No Sleep For the Fearless Wanderer

I could not fall asleep last night.

What did I do? Try and get some much needed rest? Hell no! I stayed up all night and played Fallout 3 in its entirety. I finished the last mission, Take It Back!, and purified the wasteland.

Even though I saved a whole population and gave them a chance at regular life, I have way more to do. I tried to finish it as fast as possible so I can get to the other video games in my back log. I might go back to it one day but for now  I think I will fall back from Fallout 3.

Crackdown 2 Failed My Heart

Video game blog Joystiq's Justin McElroy brought up a point on the Joystiq podcast about Crackdown 2 that saddened me. He said that Crackdown 2 is a lose/lose situation. On one side, the game is a failure and will most likely not have a successor. On the other hand if the game was to sell a good amount of copies the game would have a half-assed sequel just like it in the works. No one would be happy. 

It hurts me when games that could be such great hits come out and turn out to be complete trash. I have such high hopes and they are burned to the ground by developers who don't put enough effort into their work or just have a vision that looks stylish and clean only in their heads but once it hits the shelves it turns out to be an utter disappointment.  

Picture provided by IGN

Frustration in Video Games

Shooting the giant moth over my head was like arguing with my mother. I wasn’t getting anywhere as I continued and I was looking at the sky every few minutes as though I was rolling my eyes. The fight was finished with me on the floor and the moth savoring its victory in the sky; that’s about the only difference between arguments with my dear mommy.

On the moth topic, not parent/child disagreements, it made me extremely frustrated because I attempted the engagement five times before I gave up, turned off my Xbox 360 and gave Borderlands the pretty side of my middle finger.

There are many times, not just in Borderlands, that I got so hot-headed I had to shut down my system, put the title back in my stack of video games which  I desperately need to finish, and just sit in my chair and think of what I’m doing wrong. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the one doing something wrong or is it the game with a specific flaw that drives me to failure. Who knows? I sure as hell don’t.

I recently finished Assassins Creed II. That game is one of those games that I point the blame of all my failures and hick-ups on the controls. I knew what I wanted to do, but the game wanted me to do something else as if it had a mind of its own and it just wanted to screw me for kicks and giggles. One example was when I was about to assassinate a naughty templar who killed my family. I was going in for the kill and I pressed the correct buttons to commence with the assassination, but instead Ezio jumped into a singing jerk and stabbed him right in the forehead. My target got away and all I was left with was shame and anger. Maybe it was my fault or it could have been the game; I stick with the later.

What did I do to get rid of stress? I used break things. It is a foolish temper I held, but it was there and it got out sometimes. I bought a special edition Halo 3 wireless headset along with the legendary edition of Halo 3, a purchase I regret. I smashed the headset against my cousin’s bedroom wall when I was having a bad day and lost numerous multiplayer matches in Gears of War. I was one pissed-off fellow. I did get past all the brutality that video games brought out of me.

How did I lose these feverish rages that I succumbed to after getting my ass kicked? I learned that it wasn’t worth it to get angry over a game. The key is to just keep trying, no matter what. Give it a few attempts and if you just have no luck, turn the game off and hit the sack or do something else. Then, come back to it and try again. I guarantee it works.    

What Am I Playing?

Off-Topic: I Bought A New Book!

What Am I Playing?

Assassins Creed II

As I Finished Bioshock 2...*SPOILERS*

I looked at the screen in despair as the character I had played for hours had died as he made it to the surface, the destination which would be his grave and his paradise.

The Big Daddy (Delta) players take control of what was a character of few words, but was portrayed through his actions. There were many times where he had to defend himself. He had to fight off the deadly ADAM-addicted splicers that roamed Rapture with a number of bigger baddies like the Big Sisters and other Big Daddies. He had to resist the temptations of the anger and hatred that Rapture spilled through the veins of almost all its residents.

The choices gamers make as Delta affect the ending dramatically. I won't spoil that for you, but I will say that as being the big daddy, I selected the choices I felt and knew were right.

After I saw the results of my deeds I was heart-broken to find out that the place I sought freedom was the place I would die, and so soon at that. But I saw what was done and made amends with the idea that Big Daddy is always watching his little sister, even if he can not walk with the breeze which he craved for his family.

Delta, rest in peace with the times. It was a great moment we shared in Bioshock 2.