Juggernauts and Verbal Diarrhea

Never Blow One's Own Trumpet.

Ok ok I know I should never have announced it, guess the podcast and joint post were really doomed as soon as I mentioned them. Yeah Major Sheppard and I were kind of busy during Christmas, no really we were, we spent most of our time trying to get all the stars in Modern Warfare 2's cooperative mode. Pitifully we only managed to get 3, brought me to tears at least. Can someone give me an actual scientific basis for how a Juggernaut can survive 5 mines? Seriously, its like facing Arnold Schwarzenegger on crack or something. That said the juggernaut has defiantly moved up my list of "people who you do not want to piss off". I think its the music when they appear that does it.

I'm Sorry, say what?

So not a lot has been happening here and to be frank I want to move away from talking about my life. Though before I do that I've just got to link you to my latest favorite song. That sentence doesn't do any justice to the amount of shame I'm feeling about it though. More interesting however is the little bit of anime news about a new season of Code Geass, especially considering the ending of the second which rapped up the story to a closed ending. It leaves many to speculate on whether an alternative storyline is in the works or an expansion of the main storyline as a continuation. Either way fans may expect to find out more as early as this year. On the same note, I think many of us are looking forward to the next few months, well at least those who have money, for the explosion of the most anticipated games. Personally I have high hopes for Heavy Rain and with its success I hope we find many more games putting empathises on story driven gaming.

Video Killed the Video Game

Though it has to be said that there certainly has to be a balance between the actual game play and cinematography, glares at Final Fantasy XIII. Seems like another game that has fallen into the fiery pits with a bad case of verbal diarrhea, now glares at Metal Gear Solid 4. Is it just me or is there a pattern forming here? Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to start a war, I am all up for the integration of movie scenes and scripts into gaming. Far gone are the days when the stereotypical programming did everything in the gaming production, thank god. We all know this, however gone too are the days when the video game creators or story writers direct the script. I think its now important to start hiring the pros and experts from the film industry to direct those complex scenes. This is defiantly where the Japanese Gaming Industry is failing, in the western world at least. But that said I still believe it was Metal Gear Solid 2 that revolutionized this movement with its balance of game play and movie-like-scenes. Never the less, do Square Enix really need to consider producing the Final Fantasy series abroad? Maybe I'm a hypocrite but surely they realize that Final Fantasy is as quintessentially Japanese as Cherry Blossoms (ok, I seriously couldn't think of anything else, it 5 in the morning, its the best I can do!).

Crap from the Internet.

Anyway I shall hopefully be posting again soon, but until then I leave you with the crap from the internet section. Oh, just in case the petrol I lay down eariler didn't catch fire maybe this will help; I saw Avatar and I loved it, so much so I saw it for a second time. See ya!

To commemorate Major Sheppard's and I's completion of RE5 after 1 year of playing (I asuure you people were not bad gamers).

When Country's Don't have British Health and Safety.

Its Been Quite Awhile

So, it’s been quite awhile, and in fact it’s a new year, many things have happened, although they're nothing that big. First up, Christmas 09, went very well, had some lovely things, including the White Edition of Assassins Creed 2, it comes with a figure of Ezio, the main character. Assassins Creed 2 is truly a brilliant game, it builds upon, and improves from the original Assassins Creed, showing more of the rather interesting storyline and ending in a similar manner to the original, making it very obvious that there will be a third instalment to the series.

I would imagine that many of you, like myself, watched the rather heart wrenching two parter of Doctor Who, the first at Christmas and the second at the New Year. I am rather sad to see David Tennant leave; he was definitely one of the best Doctors to have graced the show. I won’t give away any parts of it, just encase some of you haven’t seen it yet (why not!?), but I was quite surprised by who it turned out to be... ‘He will knock four times’. But I always knew they were bringing back the Master.

I will be starting my last semester of my second year soon, it should be quite interesting, including making our own game, more of which I will be writing about on the next post. This will probably be a very busy semester, although the work isn’t too big, it will prove to be quite challenging.

Well that’s all for this week, I know it wasn’t long but this year should prove to be a rather good year for Blank Mind!