The Garden of Everything

Due recent events in my life (debts, the upcoming Muse concert in my city, debts and debts) I haven’t been able to be up to date with more recent game releases. Sure, it’s no big deal when the game is good, becasue if that’s the case, it stays good long before its original release, but the downside is that if by any chance you get the game not months but only weeks after the launching day, suddenly there’s no one else to comment it with, becasue everybody else has moved on to different, newer things.

So, I picked up GTAIV two weeks ago, which, in internet time,  is way too late into the party. This was the very first time I got into a GTA and actually I’ve never tried any other ’sandbox’ game before (with the not-so-notable exceptions of one of those spider-man games and Assassin’s Creed, but those are not too good), so I didn’t reallyl know what to expect. I mean, for all I knew about the franchise, its only charm was the ability to be a real jerk in major populated cities.

To my surprise, though, Grand Theft Auto IV, recent member of the “Videogames are violent as hell” family, is quite a relaxing game. Just looking at the city while I walk (yes, not run) is a very satisfying experience. Taking a cab and fool around through the buildings and bridges while I listen to either the jazz station or my own musical selection is way more fun to me than going out, punching a stranger, stealing a car and find innovative forms of suicide.

Yes, I know I’m playing it “wrong”, but I don’t really care, because that’s the thing about videogames. You play them the way you like it, as long as there’s enough “freedom” to do it. Also, I like to get into the skin of my characters in my first playthroughs and try to act or make decision accordingly to his or her motivations and personality. That said, Niko is definitely not a bad guy. His just bad luck, and while he can be tough, he also has a melancolic quality to him. Am I trying too hard? Perhaps, but that’s how I feel the character, based on what little I know about his past and the way he talks to his cousin Roman. That means he won’t steal a car or cause mayhem unless completely necessary, and even so, sometimes he regrets doing certain hits (specially when he finds out he has been double-crossed).

When everything about the story is said and done, maybe then I’ll be a real jerk in Liberty City, but in the mean time, I enjoy playing Niko Bellic, and Niko Bellic, in my life, desires only a peaceful life. Or who knows? Maybe the suppressed rage that runs through my body thanks to the fact that I don’t have a PS3 and want to play MGS4 eventually explodes causing the deaths of thousands and thaousands of Liberty citizens.

I’ll be honest with you. I don’t really know what to write right now, but I thought it was kind of sad to have this space and not use it… not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t know how to do it. Is there anything remotely interesting for me to say? I think not.

So, in the mean time, I’ll decorate this post with a Godzilla picture, just because is the first thing that crossed my mind.

A better name for this game would be “Happiness on Earth - Edgeworth edition”.

Either I am ill or cured.

Lately, I’ve been having trouble trying to play games for a decent amount of time. By “decent” I mean more than an hour or an hour and a half a day. This could be for a lot of reasons. Maybe I’m just getting older (and wiser by definition), but I’m inclined to think that it is actually because the only games I’m playing now are Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops which is very good but also very repetitive, and Blue Dragon, which is not very good and very repetitive.

A third possible reason is that I just finished Apollo Justice not too long ago and is a series difficult to top. Almost everything else seems dull in comparision.

More on this as it develops.

DISCLAIMER: It was not my intention to post about this kind of stuff in this or any other blog, but I feel like I should get this out of my system, so bear with me here.

I rarely ever use FAQs or Walkthroughs. For the main game or storyline, at least. I use them quite often when it comes to things like blue orbs in a Devil May Cry game or ridiculously long or convoluted sidequests in contemporary JRPGs, but other than than, I need to be seriously desperate to use them.

Right now I’m kind of getting desperate about my life and a guide telling me what to do next and how to do it would be more than great.

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Last week I saw two movies. One was the just released Sweeney Todd from Tim Burton and his gang (minus Danny Elfman) and the other was La Cité des enfants perdus, a 1995 french movie that I had already seen some years ago. To some, maybe, these two productions may have something in common: they both are without any dobut strongly visual experiences.

However, the relation doesn’t go beyond that, as The City of Lost Children is a substantial, heart-warming tale filled with poetic scenery and personas, while Tim Burton seems to be more and more determined to become a self-parody of his already self-parodied self with a movie that cannot be saved even by Johnny Depp, who seems stiff, plain and ultimately boring. Performing uninspiring one-note songs with convoluted and needless counterpoints doesn’t help him or the movie that much either.

Anyway, let’s focus on La Cité des enfants perdus. That will ease the pain in my liver.

Like stated before, the first thing that pops up about this movie is its artistic direction. From the very first scene where many terrifying Santa Clauses turn a little kid’s dream into a nightmare we are warned that we’re about to be immersed in a fary tale gone wrong. Part fantasy, part cyberpunk, part surrealims, the story is wraped in a visually appealing package that is better seen from afar. But not only the walls, clothing or lights are extreme. The cast is also part of this world with actors like Ron Pearlman or Dominique Pinon who have very unique face shapes, or Judith Vittet whose beauty is almost unrealistic. But what good is it a fantastic world without a equally fantastic tale?

In it, Krank, a mad scientist without the ability to dream tries to extract dreams from little kids that he and his assistans (a group of clones with narcolepsy issues and a very petit woman) kidnap. Unfortunately, the overall experience and the machine used for this is very traumatic for the children, who can only have nightmares, transmiting them to the desperate scientist.

A group of “enhanced” humans with Termintaor-like vision (only in green) and a very sensitive hearing named cyclops take care of the kidnapping. One night, they managed to take a little kid named Denreé, who was taken care of by a man called One (Ron Perlman), a powerful but somewhat limited in intelligence street performer. One then sets out to find his “little brother” with the help of Miette, a 9-year old orphan who abandon his old gang to follow One.

It is interesting to see how the One/Miette relationship develops throughout the film. While we’ve seen many old man/little female kid combinations in fiction before (The Professional or that awful annoying kid they added in the Devil May Cry anime, for example), in most of those cases the strong personality comes from the old man, while the kid is cheerful, careless and, well, childish. However, in The City of Lost Children, Miette is the strong, calm and collected one, while One is the not-so-clever, act first think later character. She is the one who is used to have control of every situation, but who will have to learn to follow her heart by making odd choices because of One, without knowing exactly why.

Yes, there are many lost children in the movie, but the story is not about missing kids as much as it is about missing childhood. From Krank who never had one to Miette who is perhaps the more mature girl of the whole movie in spite of being one of the youngest, the story centers around how these characters deal with their own past, childish dreams, aspirations and needs. They all have to recognize what is it that makes them whole and try to find it.

The City of Lost Children is definitely not for everyone. I saw it with a bunch of friends and half of them fell asleep and even mocked my taste in movies. I didn’t care, as I already knew this would happen and at least two of them were genuinely interested in the film and watched the whole thing. Its a slow-paced movie, yes, but every second of it is filled with force and passion and poetry and is hard not to recommend it. Is a world of magic and fantasy, where amazing things can happen. Things like one single tear of a little girl making a giant ship crash in a harbor.

Yes, is that kind of movie.

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So cool, in fact, that it red-ringed my Xbox 360. Hooray!

Such is my luck. The first of the many games I was really looking forward to from this generation, and once I got it I can’t play it.

Best. Timing. Ever.

Oh, and by the way, I got Jade Empire too.

That’s right. There’s plenty of things to celebrate for. For example, the unfinished blog you’re reading now. I wanted it to be with its own layout for the grand opening (that is this post), but “what the hell”, I said. So welcome to my second english-spoken blog (the other one is at 1up) and thanks to Jeremy Parish for providing the space to host it. I hope you enjoy your stay.

What else there is to celebrate? That I’m about to be fired from my job. At least, after the few words I had with one of my bosses tonight, I think that’s what’s going to happen. I won’t give you the details, but it all comes down to he giving me two storyboards to do just one hour before the end of the day. They weren’t beautiful, but I did the job…

Okay, they were hideous, but last week a friend of mine stayed there until 2:oo in the morning, and I’m telling you: that’s something I won’t let them do to me. Oh, and by the way, they don’t pay extra hours. So basically those who stay there are either desperate and have no other options of a job or just stupid.

Mmmm. On second thought, I feel kind of bad for the guy who yelled at me. He was under preassure too, but even so, that doesn’t give him the right to be rude to anyone. If he just learned how to generate empathy instead of hatred, things would be so much better.

Anyway, on the good side of things we also celebrate this:

These are examples of my recent sort-of-freelance job: writer in a gaming magazine. And one of the most important ones around here, nonetheless. But I wouldn’t even dare to call myself a “game journalist” just because of that. No sir, to be an actual game journalist you need this (from the magazine forums):

Translation:

1. The article titled “Hype Victims” (Kolbe’s note: that’s one of mine) is indeed the worst piece of crap I’ve ever read. How is it possible that you say SHENMUE, CHRONO CROSS and KH II were overrated? I mean, for God’s sake!? With this I truly realise how much HALO can rot the brain of gamers.

So, yeah. Not only I got my first published article in a printed magazine, but a reader said my brain was rotten. I’m in the right track, all right!

Sushi, ramen or tacos?

Discuss!