Whoa

Whoa, I haven't touched this in a while. Real life has sucked me dry on things to do in my free time. I hate pretending to be a responsible adult.

Good news: Dragon Age II is coming out soon. Bad news: it's not soon enough. Sometime in May.

Rockband 3 is now available along with the spiffy peripherals (keyboard, Pro Guitar, actual guitar, Pro Drums, etc) and currently screwing with my head. I can't wait for my friends and I to be done with the tour mode yet because being forced to play the "random" songs that keep popping up at the gig we're at is making my eye twitch out of my socket. I DON'T WANT TO SING SLIPKNOT. They suck. Harmonix is re-releasing previous songs with keyboard added to it--for money. Why would I want to pay again!? Thanks Harmonix, you just went from awesome to kinda retarded. If they had released twenty-to-thirty songs for free they'd have generated a ton of goodwill that they could've gotten away with murder next. Right now they just stand at "suck".

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was good. Kind of a Prince of Persia 4 meets Devil May Cry love child but it worked its stuff well. Until that ending. I mean, it was a great ending but kind of WTF!?!

*sigh* I really want a game where the protagonist is female and a strong character and not just fanservice. Like a female version of the Prince from the Sands of Time trilogy. That'd be really fun and new. Down to earth, friendly, kind of a brat at times, but doing the best she can because she feels she ought to. Absolutely no one fits this description unless you count the female versions of the Bioware RPG heros. Frankly it's a little disturbing to think on that.

I'm tired and need sleep. Will try to update more thoroughly in the near future. And yes, I realize I never reviewed Scott Pilgrim vs. The World for you guys (it's on DVD this week). Sorry.

50th Post! Also, PoP...

Yeah, so I haven't updated in forever. Sorry. Real life/work/family/Thanksgiving all got in the way.

So, on to the good stuff:

Prince of Persia landed on shelves a week ago. It is awesome. Seriously, I had been doubting how amazing it would be (so it looks pretty, big deal) but it has some incredible level design and strong characterization, which I'm a whore for.

You play as the mysterious "Prince", though he's actually a grave-robbing orphan with a rakish demeanor and a "roll-with-it" attitude. He's incredibly fond of chasing pretty faces with little thought beyond that. This is how he teams up with the equally enigmatic Elika, a pretty face with something more beneath the surface. Like magic.

The story is a bit flimsy (stop evil Ahriman and his followers by changing the corrupt fertile lands back into fertile lands) and the fighting, as always in the PoP series, can get repetative. The combat system itself, though, is much improved and fun to use. You have your sword button, your gauntlet button, your Elika button (where you throw her at the enemy) and your acrobat button (helps you roll to/from/around enemies). You can chain combos pretty endlessly until a gimmick the enemy pulls (where you can only approach with a specific attack) and the ever-annoying-quick-time-events should you fail to read your opponent correctly. Enemies do not randomly spawn and you only fight one at a time. If you're fast enough you can cut them off before they spawn! Bosses, on the other hand, you can never avoid and you will fight them numerous times with little difference between battles. Sure, sometimes you're forced to do a different gimmick (use environment, can't use magic, etc.) with the same boss in different battles, but most moves never change and you'll find the fight repetitive and sometimes irritating.

Also, you can't die. Which is sweet. In the series of old, if you died you were forced to re-do from whatever arbitrary checkpoint the game came up with, or worse, your last save point. I can't tell you how many times I was forced to re-do that stupid puzzle before the elevator in Azhad in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time because of that stupid elevator fight in which large groups on enemies re spawned three times and Farah kept dying. (I had to do that fight like 32 times or something. I had a tally at one point.) Not so in the next-gen game. With Elika you get the "Save Me" move where she pulls you from death and lands you on the last stable platform you were on in about three seconds, sometimes followed by witty (read: fun but cheesy) dialogue. No reload screen, no game over screen, no waiting. Sure, the "save me" is unstoppable, but it lasts two seconds. So while you never die, you still know that you screwed up. Quite frankly that's actually preferable. Doesn't make the game less challenging (hell, you goofed in the first place) either. In battles the penalty is more if Elika saves you, such as if you don't hit the quick-time buttons fast enough then the enemy's health is regenerated.

Elika's AI is incredible. One major plus is she won't die on you and the game doesn't end if she's knocked out (which she can be). She also never hurts you in battle or ever gets lost platforming, and can be used in battle to chain combos and deal actual damage. As much as I adored Farah (and I truly did) it got annoying that she couldn't actually keep lasting damage on enemies (except for those sand raven/bird/things). Elika helps to finish off enemies. Also, she keeps up with you on platforming and helps with the Power Plates (silly magic gimmicks) and long distances as well as providing a compass. Plus, she's a real character that reacts like an actual human being instead of your typical vapid JRPG princess or supercilious bad-ass-cold-hearted-action girl that populate a lot of action games.

Elika and the Prince (who is heavily modeled off of Harrison Ford-variety action heroes) have great chemistry, unlike most ridiculously shoe-horned love interests. While I'm sure a lot of people appreciate that the dialogue in this game is optional (except during cut scenes), I long for more of it. I swear, if I were playing the characters would spend too much time talking to each other rather than platforming. They even play "I Spy"! I love the optional dialogue as both Kari Wahlgren and Nolan North are incredibly strong actors. Their voices are just nice to listen to.

For all that praise and excitement I just heaped on Prince of Persia, I will say there are some annoyances. The game is definitely padded. After healing a ground, you have to re-explore to gather Light Seeds, which you then trade in for a Power Plate power (there are four plate powers). It's annoying. Sure, the platforming is fun, but being forced to collect these things is irritating. You don't have to collect all of them (forty-five in each area), but there are achievements for doing so. Big whoop. Also, combat is repetitive (no surprise considering Ubisoft made the game, but still) and the story itself is rather thin. Also, your boss characters are incredibly irritating as they don't really vary attack-wise and will often spout the same nonsense over and over. The level design is gorgeous, but they definitely dumbed down how to solve your path so that the platforming flows for anyone with two working hands. Not like that's awful, but most of the challenge is gone. As much as I lamented my almost-constant splatter-death in Sands of Time, I still felt awesome for achieving it when I did on the first try. Also, the puzzles are lacking in this one. They're still there, just more annoying and less charming.

Still though, it's a great game with strong characters and beautiful cell-shaded graphics to resemble a moving storybook. I'm completely enthralled and beg you to join the experience.

Art Post!

This is the Prince and Farah. Found it on Deviantart. It's absolutely one of my favorites mainly because they never really get to do this ever. It's bittersweet, as you can tell by the expression on the Prince's face. This is currently my desktop background. (Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, in case you can't tell for some reason.)

This is Smile for the Camera by Bri-Chan. One of my favorites. I leave it as my desktop for giggles quite often. Bri-Chan does excellent work on DeviantArt, and a lot of it is Disney (something I'm quite addicted to). She just has a wonderful use of expression and color that her artwork always pops, no matter what the subject. She also works for Disney, which is freakin' awesome.

Also check out Mimi-na if you like a twist on Disney characters or just some awesome artwork. I might post something of hers later...

That's all for now (and randomness)! A rant on why vampires are the best monsters is coming later!

The Wisdom of Saying "Bite Me" to a Vampire

I've got to make this quick as I have to wake up reeeaaallllyy early tomorrow.

So, HBO is often known for their awesome/or controversial shows. Last great show on HBO was Rome. Now it's True Blood, based off a series of books.

True Blood follows Anna Paquin as a telepathic waitress (Sookie Stackhouse) in the Deep South (made up town named Bonne Temps in Louisiana) two years after vampires "come out of the coffin" because of a synthetic drink made by the Japanese called 'TruBlood' that satisfies their needs. Vamps are trying to integrate into society in the open now, trying to get basic civil liberties. Sookie meets a really hot vampire named Bill Compton (Sookie: "'Bill the Vampire'? Are you serious?") and both parties are intrigued right away. Sookie is a very open-minded, morally up-right quirky girl that's hard not to love. She's a virgin, as reading the minds of others has led to some really funny and horrific dates. She can't read Bill's mind, which is refreshing to her.

There's a lot of allegory to racial injustice and homosexuality and all that, which is really cool. The setting works suprisingly well, as the Deep South really is kind of a fantasy land in the U.S.A. The South is definitely a world of its own, and the Gothic South displayed here is incredibly fascinating. Plus there's deviant sex, vampire making out, and really great writing and chemistry. Also, the actors are fabulous, as most of them are British (but you wouldn't know it) or Anna Paquin (who won an Oscar at age 11). There's a lot of humor and drama, and all the great stuff in between. I'll gush more when I have the chance. So far two episodes have aired. It's on Sunday nights before Entourage.

Have I mentioned that I adore Anna Paquin? I do. She's my favorite X-men (Rogue) and one of the few young actresses who's actually talented and fun to watch. She's in a lot of indie films as well as some mainstream and is really cute and quirky. I adore her.

Still playing Prince of Persia. My desktop currently consists of some adorable Prince/Farah fanart.

Prince of Persia: Next Gen

So...I've obviously been on a huge Prince of Persia kick as of late and have been eagerly playing/reading/collecting videos and fanart on my favorite characters. Which kind of led to the realization of: "Oh yeah, there's a new PoP by Ubisoft coming out soon." This was helped along by Tony, who made me watch a few trailers and gameplay movies.

It looks amazing. So far game play looks like all the fun I'm already having except now you have a constant companion and the moves are tuned to be more flowing rather than having massive splatter death every five-to-ten minutes or so. It's cell-shaded to look like a painting. The voice acting is great (Kari Wahlgren is the female lead--I don't know who does the Prince but I like his rather blasé attitude) and the lines I've heard are funny. The combat is waaaaaaaaaay improved and more epic in feeling. The story is that you're helping Elika, some mysterious magical girl, restore the world that's been corrupted by evil influences back into the pretty happy nature we all know and love.

Cell-shaded to look like artwork? Restoring the wonders and splendors of nature? Constant companionship and fun combat and puzzles? Why does this sound eerily familiar?

Most people won't know this is ripping off Okami to some extent. I guess that's all right. To be fair, it only seems to be borrowing certain elements, and not enough to be blatently stealing Okami's thunder. Still, it does make me uneasy. As does the character of Elika.

Elika's there to aid you and even keeps you from dying. That's cool, but then it kind of makes the Prince useless. She helps you in combat and is really powerful. You have...a sword. Also a gauntlet. Woo-hoo? The gauntlet helps you in platforming in some really fun and interesting ways, but part of the fun of the Prince in the Sands of Time trilogy was that he was the powerhouse behind all of the neat platforming tricks and ruled the combat. I have lovingly nicknamed him "Monkey Boy" because of it. He also had the dagger to pull off super moves. This Prince seems like he'd be flat in comparison. Again, haven't played the game or really know much about the character, so who knows? Maybe I'm totally, totally wrong. I hope so.

I'm all for powerful female sidekicks. Really. It's just Elika seems too powerful. Where's the fun in that? Farah could hold her own for quite a while and set up one-hit kills for you (sure, it'd be nice if she managed to at least finish off one of the finicky-re-spawning bastards, but whatever). She could also hit you in battle and vice versa, but still it was kinda charming. This though...Elika's more of a device than a character. So far. Again. Haven't played, can't say for sure. These are just impressions.

Apparently you can't die, either. Not sure if that's a plus or will feel like the game is babying you. Also, the story is "non-linear". What's wrong with linear game play? I need that at times to tell me what's going on! Ah well, it does create a feeling of more freedom, which is cool.

So these are my impressions/rants. Agree/Disagree? Tell me why! Feel free to comment. ^_^

Still Playing PoP: Sands of Time

I'm only 33% through the game (damn the real world/work) but I'm still enjoying it immensely. I hate the Wall-Climb move, though. It requires specific timing that I don't always hit, so it's really annoying right now as I have to do it in the one room or fall to my doom (the castle ruins level, btw). I'm still trying to figure out where to go from there, but don't tell me--I feel all superior once I figure it out.

I love, love, love the characters. The Prince and Farah are absolutely great! The Prince is a real person: prideful, easily annoyed, snarky, and truly caring. Farah is also very realistic: willful, confident, strong, easily admitting her mistakes and foibles. It's great to see the characters growing on each other--their interactions are priceless. Once I forgot to pull a lever to let Farah up (right after the birdcage/zoo level) and she yelled at me for forgetting her:

Farah: "Hey! Where are you going? I'm still down here!"
Prince: "I was...checking ahead. Making sure everything was perfectly safe."
Farah: "Making sure I'd be safe? How thoughtful of you, Prince."

As romantic ideals/interests in gaming go, Farah is incredibly original. She's not an annoying companion you have to ferry around in guarding missions who can't stand on her own two feet. She's not an emotionless Ice Queen who can't stand chivalry. She doesn't dress like a whore, either. She is a confident girl who speaks her mind and isn't afraid to admit when she needs help. She'll help you as much as she can, but she stays true to herself. She even tries to comfort The Prince (who is essentially her captor) after he has to kill the monster his father has become. She didn't have to do this, but the fact that she did speaks volumes about her character. Farah is compassionate, confident, and witty. I adore her.

The Prince is snarky, prideful, and genuinely noble. He has a true streak of rash nobility--he takes responsibility for all his actions and even admits that he cares for Farah. He forges on ahead with the power of a steamroller--he is unstoppable. He doesn't let it go to his head either. He gets annoyed with Farah and even talks to himself, adding quite a bit of humor in the game play. I adore his voice actor. He's just so cute! I can't wait to see more cutscenes...