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honestgamer
It's not all an elaborate ruse, some misguided attempt to establish for myself an online persona of dubious quality. I really am dull. If you don't find that unbearable, though, this is my blog that examines just how truly boring I can be.

Title: No Russian - My Reaction
Posted: November 12, 2009 (11:56 AM)
After reading my Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 review, Lewis asked what I as a person thought about the "No Russian" mission. If you haven't played through the game, you should stop reading at this point. In my review, I describe the nature of the mission early in the game and discuss much of what provides its shock value. You can read that if you're curious about a good overview, but I tried to avoid the most significant spoilers. Here, I will do no such thing. You have been warned.

My general response to "No Russian" when I first played through it was that it was unnecessarily violent and thrown into the game for little reason but to shock. It managed to do precisely that, too; within the first 30 seconds, I was feeling slightly queasy because of the sheer detail. Grand Theft Auto has let me mow down civilians standing in line on a sidewalk and that was kind of fun. Here, just watching the civilians standing at the airport and crumpling to the ground as they bled out on the tile floors was a bit much. It evokes a different response because it's not cartoony. It's credible. Though I might enjoy causing mayhem in GTA games, I don't cherish the idea of hurting anyone in real life. Call of Duty feels real enough to make me uncomfortable.

As I noted in my review, that was likely the intended effect. When I first played through the game and felt that the mission was just there for shock value, it's because: 1) it did shock me; 2) it didn't feel connected to anything up to that point. It was the third mission and at that stage in the game, the areas that I was asked to explore felt random. There was no connection between them and I had begun to think that Infinity Ward didn't have any plans to produce an actual narrative thread. If that had continued throughout the remainder of the game, I would probably have appreciated "No Russian" a great deal less than I did. As anyone who has finished the campaign knows, though, the msision represents the start of a sharp and interesting narrative that builds carefully upon that groundwork.

When Malakov killed the 'hero' character at the end of the "No Russian" stage, that was a bit of a moral statement. He'd had the chance to shoot Malakov in the head several times during the mission. Wouldn't that have done something to end the carnage? It could have, and wasn't the whole goal of this mission to get close to Malakov and possibly eliminate him? Following orders for the greater good seems less heroic when it means that so many people will die, when there's no clear reason to watch as so many innocent people go down in a hail of bullets.

And of course, from there the game expands on a lot of things along those lines, including a reminder that history is written by the victors. It's a powerful and worthwhile point as the game reminds the player--with help from that "No Russian" mission, but also others--that the people who go on to be hallowed as heroes can do some awful things. In a way, it felt like a call to tolerate only the best behavior from our modern military, on a worldwide level.

Other forms of media have made such efforts, but this marks the first time that a video game has done so in such a convincing fashion. I've seen people viciously call the game "an expansion pack" and criticize it as worthless, but I have a hard time understanding those responses to a game that not only improves on nearly everything its predecessor did, one that provides a whole slew of new levels and--most of all--one that manages to spark genuine thought about matters weightier than spawn locations or weapon mods.

As I noted in my review, I don't know that I care to play through that mission again. If I repeat the campaign mode--which I may, since overall it rocks so much--I will likely skip "No Russian" now that I've already seen it. I don't think that there's much point in playing through it multiple times, but it's something that accomplished a lot by existing in its current form and I hope that people who experience it will respond seriously (in the nature that I believe was intended) rather than gloating about how many kills they managed. If gamers are willing to respond with more than just "it's only a video game" and actually consider things on a deeper level, then Infinity Ward has accomplished something worthwhile.

Of course, that's a bit optimistic. I actually feel uneasy abouth ow the public at large will respond to this game, once the wrong oblivious parent buys it and walks through the living room one day to see a deviant child giggling and mowing down tourists. The only real question is how long it will take that ignorant parent to complain to Fox News and say "But there was never any warning!"

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Title: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Posted: November 10, 2009 (03:56 AM)
Wow, Modern Warfare 2 is intense! I just finished the single-player campaign, with my time weighing in at just under 7 hours, and I have to say that Infinity Ward really has managed to bring the intensity. The first Modern Warfare had its moments, but not like you'll find here. Whether or not that makes for a better game this time around is of course a matter of opinion. I expect that people will debate it for a long time to come.

As far as multi-player goes, I have played it locally with my brother-in-law and we had some good fun. There are 16 different areas available to choose from, so more than enough to keep us busy for a long while. I like that local play is supported, but I'll probably get the most use out of the game online... once I have my Xbox 360 hooked up again. I played on my HD set, but that meant no online play because I don't have the super-expensive wireless receiver yet. That'll happen soon enough. Hopefully.

I expect to review the game sometime soon, once I've spent a decent amount of time online. If online holds up the way it seems likely that it will, this is another stellar CoD game that easily justifies its price tag. Anyone else have it yet?

Game of the Day: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Title: Quickie Preview - Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble
Posted: October 21, 2009 (05:09 PM)
If you're interested in Atlus games, check out my quickie preview for Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble, which Atlus demonstrated for me awhile back. It took me awhile to find time to write this up, but I'm pretty happy with the result:

http://www.honestgamers.com/systems/content.php?preview_id=76&gametitle=Kenka+Bancho%3A+Badass+Rumble

I'm not convinced that the game will be some sort of marvel like Demon's Souls was. The two aren't really in the same league. But this new game should be good for brawler fans. Not much of anyone else, really, but that's okay. Brawler fans need love too and this looks like it could fit the bill.

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Title: I'm still very active, in case you wondered...
Posted: October 03, 2009 (03:12 AM)
I haven't been able to spend as much time directly on the HonestGamers site over this last week as I would have liked, and unfortunately that won't change much over the next 2 to 3 weeks or so. Here's why:

1) I'm working on the Demon's Souls guide for another outlet. It pays teh bills, plus I'm loving the game and having reasonable success in creating a fantastic guide. I also will get a review out of the whole deal (a review that will appear exclusively on HonestGamers shortly after the game's launch).

2) When I'm not working on the guide, I often have to be at work for my wretched day job. That's going to be even worse starting the day after tomorrow, as I've got two weeks in a row to look forward to where I have 40-hour schedules... this despite me being a 20-hour worker. I hate these long weeks, even under the best of circumstances. They drain everything out of me and it's all I can do to not spend all of my outside time sleeping or watching TV. My day job makes me understand why people might turn to alcohol.

So anyway, those two reasons will keep me from being as active on the site as I'd like, but you don't need to worry that I'm no longer paying attention or motivated to keep things moving forward. I just might not comment as much in threads that interest me, or in response to blog posts or whatever else. I won't likely post as many news stories, either (as you've probably noticed the last 2 days or so).

I'm still around, though, still excited by some of the content that I see coming from you all. I look forward to being more visible again in another three weeks or so--and itermittently in between--when I hope to be able to produce more reviews and catch up on some things I can't spend much time with just now.

Why the update? I feel like you all deserve it. The site won't go anywhere without your continued support and I appreciate the way you've all been pitching in with such excellent content. I don't want you thinking that I'm turning my interests to other things, because I'm absolutely not. The site remains my priority and with any luck, the next year or two will see a lot more growth and a lot of the sort of stuff that can keep everyone excited about continuing to be involved in the HonestGamers project. That's one reason I'm spending as much time as I can right now to take on side projects. The sooner I get enough money to pay down my debts, the sooner I can brush annoying personal stuff to the side and really buckle down to push the site forward.

Anyway, that's enough of all of that. Thanks for your ongoing support, all of you. Let's keep having fun with this!

Mood: exhausted
Game of the Day: Demon's Souls
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Title: Recent purchases...
Posted: September 19, 2009 (04:01 PM)
I made two purchases recently and I felt bad doing it when I'm trying to put away money to pay off debts, but at the same time I consider them necessary. They are:

1) External hard drive. I now have a 320GB hard drive that was on super sale where I work (so I got a discount on top of that, too). It's a Toshiba brand and it was necessary because my laptop had gotten to the point where I couldn't even browse the Internet for long without the temporary files filling up the last bit of my hard drive. Not a good way to operate, methinks. Plus I couldn't back up the site's image and guide files because I had no room. Now I do and that intolerable condition can stop.

2) iPod Touch. I've wanted a proper iPod for a long, long time... one that's not the old iPod shuffle a customer literally threw at me when he came into the store where I worked to get it repaired. It was named "piece of crap" and he swore it didn't work, but of course it was an excellent iPod and worked just fine.

I need more, though, specifically because I'm tired of turning down iPod games that we could be reviewing (some of which even looked somewhat interesting). Now I can safely accept games from publishers because I know that if no one else can review them, I can. Though... I'm not sure most of the available reviewers even have an iPod Touch.

I got the new iPod on a clearance price at the local Wal-Mart, possibly because of a corporate error, so the cost for the iPod and the external hard drive together came to... well, more than I wanted to spend, but a lot less than they could have been.

Of course, those purchases set me back a bit and I now need to sell off a few more games so I'm not in the hole at the end of the month, but I expect that I will get a metric ton of use out of both items so it's justified. Knowing that if the site server crashes I can still have a backup is peace of mind that justifies everything, anyway, plus now I can listen to music while I work on the site, my fiction or guides without conflicting sound issues on my laptop. Good times, all around...

Anyway, now it's time to see what games I feel like selling. I think there are a few good candidates and a few I'll definitely miss, but I did the right thing.

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Title: I'm still enjoying Section 8...
Posted: September 16, 2009 (04:13 PM)
After writing a guide for the game's single-player campaign for IGN, I spent more time with the game--specifically online--so that I could produce a well-rounded review for the site. That full review is newly available right here:

http://www.honestgamers.com/systems/content.php?review_id=8393&gametitle=Section+8

It's just shy of 1400 words, which might be a longer read than some have in mind, so here's the short version: Section 8 is a pretty nice way to pass the time online if you had to sell your copy of Call of Duty 4 and you got a copy of Section 8 for free.

There's no doubt in my mind that Call of Duty 4 is the better game, but I do quite enjoy my time with Section 8. It's better than, say, Halo 3. Then again, what isn't better than Halo 3? The list is pretty short, I'd wager.

Mood: cheerful
Game of the Day: Section 8
Song of the Day: Hard Day's Night - The Beatles
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Title: Concerning the Beatles...
Posted: September 11, 2009 (03:28 PM)
What's your favorite album? You already know that 09-09-09 marked the release of The Beatles: Rock Band, the first rhythm game to incorporate Beatles music, but of course that game is missing a lot of their music despite having a generous track list.

You probably already know (or maybe not) that they've digitally remastered all of the albums from the group and are releasing them individually or as part of a box set throughout North America (and, I would presume, other regions nearer and dearer to the hearts of many Beatles fans). This looks like the best time in the last 30 years or so to collect and enjoy Beatles music.

My personal hope is to own all 14 releases (the 14th is a two-disc collection of Beatles music that didn't make it to albums, as far as I can tell), but that'll be awhile yet. I am a man of limited resources. Thanks to terrific sales locally and some coupons I had lying around, I have most of the discs and will be going through them over the next few weeks, most likely. There's no point in rushing things.

As I get ready to do that, I wondered what some other folks here are doing, if anything. Will you be buying some of the remastered releases--which come with original cover art and liner notes, by the way--or do you already have the Beatles music you care about? Do you have a favorite record? I'd love to hear!

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Title: CrispyGamer doesn't agree with New York Times game writer
Posted: September 10, 2009 (06:04 PM)
So, some guy who writes for The New York Times in its "Games" section wrote a review of The Beatles: Rock Band that is possibly the worst review ever written. CrispyGamer comments on such things here:

http://www.crispygamer.com/features/2009-09-10/those-games-mean-nothing-to-me.aspx

I read through the whole article and, if you're serious about games criticism, I suggest that you do the same. After you've done so, I hope that you'll come back here to share your thoughts. I'm interested in hearing what some of you think.

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Title: Review number 500 is posted...
Posted: August 25, 2009 (01:02 PM)
Well, I've now officially posted my 500th review on the site, excluding old reviews that I deleted a long time ago. I find it fitting that the game I reviewed was Nintendo-published, since Nintendo is the company that ignited my passion for games and my desire to write about them more than 20 years ago. I'd hoped that the 500th game would be something special, but I wasn't going to go out of my way to make that happen. Fortunately, Nintendo managed to make it happen for me. Metroid Prime Trilogy arrived here a week ago and enjoying its content these past few days has been a real treat.

I announced awhile back that I would be cutting back on my reviewing, and that's still the plan... but first you can look forward to a bunch more reviews spaced out over the next several weeks. I may have psyched myself out a bit regarding the magical 500th review. Now, for better or worse, it's written. Anything I write now is just a bonus and hopefully I can fall into a comfortable groove again where every new review doesn't feel like pulling teeth.

Unless at some point in the distant future I find myself within spitting distance of 1000 reviews, I've probably passed the last benchmark in that regard that I'll ever set. Maybe now I can just go back to having fun with it. :-)

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Title: Just what I needed...
Posted: August 23, 2009 (11:30 PM)
So, I'm apparently coming down with a cold again. Two nights ago, I felt it starting and I drank a lot of echinacea tea and orange juice. It seemed to fight it off and last night I felt just fine. Today, I felt the cold coming back and I drank some tea and orange juice but to no avail. It managed to get a hold. Tonight at work, I could feel the cold getting worse by the minute and now it's a full-blown cold. I've made myself soup and I'm drinking OJ and tea, but I think for the first time in something like 15 years, I'm destined to have two miserable colds in a single year. Crap...

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