I've just rented "Half-Blood Prince" for the Wii. Not too bad, but when I checked out "Deathly Hallows P1", I was horrified. It's basically a FPS but instead of guns, its wands. W-what has happened here!? Let me recap the Harry Potter games. Socerer's Stone- I played this back on the first Playstation. During this time, I was new to videogames and had little patience to beat it. It was a good game, though. Chamber of Secrets- I loved this game. Even though there was no free roam, I still loved going out and flying on a broom whenever. Prisoner of Askaban- This. This, right here! This is how you make a Harry Potter game! Free roam, able to play as Harry, Ron, and Hermione...I remember flying around Hogwarts on Buckbeak with either Harry or Hermione, exploring the castle multiple times. It almost felt like I was playing a Zelda game. Goblet of Fire- This is when they started to decline. Level based, and that weird card collection thing...I didn't beat it at all. Stopped playing when I was at the maze level. No longer are you allowed to fly outdoors whenever you wished. Order of the Phoenix- An improvement. Free-roaming returns, but sadly I can't play as the trio, only as Harry. At least I can play wizard's chest. Half-Blood Prince- Again, can only play as Harry. Quittich is rail-roaded like in CoS. There's really no sense of exploration. It feels more like "Go from point A to point B." Deathly Hallows P1- I don't think I want to play it. The game where Harry and co are pretty much wandering around the wizarding world/Muggle UK, EA let everyone down. I was hoping Bethesda would've taken over, but apparently not. I imagine the second half will be just like the first one. I'm just sad that this is how EA chooses to finish the Harry Potter series. It's like they just went "Y'know, screw it! We've been doing this since the days of the Playstation! Let's just get it over with!"
I just watched an old movie from 1995 called Operation: Dumbo Drop which was a Disney movie based on a real life event in the Vietnam War. Basically, some American soldiers are assigned the task of sending an elephant over to a village in time for their ceremony. The reviews just shocked me. Half of them were discussing the physics of dropping the elephant off of a plane strapped to a parachute, others were saying how it was appalling in its light poking in the horror that was the Vietnam War. Do these people not understand a comedy when they see it? Are they so uptight that they get offended by every single thing ever? There were at least two TV series made in the 1960s that were satirical comedy about two wars. Hogan’s’ Heroespoked fun at World War II, and M*A*S*H poked fun at the Korean War. Yet no one complained about those two like they do here. And guess what? Both WWII and the Korean War were terrible. All wars are terrible. If they wanted a true-to-life, gritty, realistic depiction of a war, then they should’ve looked elsewhere. This movie, like the TV series I mentioned, just plays lightly with the wars they are set in. I swear, people just love to get their feelings hurt at everything. It wasn’t like the movie was going “Oh look! Innocent people are getting hurt in the crossfire! HA! HA! HA! Too funny!!!” It was about a group of guys delivering an elephant across Vietnam. The plot was the elephant, not the war. Movies like this are a well-deserved break from the many, many war movies that are nothing but the realism of war. Know what? Someone ought to make a comedy movie set in the Civil War in 1863. A small band of five Union soldiers makes a promise to a dying man that they’d get his wife and little girl to safety. Problem is, they’re in Georgia. Safety that the man speaks of is Massachusetts. The soldiers must brave the elements, themselves and other Confederate soldiers as they accomplish this feat. The title? Race to Massachusetts It’s a comedy, not meant to be taken seriously. I can already here them whining now. “This movie makes the appalling judgment to bring comedy to a terrible war.” “Once again, we have a war movie where the Americans are the big damned heroes.” “So how are these guys not being put thorough military court for desertion and potentially being marked as traitors for helping this family of a Confederate soldier?”* Hey, it’s comedy. It’s not supposed to be taken seriously. * I may have to look into that one, though...
It's time once again for a review! Today we will review Fallout: New Vegas. On the whole, it's a lot better than Fallout 3. A hell of a lot better. In Fallout 3, the game was literally forcing me to go find my character's dad (despite the possibilty of me not caring about the character's dad). Not so in this game. In this game, I'm not forced on a set of railroad tracks leading up the grand finale where I simply MUST do something that maybe I or my character don't want to do (then be called a bad person by the narrator by not doing it). In this game, I feel like I'm free to make my own choices. If I decide to follow another path than the one I'm on, I can. For those who says this game is like Fallout 3, its not. The only thing that's the same are the graphics (they got a bit better) and the fact that your character has a pip-boy 3000. Sure the world map is a bit smaller than it was in Fallout 3, but it's much more richer. I actually feel like I'm a part of this world rather than just a means for an end. I rate this game a 9/10. =)
UNTIL I GET FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS!!! Plus, I also put the title there because in just a few days, it'll be the 10th anniversary of when The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask came out for the N64. Time sure does fly by. Maybe for Halloween, I'll beat the game one last time. I'll probably leave with so many fond memories. So, let's begin plotting out my New Vegas character. I think I'll have this character be a black woman named Eliza Gibson, specializing in medicene, small guns, and repairs. (Of course, she'll collect almost everything she puts her hands on and store them somewhere) I can't wait to see how this game will play out. Which faction Eliza's going to join. I'll role-play and do what she would most likely do, not what I would (which is probably to join the NCR.) What of Fallout 3? Well, after I tragically erased my level 18 character when I tried to start a new one, I'm not sure I want to go back there anymore. It had its time. Now, it's Eliza's time. Edit: Why did I wait until now to get the game? I had a 10-page paper to do and didn't want to be distracted.
Welcome back to My Thoughts on Beginning Writing. This is part II and here, we'll examine research, in particular if you're planning on writing historical fiction. Now, I'm a huge history buff, as you all probably know. So much that I am a stickler for details. If I wanted to write a historical fiction peice, I want to know exactly what they wore at the time, every little thing down to the type of boots and boot sizes they wore. (Anyone know Napoleon's? ) Of course, this has a great risk of strangling your creativity when you write. How so? Let's say I wanted to write a story set in 1950s America. All right, cool. Right after World War II. However, my stickler for detail creeps up on me and I have to know every single thing that has happened, and I mean everything. Births, deaths, weather conditons. Every single movie, every single TV show, every single radio, every single car, every single damn thing that came out in the 1950s. I'm left with so much stuff to research that I'm overwhelmed, panicked. How on earth am I going to even start my plot if I don't know precisely what the weather was on August, 13th, 1952 at 3:20 pm? If you're ever at this stage, stop. Calm down and take a deep breath. Firstly, the readers are not going to care what the temperature was on the afternoon of August, 13th, 1952. This is easy. Just go to a weather almanac online and look up the average temperature of the setting during that year. That's all you'd need to do. Now, about every other thing? Don't worry about them. The only thing you should be worried about is the plot. Just get the basics down like don't have your character pull out a laptop or pine for a gameboy as they didn't exist back then. For the record, boys back in the 50s were all excited about comic books. You can either make up your own comic book series for your characters or use a pre-existing one (but give credit to the creator(s)!!). In the first draft of the story, just write. Don't wonder if Howdy Doody was still going in 1952. Just write your character watching it and if it turned out that, whoops, it was canceled before 1952, then just replace the show with another. And here's one thing I've learned personally that I want to share to you: Don't think you have to address the political issues (I thought you had to, especially if your setting was in the middle of a war). You can ignore the fact that there's a Cold War going on as much as you please. Readers are, as shocking as it may seem, not morons. All they'd have to do is see the year 1952 or read hints that its set just after WWII and apply a basic knowledge of American history to guess what's going on now. While you're writing the first draft, jot down questions you might have, like was Howdy Doody still around by 1952. When you print it out and are editing it, take your paper of questions, go on the internet and look them up. EDIT: And if you were curious, Howdy Doody was running in 1952 and would keep running until 1960. EDIT II: In 1952, America was in its second year of the Korean War. Armistice followed in 1953. Then, the Vietnam War followed in 1955, lasting for twenty years to 1975.
I'm starting to learn more about the fourms I'm on in the last month than I have in the last six years I've been posting in fourms. So, just for amusement (and info if you're curious), here are the four things I've learnt from the fourms: #1- Avoid the political sections at all costs. 95% of the time, it's filled with morons who act like they're so knowledgeable about an issue and will argue relentlessly. Expect to see insults hurdled left and right like monkey crap as if the "be nice" rule read, "Feel free to insult, belittle, demean and bully everyone you disagree with as much as you want!" You'll leave insulted, upset, and angry at the "idiots who just don't get it". Unless you want to feel this way every day, stay out!! There is an entire rest of the fourm you can explore. #2- Ignore Button is your friend. If you're harrassed by a member who just won't listen to you, just put the user on ignore. If they couldn't be reasoned with the first time, what makes you think they'd be reasoned with the tenth or twentieth time? They're nothing more than the internet version of a school yard bully, but this time, you can choose not to have to devote your precious time with them. #3- The Country icon is a lie. The little flag icons that indicate from which nation a member hails from is just as truthful as the gender and age. You all know me as a twenty-one year old man from Alabama. This is true. I could, however, have signed up pretending I was a fourteen-year-old boy from Moscow, Russia. #4- Internet identiy could be different from real life counterpart. For the most part, people on the fourms act like how they would if they were meeting you face to face. However, there are those who like to have a seperate identity, so a shy, not-so-very-tough person might develop an energetic, robust, tough personality on the fourm. And if you're curious about my personality, what you see in my posts is generally what I am in real life, a shy, nice, eccentric person.
Today I just started my first fantasy story about a young boy and his companion solving mysteries in a fantasy kingdom. I believe I got up to about 307 words before I stopped. Then something struck me as odd. "I don't think I'm done yet," I thought, "I'm supposed to get to 1,000 words." But I realized something: I'm just starting out. I do not have the mental fortitude to write out 1,000 words straight just yet. In my opinion, it doesn't matter how many words you can eek out in a day. The only thing that matters is progress. Progress is the key, especially if you're just starting out. There is no cement law that says "thou must write 1K words a day". I believe that's what causes some would-be beginners to be overwhelmed. This combined with the desire to be a famous writer...Its no wonder some go "I just can't do this! I quit!" But you can. All it takes is progress. One word at a time. Know how they built the pyramids? The Great Wall of China? One brick at a time. It doesn't matter if you can only write fifty words a day, or even twenty. Just make sure that you write those twenty words every day. "But I don't have time!" you may say? Not enough time to write out a single sentence? Not even a short description like Amos ran a hand through his long brown hair? It took me a few seconds to write nine words that formed that sentence. It's like the old book about the tortise and the hare. Slow and steady wins the race. Go easy. Be patient. As tiring as the "Rome wasn't built in a day..." phrase is, it still has a point. It did not take a day to built that civilization. It took decades, centuries even. And again, it took time. Brick by brick. Sometimes they could only do one brick a day (if that), and that was fine. (Well, to us, maybe. Not sure about the dudes that were ordering the poor builders around. ) Just like your book. If you can only muster ten words a day, or ten words for that particular day, that's fine. Progress. Every word will lead you to the finish line. 307 words. While it may not look as awesome as 1,000 words or 1,307 words, it's progress and I'm content with it.
Sioux Indians, Ottoman Empire, Ancient Greece, Feudal Japan, the Zulu empire, Napoleonic France, 1850s America... I have a fascination with history and my creativity loves to insert itself into every single period imaginable. It's so overwhelming. Just now I thought of writing a story about the Sioux Indians (before the Indian wars). Since I think I have a small glimmer of a liking to mystery stories (just starting out with Sherlock Holmes), guess what the plot is. A Sioux indian solves mysteries for his chief! But that's not the only time. I've had ideas for mystery series set in the Ottoman Empire, Feudal Japan, even in the Zulu Empire at the time of Shaka. I know I can just do them all as seperate mysteries featuring different characters with different situations, but shouldn't there be a limit? Before long, I'll start having a mystery story following a servant in Queen Elizabeth I's court. ...It just happened. So, tips? Should I write them all down so I won't forget? What about the individual mysteries? What should I do about them?
Well, yesterday I had the fortune of watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, a movie that came out way back in 1969. Over all, it was a very fun, interesting movie. The quotes were hilarious. Here are some examples: And later in Bolivia, when they're learning Spanish. One last quote, promise. This time, Butch and Sundance are accosted by Spanish bandits, a gunfight is inevitable. Butch says this: I rate it a 10/10!
A book series you loved is now done and gone. Go start one of your own. A TV series you loved is now done and gone. Go start one of your own. What did Dr. Seuss say? "Don't cry because it's over, be happy because it happened"? I want to add more to his quote: "...Now you must follow them." All the laughter, all the sadness, all the horror and joy you've read, you can repeat it. The student learns from the master. Take up the sword. The story is never over. Never finished. All you need is an idea, and something to write with. The master is gone, but the pupil has grown. A new world to save, a new evil to be extinguished. Your Lord Voldemort. Your Harry Potter. Who are they? Show us. Guide us. The fan has become the writer. Now he will teach his own fans. Fans like you.
Recently I managed to get my paws on the recent movie called "Clash of the Titans" (with Sam Worthington). The title got me hyped up for epic battle scenes with gods pitted against gods. Instead, it can all be boiled down to one paragraph: Man hates the Gods, Man wishes to overthrow the Gods, the Gods strike back, Man has a conflicted Demigod (Perseus) that doesn't want to be among the Gods. It was just your run-of-the-mill story of a man who doesn't want to be a hero and save the world yet is forced to save the world. All I got out of this was that the Greek Gods were right arses. Medusa's origins has her being assaulted by Posideon in Athena's place, but Athena does nothing worth crap except make Medua so ugly that one gaze can turn people to stone. And Perseus? His origin was that Zeus went and "did it" with a mortal woman who just so happens to be married to a crazy general (Argo general, I think). Said general locks both wife and baby in coffin and chucks them into the sea. Thankfully a lone fisherman discovers the coffin, rips off the lid and adopts the boy. It was constantly riddled with deux ex machinas as well. For instance, "Oh no! Perseus' left arm is infected with venom from Hades and is slowly desintegrating! Behold! These mysterious people we've never seen before suddenly possess the magical ability to cure said infected arm!" I left after about an hour's worth of watching it. It did not appeal to me at all, and I love hearing about Greek mythology! So, rating time!! *drumroll* 5/10! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've got the seeds of a good action/adventure story about a deaf Mexican boy/girl who was seperated from his/her parents during the Mexican-American War and he/she wants to reunite with them. The idea here is that in the prologue, he/she was rescued by American soldiers on a scouting mission and brought back to the US. A few years later, he/she decides to find his/her own family agan...by going back to Mexico. It's just so stupid. Either I have the story set in Mexico or the US. There's no reason the kid would get on a ship and leave to his/her homecountry....alone. Five years later he/she had left it. But somehow, my brain insists that it makes perfect, logical sense. "It's a fictional story!" it says, "Who cares if he/she goes back to Mexico five years later with absolutely no concrete cause? When he/she has absolutely no reason to assume his/her parents are still even alive!" So a once really cool idea for an action/adventure book boils down into an argument I have with my own creativity, which is stubborned and insists that the clearly plot hole-filled idea is the perfect one. What do I do? I would really like to write this in some plausible way that makes sense.
The next time I join a forum, I am NOT going to write down that I'm from America in the Location bar (or select the US flag if they have a flag icon). I'm going to say I'm from Paris, France. I don't think I can do it now since...well...they KNOW I'm from the US and they'll just roll their eyes and go "Oh, you American..." XD Yes, it's a useless prank, in fact, most people wouldn't even know it was a prank. Any tips on how to pull this prank off? Maybe I can select a forum I'm already on and go "Hey, I lied, I'm really from France, lol"? Hmmm...Make sense, this blog does not. Wonder what drink, this boy had been doing.
I had two, very fond children's books that were actually in two parts: "The Cay" "Timothy of the Cay" For those who hadn't read them, basically, Phillip is this American kid in WWII who's going home on this ship. The ship is torpedoed by a German U-boat and he's rescued by a former slave named Timothy. Due to a freak accident involving a mast to the boy's head, he's rendered blind as the two make their way to a remote cay and find ways to get rescued. Now here comes the spoilers. The sequel basically furthers Phillip's adventure. He is finally rescued, goes home and starts to find a way to get his sight back. The book also explores Timothy's life prior to meeting Phillip. End of Spoilers. I really enjoyed "The Cay", but its sequel somehow lacked it. I felt as if the author was rushing the plot along instead of taking it slow like he did the first book. There were so many missed potentials and half the time, I didn't know what was going on. For example, in the first chapter of the sequel, Phillip is on a battleship getting checked by a doctor. A few pages later, he's on a plane headed back to Virginia before it ends. I couldn't really relate to him much. He felt more like an adult. Yes, I know, going through something like that would make someone more mature than they were before, but still, I watched "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and although Aang was the freaking hero, they were still able to make him childlike enough so we could relate to him while not making him be too immature. There was a really great potential to show that Phillip was still a kid, despite his ordeal. I half expected him to ask the captain to take him to the bridge and let him use the steering wheel. Lord knows I would have done something like that. XD The chapters were very confusing. The odd-numbered chapters were from the POV of Phillip, and the even-numbered chapters were in third-person following Timothy. So, on a scale of 1 to 10... The Cay- 9/10 Timothy of the Cay- 7.5/10 So, how about you? Ever had something like this happen?
http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/adventure/unnamedteamicogame/index.html The Last Guardian made by the same company that did Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Since I liked the last two games, I think I'll buy a PS3 just to play this one (and a few other PS3 games) Basically, the plot is some boy and a griffin. That's all I was able to go by, but for some reason, I have a really bad feeling that something terrible is gonna happen to either the griffin or the kid. Assuming from the trailer that both the boy and the griffin were being held prisoner, it could be...well, I don't want to spoil it in case it actually does come to pass. I had a lot of fun with Red Dead Redemption, but other than that, I'm not really playing any other 360 games (There's not a whole lot of good Wii games, unfortunatally. I got it mainly for Zelda and Super Smash Brothers) Now just have to figure out how to get the PS3. Dammit! It's times like this I wish my birthday wasn't five months ago.