The Walking Dead

I bought The Walking Dead on disk a few weeks ago. As someone who cares about story in video games, and hearing all the praise it's been getting, I just needed to check it out. It completely blew away my expectations. Let me get all of the negative out of the way first: Some may argue that as a game, The Walking Dead is a pile of trash. And I could agree with that, to a certain extent. While the whole adventure game aspect of the Walking Dead is totally fine, the parts where they make you shoot zombies can be mediocre at best. The aiming ridicule that they give you feels way too lose and sensitive, and I never got the hang of it. Not to mention that the game has tons of frame rate drops constantly to a point where it looks like a PowerPoint presentation, which makes those shooting parts even more frustrating. And let's not forget about the technical issues that could happen in the game. While I never had my save just straight up ruined, the game did retcon one of my earlier choices in the next episode. (SPOILERS: In episode four, the game changed the choice I made with Kenny killing Duck. Which is for the better, I guess, since I realize that making him do that is horrible, but it still bugged me.)

All of that aside, The Walking Dead has become one of my favorite games. What it does for story telling in video games is important and I think developers need to take note of this if they ever aim to make a story driven game. Like David Cage. Look, I really appreciated what Heavy Rain tired to do and all, and I know that Telltale drew inspiration from that, but the story of Heavy Rain feels really stupid and pretentious compared to Walking Dead. The Walking Dead never had you take a shower or put on eye-liner on or anything stupid and useless like that. And The Walking Dead actually moved me. I felt like I actually cared about the characters and the game had me in tears by the end. Heavy Rain didn't do any of that for me. But I guess the fact that The Walking Dead is episodic benefits Telltale to make improvements and really nail down that parts that they want to get right.

So while the The Walking Dead isn't the best playing game by any means, the fact that it has some of the strongest writing that I've ever seen in a game completely makes up for that. And the fact that you can interact with the characters and they react upon how you play only brings even more life to these already well written characters. The fact that I was able to get so into the story and the fact that the ending emotionally impacted me in a way no other game could is why I fucking love the Walking Dead.

Persona 4

In between episodes of Walking Dead, I've been playing Persona 4. I'm at the last dungeon on the true ending path. Again, as a Giant Bomb user, I think Persona 4 is fucking awesome. But it seems like the last dungeon is a bit of a grind. I guess that the last boss is going to be pretty hard, so maybe that's for the best. I just can't wait to finish it so I could eventually go back and play it on New Game Plus. Unlike Persona 3, I feel really compelled to go back and see all the social links and stuff that I missed the first time around, mostly because the characters are so much more likable than the S.Links in 3. And I can't wait to see what Persona game they make next.

Arkham City

I've been going back to Arkham City after finishing Walking Dead and it seems like that game just gets crazier and crazier. Like the Ra's Al Ghul boss or the Mad Hatter side mission, all of that stuff seems completely crazy in the best possible way. In terms of the story missions, I just got done with the Mr. Freeze boss, which I thought was really well done. I did it without looking at any of the hints, and I thought it was really fun thinking of possible ways to damage his suit. But like I said earlier, the open world nature of Arkham City mixed with the fact that Batman's dying makes little sense, but at least they address the passage of time in certain scenes.

Other than those three games, I haven't really been playing anything else. For Christmas I got an iPod Classic which was much needed since none of my music could fit on my stupid old iPod Touch anymore. I don't even remember why I got that piece of shit in the first place. I guess I was just a stupid 12 year old. Also, I changed my Gamertag. It's still completely stupid, but stupid in a way that I like and can get behind. And if I like it, that's all that matters...right? At least it's just not embarrassing to me anymore like adolescentnerd. Bleh. Anyway, that's all for now, and I hope you all enjoy the rest of your vacation, what's left of it, anyway.

Today is me and my girlfriend's one year anniversary. Along with getting me a Pixies' Doolittle shirt, she also got me this poster.

It's hard to tell from the image, but it is signed by Tim Schafer. (Bottom right, just above the Double Fine logo.) I can't tell what my favorite poster in my room is, this, or my OK Computer poster. But I guess, like my girlfriend, Psychonauts holds a special place in my heart.

Also, that Giant Bomb Beta is some crazy shit. The design looks really slick and I love how blogs look on profile pages. Can't wait for it to launch for realsies!

It seems like I've been very much in a video game-y mood lately, even more so than usual. I have now four games that I want to juggle between, three of which are on my 360. This is probably the most I have ever used my Xbox since I got it. Hell, a few months ago I wanted to sell the damn thing. And now that it has a certain game on it, I'll probably never consider it again.

Psychonauts

If you know anything about my taste in games then you know that I consider this my favorite game to date. Although the gameplay isn't perfect, I just love how crazy it is and the humor still holds up. I grew up playing the PS2 version, and it was almost instantly apparent that the Xbox version, despite the emulation flaws on the 360, is the better version of the game. It looks a lot better than the PS2 version and the load times are almost non-existent probably because it's all on the hard drive, but I remember it was something that really bothered me when playing it on the PS2. Regardless, it's very fun playing it for old time's sake and remembering things about to that I once forgot (as well as getting more of the humor now that I'm older), and I want to play it to completion. And if you somehow haven't played it yet, that game is everywhere at this point, it's not hard to snag a digital copy.

Persona 4

I'm about 55 hours in Persona 4 at this point, and I'm getting pretty close to the end. I am at the part where I have made "the choice" and I'm headed on the path to get the good ending. It's weird that even though I know exactly what happens to certain characters in that game, playing it for myself still makes a little emotional. The game has a very powerful third act, and a lot of the voice acting sends chills down my spine at certain parts.

Batman: Arkham City

Gamestop's Black Friday deal for Arkham City GOTY Edition was too good to pass up. I'm not too far into it, but far enough in to confirm that it's totally like Arkham Asylum and playing it reminds me of how awesome that was. The combat is just as satisfying and sneaking around guys feel just as badass. I'm very excited to play more of it along every other game on my to-do list.

Mass Effect 2: Lair Of The Shadow Broker

I purchased Mass Effect Trilogy last month because I love that universe despite not owning the games, and I wanted to play the third one. But as I was playing Mass Effect 2, I really wanted to see the content that was in Shadow Broker, as well as purchasing From Ashes to have that character in my ME3 game from the get-go. I've been holding off on that for money reasons (see: every other game I bought lately) but this afternoon I decided to just go for it. I bought and played the large add-on for Mass Effect 2 and it was completely worth it. The pay-off at the end especially made it worth the price of admission. It's a really good way to end my ME2 romp (with me making it out alive with every character alive!) and when I get the chance I'll start playing Mass Effect 3. With all the hate died down, it'll be nice to see what's in it. Although I know everything about the cheap color-coded endings and such, I have no clue what happens for the bulk of the game. Other than the kid. God damn it, the kid.

So, that's just about all I've been up to game-wise. In terms of real life, last Thursday I played bass in front of people on stage at school, so that was cool. I also got my licence, and it's nice to drive without having my parents nagging to me about things that I already know. And this Thursday this me and my girlfriend's anniversary, and I can't wait to celebrate that! Going to a record store about an hour away from here. Should be fun.

That's all for now! Gotta get back to playing all these games...

It's November. All the big games are out: Halo 4, Black Ops 2, Assassin's Creed 3. What game have I been playing?  
...Mass Effect. 

I haven't updated on Giant Bomb in a few weeks, and I feel pretty bad about that. I don't feel like I have much to talk about, though, so for this blog I'll just put everything in bullets and call it a day. Deal? 
 

• I've still been playing Persona 4. I'm at the part where you see Mitsuo Kubo on the midnight channel. That game is pretty awesome, and it's a huge improvement over Persona 3. Hell, I even loaded up Persona 3, and it was pretty hard to play compared to P4. But maybe it was only because I attempted to play "The Answer." Because that thing sucks. In today's market, The Answer would've probably been DLC, right? Maybe they would produce disks for folks with no internet or people who are scared of downloading things in the year 2012, but I guess it would probably be DLC. Probably the most disappointing add-on ever. There's so much stuff packed in there, yet I don't find any of it appealing at all. I'll just have fond memories of Persona 3's ending and move on.

• 

  I spent more than 30 bucks on Rock Band stuff last week. I bought Rock Band 3 and exported the Rock Band 2 stuff to play in Rock Band 3 and Rock Band Blitz. It reminded me that Rock Band 2 had a kick ass soundtrack, and a lot of those songs are fun to play in Blitz. Rock Band 3 seems pretty solid, too, though I get tired of it if I try to play for long periods of time, mostly because I've been playing rhythm games for so long. Doesn't mean it's not a good game.
• I've been doing some of the challenges in Rayman Origins, and it's really fun in a "I want a quick thing to play, and I want to listen to this thing at the same time" sorta way. The levels are challenging but not too hard, I can normally beat the speed runs and the treasure chest chase levels in about two or three tries. 
• Played a tiny bit more of Jak III out of boredom, but still not enough of form any meaningful statements about it.
• I watched Indie Game: The Movie last night with my girlfriend, who I hung out with pretty much all weekend. The movie was great, very interesting and inspiring in a way, especially the stuff with the Team Meat guys. I actually want to buy Super Meat Boy now. Also, Phil Fish is fucking crazy. Decent sense in fashion, though, I give him that.
• Just got the Giant Bomb 2013 member shirt ordered, which makes me want to go and play Wipeout HD. Actually, I might do just that.

With school back in session and the season of summer coming to an end, it's no  surprise  that I don't have as much time as I like to play certain games. And sometimes when I do, I don't take advantage of it simply because I'm either not in the mood or just tired. (First world spoiled teenager problems, I know.) Despite this, I managed to play some games!  
 

I'm writing this blog in my grandma's house. It is extremely hot outside, and this house has no air conditioning, only fans. I am sweating like a motherfucker while using my laptop, while my other family members, all adults, are outside having a barbecue. The one person in the family who I actually get along with the most, my youngest aunt, is at work. This is how I spend my last Saturday night of the summer. Queens, New York. But before we drove up here, I played some video games.  
    

I haven't written a proper blog on Giant Bomb in a while, and that's mostly because of the fact that I hardly played any games. As you can tell by the title of this blog, I've been playing Persona 3, or Persona 3: FES: The Journey to be specific. I downloaded it off of Playstation Network a few weeks ago, and if you follow me on Twitter, you know that I'm having fun with it. But I would like to go more in depth with it and maybe have some discussions, MOSTLY SPOILER FREE of course, because I'm not finished with the game yet. 
 
For those wondering where I am in the game:  
  

Downloaded it from PSN. Seems like a steal for 10 bucks.