Nostalgia High

Okay, so being here at my dad's hasn't been as bad as I thought it might be. Since I've been here last, he's put both of the cats outside(which I wasn't too thrilled about at first), so there's not as much hair in here, therefore my allergies aren't kicking in very much. I just wish it wasn't at the cost of the cats.

Anyway, one of the first things I did here was go look for all of my PS1 games and see if any of them would work on my PS3, and to my complete surprise, out of the thirteen that I found, six of them actually worked(Spyro 3, Casper: Friends Around the World*, The Grinch, Digimon: Digimon World 2, Ape Escape**, and Crash Bandicoot 2; The ones that didn't work were Spyro 2, Crash Bandicoot WARPED, Crash Team Racing***, Croc 2, some PlayStation Demo Disc, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and Rugrats: Search for Reptar). The reason this was so amazing is because these games, for one, are nearly ten years old, and I didn't actually take very good care of my stuff back then.

We're (hopefully) going to Movie Gallery tonight, because apparently, they clean discs, so maybe if we get them cleaned, they'll be more apt to work.

*Terrible, terrible game.
**This one worked despite having a HUGE gash it it big enough for my fingernail to get stuck in.
***I was so PISSED when this one didn't work.

Post-Script: Spyro 3 is my real favorite Spyro game. I had most of it confused with Spyro 2, hence why I said Spyro 2 was my favorite.

I'm Tired

I'm tired. I didn't fall asleep until, like, 3:30 AM last night, and I had to get up early today(like, 10:30 or something) because I went to my dad's house. In Kentucky. Two. Hours. Away. I also took both my 360 and my PS3 because my brother wanted to see them, and they are very, VERY heavy(I read that the PS3(with it's original packaging) is something like 18 lbs). Yeah, so I'm tired. Anyway, point is, I may not make blog posts very regularly(what the hell am I saying? Just because I'm at my dad's doesn't mean I have a life.), but I'll try. I don't know when I'm going back to my mom's, but it will probably be next weekend sometime. Okay, so I guess there was no real point to this post, but I did say I wanted to post at least once a day.

OHCRAP I JUST REMEMBERED MY DAD'S INTERNET IS NOT AS FAST AS MY MOM'S CRAPCRAPCRAP HELP ME JESUS

Videogames Are Not Art. What?

Okay, it really pisses me off when people say that videogames are not a form of art. Why not? I would love to hear the reasoning behind this way of thinking. 2D images are art. 3D/Computer generated images are art. 3D/Computer generated movies are considered an art form, too, as far as I know(I consider just about every Pixar movie a work of art). Why aren't videogames considered art? I have no clue. I consider several games works of art, like Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, Bioshock, Metal Gear Solid 4 and many others, in my opinion, are absolute masterpieces. Every one of those games are so cinematic, more so than most movies I've ever seen.

Maybe in the future videogames will be considered art. I don't think movies were considered art right away, but videogames have been around for what, 36 years(I think they've only been mainstream since '85, though)? Don't you think that's long enough? I just don't see how someone can actually have the gall sit there and look at something so fantastic such as MGS4 and not call that both a technical masterpiece and a brilliant work of art.

My one semi-semi-loyal reader(and anyone else who was unfortunate enough to find this blog) can discuss in the comment section.

What the Hell

Ok, I was just watching last night's Attack of the Show, and they had this clip in the Around the Net segment:



Also, what the hell?

Note: I do not support either McCain or Obama, this video was just really funny.

Weird Dream

I had such a strange series of dreams last night. I don't remember all of them, but the main one I remember was where I didn't have a shirt on and my nipples were like, six inches in diameter. It was pretty cool.

My Top 10 Favorite Videogame Series Pt. 2

Okay, so yesterday's post turned out to be pretty long, so I figured I'd break it up into two posts, one, just so it won't be so long, and two, so I don't have to post anything else today. I might anyway, but at least I don't have to. Anyway, here's 5-1.


5. Guitar Hero

I don't have a lot to say about this one, because I don't know a single person who hasn't at least TRIED to play a GH game. Hell, even my grandmother has played it. I don't know how they do it, but they almost always have such a strong track list(except for GH2, not even Trogdor could save it, IMHO). The GH games are also so intuitive, what with a freaking guitar controller. I always have a blast when I play a GH game, even the one on the DS. I don't know why people gave that one so much crap, I liked it quite a bit.

Best in series: Guitar Hero 3

4. Rock Band

OHMYGOD PUSA WILL BE IN RB2! As good as the original Rock Band is, I think RB2 will be about as awesome as it gets, what with a Presidents of the United States of America(my absolute FAVORITE band EVAR) track, and being able to import all of RB1's tracks. I forgot how big the track list will be, over 500 or something. It's unreal. When I found out that PUSA will be in RB2, I was ecstatic the whole day, and that was on an E3 day, so I was even more happy when I found out all of the other cool stuff coming out(Fallout 3, Little Big Planet, Killzone 2, Resistance 2, Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars(maybe, I'm rather skeptical), Wii Motion Plus(Oh, you mean the thing that the Wii was supposed to come PACKAGED with?) and all that other crap).

Best in series: Rock Band 2 (unless they SEVERELY screw this one up, there's logically no way for this one to be worse)

3. Super Mario Bros.

How could this NOT be in my Top 10? SMB basically IS videogames. There's no way around that. I know people who have never played a videogame in their life, but have played an SMB game at some point. I actually have an NES that my aunt game me a few years ago, and I have the first 3 original SMB's. Arguably one of the best series ever, much less the best platformer ever, this has to be in everybody's Top 10 list by law, if I have anything to do with it.

Best in series: Super Mario Bros. 3

2. Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid 4. Very VERY yes. The entire reason I got my PS3 in the first place, and a damn good one at that. While I haven't played them all, MGS4 has to be my favorite out of the ones that I have played, with Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops for the PSP in second.

The series is known for it's deep(albeit lengthy) stories, and even though they're long, it's worth every. Single. Minute. While I don't understand the story fully, it's still so amazing, so deep, much deeper than ANY movie or book I've ever seen or read. I hope they make the MGS movie very, very soon.

Best in series: Metal Gear Solid 4

1. Half-Life (Portal, Gmod, Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike included)

Oh, Half-Life, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. This is, in my opinion, the BEST GAME SERIES EVAR. And I mean that. This series is so revolutionary, so intriguing. From the AMAZING graphics for it's time(hey, HL's graphics were awesome for 1998), to the mysterious story, to the oh-so-FRIKKIN' AWESOME gameplay, Half-Life is, without a doubt, my favorite game series.

God, I can't even begin to count the hundreds-upon-hundreds of hours I've invested in this game and it's sequels/spinoffs/addons(e.g. Gmod, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat), and while HL was awesome, Half-Life 2 was awesomer. WAY awesomer. When I first played HL2, one of the very first things I noticed were the physics, which, in this game, are VERY important. The physics are among the best I've ever seen, and I've played a LOT of games.

HL2 is another of my cantidates for games as an art form, in that it's just so immersive and engaging, it almost never seems like a game. From Half-Life, to Half-Life 2, to Counter-Strike, to Team Fortress 2, to Portal and to Gmod, this franchise has probably eaten the most hours of my life thus far, and I'll gladly give it many more.

Best in series: Half-Life 2

Okay, so that's it. I think I'm going to bed pretty soon, seeing as I've just spent about an hour and a half typing all of this up.

My Top 10 Favorite Videogame Series Pt. 1

Ok, I'm kinda hurting for something to post, so I had to delve into the list of things to post in a situation such as this. Anyway, here I go with part 1.

10. Halo

Okay, this is not my favorite game series. That's why it's number 10. I started by playing Halo 3, and I played through it, and hated it. Later on, I decided to give it another chance, so I downloaded the original Halo to my 360, and my brother and I beat it. It made Halo 3 make a little more sense, so it made Halo 3 a little more understandable, but not fully. I still need to play Halo 2. I bought the game several months ago but still haven't played it. I don't know why, but it just seems unbearable. I think they did something with the health system that they(thankfully) changed back in Halo 3. Also, in a fairly unrelated event, I did like the game enough to name my cat Cortana.

Best in series: Halo 3

9. Crash Bandicoot (Naughty Dog)

Ah, Crash Bandicoot. I remember playing these games for literally hours on my PS1 way back when. Especially Crash Team Racing. That game was awesome. I think I may have a somewhat biased opinion on CTR, though, because it was practically the only game my mom would ever play with me, so I really liked it. I was pretty pissed that the later games sucked(Apparently Naughty Dog sold the franchise to Eurocom, and all of the post-ND games sucked pretty hard), but now that I have my PS3, I'm in the process of getting a working copy of CTR. I'm still putting off getting Crash Bandicoot WARPED from the PSN until I can get more cashmoneyz.

Best in series: Crash Team Racing

8. Spyro the Dragon (Insomniac Games)

Spyro...arguably one of the BEST games on PS1. This game was amazing, and I actually did get around to buying it on PSN, so now I play it on my PSP, and I get a nostalgia-high every time. As much as I liked Spyro, in my opinion, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage was my favorite. I seriously wish that Sony would put it out on PSN. I even check periodically for this game. I can't put into words how much I loved this game. I also want to kill whoever decided to sell the franchise to Equinox Digital Entertainment/Check Six Studios. The later Spyro games, just like Crash, sucked MAJOR balls. GAH.

Best in series: Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage

7. Ratchet and Clank

Now, I haven't played much of this series, but what I haved played, I LOVED. Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destuction is by far one of my favorite PS3 games, and one of my all-time favorite action-platformers. All of the weapons, upgrades to those weapons and RPG-esque levelling just makes this game so amazing. The graphics are among the best I've ever seen, too; this game look beautiful. This game deserves all of the high review scores it's gotten. I absolutely cannot wait until can get my hands on more RaC.

Best in series: Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

6. Grand Theft Auto

GRAND. THEFT. AUTO. IV. IS. ONE. OF. THE. BEST. GAMES. EVAR. I cannot stress that fact enough. GTAIV is such a beautiful game, graphics and story-wise, and anyone who says that videogames are not an art form(I'll save the rest of this argument for a later post) can let Niko Bellic shotgun them up the ass. I've played a few GTA's, but none of them have had such a deep storyline, such awesome controls, or such amazing gameplay. And as far as I know, none of them have had such a flamboyant gay guy. Hilarious.

Best in series: Grand Theft Auto IV


Okay, so that's it for this post. Check the next post for 5-1.

Codename: Gordon?!

Yes. Very yes. Now, if you don't know what Codename: Gordon is, it was a 2D sidescroller fan-created game released in 2003, based on VALVE's Half-Life 2(actually, since it came out a year before HL2, it was more based on whatever little bits of HL2 trailers and small pieces of gameplay people had seen), and it was picked up by some company named Nuclearvision Entertainment. It was distributed over STEAM(VALVe's online delivery system), but was taken down due to Nuclearvision Entertainment's bankruptcy. If you want to read a little more on the history and plot and such, then just visit the Wikipedia page for it.

Anyway, being the sneaky little bastard that I am, I found out a way to download it(by trolling various forums). Apparently, VALVe never took it off their servers(or something, I don't know the details), so you can still download it.

If you want to, then first download the STEAM client, then in your internet browser, type in "steam://install/92" in the URL bar, then in STEAM it will bring up a box that lets you download and install Codename: Gordon. Have fun, and good night.

Barely Made It

Well, I've been sorta-kinda trying to make a blog post every day, and it's worked out so far, but I just barely made it today. Two minutes before midnight. I don't really have a lot to say in this post, so I'll just try to give a general outline of my day.

I woke up, went to the bathroom, got a glass of water, went to my room, checked all of my messages on various websites, watched TV(Family Guy, American Dad, X-Play, Seinfeld, etc.), decided to finally play Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty, I played that for a little so I decided to try and play Guitar Hero 3 with Lefty Flip on, tried to open the blinds of a window I never touch and then the blinds fell down, so I put them up and by then my mom was getting home from work, so I got up to get something to eat, and I've been talking to my brother on Skype for several hours while playing Warhawk on my PS3, and I probably will be for a while.

Run-on sentences make the period key lonely.

My Picture and Beards

Bah, I've been trying to get a picture of myself for my profile for the last hour and I still don't think it's very good. I've never liked getting my picture taken, and I've never been very photogenic. I just hate having to force a smile. It probably doesn't help that I think I have fairly feminine facial features(mainly my eyelashes; they're really long), and I look quite a bit like my mom. I also don't think I look(or sound) as old as I am, so I wish I could hurry up and grow a beard or something(I mean, I can, but not like I want). I don't want a full-on lumberjack beard, but maybe a small-ish/fairly unnoticeable one(Kevin Pereira's comes to mind; it's kind of a neck-beard, if that makes any sense). Anyway, I got a picture of myself up, and if you don't like it, I don't care. That's about as good as it gets.

Also, the shirt I'm wearing in the picture is awesome.

Christopher Masterson and Neil Patrick Harris

Does anybody besides me think they look alike? I mean, not a whole lot, but at least a little? (Christopher Masterson played Francis on Malcolm in the Middle and probably some other stuff that I'm too lazy to look up)

Speaking of Neil Patrick Harris, as you may already know, he has recently been in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a comedy-musical(I guess that's what you could call it. That or maybe a...musidy...? You know, like a dramady...?) created especially for the internet(although I think it's coming out on DVD in the future). The "movie" itself is broken up into 3 Acts all clocking in at about 13-15 minutes, making the whole thing only about 41 minutes, so it's not feature-lengthed or anything, but it's long enough.

Anyway, along with NPH, it also stars Felicia Day(from the awesome YouTube-based sitcom-type thing about a bunch of WoW players called The Guild, and she was also in a Cheetos commercial) and Nathan Fillion(I don't know him), and was directed by Joss Whedon(of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), with music by both Joss and Jed Whedon.

Now, I'm not normally a fan of musicals, but I really liked this. I mean, from the musicals I've seen, they just suddenly break out into song for no apparent reason, and when the song is over, they're right back where they started. With DrHS-AB, they actually furthered the plot while in song, so it almost justified it as being a musical. It also didn't hurt that the songs were catchy, and a few different genres, and not all totally retarded love songs.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I loved DrHS-AB. There was just one main flaw, though, and that is the ending. The ending kinda sucked. And by ending, I mean ending. Like, literally, the last half-second. I don't want to spoil it, but at the very end, after it ends, you're just like, "WTF, what happened?! Or did that even happen at all?!" I doubt they will, but I really hope they make a sequel. I really liked this, and if you can get over the ending being pretty unsatisfying, this is a really great...movie(?).

To see DrHS-AB, you can either buy each act for $1.99, or buy all 3 and pay $4.99, therefore saving a dollar, or you can see it on Hulu.com for free, but you can't download it(at least I don't think so, and if you can, I'm sure it's not legal).

Welcome Back

Because you left me. In the rain. Yeah, that's right, I saw you. Because I'm from the future. Actually, I'm you from the future. Ok, not really(duuurrr), but isn't that the basic plot from the Terminator movies? I don't know, I've never actually seen any of the Terminator movies. I started to watch one with my dad once, but apparently it was the unrated version, so Ahnuld was buck-naked and the dude with the mohawk was like, "Fuck you, asshole!" for no reason. My dad turned off the TV or DVD player or whatever. Maybe he just changed the channel, I don't remember what it was; this happened several years ago. So yeah, I've never seen any of the Terminator movies.

...

lolwut?