane! I gotta run! I gotta get away from this goose!  With his hands still flailing around, the boy ran to the nearest place that could offer isolation. He needed to be somewhere… anywhere …besides out here with the goose. The honking was growing louder, and he knew he couldn’t outlast the goose’s rapid pace. He thought he could hide in the car by the curb, but he didn’t have the keys to get in. There might have been shelter in the TV boutique shop, but the lady behind the coun...

I ended up watching Aquaman a few weeks ago. Let me start out by saying that the one thing I can unequivocally say is that it is a extremely pretty movie. Though the CG can be hit or miss, the art direction is phenomenal. The four kingdoms of the ocean (including Atlantis) all have their own distinct styles. It also helps that Aquaman doesn't have to follow any type of thematic formula from the past DCEU movies. While some part of the movie are dark and dreary, most of the movie is set in either the psychedelic and phosphorescent city of Atlantis (seriously, it's like Futurama under water) or in some part of the world that's sunny and cheery. While Batman v. Superman and Justice League tried to keep the tone dark and dreary as much as possible (to a fault), Aquaman decides to just mix it up all over the place. The main plot is typical of the hero's journey: The main protagonist is not fit to take on the position he was destined for, so he then goes on a jou...

I'm back! Finally... Had a lot on my plate lately but I can finally come back to hopefully regularly update this blog. And  a lot of things have happened since I last posted. E3 2018, Avengers: Infinity War, and I'm also another whole year older! Time is flying by real quick. But the real reason I was gone wasn't because of real life. No...no...it was because my  fake life that had encompassed all that I would know. A fake life that I had constantly kept at my side through the months, checking on it every free moment that I possessed.  That life was called Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (XC2). And while I certainly did not finish the game completely, I don't think I will touch this game again (this sounds worse than I make it out to be). Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a large- wait, no-  vast  game. It's got so much space in it that I think the Witcher 3 world map could fit inside with room to spare. This is just an estimation, I could easily be wrong. But if anyt...

I've known about Monster Hunter for almost ten years now and never once did I feel like delving into it. The game series looks  hard , has a ton of grinding involved, and looks extremely complicated. Back in 2009 when Monster Hunter Tri came out for the Wii, my thought process was: 1. Your weapons can break? Nope. 2. Complex crafting system that involves hours of grinding? Nope. 3. Hidden game mechanics that aren't explained too well? Nope. 4. I have to prep before going into battle? Nope. 5. Boss battles (hunts) that can last several minutes...just to collect items? Nope. That's what kind of gamer I was back then. But the  SoulsBorne   franchise has since changed that. I now understand the joy and satisfaction of patient gaming. I love figuring out patterns and developing strategies. I learned to love practicing techniques to overcome larger than life bosses. I have gotten used to weapon durability and learned to appreciate the way it mixes up gameplay...

I have an odd obsession with terrible movies. There's something about them that really captures my attention and imagination. Besides a few horror movies, movies are a pretty huge financial and time investment. So when a categorically terrible movie comes along, I always have this urge to see them so that I can answer that burning question inside my head: "Why?" Why was this movie made? What's the motivation for putting in the time and effort? Did the director really think the movie they made was good enough to show? Why did director/producer/creator make the movie? When someone says a movie is bad, they usually mean that they thought the movie was boring, confusing, and/or just not compelling. This makes a movie forgettable and bland. It also doesn't even bring up any questions, these types of movies are just a waste of time. I'd say a perfect example would be the later Transformers movies (specifically Transformers: Age of Extinction). It's long, i...

There's a lot of talk about hype these days. A lot of gamers seem to really take trailers at face value these days and despite being let down time and time again, we still chomp at the bit at the latest trailers. We, as a community, never really learn our lesson. We swear off pre-orders and day one purchases. We balk at the term, "loot box" or "Season Pass." Yet they get more and more prevalent as time goes by. Heck, major developers also throw in mobile gaming tactics (gatcha gimmicks and buying in-game currency to speed up grinding) into their triple A titles because they the player base is so large, developers will find those so called "whales" to increase revenue. And while I can understand all of these things as ways to recoup costs of insanely expensive development costs, it sort of ruins the simplicity of gaming. When I was younger, there was a sense of finality in buying a game. A bad game would be completed, forgotten, and left in the ...

There's a certain inexplicable joy I get when I find games that take something I never would have found interesting and make it fun. I don't normally like golf as a sport; mostly because I am not very good at it or...in shape. But golf also is a very slow-paced game and a lot of  time players look like they are doing nothing . Or at least it seems that way. I get there is a lot of calculation, body control, and strength involved in every tee, stroke, and putt. But as an observer, there is just too much time between hits that it's just not fun  to watch. But then comes along the trailer for  Golf Story  and I immediately fell in love. An RPG that revolves around golf and has a sense of humor about it? Count me in.  It's one of the few games where the hype I had matched the quality of the game. The gameplay is fun enough for the length of the game, the story is simple but full of funny, well-written characters, and the sprite, 16-bit graphics fi...