3 Games, No Exams and A Yearbook For Good Measure

My exams finished a bit under a week ago, but I've been a bit occupied, so I haven't been able to blog(until now).

In order of importance, here are the sins that occupied my time:
1)Jade Empire
2)Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2
3)Mass Effect - leading to PC problems somehow T_T
4)Sisyphean tasks

I might as well start explaining the items on this list, so lets go.

First and foremost, the Jade Empire I refer to is an RPG by Bioware. It's an epic RPG with an Asian mythological framework. In other words, it's Knights of the Old Republic + Buddha + Bruce Lee. I love the gameplay, it's pretty good. For those of you who are wondering, it's like maybe 3 or 4 years old (I'm not 100% sure). The story is a bit cliche though...but that doesn't make it any less fun to beat up some ghosts or Imperial soldiers. I recently beat the game following the Way of the Open Palm(simply put: what would be called the Light side in KOTOR).

I now want to replay it as a follower of the Closed Fist style(you guessed it, the Dark Side). The game dresses it up saying that Open Palm isn't necessarily good, while Closed Fist isn't necessarily evil, but I never really bothered myself with the technicalities.

Bioware, despite having this little problem with avoiding RPG cliches, are really masterful storytellers. I was impressed by KOTOR, and I'm impressed by Jade Empire. I'd give it a 9 out of 10.

You guys should totally check it out. Here's a gameplay video:



I know I'm a bit late in getting around to playing Modern Warfare 2, alright? Geez...pushy bastards. In my opinion, the game deserves the amount of hype it has been getting. However, while the multiplayer is quite fun, the single player story is pretty neat. If Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy got together to make a game, this would totally be it. It has quite a few adrenaline-filled, fast paced moments just like what you'd expect to see in the hottest military action movies; from escaping Russians in a snowmobile to chasing down arms dealers in Brazilian slums to sex scenes, there's something in it for everyone. Well, everything apart from the last thing on that list. :P



Now, we move on to Mass Effect, the third item on our list. Before I start, I'm going to say, I never finished it. In fact, I don't think I did 10% of the game. Why?

F**king HAX!!

Well no, not really. But it was buggy and my PC is a bit crappy; it crashed quite a few times while I was trying to play the game...so I'll probably put off playing it to sometime in the not-so-distant future. Still, from what I saw so far, I liked it. The film grain effect was slightly annoying (don't worry, you can turn it off, and you'll probably get used to it anyway). However, I kept it on, and was richly rewarded during cutscenes (such as conversations with NPCs and the like). It REALLY adds an element of realism to the looks of the characters. Well, the human characters anyway. Turians look a bit unnerving to me, film grain or not.

Somehow my PC got screwed up when I was playing Mass Effect. It blue screened and reset a couple times. Long story short, System Restore FTW!! Thankfully, I'd done a restore point on like the 4th of June (not to my knowledge...the system restore fairy was really looking out for me on that one), so I didn't really lose much (apart from my dignity...this is the first time I've EVER had to use system restore since it came as a feature -_-).

Now, I've saved the painful part for last. I am now finished with Community College. It will be official when I actually finish the graduation ceremony, which will be held on the 27th of June. Oh, no...wait, that wasn't the painful part...that should have been at the top heheheh.



We're not getting a yearbook. Why? I dunno. I don't know of any other years that got one though. I have decided to change that. I've started to round up a bunch of friends to make a yearbook. I can't believe that a school would just let us go like that (despite the fact we're only too glad to leave) without a yearbook. It's just so...gauche. Anyway, I've decided to step in and fix their gaffe. I'm not as insouciant about these things as I may look.

With luck, it should be done by the week after the graduation ceremony. To keep costs down, we intend to distribute it digitally. I'll let you guys know how that pans out. So far, I have some awesome people willing to help. Here's to hoping.

Risen from the Dead,
Lord Robinson

P.S. For those of you who don't know what a Sisyphean task is
go wild.