A World Conquer and Nowhere

The Million Dollar Man:
I know! I'm shocked too that I'm writing another post so soon, but with all things considered its no wounder as I've once again returned back to my home in Luxembourg (Did I ever post where I once lived? God I'm informative). Its like the frikkin middle age over here! Many castles, villages and little shops. So you can image my frustration when I went on my pilgrimage to the capital the other day to get a charger for my phone, only to find that in fact their are no electrical shops in the capital city (I mean why would I ever think there would be any in the first place? Who knows?). Though things are not that bad here; I brought a new ipod before I came here and I've been using it ever since, messing around with the many apps that iTunes supplies. So as you may have guessed by my lovely segway, we love segways here, not the vechile thing...wait, have I spelt that right? Anyway, here's what I'm gonna talk about:

Conquering the World via my iPod:
So having been torn away from RE5 for three weeks, I've been looking for a substitute on my ipod and of all the apps I have there is no other that I spend so much playing on other than Lux DLX, a fun and comprehensive game of Risk. Not only can you relive my great daydream of conquering the world, you also get to download extra maps and scenarios for free. I further recommend taking a look at Artificial Life. Though lacking in interactivity, its very hypnotising watching the evolution of organisms in conditions you set.

The Final Project:
The few of you who do come on here and read this blog, well for starters its amazing that your reading this or have read this far of the post, but more importantly you may have noticed a new link on the right panel The Final Project. I'll talk about it more at a later date, but for now go check it out, its updated every so often.

Part Three: Happy Birthday

A Raving Birthday Party:
Well it was roughly this time last year that Major Sheppard and I were introducing ourselves to no one and writing our first posts. A year later and we're still writing a blog which no one reads. And so in cheer of this happy occasion I thought that it would be great timing if I wrote the final part to the three part special post today (OK, so maybe I didn't time it, but rather procrastinate for such a long time. And yes, I don't even know why these posts are special). But anyway, Happy Birthday Blank Mind!

Storytelling or Derriere :
OK, so the main reason it has taken me so long to write this post is because of the same reason many people around the world have either skipped, missed or delayed writing their essays over the past two weeks; the release of Killzone 2 and Resident Evil 5. I would like to say that I spent so long on RE5, not sleeping and even not shaving, because I was trying to get it done before this post, but then I would be lying. OK, so it wasn't as bad as me not shaving, but damn near. But I'm not going into too much detail about the game, but leave that for our second podcast (no, you haven't missed the first, its still under production, a fancy way of saying I'm lazy). Instead, here I'm going to be focusing on gaming's storytelling, because as I sat there watching the typical sunset ending Resident Evil games give (you know, the one where the helicopter flyies off) I'm not feeling the groove. I'm not feeling that satisfaction of having played a storyline. OK, so I cant really come up with a better word than groove, though I cannot help by compare this feeling to when I completed Metal Gear Solid 4. It suddenly hit me during the credits that both games have bad storytelling. Don't get me wrong, from the start of 21st century, games have finally proven their potential as storytelling on par with movies, not only cinamotography but also in budget. However, come the turn of the PS3, or more specifically those games which have titles with a large number tagged at the end indicating the sequel, storytelling has begun to miss a few key elements. Though those respective directors and writers had perfectly nailed it in MGS2 and RE4, so where the missing key? Where is that metal gear? (OK I'll stop with the metaphors). The trouble with RE5 and MGS4 more so, is the game tries to rap up many of the lose ends too quickly. The fact that they try to answer all unanswered questions left in previous games is bad storytelling in my eyes. Yet, while this is what every fan whats, it isn't at the same time. While a fan would love to get the answer to such mysteries, the best stories are those that flirt with them, allowing the player to imagine and brainstorm possibilities to the universe of the game. In turn it allows fans to create their own fan works or more bluntly, it leaves players wanting to get his of hers hands on the next game. And so when Metal Gear Solid 2 ended, when Resident Evil 4 finished, everyone was anticipating the next game. Though I guess, playing devil advocate, it is our own fault in part. We create anticipation of what the story should be like that when the writers deliver the end product, disappointment is met. The flaws of answers too many questions is that its left me and probably many other players feeling things are too far fetched. An overload of new information can not only take up game play time and thus losing the fact that it is still a game, but also ruined a series. I wont go as far as say the RE5 has ruined the series, because its a damn good game in terms of game play, but it has ruined the mystery of Albert Wesker. The game delivered what we all wanted, and yet it ended too quickly offering no twists, or ones that are not cliche at least. We'll maybe its just me?

Well it has been awhile since I was here, so let’s get to it.
Today has been a busy day for me and it’s not even midday yet. Finished applying for next year’s university loans, waiting for Home to come back online so I can download the new updates (which are quite bog this time), its including a sneak peak at Capcoms Resident Evil 5 space. I’m also trying to find whether Epic have released there titan pack update for Unreal Tournament 3 (although I’ll probably find out in my Games Engines and Physics class later today, as we have to use Unreal 3 for it).

Now onto business, the podcast which was due to start last year has been delayed. L, aka Akamaru, is in charge of sorting through the audio, and making sure that everything is in working order, unfortunately we have both been very busy for University work. But, the good news is that we both finish in a few months time, so hopefully we will be bringing you the first show along with the second show.

As I will have a long period between University years, I will be starting a series of short manga pieces; this will either be a story, short funny pieces, or individual drawings. These will be available through my personal DeviantArt page when they’re ready.

Well that all from me for now, I’ll let you all know how the updates go for Home and Unreal when there out.