Merry Christmas

Christmas is three days away and the holiday cheer is at an all time high, especially at my work. There's been a lot of 48 hour weeks for me, which is good. I've been playing a ton of Smash Ultimate at my friends' house and I've really upped my skills, especially with Ridley and Starfox. I've already got most of the gifts I wanted to send to my family as well. The only thing that really gets to me is the holiday playlist at work. Its the same playlist every day for the entire month! Its been crazy, to say the least...

I was thinking about treating myself this Christmas and buying some new games. I was interested in Starwars Battlefront 2 (for the graphics and Starwars skin), Battlefield One (WW1 is a great theme with cool archaic weaponry), Dragon Ball Fighter Z on Steam (maybe, my friend has it on the Switch), and possibly Fallout 76 (it sucks but it will get better). I also wanted to get the new World of Warcraft expansion Battle for Azeroth but I know if I do that I'll spend too much time gaming, as well as paying a pesky 14.99 monthly fee. Damn you Blizzard! (Side note: I've been playing a ton of Overwatch lately, and I've become a better player, mostly playing Mercy, Ana, and Moira. I'm still just slightly below Gold Tier level in Competitive but I'll get there eventually)

Other things I was thinking about was computer books through the video game publisher HumbleBundle. They're offering all these computer programming and hardware books for cheap, they're all ebooks. Other than that I was just going to save my money and just get my folks whatever last minute gifts I needed to get them. I have a lot of cool stuff as it is, I don't need anything too expensive.  

There's a lot of bad energy out there going on in the world, especially in terms of politics. I just had a Trump supporter wearing a MAGA shirt say some racist stuff to me at work. I had to let it go because I don't want to lose my job. These Right-wingers are really acting out in the public sphere, its like Charlotteville all over again. There's the government shutdown happening soon because Trump can't get his 5.7 billion dollars for his Wall, despite the fact that most Americans don't want to spend extra cash on a wall. Trump's supporters like Ann Coulter are saying that if Trump backs down and doesn't get the funding for the wall, Trump will be utterly humiliated and will definitely not get re-elected. However, I happen to think that it doesn't matter what Trump does, he won't get re-elected. I think the American people have smartened up, they're no longer willing to be political peons, they're going to fight back against everything that Trump stands for; tax cuts for the wealthy, increasing division against our allies, bad foreign policy, bad deals, ideas, and retaliation in trade, and evil treatment of refugees and those seeking asylum, especially regarding small children. There's a lot to upset about this holiday season! 

Its a political shitstorm alright. Its hard not to get angry at the direction the country is going. These Trump supporters are really coming out of the woodwork and they're not afraid to show off their racist and misogynistic views. Its hard not to talk and think about this stuff as a young progressive American citizen. Sure I live in a nice neighborhood and I'm safely sheltered unlike most Black Americans, but I believe in the progressive model. Old white men have always told me that the older I get the more I'll realize that being Republican is the smart thing to do. However, I think that's just their wishful thinking. I think the Democratic agenda is much more realistic, more humane, and will reduce the drastic gap between rich and poor regarding income inequality. In short, I believe the Democrats will help me more than the Republicans in life. I believe, if the Republicans had their way, that nobody would receive government benefits without working a certain minimum amount of hours, passing drug tests, and applying for jobs within a certain time period. Its already like that in certain states. This place has really gone to the dogs. However, its the only land I know, and love. 

But that's enough about politics. I read the news everyday and the everyday events of the Trump Whitehouse is infuriating but not shocking in the slightest. We have a long way to go in electing intelligent and thoughtful politicians (Obama anyone?), that despite their political ideology, can unify our blessed nation into a cohesive whole, especially after devastating shootings, natural disasters, and at the very least pay respects to our fallen soldiers. The Republicans are putting up with Trump because he's their guy; this is their last hour of power in Washington, if the government is going to be shut down because Trump didn't get his wall, then government be damned. As said in a popular Washingtonpost op-ed: The rats (Republicans) eventually tend to jump off the sinking ship (Trump agenda).

But all that aside the holidays this year hasn't been too bad. It hasn't been too crazy at work or in general. Life is good. I'm getting a lot of reading done and still playing guitar. Lately, I've been reading this book on computers; How Computers Work by Ron White, this book from 2008, that covers a lot of material, mostly hardware and software, how it all works. I'm getting a lot out of it and plan on reading more about computers. 

Its interesting because at first when I started reading it I thought it was boring and that I wouldn't be able to get into it. I returned it and then re-checked it out again, but this time the information stuck. It reads like a manual with a lot of diagram pictures but it makes sense and isn't too difficult to comprehend. One thing I've learned is that if you want to be good with computers you have to learn a lot of advanced mathematics as well as have a lot of patience. It would be super difficult for me to learn computer programming because I'm terrible at math and don't have a lot of patience. However, I think I can understand how hardware works and perhaps learn to be able to fix most problems on my computer with more knowledge and experience under my belt. My plan is to eventually build my own PC. I think that would be a great conclusion to my computer knowledge and experience. 

Happy Holidays to you and your family. Thanks for reading my blog and supporting my writing, whoever you are and wherever you are. And despite your politics, God bless you, and God Bless America.

Merry Christmas!

The Joy of Free to Play

Ah, the joys of the truly free to play game. Lets talk about one of my favorite games for a moment, Heroes of the Storm (Hots for short). Hots is a free to play moba created by Blizzard in 2015 that has micro transactions (mostly for the coolest skins and mounts) but otherwise characters can be unlocked by spending gold in the shop. Gold is acquired by logging in everyday and doing quests, which can earn you from 200 to 800 gold. Each day you get one new quest, thus giving you unlimited (but limited b/c of how the time and respawn of quests work) gold as long as you keep logging in and playing the game.

At first you would think this is time consuming or too much of a hurdle to go through to unlock characters-because of the grind. But no, this grind has brought me joy.

Its been about two weeks since I've been grinding gold and doing quests in Hots to earn the latest character Alexstraza (pictured above), who now costs 10,000 gold (when heroes first come out they are 15,000 gold). Right now I am sitting at about 9,500 gold and it feels great. The work, dedication, craft, and blood of my enemies to earn all that gold is quite satisfying. I don't think I would get this same satisfaction if I played League of Legends of Dota 2, two other popular mobas. Those games are work just to make it through a forty-five minute match. But I digress.

When I unlock Alexstraza in a few days it will be quite the reward. Rewards for playing games is something most gaming companies have to work much harder at. Sure you can earn loot boxes in Overwatch but at the end of the day the skins don't add much. A new character to your roster in a game adds much much more.

Here's a game that does free to play gaming right. I can earn every character through grinding quests and find a ton of satisfaction from it. Beat that EA.  

Winter Wonderland Xmas and New Year irl update

Life has been great. I've been working a ton, gaming a ton, playing guitar a ton, and just living life to the fullest every day. It's pretty great! For the Christmas break from school my younger brother came and visited us. It was great having him. It was a real bros kind of a Christmas with the three brothers all together. My brother goes to the University of Chicago and he's a brilliant young guy. He runs a great blog about African/Caribbean history and its tagged on my blog. I like his posts on jazz. Check it out.

Work has been stressful but it pays the bills. I've been working super late shifts and its always a lot of work. But as they say the show must go on even if I'm tired of it. I've almost reconciled the fact that I'm giving up a social life to work but there have been good things that have come out of work lately. Such as...

The other night I met Steve Vai's son, Fire Vai. Don't call his name out in a movie theater! :D
We talked for a bit and I told him about how his dad was a big influence on my guitar playing. He mentioned that Tosin Abasi comes over to their house all the time. Later that evening he came back and gave my friend and I some signature Vai guitar picks, poster, dvd, and a cd! Talk about cool.

Christmas was also great despite the fact that I worked until 11:30 pm. When I got home I got to eat a great Cornish game hen dinner and open my gifts with my family. I got a nuka cola girl blanket, fallout vault boy (pixelated art-style) snapback, n64 anthology book that covers every game made on the console, Ravi Coltrane's latest record, Attack on Titan movie part 2, Warhammer 40k comic, Halo original soundtrack, Hendrix shirt, Megadeth shirt, Ghost shirt, Steam card, and I still have one more gift coming from a friend or two. Talk about an epic fucking loot experience. I spent a lot of money on friends and family this year and they certainly did the same for me. It's great knowing that people care about me and got me great stuff that I will use for the long term.

In addition, earlier this week I jammed with a guitar playing co-worker of mine and we're going to start a project together. Find a bassist and a singer and have a real band that can start gigging. These guys are younger than I am but they are great musicians. The guitar player is a progressive metal player that plays on a John Petrucci signature 7-string. The drummer just likes to groove but he has great technique and fills. He was keeping up with every rhythm I threw at him. It was an incredible jamming experience. With me there things went into improvisatory jazz territory but I could also bring it to prog and metal moments as well.

In terms of gaming I've been playing a lotta stuff with friends. Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, and Heroes of the Storm mostly but since I got Warhammer Vermintide from a friend on Christmas I've been putting in time on that. It's a great game and I'm glad I finally have it because I've been wanting it for a while.

Lastly, its been a real winter wonderland in California this year. Its been the coldest year since I've lived here. Nights get pretty cold in my room but thankfully I have a extra blanket and a small heater.

Things have been good but life also has to be well balanced in order to live a meaningful life. As we go into this next year I will focus harder on living a meaningful life. That is all I can ask for.

That's it for now. See ya next year!

Xmas gift ideas

I thought I'd do a brainstorming session for ideas for Christmas gifts.

For my friends I was thinking things like video games, t-shirts, hats, etc. I could become more specialized and get them things more interesting. For one friend I could get him something car-related. For another I could get him a metal album. For another I could get her something food related like a restaurant gift card. For another I could get him art supplies.

For my mom and other family things get even more specialized. For mom I was thinking something quasi religious relating to zen Buddhism (because she practices that) or I could send her flowers and a card with some money.

For my younger brother I will probably get him some sort of interesting science fiction novel. Maybe even one I already own LOL.

For my dad things get a little complicated. I will probably buy him something that he asks me to get for him.

For my older brother the obvious choice is a game. A less obvious choice would be comic books, art books, gaming shirt, and I was even thinking of getting him a cool Marvel figurine that they sell at Gamestop.

Then there's other people I might have to get stuff for. For them I will just get like little snacks or trinkets, things you can buy at places like Homegoods.

Then there's stuff for myself. But maybe I shouldn't even bother with that.

My FPS experience

I've been gaming a lot lately, doing what I usually do on the daily. I've been playing a lot more fps (first person shooters) games and I noticed I'm actually pretty good at them. Fps games can sometimes be a little tricky at first because there are just so many factors that go into shooters. Most of it just comes down to whoever is the more skilled player will take out the player who is less skilled than him. But in certain cases (like mine), I just usually end up getting lucky, and that ain't bad. I feel like a lot of fps skill is kind of based on luck because you can ambush people when they weren't on their guard and stuff like that. I was always terrible at playing Call of Duty, like on Xbox360, but when I switched over the PC I became much better. The mouse and keyboard is idea for aiming and looking down sites because it is more precise than a controller. When my brother got me CoD: Advanced Warfare I became really good at shooting games because I learned the play style. Also, it doesn't hurt than Advanced Warfare is a more tactical Call of Duty, nowhere near as campy as CoD: Ghosts. Eventually I became so good that I was always 1st or 2nd on the leader boards in every game.

     And then I just stopped playing. I felt like I'd exhausted everything in the game and eventually the whole Advanced Warfare community just stopped playing. Also, there were a lot of hackers on the PC version. It made for horrible games with the hacking so obvious that every time you spawned you would immediately die. That was how bad it got. I'm not sure if anythings been fixed regarding the game but I highly doubt it now that there's a new CoD game out called Black Ops III. That was pretty much the end of fps games for me.

     Until I met a new friend. He's super into fps games and he's pretty good at them. We started playing Team Fortress 2 and its been a blast. Its really getting me back into fps games because I'm realizing they are more fun with friends talking on discord. I got a really cool gun in Team Fortress that vaporizes enemy players in 1 or 2 hits. It's really fucking good! But I still have problems with the aiming system in Team Fortress 2. Perhaps I have to play with a higher sensitivity or something. It's a great game, probably the best shooter out there. At my friends house I even got to play Overwatch once. He coached me through a game and I played amazing well.

     And then when Battlefront III came out I was playing that for a while. I still am actually. I find the shooting in the game to be vastly different from any other kinds of fps games. I'm still at a loss at how to play this game really. In addition, I got Unreal Tournament III at Goodwill once and I've got it set up so that I can play on private servers online and still play the game online even though the original game servers are down. I used to be a beast at Unreal Tournament III on the Xbox360, back in the day. Unreal Tournament is another one of those fps games that you just have to play at least once. It's an amazing shooting experience, the best arena shooter.

      But when I got into the Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex multiplayer game beta I realized I'm actually pretty damn good at fps games. One part of why I do so well in GotS (Ghost in the Shell) is that the maps are designed in a way that you will be punished for camping or staying in one spot for a long time. Keep in mind that I only play team deathmatch because whenever I try doing the other game modes it takes forever to find players and I always just end up leaving the queue. So this game is all about running and gunning, basically the same tactics as in Battlefront III. The better you are at run and gun, the better player you will be. That's my basic tactic, just run, look for enemy players, then shoot. Run around some more and repeat. Somehow I've done amazing well with this tactic. I average like 20 kills a game and sometimes I even get more than that. Not bad for a game that's still in early access. I highly recommend this game by the way.

     The thing that this game has going for it is the name and the brand. Ghost in the Shell is a beloved anime and I can only imagine what kinds of things they will add to the game once its polished and released after beta. I feel like the graphics are meh and that the abilities of the Operatives (basically the same system as in Black Ops III, where you choose a hero and they have special abilities) don't really help you out in any significant way. Since when are shooters becoming like mobas? I find the abilities not that important because even if somebody is using their ability they can be taken out easily with a gun shot. However, this game shines in its game play.

     The first thing you notice when you play team deathmatch is that everybody is playing it as a team. Nobody is going out like little Rambo's like in Call of Duty. It feels like a tactical Counter Strike match where you have to disable the bomb. Everybody's moving in like a squad and not just going in death after death. They're using their head and playing smart. This has helped me learn to be more patient in shooters and not just try to shoot an enemy when I first see them. Sometimes you want to hide behind corners, wait for them to shoot and they have to reload, or just flank them by taking an alternate route on the map and just rushing them. This is all basic stuff to fps gamers but I had to learn all of this myself. I just got the hang of it recently and its been a blast! This Ghost in the Shell game has been my catalyst fps game and now I'm hooked.

     I'm going to keep trying to improve in Battlefront III, keep up with Team Fortress 2 with my friend, play Unreal Tournament III, and definitely keep playing Ghost in the Shell. The beauty of fps games is that you don't have to invest too much time into them for you to have a good time. You can be very casual with it and play a few matches before bed. I've only really been playing a bit here and there and its been very rewarding and satisfying. Nothing feels better than getting that headshot kill, double kill, and possibly even triple kill and being on top of the leader boards with the most kills. The number one fps game I'm looking out for Overwatch. I'm hoping that it comes out sometime later this year. But we don't really know for sure when it will come out. Overwatch is going to be a huge game. Even in beta I can see that it has so much potential as another great Blizzard game. Watch out for its release maybe sometime this year. Shooters can be a little hard to get into at first because it might feel like a steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of it you can just annihilate online. It's good, clean fun!

Games I've been playing lately

     Here's something rare. A blog post written during the day instead of being at 1 or 2 in the morning. I usually reserve writing for the blog for evenings after work. Anyways, here we go: Games I've been playing lately.
     Heroes of the Storm. HoTs has been the meat and potatoes of my gaming experience ever since the beta came out. I would say I'm a veteran by now and I have around 800 games played. That's not a lot compared to some other hardcore players but for me I consider 800 games a hell of a lot. There are certain characters I prefer playing in HoTs. I really like playing support characters, mainly Lt. Morales, Uther, and sometimes Malfurion. I gotta say my favorite healer is Morales because she's the medic from Starcraft Broodwar and I just find that super cool. Her healing is very good but you have to be careful with positioning with her because she dies so fast if she gets hit. At level 10 she can get the medivac transport ship or stim. Personally I go for stimpack every time because its just so good. It increases damage on any ally you use it. Sugoi! And then there's Uther. Now can you not love Uther. The best thing about him is his stun. Oh how I love that stun! It gets me so many kills and its so effective. And then at level 10 he can get his ultimate stun which is even better. He's probably the best healer in the game because he can take a hit or two and also dish out more damage than all the other healers. Lately I've been messing around playing a lot of other characters. Like focusing on playing tanks like Muradin and Johanna but also playing assassins like Tycus and Valla. This game never gets old to me. I would say the main reason why I find this game so good is that the matches are short (unlike League and Dota), the game is easy to learn and pick up, and it makes you focus on teamwork and objectives rather than solo laneing and carrying your team.
     Next, probably my favorite game of our modern time. Super Smash Bros 4 for Wii U. I've been playing a lot online on the For Glory mode. Let me say that I know that tons of people think you can't get better by playing For Glory and that I'm wasting my time. I think that's completely wrong because sometimes I run into people online who are way better than me and they give me a chance to play them multiple times over and over and try to learn from my mistakes, thus getting better in the process (or so I'd like to believe). Last night I played the best player I've ever come across online. He was a Ryu player with the tag Edwin. This guy was amazing with Ryu. He literally power shielded pretty much every attack I threw at him. He was so good at first that I thought he was hacking somehow. I kept playing him over and over again getting my ass whooped. But I did learn a lot by playing him! Because he blocked all the time I learned that I had to go for grabs a lot. And then when I started spamming Zero Suit Samus' plasma gun on him I noticed that he couldn't block every single shot. Eventually I kept getting closer and closer to beating him. My frustration was at a super high level definitely. But at the same time I was astounded by how good this guy was. I felt like if he went to a tournament he would do great. I eventually got good enough to combo him hard in the air with down throw grabs but somehow he would always come back on his second stock and finish me. The only times I beat him was when he killed himself. But I take those as a win! Haha. I feel like in order to become better at Smash you have to be like a Super Sayian. You have to get your ass beat to the point that you feel like you have no chance, and are on the brink of death. Then you can discover your true power and go Super Sayian level 3! That's the way I see losing. When I lose in tournaments I don't really mind because I've been getting better and doing better at the weeklies at Fire and Dice. I would say when I play at a tournament my mind is more relaxed and focused than when I play online. When I play online I get annoyed and frustrated really easily. One thing I need to learn is to not get that way when I play online. Then I will be playing at my full potential.
     Also, I've been playing a lot of shooters. The new Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex multiplayer shooter has been a blast. I've only played team death match so far but its so fun! I had the greatest game of my life in any fps game yesterday. I got 31 kills in ten minutes with a positive kill death ratio. I have no idea how I did it but it was a small room game with only about 8 people. In the end my team still lost even though I was carrying them. I guess my twitch reflexes have gotten better because I've been playing a lot more fps games lately. In addition, I've been messing around on Team Fortress 2 with my friend. Its been great because I got some cool new items like this plasma gun that vaporizes enemies in 1 or 2 shots depending on where I hit them. And then there's Battlefront 3. I finally discovered that the best game mode is Heroes and Villains. Its a blast running around as Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader and taking people out in this 6v6 multiplayer game mode. I'm still not very good at it but I am getting better.
     Lastly, I've been playing a bit of Skullgirls. This is a 'real' fighting game whereas Smash is a very un-traditional fighter. Skullgirls plays a lot like Street Fighter. But it looks more like Marvel Vs Capcom 2. It's a very good game with insane sick combos. I'm still learning the ropes but I think I can 'git good' at it with a little more practice. I focus on just playing single player and arcade mode for now.
     Well that's all folks! Let me know what games you've been playing lately in the comments section. Is there any games that I should be playing? I know one of them is definitely Undertale, I might pick that up before the Steam Winter sale ends.

Smash 4 Final Presentation

      I was so hyped for this final Smash 4 video presentation. I got up around noon and waited until 2 PM, I was even on the Twitch stream early and the chat was going crazy even around 1 30 pm. What I can say is that I approve everything that I saw in the video today but I can't help but feel a bit disappointed that my boy Snake isn't going to be a dlc character. I was thinking they would add a whole bunch of characters, like the winners of the Smash ballot but I guess Sakurai did it right.
      Basically we learned that Smash 4 is getting some more updates and 2 new characters. We learned from the last Nintendo Direct that Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy was being added to the game. And today everybody downloaded him and now everybody and their grandma's are using Cloud online on For Glory. More on Cloud later. I figure they added Cloud because he was a popular vote from NA. But he wasn't the only character being added! They're adding the main character from Fire Emblem Fates, Corrin to the fight! He's a sword fighter who can turn into a dragon and has some pretty sick looking combos. He was a popular choice from Japan. Fire Emblem Fates has been out in Japan for a while now but it hasn't gotten an NA release yet so most of us NA people are like Corrin who? And lastly, Europe's biggest vote on the Smash ballot, we're getting Bayonetta! I am actually hyped for Bayonetta because her moves look sick. She looks so fast, maybe even faster than Sheik. Her combos look limitless with the improvisation you can do with it. I really like that gun of hers and how she can shoot with her feet. True demon stuff! Plus she's a new sexy waifu that will be added to Smash. Haha, but in all seriousness I think Corrin, Cloud, and especially Bayonetta will completely change the game. I think Bayonetta might be able to out combo Sheik, we'll have to wait and see.I downloaded Cloud, the Midgar stage, and some add-ons for like $10 today. Kind of a rip off Nintendo! The character alone should be like $3.99. But anyways, I got to downloaded the new update and Cloud and the Midgar stage. Here are my thoughts.
     Cloud is a great fighter but I don't think he will any significant impact on this game, especially at the competitive level. I don't think people are going to be busting out the buster sword at tournaments. I did happen to play a few good Clouds today online but they all play the same style online. Basically they were all dodging and avoiding all my attacks in an attempt to charge up their limit break and then try to hit me with it. Basic tactics. But if I hit them in a moment where there's an opening I can get in some combos. Some of them were pretty good too. I just don't see Cloud having an impact on this game at the tournament level. For casual play he'll be a great new addition to a game that already has plenty of fighters. I really dig the Midgar stage because of the classic Final Fantasy VII theme music from when you get into a battle. It's just that classic vibe. It would be cool to have Omega Midgar as a tournament stage, just for the music.
     At first, after I saw the 33 minute presentation, I was disappointed. As a huge fan of Smash and have only had a Wii U since September knowing there will be no new updates for Smash 4 makes me a bit sad. I don't know if there will be a Smash 5 and if there is, what can they really do it that hasn't already previously been done in earlier iterations? This leads me to believe that this is Nintendo's final Smash (get it?) game. The very thought of that makes me sad but I think this game will have a strong competitive scene for years to come. I also hope that the Wii U doesn't die too soon. I feel like Xenoblade Chronicles X and Bayonetta 2 breathed new life to the dying system recently. Nintendo needs some newer games to keep the Wii U alive. Right now there are only a few games worth getting just to have a Wii U and I would say they are Smash, Mario Kart 8, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and Bayonetta 2. If Nintendo wants to survive they need to keep updating their current systems. I know they are already working on a new console called the NX but I still care about the Wii U. I know its been out since 2012 but you can teach an old dog new tricks. That's just my two cents on the subject. I actually didn't like Nintendo until I got a 3DS XL and Smash 4. Smash 4 changed competitive gaming for me. Before all I knew was online gaming on the PC. But now I go to Smash tournaments and I have a lot of fun and meet a lot of cool people. Smash has been, well, smashing! The Wii U has been a great system just because of Smash. It was worth every penny and all the hard work that I had to do to pay for it. Enjoy this game. Enjoy these new characters. I can't wait until February when Corrin and Bayonetta get added.
     Lastly, I can't really be disappointed with all this great news. It's a great finale to an amazing fighting game. Who would think we would have a game where Ryu, Sonic, Megaman, Bayonetta, and Pac Man could duke it out in a fight? It's a dream come true for gamers. Thank you Masahiro Sakurai! He's made a masterpiece that will never be forgotten.

Nintendo Direct Hopes

     As all the Super Smash Bros 4 players know today is the big day for Nintendo's last video about updates given for Smash 4. Needless to say I'm hyped! Ever since I got Smash 4 on the Nintendo 3DS XL, I've loved Smash. Playing it with my friends when I first got it was the best time I've ever had playing a fighting game. And now I'm a competitive player and I go tournaments! Pretty crazy. I'm not the greatest player in the world but I'm okay and I can always become better with more practice. Everybody's super hyped about this last video about Smash. What we do know is that this is the final video presentation specifically about Smash. There's a chance there could be more videos but it won't be specifically about Smash. Like maybe Smash could be talked about while they're also talking about other games. I just read about that on Kotaku, a famous gaming site. In the last Nintendo Direct they announced at the very end that Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII was being added to the game. That's such a hype! I was so excited and weirded out that Cloud was being added to the game. I'm not quite sure but I believe he was a big vote for the Smash Ballot from Japan. And I think Japan has more sway over Smash because the Smash games were created by Sakurai, one of the greatest Japanese video-game makers ever. I'll tell you what I'm hoping for in the final Smash 4 presentation today.
     I'm hoping for more stages, possibly variations on older stages from Melee or 64. Looking forward to a Final Fantasy VII stage because of Cloud being in the game and all. I'm thinking they could do one stage where you're on top of the Shinra building. I'm also looking forward to more characters being announced, particularly the ones that got the most votes in the Smash Ballot. But the only character I'm wishing gets announced for sure is Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series. He's my favorite character in Brawl and Project M and I think he would be great in Smash 4 too. I'm also looking for some patch that changes the way Smash 4 is played. Smash 4 is too much of a defensive game. I'm hoping they come up with some new mechanic(s) that make the game more aggressive without having to rely on constantly jumping away and blocking all the time. That's really all I could hope they could do. It's not like they're going to bring back wavedashing or anything crazy like that. But I do believe they will patch the game at least one final time.
     Lastly, in a lot of ways I'm saddened that Nintendo would bring an end to this game. Ending updates to a game means that they will no longer be invested in this game in the long run. That's why I prefer PC games over consoles. At least on the PC, companies realize that in order to get people to buy the games, they have to keep them updated and always have new content. But on the other hand, with no more updates in Smash 4, the competitive community can finally concentrate and focus on what the actual game will be like because nothing new will be added and there won't be any new surprise patches that make and/or break characters. I remember when Luigi was super powerful. And when Diddy Kong just beat everybody's ass. Then Nintendo patched the game and they were weakened heavily. I think of Smash 4 as another game in the Smash canon. I believe there will be a Smash 5 on Nintendo's new NX system. And I'll probably be playing that as well. I don't really have high hopes for the Wii U. The only great game to come out of the Wii U is Smash 4 in my professional opinion. But for me that's all I need to recognize it as a great console. With Nintendo's President dead we have no real idea where the company will go with their new console but I hope they make it more of a powerful system, like the Xbox1 or PS4. But Nintendo always does their own thing so we'll have to wait and see. You can catch the final Smash video presentation on Nintendo's website today at 2 pm. 

Summer's almost gone

   

     Just thought I'd do a little rant on the change of seasons and the holidays incoming. The first thing I noticed when I got up today was that it wasn't hot, neither in my room nor outside. In fact, I found it to be a bit chilly. Welcome to October in California. It was really only like 60 degrees but that makes a huge difference from the 90-100 degree weather we were having just a month ago. Things are looking better climate-wise here in Cali. Sometimes when it gets super cold here it reminds me of Wisconsin, where I used to live about 3 years ago. I happen to have a bit of a cold at the moment so when I left for work I made sure to wear my signature North Face jacket, which I have two of. I find North Face to be such a Wisconsin brand because when I lived there practically everyone wore it. I'm looking forward to the cool weather. Now maybe I won't have to turn on the air conditioner when I'm chilling in my room.
     Also, the holidays are coming up here after Halloween and the start of November (Black Friday and all that). I'm thinking of plans for gifts and all that for my friends and family for Christmas already. I know its a bit early but I'm already thinking of stuff.
     For friend #1 I was going to get him Fire Emblem Awakening. For friend #2 I would get him some game on the 3DS. For friend #3 I would get him an Xbox game. For step-dad I would get him either a book or a jazz CD (saxophonist Steve Coleman stuff). For my older brother I would get him a PC game (Shovel Knight, Metal Gear V, etc). For my younger brother I might give him my used tablet (because I have the Wii U game-pad, which kind of works like a tablet too) or a jazz CD. For my mother I would send a Buddha figurine (because she's a Buddhist now). For my step-mother I would get her an interesting ukulele or some other small musical instrument. I'm thinking that all this stuff is going to cost a lot so I'm going to start saving now. The only real expensive stuff that I want that is coming up is the Starcraft II Legacy of the Void Deluxe edition which I have on pre-order at the moment. It's coming out November 10, which is only about a month away. November is when all the new games are coming out. This year and next year is going to be a crazy good year for gamers. I know that in November on the 10th, Starwars Battlefront III is coming out as well as Fallout 4. Not only that but there's also the new Call of Duty Black Ops 3. A great haul incoming for gamers in November! On December 4th Xenoblade Chronicles X comes out on the Wii U. I'm definitely going to pick that up or my older brother will because that's basically the only game he wants to play that's a Wii U exclusive.
     Anyways,  I'm probably going to pick up Legacy of the Void and Xenoblade Chronicles X. What awaits us in 2016 is more great stuff. But because all this stuff is going to be pricey I'm going to be saving up, it'll be worth it to have an amazing Christmas with my friends and family. Christmas here has always been great. Maybe we can even get my younger brother out here to enjoy it with us. I should mention that October's my brother's birthday month so I'll probably send him something as a gift through the post. Either a CD or a book would be good. I'll probably end up sending him my Herbie Hancock autobiography book, I think he would love reading that.
     I'm also looking forward to Halloween because I might go to Halloween party with my friends. I was thinking of cosplaying as Ash Ketchum from Pokemon but I might think of some other characters. Other peeps I'm interested in cosplaying are Ryu and Snake. I would definitely do a cosplay of Snake, it would be sick to have a black Solid Snake at a party!
     On a side note, I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving because I love eating Turkey prepared in a Chinese style, it's so good! Anyways, that's the end of this rant. I'm going to try to get back to writing about music, particularly jazz. I know the blog has kind of side-tracked and gotten to be about my personal life and gaming. I think it's cooler to write about music and I'm going to make an effort to get back to that soon. It is called ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com after all. 

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Review

     I talked briefly about this game in a short post about a year ago but here I'll give it a full glorified review. Call of Duty Advanced Warfare is a military science fiction first person shooter developed by Activision (or Blizzard Activision now). Sledehammer games developed the PC, Xbox1, and Playstation4 versions, while High Moon Studios developed the Xbox360 and Playstation3 versions, and Raven Software developed the game's multiplayer and exo-zombies mode. That's a lot of development! The game came out in November 2014. I got the game as a Christmas present from my older brother. Good gift brah. When the game came out it was sort of loved and hated by the gaming community. Some players loved the great single player campaign, the science fiction laser guns(lazors!), and the great graphics. It was considered a commercial success in gaming. Let's talk about the single player campaign first.
     Sledgehammer employed Kevin Spacey and Troy Baker in lead roles and they really make the single player campaign great. The story follows Jack Mitchell of the United States Marine Corp as he joins Atlas, a private military corporation that sells its services to the highest bidder. Eventually he finds out that what he's getting into is a truly evil corporation lead by Kevin Spacey, and he ends up teaming up with some other peeps to take down the entire corporation. I can say right now that there isn't anything unique or surprising in the entire campaign, but there is some great voice acting by Kevin Spacey especially that makes it feel more like a movie rather than just a video gaming, giving the Call of Duty series that extra edge it desperately needs in a single player campaign. There are a couple things I remember even after playing it a year ago.
     There was this one level where you get to burst inside of Atlas using one of their own sort of Gundam type soldier machines, a giant hulking machine with tons of guns and grenades. Another level that was memorable was when you get to go to outer space to destroy this Atlas satellite. The funny thing is that you get to shoot people with guns in outer space. Don't even ask me how that works. And lastly, there is a great level near the end where you're fighting Atlas baddies in the middle of Atlas' little town-square, and there are tons of those Gundam type machines shooting at you and you have to take out all of them! That's one of them in the picture. So there were some memorable moments in the campaign. It's about as long as every other Call of Duty campaign so you can beat it pretty quickly. Now, let's talk about how this game changed the Call of Duty system.
     This game is unlike every other Call of Duty. It's harder to camp in this game because of the exo-suit and exo-abilities. The exo-suit is like this futuristic suit that soldiers from Atlas wear that improves pretty much everything from jump, speed, and strength. Maybe in 2054 we really would have something like it. For one thing the exo-suit can make you jump up super high into the air, Halo style. You get a double jump as well as a little hover in the air as your jumping. Not only that but you also get exo-abilities in this game too. One allows you to cloak for short time, another gives you a hover in the air, and another one gives you super speed. Because of this stuff you can't really say that this is just another Call of Duty game. It's a Call of Duty game with different mechanics and play style. You can literally cover the entire maps in seconds in this game so it's a much different game when it comes to general Call of Duty standards like camping, spawn killing, and quick scoping. It's harder to do all three of those things in this game because players can really get in your face and just wreck you mercilessly. It's pretty cool how they changed the mechanics in a Call of Duty game but it doesn't 'feel' like Call of Duty if you get what I mean, it feels more like Halo or more appropriately Titanfall. This is good because it gives something new to the community but I don't think the community really took to this game, especially on PC. The PC version is the one that I own. Speaking of which.
      The PC version of this game had many bugs and glitches for me. And it turned out that I wasn't the only one with these problems because the forums had all kinds of questions from other gamers saying they were having problems. I was eventually able to fix most of the bugs and constant crashing by tweaking some options and stuff but it was still annoying to deal with-my computer was fairly new at the time and I had a fairly good graphics card. Another thing that went bad with this game is that the PC version is completely dead online. Nobody plays the game anymore. The only game mode you will be able to find games in is Team Deathmatch. Kind of sad because this is actually a fun game. In addition, the game is full of hackers, at least on PC. I got into a game the other day where a guy was going 99 and 2, and everytime I respawned I would die instantly somehow. So not only is it a dead game but its got some hackers, also I believe that this game doesn't use dedicated servers. With that being said, I never got to enjoy the full potential of this game and try out all the game modes. I didn't even buy the exo-zombies dlc because I figured what's the point when there will be nobody to play with. But it ain't all bad.
      Team Deathmatch is still fun in this game, no doubt. It's fun using the science fiction guns like the lasers and the gravity gun. Let me also mention that this game is also an e-Sport, but I don't know how popular it is, if at all. The single player campaign was one of the best in any Call of Duty and perhaps in any first person shooter I've played. Kevin Spacey's acting really made the story enjoyable, although the story is sort of droll. I have friends on steam that still play the game and when they are on I usually join their games. This game is a big change for the Call of Duty series but I don't see them making more games like Advanced Warfare, it's too much of a change from the camp, spawn killing, and quick scoping of the usual Call of Duty player base. Because I had so many problems with this game I give it a 7 out of 10. It would be an 8 but the PC version is dead and I have nobody to play with. Rip Advanced Warfare.
    

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Street Fighter IV Ultra, and Other Cool Stuff

     The other day me and my friends hung out and naturally we ended up going to Gamestop on my suggestion. My original idea was to pick up Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate for the new 3ds xl but I also had Street Fighter IV for Xbox360 in mind. My friend told me that the Ultra version is better and comes with like 44 characters in the game. I had to get it. We went back to my friends pad and played the game and it was super cool. It has a bunch of characters that I don't really know about but I can always learn more or play the arcade mode to get an idea of who and what kind of people the characters all are. Some of the characters look really cool and interesting. A lot of the female characters have sexy outfits too. I'm a beginner at fighting games so I tend to stick with Ryu, the original classic Street Fighter character. But I also love Chun-Li, she's pretty cool with her kicks of fury. There's literally so many characters to learn how to play, and thankfully the combo list is right within the game and easy to get to. I'm such a novice at fighting games but I really want to learn. Think about owning people online in Street Fighter, it would be amazing. But right now, I know if I tried to play online I would get annihilated.
     Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is a completely different kind of game. It's an action rpg but some of the stats and abilities you can get on gear make a lot more difference than say just upgrading your equipment for better defense or damage like in most rpgs. Today I played a lot with my brother, just doing easy star one quests, getting to level 6. It was pretty fun, probably the most fun I've had playing my 3ds since I got Super Smash Brothers. I'm tempted to try playing the game online right away but I don't want to completely suck and waste my time. So I'll learn more about the game and play solo and just do local play with my brother until I learn the game a bit more. There are so many different kinds of monsters, it's really crazy. There are so many bosses as well. The bosses are all tough motherfuckers man! In fact, out of all the quests me and my brother did today, we ended up only doing one boss fight and it was tough. Right now, I have my character, named Figuero (my name if I was a dark lord of the Sith) uses a 2-handed katana that does hella damage. It's a pretty good weapon but because its 2-handed its slow, but thankfully it hits hard. Interestingly enough, every time I watch streamers play this game on twitch, usually everyone in the party is using 2-handers. Maybe 2-handers are just the best weapons in the game? Not really sure but my brother is using a sickle and shield because with the shield you can block attacks. With a 2-hander you can't block unfortunately but you can still dodge roll to get out of the way of attacks. Another great thing about this game is the fact that its not just a great multiplayer game that you can play online on the 3ds. It also has a great single player campaign as well. There's actually stories and stuff and its such an old school style rpg that you actually have to read everything! I'm so used to just hearing the characters say stuff than reading. It is refreshing to actually read stuff in games again. Reminds me of when I was a kid, playing games like Final Fantasy and Xenogears, my two personal favorites from when I was young. I can see myself putting in a lot of time into Monster Hunter, especially once I start playing it online.
     During the same day I picked up those two games we also stopped at the local record shop. They have this deal where you buy 10 CD's you get a free CD that's $7.99 or less. My friend got Slayer's Reign in Blood so I was able to use that as credit for my 10th CD, thus earning myself a free CD. So I got this album by jazz guitarist Pat Metheny called Question and Answer, which I believe is an old Ornette Coleman song. The album features Dave Holland on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. Haven't listened to it yet but judging from the song titles like All The Things You Are and Question and Answer, this is more of a traditional jazz album.
     And lastly, if that wasn't enough we also went to Goodwill. We looked around and my friend got this Pokemon book that has information on tons of different Pokemon for 50 cents. I myself got a shirt with a cartoon looking guy playing bass, and it says jazz bass New Orleans on it. In addition, I got an Angry Birds shirt. Both of these shirts were purple, the colour of swag. It was a fun day. As I walked into my house, my friends were blasting Slayer-Angel of Death. Good times man.

E3 News

     E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo happened recently here in LA! Too bad I didn't go, it would've been badass if I went and got to meet some gaming celebrities and gaming YouTube personalities. I'm a big fan of BlackNerdRants, Melonie Mac, Angry Joe, and TotalBiscuit. They really do some great videos on games and gaming in general, it would just be cool to meet someone like that. But the whole E3 experience is learning about all the new content and games that will be coming out this holiday season and next year. There is literally tons of games, too many to mention so I'll talk about some of my personal favorite new things that I've seen in the press conferences from E3 from YouTube videos. 

     First, I'm really hyped for StarWars the Old Republic. I used to play the game when it first came out but since then the game has now gone free to play (with reduced xp unfortunately if you play free) and has a couple of interesting expansions like Rise of the Hutt Cartel and something involving the Jedi Revan from StarWars Knights Of the Old Republic. Anyways check out this new expansion trailer here. I thought this trailer was badass. It shows that there's going to be a new faction in the game that doesn't seem really Sith nor Jedi, even using the neutral yellow colored lightsabers to confirm this. I really liked in the trailer how it shows how this two kids, royalty it looks like, were trained as youth to become warriors and later when they've grown up it shows them conquering planets, killing both Jedi and Sith alike, and then bringing home lightsabers from a Jedi and a Sith to their father who is most likely the Emperor of this new faction. Then one of the sons attacks his father in an attempt to kill him but the other son stops him using a force push and ends up getting sliced in the side by the attacking brother. Then the father is all like 'come with me my son.' It just breathes epicness and tugs on the emotional heartstrings as well. How could a father let his son kill his other son? So there's that game. I'm most likely going to subscribe to Swtor when this expansion comes out. It'll be out in October 2015. 

     I'm a big Star Wars guy when it comes to the games. The movies are ok but I prefer the stories in the game, although they aren't official canon. Star Wars Battlefront 3 is going to be great from the looks of the game play they showed at E3. Check it out here. This game-play footage really shows off what the game will be like on release. From the looks of it, it seems they've kept the same playing style as Battlefront 2 but made the game better with today's enhanced graphics. Every little detail in the video looks pristine and crisp. Imagine playing this game on PC on the best graphics settings possible, it will look beautiful. Parts that really stood out in this game-play footage was the part where he's just running and all of a sudden he sees a trooper get force choked, and Darth Vader walks out into the battlefield! And then Luke Skywalker walks out and starts to attack Vader! So that kind of shows that you will be able to play as heroes like Jedi and Sith Lords. The game seems to me to be an updated version of Battlefront 2, which is all a great Star Wars video-gaming fan can dream for. 

     Then, there's the Final Fantasy VII remake. Check out the trailer here. I don't feel like Final Fantasy VII needs a remake but it will be interesting seeing how the game will look with today's enhanced graphics. I wonder if they will change anything about the game that is really different. They could make it like a modern Final Fantasy game, which are actually pretty terrible in my opinion. It's something to be excited about because the original was pretty much the game of my childhood. Final Fantasy was my Ocarina of Time, even though I played Zelda as well. Playstation one was my life as a kid. I enjoyed playing all those rpgs like Final Fantasy Tactics, FF8-9-10-. Legends of Dragoon, and Xenogears. Great times! 

     Lastly, the announcement of Fallout 4. I personally haven't played any of the Fallouts but my brother has and I often watch streams on twitch.tv of people streaming Fallout 3. I just find it to be a really entertaining game to watch. Plus, its one of the best kind of dystopian game series out there!

     Lastly, there's tons of stuff but too much to write about in one sitting. My friend from work made a list of all the games from E3 that he's planning to get. They include so many games but most of them are shooters or action oriented shooters based on tactical game play and decision making. Unfortunately I haven't heard anything really good coming from Nintendo at E3. All I've heard about is a Super Mario Maker game where you can make your own Mario levels and play them online with people and a really bad looking game that looks inspired by Metroid Prime. I wish they could have announced that they were making an American version of Xenoblade Chronicles X, that would have been sick! But we didn't get any news about Xenoblade at all. One of my good friends seemed dissapointed with Nintendo this year, reasonably so. There's way more games but I just haven't gotten to watching the footage or trailers yet. But this is definitely a great time to be a gamer. All the technology and the graphics are all just top notch. What a time to be alive!

    

    

New Super Smash Brothers dlc

     So three new characters were introduced in the Super Smash Brothers dlc on June 14 at 8 am. They are Roy (from Fire Emblem), Lucas (from EarthBound or some game called Mother2), and Ryu from Streetfighter. Those are the characters from left to the right in the picture. All great characters with unique play styles that add much needed depth to this already great title. I play Super Smash on the new 3DS XL and it sure is fun playing with my friends on it. My friends just have the regular 3DS and we played a ton of matches today with the new characters. In fact, as soon as I got to my friends house I bought and downloaded these three new characters online through his wifi (pronounced weefee) connection. Roy and Lucas were $3.99 but for some reason Ryu was $5.99. Me and my friend were talking about how its such a rip off that Nintendo makes you buy these characters. Back in my day kids we had a Gamecube and played Super Smash Brothers Melee, and you could unlock every single character in the game by playing the game and completing objectives, and there was no online play or downloadable content. They have Mewtwo as another dlc character, but I already bought him a long time ago. Funny though, I never really liked his play-style and never played him because he seems to be more of a defensive character, and I'm more of a fast action offensive type Super Smash player. My main initially started as Shulk, because I bought Xenoblade with my 3ds xl, but today I really found out that my main is going to be Fox. My friend today said that 'you're crazy with Fox', and that I was super cheap haha. We played a ton of games today, testing out these new characters on each other. I would have to say that out of these three new characters I find Ryu to be the best. For one thing, he's from Streetfighter, which is just super cool. Since when does Nintendo and Streetfighter lie in the same bed together? Also, Ryu has his haduken ability as his special B-move. And his side-B is a nice spinning tornado kick. In addition, his regular punches and kicks have a lot of strength and gravitas. He really is the Tireless Wanderer. Lastly, I have to add that he has this special punch that can stun people when its fully charged and hits them dead on. Its kind of like Zero Suit Samus' stun gun, but way more powerful stun, and can KO people when they're at high percentage. I like Roy too because he's from Fire Emblem and my brothers were both super into Fire Emblem, but I just don't like how Roy's sword has such a short length, he's the opposite of Marth, but he's more powerful in his attacks, especially his flaming sword move. I just find Roy's sword length to be so short that its hard to hit people without getting super close. He's still a great character though, I just have to play him more. Lucas seems to be pretty cool as well. He looks like Ness but his moves work a little bit differently. I'll have to play him more to really understand how he works, because when I played him today I kind of didn't know what I was doing. Anyways, these three characters add a lot more depth to the game, especially in online play. I was playing 2v2 battles and I came across a team that both played Ryu, and they were just impossible to beat. I fought against a lot of Roy's in online play as well. So everyone already has the characters. Open your wallets and download these characters if you're a Smash player. You won't regret it. I'll definitely be playing more because of these new characters. For a while, I hadn't really been playing. But when I hang out with my friends we always end up playing our 3d's and playing 3 players versus each other. 3 player versus matches are pretty insane, and they are highly skill-based, especially because we don't play with items, all skill. To find out more information about these characters check these links out.
http://www.ssbwiki.com/Roy
http://www.ssbwiki.com/Lucas
http://www.ssbwiki.com/Ryu

First impressions of Smite

 Smite is a third person action moba (massive online battle arena) that is free to play! It's got a super competitive scene and is made by Hi-Rez Studios, which also made the games Tribes:Ascend and Global Agenda. The heroes that you play in this game are all various gods, from various cultures, from Egypt, Rome, Greece, etc. My favorite character so far is Freya, the Valkyrie. The picture above is Freya as on the deviant art website. Anyways, I'm only at level 3 in the game so far so I don't have the main game modes unlocked right now. The main game mode is 5v5 with lanes. Basically to win you destroy the enemy team's towers, kill their phoenix, and destroy their titan to win. But I won't unlock that mode until I reach level 5 :( So anyways, I played all these other game modes.
     The first one I played was Arena, where you just straight up fight and battle to the death for the most kills. I just played with other people against the computer for all these modes so it was pretty easy and fun. The most important thing about Smite for me, is that you get your ultimate ability at level 5, which is pretty fast and amazing, considering that in all other mobas you don't get your "ult" until level 10. So Arena is just a battle royale to see who gets the most kills. Pretty fun. No towers to destroy or anything like that.
    The next game mode I tried out was random one lane battle. Basically you spawn as a random god and your fighting only in one lane. I can't remember for sure but I believe this mode was with 5v5 heroes. Every hero is fighting in that one lane trying to destroy the enemy team's tower, kill their phoenix, and destroy their titan to win the game. It's basically a super hectic fight fest and the chaser is that you can't go back to base to heal up, you have to stay out in the battlefield until you die, then you spawn back to base and can buy items and stuff. This mode was very fun, and the first time I played the god Freya, the Valkyrie, she's a great character. She's a blonde with armor and a sword. Basically her first ability gives her stronger melee attack. Her second ability gives her attack a long range magic attack. Her third ability throws up enemies in the air. And her ultimate flies her in the air and has her throwing magic projectiles at her enemies. Pretty sick! So yeah it was fun playing her in this mode.
     The last game mode I tried out was 3v3 lane match. Basically the regular game mode except with only three people instead of five. There was outside areas outside of the lane where you could get power up auras and stuff by defeating monsters in the jungle (area outside of lanes where you can get power ups).
     Basically, my first impression is that this game is amazing. I can't wait to unlock the regular game mode. The graphics are great, the actual playing of the game is good, and the characters are all pretty cool and unique. This would be one of my later mobas that I've played and I would have to say that this one is one of the best. I would put it on the same level as Heroes of the Storm in terms of fun and playability. The thing with mobas that I don't really like is the fact that there's no real story or lore, there's just tons of characters battling with it. With these gods, there should be lore and stuff because not everyone has read Norse mythology or whatever other things they have in the game. So some of these gods I have no idea who they really are without lore of some kind. Anyway, I've found a new game to play online other than Heroes of the Storm. By the way, HoTs comes out June 2nd, then everyone will be playing it. Smite is a super tight game and I'm glad I finally got around to downloading it.

Nintendo 3DS XL, Xenoblade, and Super Smash Brothers

    

      I threw down some serious cash on a brand new 3DS XL. I'd been wanting to play the new Super Smash Brothers for 3DS for sometime. I kept asking my brother if I could just use his 3DS and play Super Smash Brothers on it but he kept saying no! I got my own 3DS XL last week. In addition to the hand-held system I picked up the Nintendo jrpg Xenoblade Chronicles. So, right after I bought it I couldn't wait to try it out so instead of going home I went to Starbucks and configured it and put in Xenoblade. Super Smash Brothers I ordered through the mail so it didn't come until late that night. Anyways, the 3D options in Xenoblade looked terrific. It looks like Wii-U graphics (at best) and at worst PS2 graphics. I'm actually really happy with the system and what it offers. So far I haven't played too much of Xenoblade but I have been playing the heck out of Super Smash Brothers. I must have unlocked all the characters in one day, it was super quick. But the best part of it all is that Super Smash is an online game. I can fight people across the world in four player free for all, two on two teams, and 1 on 1 matches with two stock (lives). I only play For Glory, where all your wins and losses count and get added up and recorded. I have found that the best players always have Japanese names.

     My favorite character is Shulk, the main character from Xenoblade. He has this sword, called the Monado, that has these special abilities that you can use with. You just tap a button and the sword can change colors, giving you different abilities. In addition, Shulk has a powerful counter where he blocks an attack and hits the enemy twice afterwards with the Monado. Other characters I like are Fox from Starfox, Donkey Kong, Marth from Fire Emblem, Lucina from Fire Emblem, and Captain Falcon. The game has plenty of characters so you really can't get bored. Also, this is the kind of fighting game that is very easy to get good at. The combos are easy to learn unlike games like the new Mortal Kombat X. So far, I'm loving it. I hope soon I will be able to 1v1 my mates. Xenoblade is a great game too, just haven't found the time to invest in a jrgp, been working too many nights. The story in Xenoblade seems stellar. These robot type alien gods fought and now the world is completely fucked. Overall the system is solid and my brother has a ton of games I can play on it too.  

     Lastly, you have to put into account that the 3DS XL is completely brand new and just came out a short time ago. It's pretty much the exact same thing as the 3DS except bigger for bigger hands like mines. It just makes pushing the buttons easy and it doesn't hurt to have a slightly bigger screen to look at as well. Also, this just in: Local man really feeling it. 

Games I've been playing lately

     

 I play a lot of video games. I mainly just play on the PC because I feel like the best games are on the PC and the PC has the best graphics out at any particular time. Lately, I've been playing a lot of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. My brother got it for me for Christmas and I've enjoyed it a lot since December. In addition, I've been playing Heroes of the Storm, Dota 2, the latest Counter-Strike, and even a little bit of World of Warcraft although I find it boring at the max level except for PvP (player vs player combat). The game that kind of got me into PC gaming in the first place is Starcraft 2, which is pictured above. I used to stream Starcraft on Twitch.tv and other people would watch me play. Sometimes I did great but other times I got owned (lose miserably). Anyways, today I just downloaded a F2P (free to play) game called Nosgoth created by Square-Enix. Its a PvP game with Humans versus Vampires in 4v4 matchups. Its a great online brawler type of game unlike any I've played before. Its very fun and hunting other players is good clean fun. Lastly, I just bought Grey Goo today, a cool science-fiction RTS (real time strategy) game that has three races: humans and two alien races. Its gotten good reviews so far so I'm looking forward to playing it more. For a while I was steering more into the FPS (first person shooter) genre because of Call of Duty. I actually have Advanced Warfare and the last Call of Duty: Ghosts, which I've hardly played. There are still games I got from leftover Christmas which I haven't even played yet. These include Bioshock, Deadspace, Victoria Revelations, Endless Space, and Payday 2: The Heist. And I'm going to play all of them. 

Starwars Knights of the Old Republic 2: Thoughts and Opinions

     

     Starwars Knights of the Old Republic 2 is one of the best games I've ever played. It takes place five years before Starwars Knights of the Old Republic 1 and isn't made by Bioware. Rather it is made by a company called Obsidian. This is a much darker game compared to the first one and perhaps compared to all Starwars games. This game really pushes the ante when it comes to the dark side and what it means to be Sith or Jedi.
     You play as a general of Darth Revan's who fought during the Mandalorian wars but lost a connection to the Force, and is slowing regaining all of your abilities. Your name is Meetra Surik and you find out that you were cast out of the Jedi order for fighting with Revan in the Mandolorian wars. You wake up in a Sith spaceship and you meet a woman named Kreia, who becomes your mentor. Later, you find out that she was a Sith Lord named Darth Traya and that she was guiding you and influencing your every move throughout the game. So basically you have to escape this ship and from there the story really starts.
     For me, the game really begins when you meet Atris on Telos. She tells you all about how you were cast out and she even had kept your light-saber hanging up on her wall to remind her of you and the fall of the Jedi. Supposedly Atris says she's the last Jedi and that she doesn't care what you do but later you find out she was into the Dark side, like a lot.
     So you figure out at some point that there are a few of the Jedi order still alive so you set out to find them. You have the option to kill them, or maybe they die anyways by Kreia's hand, because at the end she becomes a villain to you. I didn't try any of the light side options in the game so I went ahead and struct down all the Jedi. Then, Kreia tells you what you have learned after hunting down all the Jedi. For me, she said that I had much to learn still and that her teachings have shown me nothing through the Force. Being a bad guy gets you nowhere with her perhaps? In between that, you can either help a revolution in a major city or hinder it as well.
     So at the end you have to destroy a Sith ship and kill a Sith Lord named Darth Nilhilus who apparently cannot speak English and wears a pretty cool mask. He's an apprentice to Darth Traya. He puts up a good fight and goes down. After you blow up his Sith ship you have to go down to Malachor V to confront Darth Traya and her other apprentice Darth Scion. Darth Scion is a Sith Lord with powers that allow him to come back to life every time he dies. So you have to kill him a few times. Then you fight and defeat Kreia or Darth Traya and the game end. She tells you that by killing her she has succeeded in training you in the Darkside and that nothing could make her happier. Pretty bad feelings huh? That's the path of the Darkside. All in all, a great story. I wouldn't say its better than the first one but its much darker in terms of themes and story-lines. What a game!

What I think of Call of Duty Advanced Warfare

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     I beat Call of Duty Advanced Warfare just the other day. I didn't think I was the type of FPS (first person shooter) gamer. You know, all those kids on Xbox live who talk shit and yell into the mike when they play Call of Duty Games. Those kids are annoying and give the Call of Duty series a bad name. Never the less, Advanced Warfare might be the best Call of Duty game since Black Ops. I played the heck out of Black Ops with a friend of mine I met online. If you don't want the story spoilers then don't read any further. 

     The story is simple minded but the interesting thing about it is that it features Kevin Spacey as the leader of this military outfit called Atlas. Your character was part of the marines but you lost your arm in a mission and your best friend, who's Kevin Spacey's son dies. At the funeral Spacey gives you a card and says to see you to get your life back.
     So you meet up with Spacey at his Atlas place and he gives you a mechanical arm and decides you should join Atlas. I won't spoil the story too much but basically Spacey turns out to be a bad guy and you end up joining  a renegade outfit to stop him. It's a little cliche that the good guy turns out to be the bad guy but that's pretty much the story, it doesn't really get anymore complicated than that. However, that doesn't mean that the game-play wasn't fun even if the story was a little lacking in creativity and the character simply had no personality whatsoever.
     The cool thing about this game is that you have an exo-suit that allows you to perform special abilities. You have a jet-pack that allows you to double jump. You have a move where you can move to the left and the right really quick. In addition, you have cloaking and an ability that slows down everything so you can carefully aim down the sight and kill a bunch of guys really fast. This stuff is all really cool and its even in multiplayer.
     The multiplayer is where this game really shines. I would say this is the best part of the game even though I have barely scratched the surface of load-outs, custom weapon slots, and exo-abilities. I know this game will definitely became a big game in E-sports and MLG (Major League Gaming). If I could give this game a rating I would give it a 4 out of 5. It's so good. Although the single player campaign is a bit bland, the multiplayer definitely makes up for it. Great game!