My Free Time . . . .

I have a moment so I figured that I would make a long over due blog entry. . . .

So lately in my free time I have been playing a lot of video games and I have beaten Half-Life 2 (Half-Life 2, episode one and episode two), TimeShift(no, this is not a typo, it's one word with a capital S), Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and I'm working on Bioshock at the moment.

Half-Life 2:

Pros: It has a good storyline that engages you, superb voice acting, awesome graphics and VERY realistic facial expressions for a FPS (especially Alyx).

Cons: The driving in this game sucks hardcore. They really could have put a little more effort into the driving aspect. At least in the PS3 version there are some bugs that should have been worked out during development that include: Framerate slowage on occasion and static in the audio at times that's very random and annoying. The framerates are understandable but the audio is unacceptable.

Other: This game is insanely hard and frustrating at times. Save often, because you will die . . . a lot. Even at the end of Episode Two they leave you hanging for the last episode which isn't even out yet. Why can't they hurry up and release it? (>_<)

Score: 8.5/10

TimeShift:

Pros: Decent graphics, solid framerates, and ammo crates! (^_^)

Cons: The vegetation doesn't look very realistic and the lack of anti-aliasing on the shadows makes it hard to see sometimes. The driving in this game is pretty bad, although it's not quite as bad as Half-Life 2. The voice acting is pretty bad and the enemies are unrealistically hard to kill (I'm sorry, but if someone gets shot a pointblank rang with a shotgun, that someone is not going to be getting back up, I don't care who you are or what armor you have). It becomes a waste of ammo just being thorough and clearing the levels.

Other: The story is almost a copy of Half-Life 2. In both games you are physicists that you don't know much about, you have similar looking girlfriends, you have similar suits that have almost the same computer voices, and the similarities go on. The only difference is the feel and the plot.

Score: 7/10

Motorstorm: Pacific Rift:

Pros: Fun off-road racing. Good graphics, good music, no cheesy weapons and nice feel.

Cons: This game is RIDICULOUSLY HARD! The first 2/3 of the races can be won without much problem but the last third are almost impossible to get all gold medals. It wouldn't be that bad if you didn't care and you were happy with the bronzes and silvers when you got them, but if you want the "get all the gold medals" trophy you're going to be having some heartache and frustration. The speed system also is not very realistic. My car had a 5 star rating and I was neck and neck with a car that had a 4 star rating and we both slammed on the boost at the same time on the final straight and he won by at least 3 car lengths. You do the math.

Other: I don't think that semi trucks or monster trucks should be in the game to save on realism, what little of it is left, anyway.

Score: 8/10

I haven't beat Bioshock yet so I can't give a review yet. I will when I do, but it might be awhile though. I like exploring too much.

I watched The Ring the other night, and I have always been curious about what The Ring Two was like so I watched it last night and so I will write review for that too.

The Ring Two:

The plot sucked hardcore. The first one at least made some sense. The second one at the end leaves you scratching your head and wondering about all the loose ends.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Like why in the world did Samara want a mom so bad? Why did she possess Aidan when she pulled him into the TV, but when she pulled in Rachael in she was fine and was able to escape? Why was Samara's mom the "The patron saint for you people"? And why did he also say, "Everyone who visits knows that song she hums"? Does that mean that Samara went around possessing a bunch of kids while the moms figured out who Samara's mother was and went to visit her in the mental hospital? What was up with Samara being afraid of drowning when her ghost is basically made up of water and her calling card is water on the floor? They made it seem like at the end that they really did get rid of her for good but what about all the other tapes that got made? What was up with the world inside the TV? That made no sense at all. Why did she have to jump off the cliff to escape? I know they were trying to reference the fact that the tape showed Samara's adopted mother jumping off the cliff and committing suicide, but what does that have to with escaping the TV world? And lastly, why didn't that teenage boy in the beginning like that girl he was on a date with? She was quite the looker. He was a jerk anyway, I'm glad he died . . . .

Score: 4/10

{Peace}