Past, Present, and Dragons

     Today I dove deep into the clutter that I call my room. I combat dust and piles of stuff. Things from the past consume this space in a seemly endless void of what once was. I find amongst my many papers, handouts, and old assignments, stories of old. Things I wrote either as assignments for the one creative writing class I could actually take or things I would jot down whilst a professor would go on about this thing or that. Because of a recent illness my adventure had to be cut short as to not force a relapse but interesting things I found. A rare poem I wrote about a Ronin. A sort of space opera that I only completed the first few chapters of. Many fond memories and many painful ones.
     These past years have been hard. Life swings and swings hard. Many times have I been knocked down thinking I couldn't get back up. Hiding the pain that would often torment me. Trying to be strong for those that couldn't. Trying to show compassion, concealing rage in situations where I had no power to help the situation. The thing is I always got back up. I always get back up. No matter how hard I'm hit, how tough the struggle I persevere. I have to, if I don't they who will. We grow weak and complacent in an era that is wrought with perceived slights. A teen here gets called a name then the next day kills themselves never to think of the harm they inflict to those around them. We have be come a society of self-centered people and no one wants to stand on there own or take responsibility. Life is tough. Its far tougher than most people realize and what people don't understand is that everything is not just handed to you. Sometimes you have to take a few Haymakers to win the fight. Sometimes you have to get knocked down before you can truly stand. But when you do, you realize that life is a thing worth living. Bullies come and go as do victories, losses, loved ones, and even memories. Life takes much...but life also gives as much back you just have to be willing to reach out and grasp what is put before you.
     My best advice is to always get back up. Dust yourself off and keep moving. Stagnation and self loathing are our greatest enemies and only when you can clearly see what the problem is can you move forward and address it. Stay strong. Chin up.
     In other adventures my brother got me Dragon Age: Inquisition for my birthday. I am about 30 hours in...yes you read that right 3 0 hours and I don't even think that I'm half way. I know what you're thinking though, "Oh that is just a bunch of filler no way can the game be fun and that long". Well I will agree that there is a lot of what could be considered "filler", many many side quests but they aren't just thrown together things they fell like they belong. The story is interesting I played Dragon Age: Origins but I haven't played any others so many of the Dragon Age 2 jokes and references are lost on me but that's okay I enjoy them anyway. The part of the game that I find most enjoyable though is the inner character interactions. Your party members will occasionally talk amongst one another and often times to rather comical ends. I will abstain from a final verdict on this game until I finish it but it is promising so far.

If there is anything you would like to see. Games, stories, ect. Drop a comment here and I will try to accommodate.

New Beginnings

      Well much time has passed since last I laid fingers to keys and brought forth my adventures. My last great adventure which has cost me many a year and much of my sanity has finally come to an end so I turn once again to here a medium of which to post my thoughts and bring you once more my adventures.
       This post will be a relatively short update of my current situation. After the darkest of storms, better known as college, I find my self in temporarily calm seas. I find myself "educated" at least that is what the piece of paper says. I find myself looking toward new horizons and back at old potentials. I am currently looking for a new job. My current one is fine but I find that I am in need of employment that will at least cover health insurance. Hopefully such opportunity will soon arise but until then I act, cautiously trying to avoid disastrous illness as much has wrought my family in the past few years. A few years back shortly after this blog went silent I was in a car wreck that messed up my back and knees. These past few years have been hard but one must always persevere. I now have a degree....it's in English but tis a degree none the less.
       I hope to sharpen my writing skills once more upon this medium for the experience that it brings. I know few if any ever watched this and that is fine but I will try and continue to write. If I happen to brighten someones day in the process than that is good enough for me. If not then I am terribly sorry. Soon I hope to lean into new areas more open to the masses to try to bring happiness.

       Even though my days have been dark I have not stopped and always continue to move. I have many more video games under my belt than I had before and hope to once again start bringing back some reviews and adventures. As for me this evening brings back an adventure of old. We bring forth our armaments to fight the monovision menace. Iron Brigade was a game I played several years back and loved to death. It was fun and different from much of what I've played. The largest downside of the game was that it was possessed by the evil demon known as Games for Windows Live which would never allow me to connect properly to my friends. But the tides of battle always turn eventually and Double Fine finally got their game back and it now plays with Steam supported Multiplayer so fingers cross. Also for anyone interested it is on sale for but a few dollars on Steam right now so if you've never had the chance to play this gem I suggest jumping on it!

Well until next time!

In the Borderlands.....Prepare for the Hunt.

   Hello readers I know I know I promised that you would have an update by the end of last week. But I was overwhelmed with school work and other things going on over here but I did make some time to play Borderlands. So lets get this started. Borderlands is set on the planet Pandora a wasteland of a planet similar to the planet setting in the anime Trigun or similar to the post-apocolyptic wasteland of Fallout 3 but unlike Fallout 3 it is less serious visually using an art style similar to the FarCry games.

    Borderlands is for XBox 360, PS3, and PC giving all range of game players options. The game starts out allowing you to choose 1 of 4 playable characters and gives you the ability to co-op with up to 4 friends via system link or two split screen.

   So from left to right first you have Roland as the Soldier. Roland is your normal assault gun using shotgun toting character. His special technique the Scorpio Turret is a standard burst fire machine gun turret with shielding out to either side allowing for cover for all who need it. Roland is a great character to play he's well rounded with the ability to mod his health, shields, and turrent. His various abilities can make him anything from your teams tank to your teams support healer.
   Next we come to Lilith as the Siren with her special ability phasewalk she can become invisible and move at very quick speeds causing an energy blast/wave when going in and out of the move. Lilith specialty is elemental weapons this means that she is not limited to any specific weapon type but she does to considerable damage with elemental weapons making her a spectacular support character as she can do considerable damage to any enemy given the appropriate element. She is also a good solo character but because of the need to swap weapons to do considerable damage she may be left vulnerable in a fire fight.
   Onward and on to the little guy with the big gun we have Mordecai as the Hunter. Mordecai is your resident sniper specializing in sniper rifles and revolvers and with his special ability/pet bloodwing a bird that will attack near-by foes. Mordecai's abilities allow him to upgrade his accuracy, mag size, and bloodwing skills but in doing so leaves him extremely vulnerable to close combat enemies limiting his (very effective) weapon choices. To make up for this deficite I suggest either leveling up your assault rifle or smg skill for the closer combat. Now Mordecai excels most of all at support for your group not so much as your healer or your tank or your stealth character but as your long range support stopping most enemies from getting anywhere near your group.
   And finally we have Brick as himself. Brick is your heavy arms character specializing in rocket launchers and "his fists" as the game loves to tell you. Brick's special skill is Berserk this skill makes you highly resistant to all damage, it also makes you extremely fast but you are limited to using your fist. Now while in Berserk you think bah what good are your fists well there as good as any rocket to the face says I. This is your tank of the group no doubt about it as he by far has the best health and is most difficult to take out. Now while rockets and your fists are a fun combo the max ammo capacity for rockets is lacking and even with high def and health once you run out of rockets your fists will only bring you so far (in bricks case maybe a mile or two) so I think assault rifles or shotguns will be a good supplemental weapon.

Now I know what your thinking you've told us about the characters what about the weapons. Well you have a few different kinds of weapons that you can lvl up in those are Pistols (repeaters and revolvers), SMG's, Assault Rifles, Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, Rocket Launchers and Alien Weapons. Between all of theses weapons your liable to find hundreds or even thousands of variations of the different types of guns. Also yes you do have grenades and many variations of them. And for those who dont know this is an FPS RPG a true rarity.

Now I've given you bare minimum for your intro into the Borderlands. So here's the final scores.
Gameplay: 10/10 (outstanding gameplay very smooth)
Graphics: 9/10 (kinda stuns you if you dont know whats comming as its is an uncommon art type)
Story: 9/10 (the story is fun and you never really know what to expect)
Fun: 10/10 (this game is fun what can I tell ya)
Replay Value: 10/10 (even for the lone player you have to play it through at least 4 times and if your co-oping there is an infinate amount of replay value)


So theres some basics and review minus spoilers on Borderlands. Next week hopefully Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Well now that its taken me an hour and a half to write this I'm kinda tired so I leave you with this.
Yall have fun and keep good faith in your competitive game play and if you have any replys as I dont think the comments are working right here you can post a comment on my facebook here: FACEBOOK PAGE

Started out Depressing ended up Insane

   Ugh so today I felt pretty bad I wasn't sick or anything it was just "one of those days" where every thing feels a bit off. So today I kinda felt like downing one of these bad boys, I was in such a rut. --->

   So I went to school got through class and played a bit of halo. Today was not a good day for me in halo. There were many swords and rockets to my back. There were a few funnies such as learning that shotgun deflects plasma grenades and that you can bounce off the floor when you lunge with a sword but not many outstanding kills.
Todays top kill: Todays top kill was inevatably a four-way KO, I charged in with shotgun looking for opponents when Seth rocket launcher in hand fires one at less than 15ft. Weeeell at the same time Antoine jumped down to kill me with a hammer successfully killing both me and Seth but in the process the rocket deflected into the last players face at a close range killing them both. Who got the most of those kills I honestly could not tell you but it was kinda epic.

   After goofing around at school for a bit I went home to take a nap before work hoping to wear off the bad feeling before I got to work. Well that didnt work infact it made it worse so I went in with a bad mood. So went to work found out we were undermanned on cashiers (of which I used to be and still work close to) and the two working had been there all day ( I came in at 3 we open at 8). This is what happens when idiots make schedules and were forced to follow them D: . So I stood at my podium thingy were I greet people and make sure no one runs off with stuff and two of the guys from the team sports department come to the front of the store yelling at each other. Then a manager comes up (note: they are right in front of the entrance not 5ft away from it or me) and tries to figure out the situation (which was just some trivial BS). So I'm standing there and thank god there was no customers comming in at the moment and very few at the checkout lanes and these two are screaming at each other like children and I finally had enough. I wasn't going to have these two disturb the customers and in honestly I would have just liked to hit both of them, so I came up to them and said, "Hey guys do you think you can do this somewhere else!!!" Well one of them snapped at me which kinda made me giggle ( I'm crazy ) but the manager took them to the back. Well that event was over but we still were down cashiers and needed to get the two working off the clock so I find someone who can "cash them out" and I jump on register to hold down the fort with the lead cashier at customer service. Well for about an hour and a half passed before we could get some more cashiers in but we finally got them and for the most part the rest of the night although hectic was more or less uneventful. Well that is until some poor guys (poor = unfortunate) came in with a CO2 canister that had "blown" ( the safety valve popped ) they told me, " We were driving down the highway and I reached down to pick up my drink and then boom and the car filled up with smoke soo fast and I couldn't see anything and we almost got in a wreck." Well at this point I was sympathetic but trying really hard not to laugh. But we fixed them up and the night ended .

Whew well now that your eyes are bleeding from this insanely
long post I'll leave you with two fun pics.

Religion well here's a good outlook on it.

Remember it's always a trap when it involves soap and a shower. Never become a victim of surprise butt sex.

Rain is nice but rain and no fun is not.

Well today was a blah day class was slow, and it rained all day long made me kinda sad :(.
So unfortunately not much news today maybe tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow maybe some halo 3 multiplayer war stories.

I do have a new game I plan on buying sometime next week. So next week there maybe a new game review on Borderland.

So people today I leave you with a L4D tip: Remember get the pills before Lewis because this is what he does with them.

Combatants of the Grandest of Arenas

It's been a few days since my last post sorry but I really haven't done much in the past few days.
So whats going on I'm back at school and work woohoo. Today I acquired information on all my missed work which is surprisingly small :). So daily at school (usually) someone will bring a XBox 360 or PS3 and we will play some Halo, Call of Duty or Soul Cal. 4 and today was no different in that respect a good friend of mine Cameron brought his XBox and some controlers and I brought some controllers and Halo 3 multiplayer disk that comes with ODST. We played a few matches with a clear cut winner for most of them, which was me. Another good friend of mine came in to play a match or two and quickly turned those tables though but I am a good sport and mainly play for fun.
In the "gameroom" as we call it there is a regular group of people who all love games or love to watch the matches and smack-talk involved in each round. Of that higher-archy of gamers in Halo 3 there are three players that rank above and beyond all the other players (which can make some very interesting matches).
Rank #1:
Nick - A true demon of halo he's the highest ranked live player and an overall weapons specialist(even though hes color blind).
Rank #2:
Seth - Our resident metal head he excels in one on one and is the secon highest ranked live player in our group.
Rank #3:
Me - last but not least is yours truely, I'm a heavy weapons and close-combat specialist and by far the most crazy of us, I'm about 3rd highest ranked of the rooms live players.
We do enjoy our halo and although it may seem a hostile environment we all have respect for each other and come for the fun of competition.


Now on to other things; today we had a very interesting set of guys come in to the "gameroom" guys I had never seen before but they looked like they wanted to have some fun with our group. Unfortunately  Cameron had already left with his XBox and we were currently gameless :(. But they had a solution....Yes thats right the spunky little underdog of the console wars the Nintendo Wii. Now I know what your thinking what game could they possibly be playing on the Wii that is competitive well I'll tell you its Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In my oppinion one of the only good games on the wii (and yes I do own one and brawl is the one of two games i have that are any good). So these fine gentlemen came into our area and wished for a challenge and a challenge they got but have no illusions these guy brought there game with them and had us on the ropes most of the time. Out of 4 games I came in first once, second twice, and once in fourth. But it was a nice change in pace from the usual.

Today I also got to hang out with a friend that I rarely get to hang out with which made me happy, I gave them some anime and loaned them a game. I think it's nice to see friends you rarely get to see.

And work well what do you want to know it's work I work as security of a sort and it's a generally slow job but on occasion we get some fun character that come through that puts a smile on my face.

 So today I leave you with a smile on my face and I hope that some one or something can bring a smile to yours.

P.S. There is a comment area on the posts for those of you who watch this blog you can also comment directly to the blog :)

Puppies

Well along with gaming and other related things I also help breed dogs and we had a litter last night. Generally this doesnt give me much time to do anything but I was able to get in a little bit of gaming.

So here we go:
The game I played is an oldie but a goodie:

Soul Calibur 2 (GC): It's been quite a few years since I last played this and was quite surprised by the pace when compared against Soul Calibur 4. Soul Calibur 2 is fast pace and makes 4 seem like your going in slow-mo. The combos are easier to use in this game but no combo is easy with the gamecube controler and its odd button configuration. Your main storyline is under weapon master mode where you will fight a large number of baddies to reach the end. Once you reach the end though you have to do it all over again on an even higher difficulty. Now I've never been great at fighting games so that makes this one special to me I may not know all of the combos but I do know enough to grind you into a bloody pulp with Talim or send you flying off the stage with the great throws supplied by Link.

If your looking to play an older fighter then I definitely suggest this one. You can find it on XBox, GameCube, and PS2 with special characters Spawn, Link and Heihachi respectively.

Also just in case you were wondering we breed weimaraners a type of german hunting dog.