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LonelyVagrant

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The Mirror of Noitpmeder (The Not So Weekly Blog)

By LonelyVagrant 1 Comments

  

  Because I have nothing better to do, I present to you:

The Wandering Thoughts of the Lonely Vagrant (2nd Edition...Delayed)

 

IN H3D! (Not really)

 
Hello to all gamers and merriment aficionados alike. Welcome to my delayed, yet hopefully reading, blog on all things gaming, television, movies or anything else that seems important to talk about. Been in a little rut lately; actually, I've been in a hole the size and depth of the sky above. But seeing as doing this seems to help me cheer up a bit, I'm back writing more about what's going on in the gaming world, my world, and other assorted things that I might throw in, for laughs and giggles. So the big thing that's going on now is TGS, the Tokyo Game Show, and there were some interesting announcements coming out. I don't know if I'll cover them all but I'll hit a few interesting spikes in the radar. So let's kick it off with probably the biggest spike (in my mind):
 

DmC: The New Face of Dante

Boy...oh...boy: this is the Infamous 2 fiasco all over again, isn't it? In case, for some reason, you haven't been in front of a computer for a while or have friends that aren't keeping up to date on this, Capcom announced a new Devil May Cry game, or DmC, as the new logo showcases it to be. Not unexpected, and also not completing unwanted. Fans of the series have been clamoring after 4 came out. Some people felt that the game had not evolved into the modern console life-cycle. So would this Devil May Cry be completely redefined and refreshed for people's taste? Well...apparently, it was too redefined for people.
"My name is Dante," the dark-toned voice replied. "NO YOU AREN'T," cried the fans.
The second the image of the new Dante appeared, fans flipped their brain-storage. It wasn't Dante, despite the trailer immediately verifying to those that it was Dante (you know, just in case people couldn't put two and two together: guy with two pistols, DmC as the title.) This new "vision" of Dante has been so negative, even the original creator of Devil May Cry can't believe this change. The game is being handled by Ninja Theory, the collective minds that brought us Heavenly Sword as well as their new game, Enslaved (Capcom will have some of their teams helping out with the game as well.) Personally, I don't really have a huge problem with this.  

Look out KFC, you have competition with Devil-Made Chicken. It's Sin-tastic!
Look out KFC, you have competition with Devil-Made Chicken. It's Sin-tastic!
Sure, I hate the fact that they change the look of the character of Dante, but I think in a long run, the most important thing we have to really be conscious about is if the gameplay is going to be either the same or a total re-haul from previous games. The game (from the look of it) still seems to keep that kinetic style and over-the-top attitude that people know to associate the games...but all we have is a simple trailer; hell, not even a trailer, a teaser. A peek; a frigging flicker of a foundation that hasn't been fixed (Fixed, in this case, being stable).  I'm probably preaching to the choir and I totally get why people are complaining, but with this tidbit of information that we do have, it's too early to say anything. I want to see where this goes; I honestly want to see if, with all the backlash, that Capcom decides to change the character model a-la Infamous 2. But to really say anything about the game, we really need to see what are the changes, other than the cosmetics, being applied to this series. And as for Hideki Kamiya, I feel that he brought everything and more when he gave us Bayonetta, so for it to become the new Devil May Cry of this generation, it would surprise no one. That's it, done with that. But yeah, I wish to see more on the new DmC.  Supposedly it is scheduled for next year. We'll see.
 

Yakuza of the Dead: Or How the Living Dead got into my Yakuza game

I can't say that I am heavily into the Yakuza games, only in that I have only played the first one, which was pretty fun and enjoyable. I hope to at least play through the rest of the series one of these days just to keep up to date on it. That being said, even I was slightly surprised that this game is coming out. And it looks bat-shit crazy.  I mean, in a game where the idea was simply to give somewhat a realistic outset on the life of a Yazuka (again, I'm only going off on my knowledge of the first game) and then, all of a sudden there are zombies running wild, No warning, no hint of it as far as I know; there are now zombies as well as monsters of the genetically-altered variation.
 
 So this is the life of a Yakuza. I figured there would be less zombies.
 So this is the life of a Yakuza. I figured there would be less zombies.
But even with that, I am really digging it. If the game has always been about seriousness and reality and the like, then why not just have fun with it for a while. Go completely mental and just throw in zombies when you need to mood to be a little bit more cheerful. That seemed to be the idea when you read the statement made by the producer of the game, Masiyoshi Kikuchi: 

  "For us, it's a way to hopefully attract more fans to the Yakuza franchise, by widening the gameplay style that we created...." (Source: Joystiq) 
 

That makes sense considering that Yakuza is one of those series which is only popular in a certain number of people's circle. I'm not going to pretend like I know everything, especially business, but I'm sure that no harm will come from testing the waters, especially if the games have been consistently good up to this point. But I'm really just an outsider looking in. I'm sure this surprised a lot of people who have played all the games and enjoy the series, but as usual, I'm just curious to see more of it. It also makes me wonder if I really hate anything. Hm...well, anyway, there's no date yet on the game's release or if it is coming to the States, as far as I have seen. You can correct me on this.
 

Valkyria Chronicles 3: Didn't they just release Valkyria Chronicles 2?

Ugh. Valkyria Chronicles. Just the name alone brings shame and embarrassment to my soul. Not because I hated the game; no, far from that. It's because I haven't beaten the first one yet. And now there's one game already out and another on the way. If that's not motivation to finish playing, I don't know what is. But I digress. Valkyria Chronicles 3 is on the way and, for some, the unfortunate thing about the game is that it is coming for the PSP.  According to the released information about the game, this new game is set in the same time frame as the original Valkyria Chronicles as well as the same area, Gallia, but now there's a new perspective: new characters, in other words. 
 
Too cute not to put here.
Too cute not to put here.
It will retain the same gameplay as the first and second games, with of course, the usual refinements and tweaks. I would go into more detail, but like I said, I only played the first game, I can't speak for the second one to really compare the two. I would imagine that there were certain limitations with Valkyria Chronicles 2 on the PSP, but for the most part, it featured the same experience as on the PS3. What I can say is that playing Valkyria Chronicles makes me wish that I didn't play it at all. As I'm writing this, all I can think about is why the hell am I not playing it...and it's all because I played that damn game. It is an unique game, no doubt about it, but I think, often times I will get stuck somewhere, and I try to come back to it...and I end up not doing so. That's a fault on my part...which will force me to play VC as soon as I finish this blog up.
 
Sorry for that tangent. What's completely insane is that the game is planned to be released on January 27, 2011 in Japan. Roughly a year after the second game came out. That's almost Insomniac-like.
January 27, 2011.  That's how long I have. Let's do it.
January 27, 2011.  That's how long I have. Let's do it.
So one can only assume that VC3 will come out around the same time frame as VC2 in the States. But you know what they say about assumptions. Something about asses and umptions. I don't know. But yeah, Valkyria Chronicles 3. Totally unexpected. But glad to know that it is coming out so soon. Damn it...I hate my life.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The 3rd Birthday: Aya Brea Returns to Pull a Geist On You

 Don't put that gun in your mouth, Aya! You're getting a second chance!
 Don't put that gun in your mouth, Aya! You're getting a second chance!
I admit, I haven't been paying as much attention to this game as I would have liked to. I remember hearing about it, being excited and then having it slip my mind. Then I realized how much I miss playing through Parasite Eve 1 and 2, which lead me back to thinking about The 3rd Birthday. What can I say? I'm a sucker for RPGs...which says a lot considering my back log of games that I have to finish up. But The 3rd Birthday intrigues me, especially after going through a couple of gameplay videos just to check up and refresh myself on what this game is supposed to be about. And also because it's another PSP game. And sadly, that's the only time we can really say anything good about the PSP.
    
The story so far:  Weird monsters called the Twisted causes some mess in Manhattan, in the year 2012, Christmas Eve. Not only do they create a serious pandemonium in the city and bringing humanity into extinction, they also seemed to be causing time to run in reverse, if you follow the recent trailer that was released back at GC 10. There is something called the Overdrive, which can apparently be used by the lovely Aya Brea, and it allows her to inhabit the bodies of any nearby ally. Seeing that in action makes me think about the game Geist for the Gamecube. I never played it myself, but I remember the gameplay revolving around the main character being a ghost and the only way he could interact with anything in the physical world was to take over someone's body. It's sort of like that. 

Remember kids: when there's a problem, the only way to solve it is with an M16 Assault Rifle. Oh, and Liberation. Trust me on this.
Remember kids: when there's a problem, the only way to solve it is with an M16 Assault Rifle. Oh, and Liberation. Trust me on this.

 From what I'm seeing and hearing, The 3rd Birthday is getting some good buzz and one would hope so for a series that hasn't seen a new game in 10 years. I really wish I could put my hands on a demo, but for now, all I can do is simply write out that this is a game I am rooting for unconsciously. I have always enjoyed the Parasite Eve series, even 2, despite some of the hate that game gets, it still gives me a nostalgic feel whenever I think about both, so to say that my PSP will be glad to be in use again, makes me slightly happy for my PSP. It's due out in Japan around Christmas, which is...perfect in more ways than one. Welcome back, Aya. Glad to see you're still looking...young.
 
 Damn...best birthday ever.
 Damn...best birthday ever.
I could go on and on with this, but I figured I would stop here. I will list some honorable mentions, just to fill my quota of stuff I wanted to talk about:
 
Honorable Mentions (TGS 10)
 The Last Guardian (Holiday 2011.) Bonus: Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection (Two great games in HD. Awesome.)
 Shadows of the Damned (Suda 51, Shinji Mikami, and Akira Yamaoka. Sounds good to me.)
 Metal Gear Solid: Rising (Slicing watermelons. bowling pins and cute little robots has never been cooler.)
 Ni no Kuni: Shiroki. (Level 5 and Studio Ghibli teaming up to give us what seems to be one awesome-looking game.)
 Asura's Wrath.(What the hell did I just witness?)
 Core Blaze. (Seems pretty interesting. It caught my eye not too long ago, though I should at least give it a mention.)

 
So with that now finished, I now turn towards my favorite part of doing this: my lovely gaming progress sheet. Unfortunately, this one will be quick and to the point.
 

What I am Playing Now:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Everything that I listed before, KH: Birth By Sleep, Mass Effect  and (an addition to the list, as of right now) Valkyria Chronicles.

 
So yeah, as I said, I'll make this very simple and quick: All those games I've listed as playing, I barely played through at all. Call it a flux in my video game diet. I'm trying to recharge my batteries, I suppose, so that I can make that plunge back into the games that I need to tackle. Final Fantasy XIII is still haunting me, at the moment. Stuck on Chapter 10 still. Just need to kill that boss, Cid, and I should be fine. Dragon Age: Origins, I don't think I need to talk too much about. It's a slow burn, but I progressed maybe a snick through the game. If I ever beat it, I'll kiss a cat. Haven't touched Persona 3: FES. Haven't touched Just Cause 2. Haven't touched Eternal Darkness. Played just the beginning portion of Birth by Sleep as well as Mass Effect.
 
That's it. That's all I got. It's been pretty hectic, but I hope to put at least some more time in any one of those games so that I can at least have more to say then that pitiful paragraph above. See? Quick and to the point. I will say that I'm liking what I have played so far of Birth by Sleep...that combat system works surprisingly well on the PSP, just like in Crisis Core. 
=====================================================================================================================================
 
And with that, I end this long madness. Maybe next time, I'll write this stuff ahead of time instead of this writing this out from square zero. Ugh. But anyway, if you happened to read this, thanks for doing so. Hope to do it again as soon as possible. It's a nice exercise for me. I leave you with your quote of the weekend:
 

"Nucleic domination has finally come to an end once and for all!"

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The Good, The Bad and the Vagrant (Weekly Blog, yadda, yadda)

By LonelyVagrant 1 Comments

Because not a single person asked for it, I present to you:
 

The Wandering Thoughts of the Lonely Vagrant (1st Edition)

 Hola, ladies and gents. If you are reading this, you probably took that left at the fork instead of taking that right. It's no problem, it happens all the time. Oh...wait, you actually came here to see what I have to talk about. Cool, I was not expecting that. Here is where I keep some of my thoughts on what going on in the video gaming world: my own video game world as well as the video game world in its entirely. But I'm not going to keep you in suspense, I'll just get this party starting and begin with....
 

The Mind of the Vagrant

    The PS Jailbreak

  
UPDATE: While I was trying to write this up, Sony has finally made its presence known, and got the federal court to cease the distribution of the PS Jailbreak for a temporary amount of time.  Sony has until August 31st to make this temporary cease and desist a permanent one.
 
So apparently the PS3 has been hacked finally, allowing you to backup your PS3 games onto your external hard drive and play them off of that. You can only backup PS3 games, unfortunately. That means no Blu-Ray movies or DVDs can be backed up. That's pretty cool. What's not so cool is the price it's going for, which ranges in between $130 to $170, from what I've seen. But if you compare that to the price you had to pay to mod your PS and PS2 back when it was popular, it seems to be in the right ballpark.  I know most people have already heard about this by now, but I am just curious to see what else comes out of this. I also want to know if it is really worth the effort to back up your games on a hard drive for what might considered "quicker" speeds. I only saw a few games being tried so far, like GTAIV, which seemed to run a tad bit faster on the hard drive so I'm curious about other games. One game that comes to mind is Metal Gear Solid 4. How would that work? Would you still have to install after every act to your PS3 hard drive or will it run completely on your external. That was just one thing that came to mind, but consider me intrigued about all of this. 
  

Sonic and Knuckles 3D and Sonic 4


This video is a couple of days old so I know most have seen it already. But I'll post it anyway, for those who haven't seen it yet. It is pretty darn cool and most of the Interwebs seems to agree.
   
Watching that video made me think about Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and how that game is coming along. It's been pretty quiet for the most part about tha 
  t game. I've been hearing mixed buzz about it, which is probably the reason why the game is now delayed. Personally, I was excited to hear that they were, at least, taking it back to its roots. No more Werehogs is always a plus. But I am hoping that the game at least garners people's hope about the fate of that blue, spiky-haired hedgehog. It makes me hope that the amount of  work that was shown in this very brief video is shown in the new game.  That's all we can do these days: hope. The video also made me think of other thoughts of maybe the original Sonic games given the 2.5D treatment similar to the look of what was being played above. I don't know if the world could take ANOTHER compilation of Sonic games, but the idea is out there.
 

Portal 2 (Or "Do I Really Need to Say Anything About This?")

 
Seriously, do I really have to talk about this game at all? It's Portal 2, sequel to (and I'm hope I'm not blowing it too much of proportion) one of the better games to come out in quite some time. I can't see how this game can do anything wrong. Clever puzzles and a very intelligent sense of humor is all you need from a game like this and I couldn't want this game anymore than I want it right now. That's it. I don't even know what else to write about it. There's some new videos roaming about the Webs, basically showing off some of the new elements that you'll be dealing with in helping you solve these fancy new mind riddles. (Mind riddles?)  Most of this has been seen already since E3, but that doesn't stop them from making you want the game more.
 
 
  
 
 
       

I don't care if the cake's a lie. Just give it to me, already!
 
That's basically what has been on my mind. It's not much...but I am figuring this all out as I go. But now it's onto:
 

The Playing Quest of the Vagrant

  
What I'm Playing Now:   Final Fantasy XIII, Dragon Age: Origins (kinda), Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (kinda), Persona 3: FES (again, kinda), Just Cause 2 (barely) and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (God, help me...)
 
Okay, so yeah...this is a bigger list then before. If anyone notices, I got rid of Uncharted 2 because I did manage to finish that on Crushing. To be honest, I thought I was going to lose my head over it like the first one, but it wasn't that bad. Of course, I died a lot but I seemed to push through without much frustration. Lazarovich was the only exception, but I sort of expected that. But there was a good feeling when I did manage to beat him after about the 10th time fighting him. So I accomplished that and then I moved onto FFXIII. The story behind that is a long one, but to keep it short, let's just say, I had it when it came out and had to stop playing it for a while. But now that it's back in my possession, I went through it again. I made it up to Chapter 10, after being stuck on Chapter 8 for a while, and that's where I left it last. It's right at the very beginning of that Chapter. 
 
My thoughts on that game: Despite it being somewhat linear in the very beginning and middle, I find it to be a enjoyable game. The combat system alone is worth a look at the game, if you haven't played it. It seems simple, at first, but it does get a bit more complex and very strategic in later fights. The story's good, but it might be just a little hard to follow at first, especially if you've been away from the game for a while and forgot certain things. The datalogs and the recap given before your game loads up does help you a effing ton. So thank you for those. But I'll be trying to push through that game some more. The other games I mentioned are the games that I need to work on, or decided in my head that I would try and work on, at a time. The one I know I'll be done with is Scott Pilgrim. I should be playing that now. Persona 3: FES...I should write up a separate blog for that or something. It's just terrible I haven't finished that game. Just Cause 2, I'm really just playing to mess around and sky dive. I barely touched the story mode yet...but maybe I'll get to it. Eventually. Probably.  And Eternal Darkness...hah, yeah. I just always wanted to play that game and I think I was close to finishing it...but I wanted to play through it again to remember what the hell was going on, so that's what I'm doing now. Smart. It's old, I know...but it is a good game and was a good game at the time. Which reminds me...I still have Resident Evil Zero...that I never beat. *facepalm* Ugh...now I'm beginning to realize why I wanted to this stupid blog.
 

End of the Journey (For Now...)

 

 That's it for me. As usual, if you're reading this, thanks for reading my jumbled mess. And I'll leave you with this quote that I heard very recently. Take care and all of that jazz.
 

"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."



1 Comments

Lonely Vagrant vs The (Gaming) World

By LonelyVagrant 1 Comments

The First Blog...Ever.

 
Well, I feel...strange. I think this is the first time in a while that I actually tried to attempt something as crazy as write complete and utter nonsense as some kind of entertainment format. But I've been feeling a slight sense of mania lately. Mania about video games and how I feel it slightly slipping away from my life a little bit. I feel like I should be digging much deeper into my gaming and I feel like I have missed out on everything. I know, I'm only one person; I can't played everything in the world...but I would love to. I think my problem falls along the lines of I play a game and for some reason, I am unable to complete it. Life and all of its phenomenal cosmic powers seem to get in the way...even though I don't really have much of one. But that's another story for another day...maybe. I decided (and slightly regretting) to set up this blog as sort of a way to track and monitor the games I play. A gaming journal, if you will. I think it's more for my benefit but maybe someone will get a kick out of it. 
 

First Gaming Update.

 
Well, since this is my first update and I'm trying to work up a formula, I will just keep it pretty simple and say what has been on my mind as far as gaming is concern and what I am playing at the moment. And what has been on my mind has been Scott Pilgrim vs The World. I saw it twice and I completely enjoyed the hell out of that movie. I am not going to go crazy and claim it as the greatest movie of all times and existences...but I will say that if there was ever a movie that made me realize that my life hasn't been wasted...but still has some serious battles to fight, it was this one. I don't want to get too deep into it...but it was one of those movies that struck a very powerful chord with me. Forget all of the video game elements and how it blends that stuff flawlessly, though all of that was awesome, it just gave me the type of happy buzz that I have been desperate to find. So if you haven't seen it, check it out. It is a movie that should at least be seen, whether you hate it or not.
 
No Caption Provided

What I'm playing: Uncharted 2 (on Crushing) and working on Dragon Age: Origins.

 
Yeah, so I got back into Uncharted 2 again. I had beaten on Hard a long time ago and I couldn't figure out why I didn't play it on Crushing before. It's sort of sad that I didn't get into the multiplayer, but I don't have many people I know that have the game that I can play with. And I'm not much a Online Experience type of guy. Maybe one day...but meh. Still enjoy this game even after playing it a couple of times through. I just hope I can get through Crushing without my head exploding. Here's hoping. The next game Dragon Age: Origins...god, I don't know if I'll ever get through that game. It's not that it's hard...not yet, anyway. Maybe that's just me thinking that I'll be playing that game until the end of time. But I'm hopeful, if I can focus on playing through that and none of the other games on my ever increasing list of games, maybe I'll get halfway through. So those are the games I'll try and focus on. Also, as a bonus game, I played a little Torchlight. So far, I like it...I haven't got too deep into it but it does have the workings of a game that I can see myself sitting down for about an hour or two to play. That's about it. So I'm going to end it here. Not sure how to...but I figure a video game quote or something will suffice:
 

"My life is a chip in your pile. Ante Up!"

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