PS3 Disc-Based Games Reviews (Summer 2013)

Originally I planned on having separate reviews for these games. With summer ending just around the corner, I'll make quick work and do short summaries of these PS3 disc-based games: Brutal Legend, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, The Walking Dead: 400 Days and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

Brutal Legend

I made an initial impression of this game 3 years ago. There were some minor set backs that prevented me from finishing the game in the form of other, newer games. Well, I finally did it.

As a mini summary, you play Eddie Riggs. The world's best roadie. His job is to make the world's worst rock band look good on stage without anyone noticing him. Such is the life of a roadie... when a stage set falls on top of him, instantly killing him. His blood trickles into his belt buckle, unbeknownst to him, is actually the amulet of the god Ormagöden. The stage transformed into Ormagöden, decapitating the world's worst rock band with his godly heavy metal scream. Ormagöden then takes Eddie's body to the Heavy Metal world. You adventure takes off from there.

I've always had this problem playing a game to get my money's worth. For Brutal Legend, that means collecting various paint-jobs for Eddie's vehicle and attachable weapons. There are collectible in-game items in the form of stone-trapped dragons that give you points when awakened; shackled ruins that give you power ups and new guitar riffs and solos to learn when risen above ground; befriending headbangers who bang their heads for you to enemies during real-time strategy segments; rocker girls that shoot bolts at enemies at the end of their guitars... to name a few of what you can do in Brutal Legend.

This is one huge game in the sandbox style game play popularized by Grand Theft Auto 3, with a forbidden heavy metal twist. The heavy metal soundtrack that plays inside your vehicle and various cut-scenes are the best of the best from great artists. There is a bit of a learning curve, which is not as bad on the easy settings. Going through the game, you unlock various artwork and behind the scenes info on the making of Brutal Legend. One of the most underrated titles in 2008. It still holds up to it's age.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

This is a long time coming. There have been many games and storylines in the Call of Duty games. The only one that I really enjoyed was the Modern Warfare franchise. The first of the series was called Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It was the first game in the series to be set in modern times. Little did the developers know they have a bonafide hit.

To summarize the franchise, a warlord from the old Soviet-era started trouble in the Middle East. After the game's protagonists foiled their plans, an underling frames an American undercover soldier as part of a massacre at an airport. This sparks the Russian government to retaliate and invade the US. DC was taken over, forcing the core of the military and government infrastructure to go underground, keeping tabs on the protagonists to find the culprit and an off-the-grid ally who might be their only chance to cause a seize fire. The end of Modern Warfare 2 sets up the third game as the world is thrown into World War 3.

There's not much I can say when it comes to first-person shooters. Once you played one, you pretty much played them all, with different graphics, weapons and game play mechanics. The only thing I can really focus on is the story. Modern Warfare has an engaging story that makes you root for the good guys unlike any other first-person shooter out there. The only gripe I can really say is that I wish they would release a campaign only (story mode) version of the game. I don't care about multiplayer. On the other hand, I could just watch the game's story on YouTube if I wanted to. But that's no fun.

The Walking Dead: 400 Days

Technically, this wouldn't be a disc-based game. However, I bought the PS3 disc version of The Walking Dead. Even though I already reviewed the game, I will be talking about the 400 Days DLC.

This add-on bridges the gap between season 1 and 2 (the Tell-Tale Games, that is). It takes place in the same world and area. There are 5 playable characters. Each of them have a different background and story that unfolds within 400 Days of the first outbreak of the "walkers."

The game was noted for the storytelling. Not much as has changed. It's amazing how the developers were able to convey as much story and feeling for each character. You only get to play them for about 10-20 minutes each. This was enough to get you attached to their stories.

The actions and decisions you make for one character may affect certain scenes for other characters, depending on the order you play them. Besides that, you gain a bit of insight about the game world through stories and past encounters involving characters from season 1.

Nothing bad I can say about 400 days except that it was too short and kept me wanting more story and tidbits about the characters. Here's to hoping they show up in season 2.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

I didn't think I was going to play this game. Earlier this summer, PSN Plus members were allowed to download the full Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception game for free. I didn't want to pass up the chance. I played the first two chapters. Turns out this is my kind of game. I was at Best Buy one day and they were selling a double-pack Uncharted 1 and 2 bundle. I bought it and started playing Uncharted.

Uncharted follows a treasure hunter named Nathan Drake. He's a descendant of Sir Francis Drake. The first game follows Nathan Drake following his ancestor's trail to El Dorado and the secrets and dangers that accompany his quest.

Uncharted is like the male version of Tomb Raider. Besides the platform jumping you find yourself in the jungle, you are faced with traps and puzzles to progress further. They're not too hard. I didn't have to look online for help. With bad guys after you, you also have access to various weapons throughout the game. It's your modern day Indiana Jones.

The trophies for this game are a little uninspired, to say the least. They basically have you breaking set records such as 50 head shots, blowing up 3 soldiers in a row, using the brutal combo five times in a row and many more. There's also a difficulty setting in the game. This game is crazy hard on the hardest difficulty. Aside from the bonus content (different costumes, infinite bullets, weapon select, etc), it's unnecessary to beat this game multiple times on the hardest difficulty. Like I said before, I'm a story person. Many games out right now don't have difficulty modifiers. The game design speaks for itself. There's one "school of thought" that still cling to beating games at the hardest difficulty. I don't have as much time as I did in middle and high school. There's no excuse to make games engaging and replayable with difficulty settings. Just no.

I'm done.

Ten-Year High School Reunion

I can't believe it's been that long. So many memories. I floated around in high school, never sticking to one group in particular. I could drop in and out of social contact from anybody. I had no problems with anybody. Life was simpler.

A few students in our graduating class formed a committee and planned this reunion as already as January this year. We passed around suggestions on where to hold the occasion. Many insisted that booze was not an option. Almost 100 said they were going (our graduating class was almost 400 students). With beer and liquor involved, we couldn't book our high school gymnasium.

How to Pitch Movies to The SyFy Channel

I'm done.

FUCK YOU, DICK!!!

 I wrote this post on Xanga back in June about an off-site co-worker with an attitude problem and chip on his shoulder. He also just seems unruly towards a female co-worker from the same off-site location in our project.

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Attitude on a Co-Worker

[...] I do have a bone to pick with my co-worker from [redacted], though. It's the way he talks to another co-worker at where they work.

Whenever we are in team meetings, our conversations are somewhat informal, yet respectful. For some reason, the male co-worker from [redacted] gives an attitude towards the female co-worker. When we're talking on the meeting and he's talking, sometimes our manager and another local co-worker would interject to clarify stuff. Whenever the female co-worker from [redacted] would interject, the male co-worker would say "can I finish?" He only does that to her. I'm not sure if he has a problem with women (our acting manager is a woman), but he did voice his concerns during the transition on the acting manager's knowledge with the applications we were supporting.

The female co-worker e-mailed me a few months ago about asking our acting manager if we could bring in our SME (subject matter expert) developer local co-worker  as a sort of project application lead or co-lead to help out in support duties. You see, the female co-worker and I were fairly new to the project. She had about 1 month's lead on me prior to joining. She barely knew anything about the application we were supporting as the male co-worker would always be busy or wouldn't respond to her e-mails. The female co-worker is aware of these snide remarks, but she just lets it slide, to a degree.

I'm done.

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Yesterday, that female co-worker was told by her project manager at her job that they are reassigning her to another project effective immediately. She didn't say much in the e-mail, but they basically brought in this new person who just started working yesterday. He's supposed to replace her. I had a hunch who was behind this. I called her after work and she pretty much confirmed it. He caused the whole thing. WTF!!!

PSN Games Review (Summer 2013)

Finally I get to review the following games: Machinarium, flOw, Flower, Datura.

Machinarium

The first time I played this little gem was almost 4 years ago as a demo on the game's website. In June, the PlayStation Network offered the game for free to PSN Plus subscribers. I couldn't say no to a free game.

It's about a humanoid robot (a he) that found itself on a junkyard. He doesn't remember much about what happened, but he remembers another humanoid robot (a girl) when he's idle. You go throughout the game solving puzzles and finding out more about the world and our unlikely metal protagonist.

Machinarium is a point and click adventure game. You move around a cursor on the screen and click on various objects to interact with. Our hero is not much of a robot, but it can stretch and shrink it's body to a certain length and store objects by opening it's mouth/head like a trash can. With that in mind, you get a general idea of where interactive objects are located by his reach. Other than that, an indicator pops up next to the cursor showing that the object is interactive.

Otakon 2013 Recap

I totally forgot I didn't do a recap for Otakon last year. Anyway, here's the link to my photos. They're not much. Now on to Otakon 2013 Recap...


Pre-Registration (Thursday)

I worked from home on Thursday. Since I work in Virginia, it just makes sense. I worked extra on from Monday to Wednesday last week so I could take off early on Thursday. I already packed most of my stuff the night before. I just did some last minute checks and I was on my way to Baltimore.

I stayed at the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore Hotel, about half a mile from the Baltimore Convention Center depending on where you walk. It's a nice hotel if you get lucky with the elevators and peak check-in/out time of the guests. They were also doing renovations, though it didn't really bother me. Probably some people. I parked my car on an outside garage just across the street. This was a good decision on my part which we'll find out later.

After I got comfortable with my room and put everything away, I went to get my badge. The line wasn't long. They just made everyone go the long way inside the convention in case it rained. Not long after I was inside, it rained.

My Russell Crowe Moment

In American Gangster, Russell Crowe plays a straight-laced cop. In one of their sting operations, him and his partner finds a car left by drug dealers. Inside the car trunk are stacks (actually, multiple paper bags full of unmarked bills). His character could have taken the money with his partner. Nobody knows where it came from and they were unmarked. Instead, his character ("a fucking Boy Scout"), turns over the millions in unmarked bills to the authorities. Cause it was the right thing.

I was at Target yesterday afternoon, buying multiple wash cloths and two active wear shorts. At the register, as the cashier was scanning my items, one of the supervisors called out to him to turn on the light to show the counter is open. This distracted him. He forgot to scan one of my shorts and promptly placed it in the bag. There was a moment of hesitation on my part. Should I tell him about this? I mean, stores lose inventory all the time. I just stood there, allowing this tiny oversight go on. 

As he rung up the total, I swiped my card and grabbed my receipt. Then I had my "Russell Crowe Moment." I gleaned over the receipt and, in my best performance on the spot, pretended I spotted an error in the receipt. I told the cashier he forgot to scan one of my items. So he scanned the unpaid-for clothing. I paid for it and just went about the rest of the day

In the movie, years after Russell Crowe's character reported the money, he was asked by a member of his task force on a separate operation on what he would have done different with the money. He told them he would have taken it.

I sometimes get freebies from stores by accident or with my full knowledge. Any other time, I would have let what happened yesterday play out without my intervention. I had a knee-jerk reaction to tell the truth. Part of me felt bad and didn't want to get the guy in trouble. A huge part didn't want a bad deed to come back to me. I'm logically against the notion of karma. I think things just happen... No reason whatsoever. I guess I'm still morally bound to superstitious beliefs.

And I'm fine with that :)

I'm done.

Passive & Aggressive Driving

Car in front of me at the stop light was one car length away from the ground sensors. The driver kept looking at her overhead mirror at herself. Luckily, another vehicle on the left side was on top of the sensors. Light turned green, it took more than five seconds before both vehicles started moving. Unbelievable. Before the next stop light, the driver in front of me must have noticed my hand gestures of disdain inside my car. She signaled and switched to the left lane. Thank you.

Traffic was more than great and unusually fast on the Capital Beltway. A pickup truck about 100 yards behind me was catching up. I was already above the speed limit on the leftmost lane. Why are most pickup truck drivers such assholes? Anywho, traffic was moving along nicely. I let this one slide and switched lanes temporarily.

Fifteen miles ahead, there was a clearing of about 20 car lengths before traffic got congested a tiny bit. Minding my own speed, car behind me switched lanes and tried overtaking. Not happening. I kicked my speed up a notch and cleared the distance of the clearing, leaving no room for the other car to overtake. One of two things happened afterwards: (1) Driver intended to switch lanes or (2) stayed to save face. I didn't linger on the thought. I had to get to work. Take that, biatch.

I'm done.

Internet Pet Peeve

If you've been on the Internet and found yourself into an online discussion, debate or argument, you most likely have encountered people who don't really contribute anything, yet praised or commended for their comments. I'm talking about people who ask rhetorical questions with no follow up or people who use a personal stance on an issue against the person who said them, coming off as if they did something smart.

On the former, an example would be a person who responds to the topic or to another person in that discussion, saying "what else is new?" or "tell us something we don't already know?" On the latter, a more commonly observed reaction from people are twisting the topic or a comment in any discussion in favor of their side. It's a great skill when done wisely. However, in this case, the person will most likely say "it's ironic people are complaining about complainers" or something similar to that.

These comments and comebacks are quite lazy, to be honest. Half of me find these comments as "haha" funny, but when you really look into it, these types of reactions are just cirkle-jerk Internet elitism that avoids the real issue and subsequent discussion.

I'm far from conflicted in this topic. I know where I stand. Do you?

I'm done.