YOU FAIL

Today I'm gonna talk about failing. Simply put, if you screw up in a game, you fail. If you don't screw up, then congratulations, you don't suck! Failing in videogames is what gamers refer to as the hardest thing ever, among other things. In MY opinion, failing is what keeps me coming back for more in my games. With a certain lvl of challenge, the game gives the player a feeling of accomplishment when you finally beat that lvl that kept you up all night crying. So in conclusion, if a game doesn't make you fail every now and then, its not completing its job as a video game.

Photo From: www.failblog.org

The Fall

Today I'm going to be talking about the most notorious enemy in video games of all time...the bottomless pits. These gigantic holes have been used over and over again throughout the entire history of video games. From games like Pitfall on the Atari 2600, all the way to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on the Xbox 360, these holes have been attacking clumsy players time after time again. For those of you who are too clumsy to stay on the stage, I have prepared a few tips that may help you catch your balance.

Tip 1- Stay away from the edge of the stage. This may sound pretty obvious but alot of people stay dangerously close to the brink of death and wonder what happened when they fall off of the stage...hmmm I wonder why? Treat the game like real life and hug the walls and maybe, if you're lucky, you won't jump off of the stage trying to backflip over a Stormtrooper.

Tip 2- Watch your shadow. Your shadow isn't just there to walk around with you and look pretty, its also the most handy tool you can have in a platforming game. When you jump across a pit and have second thoughts about the trajectory of your jump, all you have to do is look at the platform; if your shadow hovers above the platform then congratulations, you've cheated death once again.

I hope these hints help you when your trying to jump from one cliff to another because if they don't then I just wasted 30 minutes of my life trying to help you.

Change

Yesterday I had a change in the way I have to buy new games. This change involves the use of collected pocket change over an extended period of time. From here on I will refer to loose pocket change as "Chang". The way I get all of this "chang" is: 1. In the mornings before I begin my long walk in the cold to school I get in my mom's car and jack about a dollar or two in quarters from her tip jar. 2. After school on the way to pick up my midget brother, me and my mom stop at the CVS up the street from my house to get some drinks for the three of us and I jack a little bit of that "chang" also, so by the end of the day I have racked up about $2.50 worth of "chang" and after about 25- 30 days of collecting I have about 50-60 dollars worth of "chang quarters." Imagine, if you will, going into gamestop, or wal-mart, or whatever place you get your games and dumping about $60 worth of "chang" on the counter. Would the cashier spend the time counting it out or would she/he take your word for it and just give you the game. So in conclusion I would highly recommend that you use this new method of payment in contrast to your old because not only do you not have to spend any of your own money and it is insanely funny watching the cashier frown at your huge piles of "chang" while contemplating whether to kill you now or later.

Videogame Violence

Today's blog is about the issue of violence in videogames and whether it is wrong or not. The government tries to say that the violence of games such as GTA and Manhunt intice the players to go out and do their own misdeeds and raise the crime rate in America. If you ask ME, I think that playing these types of games keeps people from going out and killing people because they already get to go and fulfill their wildest killing fantasies in the game. In some cases these games are beneficial and can save lives. I'm talking of course about the recent story in the news that said that a child and its parents got into a car wreck and the car flipped over. The child then proceeded to drag its parents away from the car because they said that they learned form GTA that cars can explode when they get flipped over. Of course you really can't blame the government for being paranoid about violence because you know, TECHNICALLY, it is their job to prevent crime in America and alot of these games are extremely grafic in their use of violence against people, and the constant references to drug use and crime. But then again, what else is the videogame rating system for? Games that are rated M for Mature are rated that way for a reason and should only be bought for someone if the parent thinks that they are mature enough to handle it. So, in short, the point I'm trying to get across is that the government just needs to trust the rating system and the parents of the children playing these games to make their own decision about what is TOO violent for them, or TOO sexually explicit for their kiddo's young eyes and to quit being so paranoid and trying to ruin our fun.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

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I've been playing this game for the past 2 weeks now and I have to say if you're a star wars fan or just a fan of destroying things then this is definitely the game for you. This new star wars game is set between the 3rd and 4th movies and tells the story of Darth Vader's secret apprentice. The game starts with you playing as Vader. You are on a mission on the Wookie planet of Kashyyk to find and destroy a rogue jedi who has been hiding out on the planet since the end of the clone wars. Now this is where I'll start to talk about the extent of your force powers in the game. If you remember in the movies where Luke Skywalker was training with Yoda and Yoda kind of had troubles lifting the X-wing Fighter out of the swamp, or in the 2nd movie where Yoda had troubles moving that big metal thing in the hangar when he was fighting Dooku, then you'll be pleased that you can do those things with the wave of a hand. When you're Vader if you charge your force push up and shoot it across a bridge, the Wookies go flying all over the place and trees snap, wooden columns fall over, scenery ,such as plants, react as if a hurricane is going on and it strips the bark off of bigger trees. Getting back to the story, as you are playing with the rogue jedi, slowly choking him to death, you sense a person stonger in the force than him.
" I sense someone stronger than you nearby, where is your master!" Vader demands.
" The dark side has clouded your memories Vader you killed my Master years ago!" The jedi feebly says as Vaders Lightsaber is stolen from him by a small child. That small child becomes Vaders apprentice and you will play as him through the rest of the game. As you play through the game your force powers grow, you can find new costumes, power crystals, and color crystals for your lightsaber, and you will eventually be able to actually pull a star destroyer out of the sky; but enough about the game, you'll find this stuff out when you buy it, what I really need to talk about is how much I love this game.
I love this game almost as much as I love Mountain Dew ( and believe me, I LOVE Mountain Dew). The main reason that I like it is not just because its a Star Wars game because lets face the facts, LucasArts doesn't have the greatest track record when it comes to making Star Wars games, but because it is a very well put together game, the graphics are good, and last but not least the story in this game is great and is officially part of the Star Wars storyline.
So there you have it, the longest blog entry I've written and its about Star Wars....BUY THIS GAME!!!!! http://xbox360update.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/starwarstheforceunleashed1.jpg

Rock Band 2

I know I have made blogs saying how much better GH:4 is going to be than Rock Band 2 and I still think it is but I have recently played Rock Band 2 and found that it has a little more to offer than I had originally thought. For the most part it is the same game in that you go to different cities to play a list of songs at 4-5 different venues, but newly introduced into the game are the new challenges that you can choose from the tour main menu. These challenges range from guitar battles against randomly generated people on certain songs to seeing who can get the best score on a song. If you plan on buying this game I'll warn you that the first 30 or so songs in the game are completely horrible and are done by bands that you have probably never heard of like Dinosaur Jr. and range to bands that really aren't that great like Beck. Don't get me wrong though just because the beginning songs aren't amazing doesn't mean that the other songs won't be good. A band that I was excited to hear about being in the game is Tenacious D with their song Master Exploder. Over all I had a good time with this game but I think I'll have an even better time when GH:4 finally comes out in a couple of months.

Castlevania Order of Ecclesia

If you've ever heard of Castlevania and you have ever played any of the games in the series recently then you should be just as excited as I am about Konami's latest installment called "Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia."
To be honest I don't really know that much about the game. The only things that the game takes place after Castlevania: Symphony of the Night sometime in the mid 1800's. Richter Belmont has vanished, leaving no one to oppose Dracula and his army as they spread across the land. Several groups of people form to battle Dracula, the most successful of which is the Order of Ecclesia and its greatest champion, Shanoa. If you haven't figured it out yet, Shanoa is the chick that you will be playing as in the game.
The game will play the same way as the others but with one big difference, the introduction of the new glyph combat system. It allows the your character to collect icons called "Glyph symbols", which you can acquire by defeating enemies or conquering challenges. These symbols can be placed on your arms and back, allowing you to absorb powers and skills. The effectiveness of these powers and skills depend on their placement. There are several different kinds of glyphs, including weapon and magic glyphs. For example, when enough glyphs compatible with Shanoa's rapier are used, it will transform into an energy saber. There are over 100 different combinations for glyphs. Glyphs use MP (Magic Points) to work, and attacks, whenever they hit or not, will use up some MP. Glyphs can also be used to solve some puzzles.
So there you have it, using my friend Wikipedia I have put together alot of info about the new Castlevania game and I am as excited as ever for it to hurry up and come out and you should be too, cause if you aren't, I'm going to come to your house and beat you with my newly bought copy of the game till I leave and imprint that you have to see every morning when you wake up, prompting you to buy the game anyways.