Hung Over Again

I’m five days late from all the greeting, so before this becomes as out of place as saying “Merry Christmas” on a February, I’m wishing you all a Happy New Year now.

Right, I finally had that out of the way.

This blog had been inactive for a week. I was on a vacation, although unlike last Christmas when I went to Shanghai, this time I just stayed home playing videogames - I rarely play for more than five hours on other months, trust me. I hadn’t finished reading one book, and I only accomplished 10% of the more productive stuff I originally planned to do then. Oh well, the week passed was lazy indeed.

I’m not prepared to meticulously write about pointless stuff now, so I’m going to talk about videogames again, because videogames seem to be the topic I can be most at ease with (that’s not to say I write well about it, though). There were plenty of games I had been rotating with then.

First, there’s Mirror’s Edge. It’s sort of a platformer (meaning the player jumps around a lot) in much the same vein as Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider, but what sets this apart from the rest is its taking the first person view, and this is not always a good choice because fit never give the most accurate field of vision unless, of course, you’re a guy who wears the eye protectors horses wear (I’m sure some people wears those). Running and jumping is supposed to be done fast, and a field of vision this limited often hampers the flow of the game. That said, though, I think I liked Mirror’s Edge. It’s not the best game I’ve played, but it does manage to be exciting since it always forces you to move really fast, plus I just gotta admit that leaping from one building to another a la The Matrix is always exhilarating.

It’s not only in Mirror’s Edge that I’ve been having my share of challenging jumps, though. N+ is even more brutal. It’s a Flash-based game with very minimal presentation, and I merely play as a stick figure. All stages only have one goal, and that is to reach an exit before the time runs out. The only thing to do here is to jump and to avoid obstacles. Yes, it should be boring, but it never is thanks to the wonderful level designs. Or maybe because it plays on the players’ inherent desire to get through all challenges, no matter how frustrating. I dunno.

Other games include Lost Odyssey, which is sort of the Final Fantasy for X360 – right down to the sprawling plot and the fully-orchestra’d soundtrack; Far Cry 2, which is an FPS where the player is tossed in a huge world and left to decide what to do and what missions to take. Mass Effect, a sci-fi RPG with epic plot, customizable weapons, and alien lesbian sex.

But the game I’ve been the most fixated wtih is Persona 4. I can rave on and on about it, but I’m putting that off for another time and for a more focused post (I hope).