Friday, March 6, 2009

The Cat Is ______

The current state of life compels me to escape by wasting a half hour writing something. This is of course in place of doing anything productive, like studying. Unfortunately, nothing truly remarkable has happened in the last few days, so I'll use this space for a list a smaller, not quite as remarkable happenings.

The first is in response to my last post, regarding the Xbox Live Arcade Awards. It turns out that the process isn't quite as simple as advertised. The application won't necessarily be in the Spotlight, so you'll have to look it up in the Game Marketplace. For some reason, it counts as a demo, so if you're like me and that wasn't the first thing you thought of, now you know.

Also, as I'm sure you know, Watchmen is out today. Unfortunately, this creature called high school is holding me captive until three this afternoon, but after that I'll probably see it. There's a possibility I might just play video games tonight and see it tomorrow. As much as I love Watchmen, I have never been much of an “opening night” kind of guy for anything. I will not feel threatened as a fan if I don't see the movie on the first night and frankly, no matter how good it is, it is at its essence only an imitation of Alan Moore's genius. This was the case with V for Vendetta. The movie was amazing, but still can't hold a candle to the original (though I know Biscuits will disagree with me here).

On a related note, I got the trial of the Watchmen game on the Xbox Arcade. I didn't bother to hope for much from it, since Deadline has never made anything else I gave a crap about, but the screenshots showed me that it actually has relatively good graphics, and might indeed be enjoyable. After playing it, I'm a little disappointed, though not as much as I originally expected to be. It's really just a fighting game, with simple controls and linear gameplay. The graphics are pretty enough to look at, and sometimes the combat looks very cool, but at other times it looks rather awkward. I'll wait until I play co-op with Biscuits to decide whether or not it's worth the 1,600 points it costs.

In other game news, I'm trying to make my way simultaneously through Saints Row 2, Braid and F.E.A.R. 2, with an emphasis on the latter, because it's a rental, and because I'm supposed to be reviewing it this week. The review most likely won't be out until late tomorrow, so that I can squeeze out as much gameplay as possible, and hopefully beat it. I have several good points to make about the game both mechanically and stylistically, and I probably should be writing them down, but I prefer to rely on my memory. Looking at my GameQ on Gamefly, I'm realizing that there simply aren't enough weeks in between all of the games that are coming out soon. There isn't much that I'm actually interested in, but I feel I should play and review all of those new games (like Killzone 2 and Resident Evil 5) just because they're new and because I feel like it's been a while since I gave something a bad review. I'll review Watchmen for next week, and if I have time perhaps throw in Braid at the same time, because otherwise I don't know when I'll do it. Then next will be Killzone 2, and by then Resident Evil 5 will be out. Then comes Damnation, inFamous, and Prototype. After that, I may have time to play some older (comparatively) games like Prince of Persia, Fable 2 and Little Big Planet, none of which I'm particularly excited for, but I may as well try them.

That's about all I have to say now. I've effectively wasted my Physics class, which really isn't Physics, because half of the students are missing, so it's actually a free block. I'll go now, and perhaps do something productive. Probably not though.

Also, if you're feeling bored (like I am), look at the last word in each sentence of this post and use it to fill the blank in the title, adding articles as necessary. Try to find something funny.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Don't We All Like to Be Heard?

23 just pointed out that this week is the 2008 Xbox Live Arcade Awards. I'm sure you all have your own video game news source, but I thought I would provide for those who don't. These awards are for the [mostly indie] games for download on the XBL Arcade, so if you're the kind of person that spends all of his points on arcade games (I'm not, but whatever), you should add your two cents. I will probably check it out at some point and place my vote for Braid, the only indie game that has kept me captivated for more than a day. Yes, you must own an Xbox 360 in order to vote. You'll have to download an application that will apparently show up in the Spotlight, and then run it to select your top choice. The polls will be open until March 10. That is, incidently, the day my next History project is due. For more information (about the voting, not the project), check out the article on Xbox.com.