Killzone Update, Ya'll!!!!

So....I have a jetpack now! I'm flying around with a jetpack and a hand cannon shooting Helghast soldiers into the dust!

Oh, and guess what I resisted today? Going into the gamer's crack den otherwise known as GameStop and snagging me a 3-DS. I have a hefty trade that will give me enough store credit to help get me a piece of game hardware fresh out the package and new to behold!!!

Pair that with one of these inviting and delicious looking tasty treats:

And I would've been in heaven. But I was trying to be responsible and forced myself and my armful of nice juicy trade-stuffs back home and fired up some Killzone, which I have yet to best. I haven't played since the 3rd though so give me a break. I work and act like a 25 year old  woman as well as game like a 12 year old boy so taste my vesatility and enjoy it. 

Of course jetpack pictured belongs to Sean Connery's James Bond from Thunderball!!
What what! (Bond rules.)

So as I was saying, my reward for my self-control was my character Templar popping open a supply depot only to find a shiny piece of jetpack amazingness to strap on. Hover abilities and unlimited ammunition. Thank you kindly. Still playing....


Know what else I'm still playing?


Peacy Weacy!!

Killzone: Liberation Makes Prosepunk Work fo' it!!

So I'm spending my glorious, post work Thursday night playing some Killzone: Liberation and sipping on a Sweet Tea (brand unimportant) while Avatar plays on my television.

Pre-work, while Kill Bill Vol.2 Motion Picture Soundtrack played in the background, I also immersed myself in the addictive and damn difficult world of Killzone: Liberation.

Kablammo! You're dead, man!

You die a million times in this game because everyone in the WORLD is trying to kill you. Dogs, spider bomb thingies, pressure bombs that you can barely see, well thrown grenades, these red-eyed Helghast soldiers are capital R Ruthless!

Hats off to you Killzone: Liberation, handheld facet of the Killzone series, for making me use my logic, skill and patience to best levels manned by the most intelligent AI I've seen in a while. 

Killzone: Liberation challenges me, it punishes me when I try to run in guns blazing, button mashing. It teaches me to pull a pinch of gaming finesse from my reserves and lay it all on the line for ultimate completion, ultimate success.

But damn you are hard and frustrating and maddening, which is why victory over you shall be so very sweet!

So...let's see how long it takes for me to take it down! I started playing three days ago, probably about an hour to two hours a day, give or take. Hear me starting my engines?

Friday October 21, 2:17 PM

This level, titled "TRAIL OF DECEPTION-Assault" is a damn trail of deception. No just kidding, I can't even figure out if the trail is deceptive because I keep getting shot down at the beginning of it. But I can get down with the "Assault" part because I'm for sure being assaulted. I dare say being subjected to aggravated assault tinged with First Degree Murder! This level, particular the part pictured (the very damn beginning) is kicking my frustrated a$$! And I just shot my way through a very frustrating level last night! Only to be met with a challenge that makes the last seem like level 1 in Frogger?!

Horrible picture (I couldn't fight the glare) but you get my drift.

There are two guards right there who I successfully sneak by only to get shot up by some crazy asses who come running out of a door seconds later. Boo. Still trying.

2:46 PM

Hellzyeahyuh! Got my minority stereotype ally Rico to help after running from the Halghast and putting down the bridge! If I die, though, I'm going to probably try to use more finesse next time around....but dammit I got through a part that was kicking my ass so I'm quite pleased. Did it in about two minutes with only about two tries today so far.



Story developing suckah........!

Quintessential I'm still blogging blog post.

So I'm sitting here watching a horrible reality show that shall not be named (yes I'm ashamed of myself I did create a blog post under the passionate exclamation "Scripted Television Only") and I remembered that I haven't blogged in a million years. Do not be alarmed, life has been coming at me at breakneck speed because I have decided to become an adult. Just kidding I've been an adult since I stopped believing that America was racism-free. What a lesson I learned!

Anyhow, I have no thought provoking gems of knowledge to drop, but I can't leave that damn Patriot Act dish up there (down below now) could I? More pressing issues have arisen, I haven't even taken the time to follow up with that Patriot Act to see how it's doing these days, but I digress.

My focus is shaky but taking its time and developing into a delightful juggernaut that is born of necessity. Reality bites some sooner than later. But I digress again.

What's with all the digressing? I mean, the more digressing than usual?

What am I kidding? This damn post is about Final Fantasy 12! Take a gander through this blog. I've been playing this game exclusively for nearly two maybe three years! I thought I passed it the other day and then wham! I have to go fight something some damn where else! I am a bit obsessive compulsive about video games so I won't be able to enjoy another game until I trounce FF12, but I'm simultaneously sick of the game and driven to beat it, which means long periods of time pass between my sessions with the game. If  I played it every day for about three hours a day I might get it done, but I've been playing it for sooooo looong, I've fallen out of love but am too loyal to it to leave it incomplete and collecting dust on the shelf!!

bakanaartist's rendering of FF12 characters (and my faves) Fran and Balthier.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm going to beat it. Who wants to wager me? I can't even imagine finishing it anytime soon, remember I'm playing it THOROUGHLY! Killing marks, finding Espers, fnishing side quests, sprawling catatonic on the floor! I'm playing through every inch of the game, well maybe the last thing isn't in the game but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

I talk about myself a lot. I'm an American, so sue me.

The Sims 2 teaches the drug free about addiction.



Two of my Sims getting dizown on the couch sucka!





My days used to be my own. My nights were used for sleeping, and sometimes, nefarious activity. I used to shop, drape my amazing body in over-priced clothing and paint my lips in dark shades of lipstick that brought all the boys to the yard as Kelis once said, but no more. For months my mistress has been the The Sims 2, an enduring means of entertainment even as its predecessor The Sims 3 boasts its superiority across glossy ad pages. I cannot tear my eyes away from the magnificence that is The Sims 2.

I am a video game purist--or boring weirdo-- it's really according to your opinion which matters little unless you share mine, and I always play games in order. I try to finish a game before I move on to the next in the series (or another game altogether) because I believe in finishing what you start, and if I haven't beat the one that came before it, what right do I have playing any of the sequels? I played God of War years after its initial release, and I played it until I beat it, then I allowed myself to purchase God of War 2. I finished that right around the time God of War 3 came out, and I was proud of myself, I deserved those sequels know what I mean?

It's the same with the Sims. I was playing Sims 1 up until last summer!! I had the complete collection and there were so many things I had yet to master and discover in the game. I hadn't  cast all the spells I wanted to. I hadn't had as many children as I wanted to, I hadn't been promoted as many times as I saw fit. I wanted to ignore money cheats and earn my higher living, my mansion...you get my drift.

So here I sit, still discovering new and exciting things about The Sims 2 and purchasing new expansion packs. I'm still searching out and downloading Custom Content, creating soap operas of my Sims' lives, having all kinds of kids, some even out of *clutch my pearls* wedlock. I have my own  Dynasty on my computer screen, I am the god of their lives.

 There's no better addiction than control addiction, to have the world dance at the twist of my puppet strings, to have hot women become multi-millionaires because of hard work and deft social maneuvers while their hot, Greek-goddess like husbands are their emotional, financial and mental equal. It gives you the American dream that many of us are still clawing for after years and years of clawing. With the Sims 2 I can be all I can be without even leaving my bed or couch. Depressing? No. I leave my bed or couch plenty. To party. And I leave the Sims often, to work and write and become a dynamo of the written word, but today, that pales in comparison to my tales of becoming addicted to a computer game that on paper seems to be simple but is ever so engaging.

How did Will Wright do it? Brilliant I tell ya.

 There's no clear objective to Sims games, you simply create a character and live its life. Feed it (tomagochi style) bathe it, and make sure it exists in a pleasant environment. You make them form social bonds, procreate, perform the run of the mill dastardly deeds of humanity until they kick the bucket and become either an urn on the mantle or a gravestone in the backyard. The parallels with life are striking, which may be the key to its success, and its power to help you waste your actual life by playing the life of something that doesn't exist. Whoa.

It was still cool for then Maxis now EA Games powerhouse to make something so absolutely satisfying while appealing to the traditional gamer and new gen gamers alike. The Sims are my drug. I partake daily, and you should too. My fellow gamers, I thank you for your time.

What in the Esper hell?

So...I haven't posted in a while, mostly because I didn't feel like it. I still don't today, but I do want to talk about something that has frustrated me since I first began my century long trek through Final Fantasy 12, which is not over, and which is the sole reason I haven't put up my Top Video games list, and actually at the rate 12 is going, it may not even make the damn list!

Final Fantasy games are known for having moments where according to certain and varying stipulations, the characters are able to summon supremely powerful beings to aid them in battle. I've played at least five other Final Fantasy games, and none of them disappointed in the summon department--until Final Fantasy 12.

In FF12, characters summon these pretty rad looking creatures called Espers to aid in battle, and please keep in mind that I use the term "aid" loosely. Along with the ability to summon these Espers, each character through licensing upgrades is endowed with Mist abilities. Please know that these will be your go to when in the heat of a difficult battle. You can screw yourself and summon an Esper if you want, but I guarantee doing so won't have the desired results. You must go into battle against the Espers to attain them, and let me tell you those battles are OFF THE HOOK. These Epsers kick an additional hole into your patootie every time you go against them. This would seem to be pretty cool---I mistakenly surmised that if the Esper is beating my butt this thoroughly, when I become his master he's going to kick the proverbial crap out of any monster I come against when I summon him---that's not the case.

Esper Shemhazai-Don't be fooled by his bad ass exterior, he dies quicker than black folks in horror movies

Espers are weak as hell. Sorry to all those online who claim that they are very useful beneficial and strong, but if my Esper can be killed by two strikes from a damn Ceourl then it is NOT that powerful. I don't understand why when I'm in battle against the Esper it boasts five figure and sometimes six-figure HP, status effect strikes that bring me to my knees, and darn near invincibility, but then when the Esper is in my employ it has four digit HP and dies if the wind blows to the left. Lame.

I want the powerful summons of yesteryear, the kind that kicked fiends butts without batting an eyelash. Sure, the Espers have amazing special attacks, but it's hell keeping them alive long enough to use them!! FF12 is different from many of its predecessors in that the summoning character fights alongside its Esper. I have mixed feelings about this. Many times I summon an Esper to take on a bad a$$ enemy, so that enemy is more than capable of killing my summoning character in one strike, so guess what, the character dies along with the Esper. In the event your summoner doesn't die, he/she needs to spend the entire time healing the Esper--but be warned, the Esper leaves in 90 seconds anyway so don't get too comfortable. The only thing I like about this is the visual of watching my summoning character fight and strive alongside its summon, but that's strictly aesthetic appreciation--which says nothing of how this arrangement benefits the actual game play.

I am well aware of HOW to use the Espers (summon them and heal them over and over because they're weak as a pansy stalk, and hope they manage to stay alive long enough to unleash their admittedly impressive special attack) but I don't like it. I hate that two strikes from a common foe will fell them, so after that big dog and pony show of an intro that precedes the Esper's appearance on the battle field, a claw strike from a wolf will send the Esper into the realm of the useless and dead.

So there's my complaint, FF12, the Mist abilities are amazing and useful, but those damn Espers, sadly, are not. Do better!!!

PeacyWeacy