oh wait it's just one of his crappy journals.

This one's on video games, and my playing of them over the Thanksgiving break.

First, some exposition. I had stopped playing video games from like September to a few weeks ago because of school and my inability to make good use of my time. After my hiatus from video games, I find out a Chain of Memories remake is coming out (my favorite Kingdom Hearts), Mass Effect 2 is in development, and after like three years, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (best RPG of all time) is finally having a third game made. I need to keep up with these things better.

Anyway, I beat Bioshock last weekend (awesome game, definitely reccomend it).During the break, I also (re)played Mass Effect, Mirror's Edge, and Gears of War 2. I had already beaten Mass Effect once, and it's the best blends of shooter and RPG that I've ever seen (well, it's the only one I know of, but still...). Mirror's Edge is sort of like Assassin's Creed in modern times with the historical setting. It pissed me off though because of how hard it is half the time <_< I'll finish it eventually, but it's still fun. Last but not least, Gears of War 2! I have yet to finish it since my brother took it back to college, so I won't have it done for another 2-3 weeks, but it does give me a flimsy interlude to an Old Man Robo Rant~! TM

This one, surprisingly, has to do with video games. I love shooter games a lot, but I hate Gears of War and what it stands for (I'll still play it, but I'll never hold it in the same regard to better games). It's not because I love Gears of War less, but that I love intriguing plot lines interwoven into the gameplay more (I'll stop quoting Brutus eventually...).

My gaming preferences have started to really drift toward Shooters, RPGs, and Stealth games. The two latter really focus on the story and its effects on the characters that interest me as much as the gameplay. Also, the gameplay remains for the most part realistic and within the universe (although you killing 40 guys at once in sword combat during Assassin's Creed was pretty damn jarring). A lot of shooters also have this, but then there's games like Gears of War, that while fun to play, have almost no storyline, or one worth remembering.

It's not really the games' faults, but a decay of what constitutes good stories. You can see it in movies, people's taste in books half the time, and a completely lack of interest in branching out from the norm (or rejecting the norm entirely just so one can say they're branching out while at the same time shutting themselves out from some of the interesting norm...my brain hurts...). I fear that nuanced stories in video games, movies, etc. will slowly die out in favor of unoriginal and similar stories that are just jacked up with 'cool' and 'improved' stuff.

In the interim, I shall await Re:CoM, Mass Effect 2, and Star Wars: TOR

Off to do neglected homework.