Tuesday, August 14, 2012

I Now Despise Competitive Multiplayer Games For Good


Describes multiplayer in general on a number of different levels....
Multiplayer games are starting to grind my gears. Well that's a lie, multiplayer games have always grind my gears, why? Because I always had the nerve and the adrenaline to keep playing them and gain nothing from them. You see I don't find achievements in being the best in any game or having the highest level and always reaching top of the play list in a game of Team Deathmatch. It's always pursing more games to fill the need of telling myself 'I'm good at this game and I want to challenge people that are equally as good as me' and this is the essence of any multiplayer game. But of course you're lying to yourself because there are always going to be a ton of more people better than you unless your MLG. So I came to ask myself why am I truly wasting tons of hours playing this game if I am getting nothing out of it? I don't necessarily consider myself a competitive person but naturally I don't like to lose and due to this I usually get frustrated in a game and myself included. I get frustrated because when I lose a game that I certainly felt I should have won I tend to continue playing the game to get a win so I can justify investing all these hours I have put into these games. And all for what? Just to get a small satisfaction of telling myself 'I'm good at this game' when I don't really care to begin with. I know this is confusing but allow me to explain with an example. 

The memories! They're bad!
I just finished up a game of King of the Hill on Gears Of War 3. GoW3 is the most infuriating game to play multiplayer wise and gets the most biggest rages ever even from the best of us. It's a fact, I have played a huge amount of Gears games with my friends and most of them cant take it because its so frustrating, usually quitting after probably an average of 3-5 rounds of multiplayer games. I press on usually, that's because I love the game and the franchise. Why love the game if its so infuriating and don't have a competitive personality? Well, it's the only game I have ever had a challenge. Games like Call Of Duty, Halo and Battlefield all have pretty easy learning curves to their multiplayer, to me its just gun and run. Obviously those players would tell me differently but then again I don't care, because those games became boring and ultimately not entertaining for me because no amount of skill that some players achieved didn't entertain me. So why invest time into those games if the skill you get from them is ultimately worthless to me? So, naturally I don't play them. Let the record show that I feel all three of those franchises are mundane and ran into the ground and have shown no innovations in their franchises for a long time. Ok so back to the game. In the King of the Hill game things got tense naturally as the score became very even but my team withheld and we won the round, so one round to go. The second round got far more tense and we lost the round by one point and in overtime. Unlucky is to sum up that round, we should of won but when things got more tense and the the 'hill' kept changing I guess we couldn't keep up, so that leads us to the final round. So this round starts up really well but ends EXACTLY THE SAME as the last round. We got up to the final point and lost in overtime. I wanted to scream at my team but I kept to myself as always (I never rage, ever), and as a man I accepted the defeat. Lets face it shit happens and there is nothing you can do about it, sometimes you just have to shut the fuck up and take it. This doesn't happen quite a lot in Gears games especially in the manner of this one, I mean it was grade A ridiculous. And It wasn't fun. So what do you do with a game that isn't fun? Simple, you stop playing it. 

Moral of the story? I don't give a fuck....
Believe me at that moment the game was over I wanted nothing more than to play another round and prove to myself that 'I can do better' and that 'I am good at this game' but that was all bullshit. I am no longer going to justify my means to play multiplayer games any more. To me they're simply not fun and are ridiculously  addictive forms of entertainment that appeals to our inner competitive personality, and it has only came to this point that I have realized that I control whether or not I have a competitive personality or not and not these fucking games. So I choose not to have a competitive personality and I am going to stop chasing these phantom achievements for good now. Fuck you multiplayer, I never really liked you anyway! 

Give your thoughts on competitive multiplayer and tell me how you challenge yourself! 

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

JOSS WHEDON IS DIRECTING AVENGERS 2!!!


















FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES!FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES!FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES!FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES!FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES!FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES!FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES!FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES! FUCK YES!

He is also doing a Marvel related TV-Show for ABC........just let that sink in.........


Rick Remender Finishes Up Venom With #22

Sadly it's true. After twenty two awesome issues of Flash Thompson gracing his presence in the alien symbiote the leading writer that started it all is leaving the solo series to grace his presence in more upcoming Marvel series. Rick Remender will finish his work on Venom in issue 22 where Flash will take on his arch nemesis Jack O' Lantern, which Remender had worked hard on to achieve these two as nemesis, its nice to see he'll be finishing something he's worked so hard on. Remender has achieved a lot on his run of Venom, first one being that Venom is finally cool again. Yea the only time I can remember Venom being awesome was in the hands of Todd McFarlane who takes credit for creating the beast. Then there that weird spell of Eddie Brock becoming the good guy in Maximum Carnage and we all know that pretty much screwed up the character. It lead to a lot of downfalls for the symbiote one being years later when Venom was sold in a super villain auction.....yea, I know (terrible!). But just when you thought it couldn't get any lower.....well it did. Mac Gargan or Scorpion I think bought the suit for 100 million and later became both Scorpion and Venom, which sucked ten folds. So that brings us up to about Flash Thompson gaining the Venom symbiote from the US government as part of a covert black ops experiment which actually makes sense (finally!).

Ever since Flash became Agent Venom I couldn't help but describe this new Venom as 'Spider-Man with guns!'. It fits perfectly, he moves and kinda acts like Spider-Man (considering Flash is Spider-Man's biggest fan) but has a darker costume and has the balls to use a gun. Awesome is one word to describe him and the fact that he is a war vet ad's to his characteristics which has led to some interesting moments in his story. Such as that goofy Circle of Four story arc where Hell took over Las Vegas, best way to describe that would be 90's-esque storytelling (nothing wrong with that), and General Ross became part of that roster of heroes. Either way the interactions between the general and this AWOL soldier was just awesome, the conversation dialogue between the two just fitted together so nicely you couldn't help but compliment the writers. 
Small little moments like these is something I really hope that does not disappear from Venom and I'm hoping Cullen Bunn (the new writer) leads by that example. 

There is too many moments in Venom that I will cherish in the series in total like when Jack O' Lantern and Flash took a road trip to Las Vegas. Awesome conversations and happenings ensued; 
Anyway, it will be interesting where Venom will go with Cullen Bunn and I'm looking forward to what he does with the series. I just hope the fucker doesn't screw it up. Cheers Remender for finally making Venom fucking awesome again!




Monday, August 6, 2012

The Man Behind Atari; Creator of Video Games

(Courtesy of Kotaku) 



















It's hard to believe that 40 years ago Atari would be the creator and ruler of the gaming industry. Of course home consoles wouldn't have been very popular in the 70's and what most kids used to do was go to the arcade. Where all the best games were made by none other than Atari. Now of course, they're practically finished publishing any game close to being decent and we don't consider them a major player in the world of gaming anymore. But there was a time when Nolan Bushnell ruled and gave kids like Steve Jobs their first job (lol). But of course we all know that a lot has changed since Bushnell sold his company for 28 million after four years of owning it and the rest as they say is history. 

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale Information Review

"Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale" is a game that's been the source of a lot of controversy in the gaming world and it's essentialy been declared a Smash Bros. copy from a variety of sources. However that doesn't sway me when it comes to my opinion of it. While I of course agree that they're similar in a number of aspects, Nintendo doesn't own the genre. Hell if you think about it, Marvel Vs. Capcom and Street Fighter X Tekken are similar games also. The idea is simaler to that of Smash Bros, smash the shit out of people, try not to die, rinse and repeat. However instead of the likes of Mario and Link we're given characters like Jak and Daxter and Nathan Drake. Personally I'm VERY excited for this game and a recent leak has only made me MORE excited for this game. A variety of characters (Both first party and beyond) have been announced for this game. The characters being;

  • Nathan Drake (Uncharted)
  • Cole MgCrath (Infamous)
  • Kratos (God Of War)
  • Fat Princess (Fat Princess)
  • Sweet Tooth (Twisted Metal)
  • Heiachi Mishima (Tekken)
  • Big Daddy (Bioshock)
  • Sly (Sly Cooper)
  • Jak and Daxter (Jak and Daxter)
  • Colnel Radec (Killzone)
  • Toro and
  • Dj Pararapa
All but two of those characters are enough to send me into a frenzy for this game. I'm a big fan of Infamous, Tekken, Twisted Metal and hell even Fat Princess. The rest are simply icing on the cake.
However there has been a massive leak recently (Please bear in mind this hasn't been confirmed) One person using the beta of the game has searched through the files and found a variety of interesting bits of information. For example, a level list. 
  • Alden’s Tower (Infamous)
  • Black Rock Stadium (Twisted Metal)
  • Columbia (BioShock Infinite)
  • Dojo (Parappa the Rapper)
  • Dreamscape (LittleBigPlanet)
  • Franzea (LocoRoco)
  • Hades (God of War)
  • Invasion (Killzone)
  • Metropolis (Ratchet & Clank)
  • Paris (Sly Cooper)
  • Sandover (Jak & Daxter)
  • San Francisco (Resistance)
  • Stowaways (Uncharted)
  • Time Station (Ape Escape)
Obviously if these levels have been included it means someone from that particular series will be playable. Aldens tower, Black Rock Stadium, Dreamscape and Time Station have me most excited at the moment. Also the main chunk of meat from this leak. A revised character list. 
  • Big Daddy(BioShock)*
  • Colonel Radec (Killzone)
  • Dante (DMC)
  • Evil Cole (Infamous)
  • Fat Princess (Fat Princess)
  • Good Cole (Infamous)
  • Heihachi (Tekken)
  • Jak & Daxter (Jak & Daxter)
  • Kratos (God of War)
  • Nariko (Heavenly Sword)
  • Nathan Drake (Uncharted)
  • Parappa the Rapper (Parappa the Rapper)
  • Raiden (Metal Gear Solid)
  • Ratchet (& Clank?) (Ratchet & Clank)
  • Sackboy (LittleBigPlanet)
  • Sir Daniel Fortesque (MediEvil)
  • Sly Cooper (Sly Cooper)
  • Spike (Ape Escape)
  • Sweet Tooth (Twisted Metal)
  • Toro (Sony Icon)
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/u5BLgycbUog" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
E3 Trailer
Now I'm even more excited. Ratchet, Dante, Raiden, Sackboy and Spike are all from games that I love. Ape Escape 1 was the 2nd console game I got for my PS1 so I'm very excited to play as him. As of now, I think that the roster is shaping up to make this a VERY impressive game. However characters I would like to see; 
Crash Bandicoot
Spyro The Dragon
A Final Fantasy character
Solid/ Naked Snake
At the moment I think it's very likely I'll get my wish but either way I can't wait to pick this up on my VITA on the 24th of October!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Dear God I Just Had a Major Nerdgasm...


Never in my life have a seen a more better cast suitable for this web miniseries. UNFORTUNATELY it isn't and what we do have is Zac Levi, Adam Baldwin, Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk all killing zombie cosplayers for awesome entertainment. Can anyone say Firefly and Chuck reunion? 






Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Dark Knight Rises Discussion (Beware Spoilers)
















"So.....yea, Dark Knight Rises. Totally not like, movie of the year or...something." Is what I would say if I was dickhead. Well, bigger dickhead. But the point I am trying to make is that this film must be a benchmark for closing trilogies as spectacular as this did. I mean not a lot of movie franchises remain as consistent as this trilogy, actually, scrap that barely any movies can compare to Christopher Nolan's Batman. These films are something that will stand the test of time a lot like the Star War's trilogy. But, there wont be a lot of knock off's and such. Well, lets hope not...

Actually a more suitable comparison would be to compare Nolan's Batman to the Godfather trilogy. And I know what you're thinking, the Godfather never had a trilogy it was two movies and that's that, well for just this once we're going to include Godfather 3. Now when we think of the two Godfather movies we think of the second one mainly because it was so fucking good, pretty much being a benchmark for amazing storytelling. Again we can easily compare this to the Dark Knight the second movie to Nolan's Batman, an amazing introduction to Batman's arch nemesis the Joker who was played by the late and great Heath Ledger. Arguably the best in the trilogy, a lot like the second Godfather movie. Now in comes Godfather 3, and we're given a completely different Michael Corleone, and it sucks, plain and simple. It just doesn't keep up with the standards of the second or the first and that is exactly why it is forgotten and why no one will consider it worth watching. Batman's third entry is probably the most unforgettable out of the three movies.

Basically in Godfather 3 Mario Puzzo and Francis Ford Coppola should have stopped at its peak. Was it possible to make a good sequel to the Godfather 2? Well they tried and failed and because of this many people will forget the amazing accolades the Godfather achieved. Such as both films getting preservation in the United States National Film Registry, the boatload of Oscars they achieved and Stanley Kubrick naming the first Godfather movie as the greatest movie ever made. As for Nolan's third entry on Batman we can see a potential future of this being one of this century's best movie trilogies.

So the legacy of Nolan's Batman is always going to be filled with awesome memories and amazing actors portraying the best villains against Batman. The Dark Knight Rises being the most unusual in its selection of villains but in my opinion and entirely my own is that I prefer Bane over the Joker. I'll even go as far to say that The Dark Knight Rises is my personal favourite Batman movie entirely because it just goes all out. Nolan holds back quite a lot in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight to keep the reality levels of the movie in check and to make sure the movie isn't too over the top. For The Dark Knight Rises both Christopher and Jonathan Nolan decided to say 'Fuck it! It's our last hurrah on making this series, why the fuck not?' and put Gotham right in the hands of the villains, making it a royal shit storm for Batman and Bruce Wayne.

Sure The Dark Knight Rises is flawed, not immensely flawed, small flaws in the plot make it slightly annoying and hard to contrast to the bullet proof (plot wise) Dark Knight. Hell I'm sure gonna give it another go and enjoy the fuck out of Bane once more and maybe see how the film holds up a second time around. So now you can stop reading, and have my permission to comment your opinions...






Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Terraria Review

I've been very inactive on the Blarg for the last while. I'd like to explain why.
The first day the Steam Summer Sale began, Terraria, the 2D sandbox, went on sale for €2.50. Being a person who owns 3 Minecraft accounts (I got one for free and bought an extra one for €10 in case you think I sent Mojang €30 extra) I never thought I'd buy Terraria, the fact that it was 2D always made me feel it would be something lesser than Minecraft considering how it's an entire dimension shorter and due to the lack of noise that I heard (or rather didn't hear) I really didn't think that it could be THAT good. I was wrong. Oh so very very wrong and it's become one of my most played games on Steam in the space of 2 weeks.
Terraria is a sandbox game from indie producers "Relogic". It's hard to not compare this game to Minecraft but that's because they have so many similarities. Graphics wise, gameplay wise and more. The game involves mining, crafting and building just like Minecraft does only there's so much more stuff to do.

Minecraft has 5 tiers of items, Wood, stone, iron, gold and diamond. Terraria on the other hand has way more than double that. Wood, copper, iron, silver, gold, meteor, lava, shadow, hallowed, mythril, adamantie, cobalt, hero and that's just some of the armour classes, there is also a variety of other clothing options such as top hats, wings (Both demonic and angelic) and even the hero's garb from Zelda. Weapons wise there's also a lot more to choose from. For example, you got your basic swords, bows and spears. The weapons list however, also includes handguns, rifles, shotguns, lazer rifles, flails, boomerangs, star cannons and even more. Accessories are also welcome such as rocket boots, grappling hooks and various others that can be used to influence combat. Where combat is concerned, it's a lot more diverse. Potions and spells can easily turn the tide of battle between you and your variety of foes such as goblins, demons, mutant slimes and more.  The game has a variety of other bosses, something which I felt Minecraft was lacking (The repetitive pattern of the Ender Dragon hardly makes it a boss. More of a test of how you can press space, left click and another direction button). The bosses are also diverse and challenging raging from a demonic eye of Cthullu to a flying Wvyren high in the skys.
Skeletron, one of the games many bosses
The building is a lot more diverse with a variety of other features you can add to your house such as bath tubs, bins and more. In Terraria, you have the oppertunity to recruit NPCs to live in houses you yourself have built, be it a shoddy room in the dungeon of  your tower or a beautiful mansion for your merchants. This  creates a more active atmosphere in your home as a once quiet shack can quickly become noisy manor.
The graphics and music are both equally charming. The music fits the theme of exploration perfectly and has fitting and well written music for the bosses. The graphics also are also reminiscent of the 16bit Minecraft graphics. Just like Minecraft, Terraria has a collosal dedicated community who are commited to making texture packs and mods from the likes of Fallout to Zelda and even mods which further continue the game. This is especially welcome as the Terraria developers have ceased development of the game. 




Overall, If you haven't already guessed, Terraria has given the bums rush to Minecraft in terms of it's position in my heart. Terraria has now taken it's place. It has way more to do, a lot more customization and a more involving battle system. I highly recommend that if you ever have an extra €10 to spend or even less if there's a special on offer. 

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Remembering Mako Iwamatsu (Uncle Iroh)

  RIP Mako Iwamatsu (December 10, 1933 - July 21, 2006) 
Six years ago today Mr. Mako Iwamatsu would die due to esophageal cancer at the age of 72. Mako would be most commonly known for the voice of Uncle Iroh from the amazing cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character Uncle Iroh would be known for his hilarious antics and his awe inspiring moral compass as he aided his nephew on a quest for self discovery. Unfortunately I do not recognise Mako in anything else other than Avatar except that one episode of The Green Hornet he's in with Bruce Lee.


Mako had a lucrative acting career being both nominated for a Tony and an Oscar for best supporting actor in The Sand Pebbles in 1966. It's easy to spot throughout The Last Airbender that Mako is an extraordinary actor. In the episode "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" there is segment titled "The Tale of Iroh", in this scene Iroh remembers his son he lost in the war and sings a powerful and tear jerking song called Leaves from the Vine (Little Soldier Boy). 


But I'll still remember Iroh as that hilarious Uncle that is wise beyond his years and unfortunately finding his best scenes are impossible thanks to Viacom ripping everything down off Youtube. But anyway his hilarity will always be found in the most subtle scenes such as this;


My favourite scene is where Iroh is getting mugged by a peasant and easily disarms him of his weapon to teach him how to form a better battle stance. He then continues to talk to him and support him in what he wants to become.

Anyway I only wanted to make this post to thank Mr. Mako for the amount of entertainment he has given me over the course of watching Avatar. Uncle Iroh is easily one of my favourite characters throughout that cartoon and I can't imagine watching Avatar without his input. So here's to him....

And thank you Reddit, for reminding me of the anniversary of his death;



Friday, July 20, 2012

My Deepest Sympathies To The Victims and Their Families at Aurora Colorado...


At 12:00am today in Aurora, Colorado at a local theatre 12 are confirmed to be shot dead and roughly 50 have been injured in a mass shooting at the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, the shooter has been apprehended. Several witnesses report that a man dressed entirely in black with a bullet proof vest and a riot gear helmet entered the theatre in a calm manner approaching a screening and dropping two smoke grenades and began shooting with a machine gun into the crowd. The police are currently at the shooters house and have confirmed that explosives are in the house. They're using the upmost care and have called the Denvor bomb squad. 

Among the 50 victims many children have been injured in the shootings some as young as 6 years to 3 months old. It's fucking madness right now and only a little information has come about this but there has been several videos uploaded to Youtube who were at the scene; 

Honestly I cant express how sympathetic I am for the victims and their families and everyone who was at the scene. I can't imagine witnessing an event such as this and after all the excitement over the release of this movie that fellow Bloggers have commented on, I can't imagine why anyone would want to do an action like this. And for that I sympathise for the shooters mental health. 

I wont be following up on this any more. 

Sources: MSNBC
Live Stream: 9 News

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