Deja Vu Moments Part 2 - Mega Man series

For the next set of deja vu moments, I think it would be appropriate to talk about the Mega Man and Mega Man X series.  Both series are loaded with deja vu moments and in this blog post, I will talk about some of them.

Image description: robot masters from Mega Man 2.  In most (if not all) mega man games, you can expect to fight 8 different robot masters before going to Dr Wily's castle (Sigma levels in the Mega Man X series). 

Overview
Do you ever get a sense of deja vu in the video games?  Two game series I find with lots of moments of familarity are the Mega Man and Mega Man X series.  They are both loaded with several deja vu moments, and in this blog, I will talk about them.  Note: this blog post is only based on both the classic mega man series and the Mega Man X series.  I haven't played through Mega Man Zero, Mega Man Legends or Mega Man ZX yet or the gameboy verions of the Mega Man series, so I wouldn't know of they have the same formate as the original 2 series.  Of course, if you have played the later series, you are welcome to fill me in on them. 

Deja vu moment #1 - Facing 8 Robot masters


video description: watch a video where Akutare defeats all 8 robot masters from Mega Man 3 (does not include the ones from Mega Man 2, which you face after defeating the first 8 robot masters in the game)

For the first moment, you will know that you have been playing many mega man games when you see the classic stage select screen where you have to fight at least 8 robot masters (the only exception to this that I am aware of is in Mega Man 1 where you only have to fight 6 robot masters before going to Dr Wily's Castle).  In just about every Mega Man and Mega Man X game, you can expect to go through 8 of Dr Wily's or Sigma's (if you are playing the Mega Man X series) minions before going to either Dr Wily's castle or the Sigma Missions.  Of course, in the old school games, if you were lazy, you could always look up passwords to warp directly to Dr Wily's castle or the Sigma levels.  Of course, since Mega man 8, most of the games have done away with the password system and replaced them with the a save feature, making it so you have to play through all 8 robot master stages before moving on.  Mega Man 3 actually takes the robot master fights to the extreme as not only do you fight the ones from Mega Man 3, but later you will also fight clones of all 8 robot masters from Mega Man 2 (with 2 boss fights occuring in each of the 4 levels you face the clones), though Mega Man 3 is the only game in both series that I am aware of where you fight all 8 robot masters from a previous mega man game in addition to the initial 8 (Mega Man 7 only has you doing a rematch against Guts Man).

Deja Vu Moment 2 - Teleportation rooms

Video description: watch Cetega23 take on all 8 of the Maverik robots from Mega Man X4 as Zero.  I decided to use a Mega Man X game to illustrate this deja vu moment. You will be doing similar levels in just about any other Mega Man game shortely before you take on the final boss(es).  In Mega Mans X4-X8 you can actually play as Zero by the way (advanced players will like playing as him of course with his close range and lightsaber abilities).

Ah, you know that you have played too many Mega Man and/or Mega Man X games when you encounter the all too familiar "teleporter" room during the final stages of the game (usually twoards the end of the Dr Wily/Sigma stages and shortly before the final bosses).  Yep, that is right, you fought all 8 of the evil robot masters/mavericks (depending on the series), and now you will be going up against the same 8 foes once again (by the way, the only three Mega Man and Mega Man X games I am aware of where there is no teleportation room are Mega Mans 1, X1 and "Megaman and Bass" , though in those games, they spread out the boss rematches across the final stages).  On the positive note, all of the bosses are weak to certain weapons you get from another boss (for example, in Mega Man 4, Bright Man is weak against Toad Man's rain bombs, and Toad Man is weak against Drill Man's Drill Missiles), so it helps to know each robot master's weakness during the rematches (of course, you can always just use the good ol' mega buster, but the matches will be much more challenging that way).  By the way, in the classic series, you usually fight Dr Wily for the first time after the initial boss fights (such as the case for Mega Mans 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8), and some times the final boss occurs in those stages as well (as is the case for Mega Mans 7, 8, and 9).

Tips for teleportation rooms if you are not familiar:
- make sure that you know each bosses's weakness.  The boss rematches will be alot easier this way.
- It helps to try and conserve your energy tanks since sometimes the final boss lurks in those stages (especially in Mega Man X4 as Sigma is a very tough enemy in the game, especially in his 3rd form, and you will be hurting without those precious energy tanks).
- You might consider getting the hard robot masters out of the way first, and then moving to the easier ones later.
- In Mega Man X4-X8, you can play as Zero, but many of the bosses will be more challenging (especially in X4 as some of the Mavericks do not seem to have any weaknesses against Zero's weapons, such as Magma Dragoon).

Top 5 Favorite Teleportation rooms of mine:
- The one in Mega Man X8 - this one is probably my favorite as you are on the moon and the teleporters come in a tower format.
- Mega Man X5
- Mega Man 7
- Mega Man 3
- Mega Man 4

Deja Vu Moment 3 - Dr Wily's Castle

You know when you have played too many classic Mega Man games when you encounter Dr Wily's Castle(s).  Yes, in just about every classic Mega Man game (except for Mega Man 1), after you beat all of the robot masters , you will be treated to a scene with Dr Wily in his typical flying saucer as he flies to his castle, and then as you go through each of the stages, the game shows your progress through the castle.  Of course, at the end of the castle are the final bosses.  BTW, the Mega Man X series have final stages too, but Sigma does not have a castle like Dr Wily does.  Also, in Mega Mans 4 through 6, you will actually be going through 2 castles (the first one being an imposter villian, such as Dr Cossack in Mega Man 4, and then the real villian, Dr Wily). 

Tips for the castle stages:
- practice makes perfect, as some levels will probably take several tries (the hardest castle in my opinion is probably the one in Mega Man 2 as some of the levels did take several tries, such as the 3rd to last level where encounter the infamous turret room boss).
- Weapon energy tanks are your friend as most of your sub weapons are limited and some are bound to be used more than others.  Some levels will require you to make use of your rush units (such as Rush Jet, balloon lifts, etc).
- Most if not all of the bosses in these stages have weaknesses to certain weapons (for example, in Mega Man 4, the first Dr Cossack level boss is weak against Ring Man's weapon).
- Some castles have short cuts in them that have extra power ups and are usually easier to get through.

My top 5 castles:

• The one from Mega Man 3 (the only downside to this one is that I thought that the bosses were too easy, especially once you get their weaknesses down)
• Dr Cossack's castle (I remember when the first time I played through Mega Man 4, I was made to think that Dr Cossack was the new villian in the series).
• The one in Mega Man 7 (I liked the fights against Bass)
• Mega Man 2 - this one was a classic for me
• The one in Mega Man 8.

By the way, I haven't played through Mega Mans 9 and 10 yet, so I don't have an opinion about those ones at this time.

Deja vu moment 5 - Dr Wily's Final Form

*Sigh* if you have played through any of the post Mega Man 3 games, you should probably know about this typical encounter with Dr Wily himself.  Usually Capcom gets creative with the first half of the battles against Dr Wily (which varies in each game).  However, eventually you get to his final form, where you are usually in a dark room and Dr Wily plays "hide and seek", where he teleports around the room and you usually have to hit him with his weak weapon as he appears and prepares to attack before he teleports again.   This may sound confusing, but if you have played through Mega Mans 4 through 8 (and probably 9 and 10 too), you probably know what I mean).  Of course, Dr Wily's final form is always the very final boss in the game and you get the ending after you beat Dr Wily.  On the positive note, they do seem to change things a bit in each game as in some games he is more challenging than he is in others and his weakness usually changes as well. 

My favorites are: the one in Mega Man 4 (the first of its' kind), the one in Mega Man 6 (this is a 3 part boss battle by the way) and the one in Mega Man 8.  By the way, I shared a video above showing the 2 part final boss in Mega Man 7 (by the way, this one was the hardest in my opinion, as his weapons are very strong and nearly impossible to avoid and you are doomed in the fight if you don't have all of your energy tanks in store, unless if you are an expert or are cheating of course).  The easiest version was the one in Mega Man 5 as you can simply use Beat against him and Beat simply attacks Dr Wily each time he appears and all you have to do is to try and avoid Dr Wily's attacks, thus making quick work out of him.  By the way, it has not always been this way as Capcom was much more creative with the Dr Wily boss fights in Mega Mans 1 through 3 (such as the Dr Wily "Alien" in Mega Man 2, as well as the Gamma Dr Wily in Mega Man 3).

Deja vu Moment 6- Vile and Dynamo


It is no secret.  In the Mega Man X series, you can expect to fight one of 2 of Sigma's notorious vile henchman: Vile in Mega Manx X, X3 and X8 and Dyamo in Mega Mans X5 and X6 (he is actually an optional boss in Mega Man X6 that you will encounter if you visit the hidden areas during the Maverick levels that you can enter via special portals and after you have beaten Nightmare Zero and High Max).  Vile is basically the Boba Fett look-alike that usually comes in a ride armor (though not always as is the case in most of Mega Man X8 prior ot the final level of the game).  You first fight Vile in Mega Man X1 and initially, a weak X is nearly defeated by Vile (only to be saved by Zero), but later on in the game, X becomes strong enough to beat Vile with Zero's help.  Of course, Vile does get resurrected in X3 and X8 and goes up against X and Zero again, only to be defeated once again.  Of course, by Mega Man X3, X has become much more powerful (to the same calibur as Zero) and can easily take out Vile without Zero's help, and by the time X8 rolls around, Zero is now a playable character (yes, starting with X4, Zero becomes a playable character throughout the games) and you can defeat Vile either as X, Zero or Axle.  In addition to Vile, in Mega Man X5 and X6, Dynamo takes the place of Vile and his mission is mainly to annoy X and Zero (though in X6, he is an optional boss, though you would have to fight him if you are trying to max out your nightmare gems).

Well, there you have it, just about all of the major deja vu moments I can think of.  By the way, there are bound to be more in the Mega Man and Mega Man X series, but this list would be too long if I tried to list them all.  By the way, this list is mainly based on the Mega Man and Mega Man X series.  I have yet to play through some of the other series, such as Mega Man Legends, Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX (though you are welcome to fill me in on those).

So what do you think of all of these deja vu moments?

Just started playing through Sonic 4

Hey everybody, just fyi, I recently bought Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 and will review the game within the next few weeks.  The game takes on an "old school" feel and will play a bit like the classic sonic the hedgehog games (prior to Sonic Adventure), with a new look of course. 

Started a new video game videos blog

Hey everyone, just fyi, I decided to start a new Video Game Videos blog.  It will be a part of my website at http://www.xboxfreak.ws/ and has a growing collection of game play videos, trailers, and othe videos relating to video games.  You can see my new blog at http://www.xboxfreak.ws/gamevideosblog.  I will still post to this blog, of course, but for now on video game videos will usually go in that blog.  Of course if you have videos you like to share, I'd be happy to post them.

Top 10 Deja vu moments in video games (part 1)

Do you ever get the feelings of familarity when playing video games (where things seem to repeat themselves)?  You are not alone.  In this blogpost, I will talk about at least 10 deja vu moments that I have encountered as a gamer.

#1- Bowser boss fights in Super Mario Bros 1 - to demonstrate the Bowser fights, here is a youtube video I found:


For the first deja vu moment, we go all the way back to the first Super Mario Bros game.  This game launched the Super Mario bros series as we know it today and is perhaps one of the first games to have boss battles in them (can't think of any games prior to SMB1 that have boss fights).  Anyways, when you fight Bowser at the end of the dungeon levels (the 4th level in each world), the boss fights are always the same.  Bowser (who is usually an imposted until world 8) is on this draw bridge, spewing fire balls at Mario and Luigi, and there are 2 ways you can beat bowser: 1) getting past him and touching the axe icon at the end of the bridge or 2) shooting fireballs with him (assuming you are able to keep the fireball power up for the whole dungeon) until he dies.  Of course, you will fight these exact same "boss battles" in all 8 worlds.  The only things that change are the dungeon layout and some of bowser's attack patterns (such as shooting hammers at Mario and Luigi in worlds 6-8).  Another deja vu moment is that prior to world 8, "Bowser" turns out to be an imposter (such as a goomba) and Mario/Luigi encounters Toad, who tells him that she is in another world.

# 2- Count Dracula's first form in most of the Castlevania games -
Here is a youtube video about a boss fight against Dracula on Castlevania Dracula X. This boss fight is the classic and perhaps one of my favorites.

If you have played most of the games in the Castlevania series, you would know that the main villian in the series is the Count Dracula, who is the evil vampire that wants to destroy the human race (only to be stopped by the Belmont clan and its allies).  Anyways, at the end of the game where you fight Dracula, usually you fight him in at least 2 forms (though not always), and while the developers usually get creative about Dracula's demonic form (such as the Gargoyle in Castlevania Dracula X), the first battle with Dracula is almost always the same.  In his first battle, the evil lord teleports around the room and hurling fireballs and other projectiles at he hero (sometimes he also tries to suck the hero's blood as well in some games, such as Castlevania 64 when you fight the imposter version of Dracula) and you usually get a short period of time to attack him before he teleports again, and the battles play out this way until you defeat him, after which he usually transforms into his monsterous form that you also have to defeat. Of course, this type of boss fight with dracula can be found just about any Castlevania games, with two exceptions being Curse of Darkness (I thought that Dracula was much more animated in that game doing more than just teleporting around the room and attacking), as well as Symphony of the Night, when you go up against Dracula as Alucard (the traditional Dracula boss fight actually takes place when you fight him as Richter towards the beginning of the game, and when you go up against him as Alucard at the end of the game.

Usually, once you beat his first form, he turns into a hideous beast that you also have to defeat, though in some of the games, that is the only form you fight as is the case in Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest and Castlevania 4 (I thought that one was a bit anti-climatic when I played that game given the extra bosses you fight in the "room of close associates" that you go through towards the end of the game where you fight Death, Gaibon and Slorga). Also, in Castlevania 64, you will actually do the traditional Dracula fight twice (first with the imposter Dracula and later with the real Dracula, who is actually the boy, Malus if you remember that game of course). Even in some of the newer Castlevania games, where there is a new villian in place of Dracula (such as Walter in Lamment of Innocence), the new guy often mimics dracula as he too does the teleportation moves while attacking as well.

Here is a short youtube video about the boss fight against Walter in Lamment of Innocence (posted by megagrey).  As you can see, in this battle, Walter actually mimicks Dracula.  BTW, Lamment of Innocence is actually a prequel of the series.

Mega Man 9 Speed Run [0:26:30]

I was watching youtube videos and decided to watch a speed run on Mega Man 9. I was playing the Mega Man Anniversary collection earlier today (did Mega Man 3) and thinking about getting Mega Mans 9 and 10 at some point.

Every Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe Fatality

X-Men Arcade Preview

Here is an interesting video game preview I stumbled across on on youtube, posted by IGNentertainment about the upcoming X-men arcade game

Commentary about this video:

If you have been to various arcade establishments, I am sure you have come across the X-men arcade game. Now, it appears that Konami is planning to do a whole remake of the game for consoles (possibly Xbox live, Nintendo Wii Ware, etc). This game is sure to rival the hit, Castle Crashers.

GoldenEye: 007 - Weapons, Choices, Villains

Watch a commentary about the New Golden Eye 007 game, posted by IGN.

Commentary:

It appears this game will be the official remake for the popular Golden Eye game from the Nintendo 64 with some completely new elements, such as the current Bond (Daniel Craig). This game could become a potiential rival to games like Modern Warfare 2, Halo Reach, etc.

Just added a new Xbox 360 game reviews blog on my website

picture of my blog

Just fyi, for now on whenever I post game reviews about Xbox 360 and Xbox games, they will go on my new game reviews blog.  It used to be that I would post game reviews either on this blog, hub pages, or squidoo, but now that I have an official reviews blog, they will be posted on my game reviews blog.  For the first game review, I posted a review about the game, Call of Juarez.

You can check out my new blog at:
http://www.xboxfreak.ws/gamereviewsblog?post=Call_of_Juarez:_Bound_in_Blood

Is It A Good Idea To Microwave A Nintendo Wii?

Just thinking about video games, here is a funny video I saw on youtube.

Thinking about creating an evil character in Mass Effect

As you may know by now, I have just hit a snag on my progress in Mass Effect 2 since my brother loaned it to a friend (just finished disk one around the time that happened) and so it might be a while before i can finish that game (though if I get the extra money, I might get a new one).  Anyways, I am thinking about playing through the games a second time through and this time make a 100% renegade (or evil character).  On the first time through, I ended up creating a Han Solo type (someone that is in between paragon and renegade), but now I am thinking about making a renegade character.

What do you all think of that?

IGN Daily Fix, 8-23: Plants vs. Zombies & Our DLC Roundup

Star Wars The Force Unleashed II - Gamescom Yoda Trailer

Watching a Wii Bowling tournament

Playing through Mass Effect

Now that I have beaten Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox 360, I decided to resume my focus on Mass Effect (will also do Mass Effect 2 after beating ME1).  Just did the Virmire planet and will soon do the final missions.  My guy is half paragon and half renegade.  BTW, want to see a youtube video about Mass Effect, check it out here:

Just beat Sonic the Hedgehog 2006

I've been playing through Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (the next generation version featuring Sonic, Silver and Shadow) and just finished the game yesterday.  In this blog post, I will share with you my thoughts about the game.

Story
The game takes place sometime after the events of Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog.  Set in a town named Soliana (which seems to based on a town in Italy, probably Venice), villiagers lead by Princess Elise take part in a festival honoring the Eternal Flames when she gets a grim vision of a dark entity called Iblis razing the city (which seems to forshadow events later in the game).  Soon afterwards, Dr Eggman (also known as Robotnik) decides to invade Soleanna and kidnap the Princess.  It turns out that Dr Robotnik is at it again and wants to revive an entity called Solaris, which is Soleanna's pagan Sun god, an entity that has the ability to manipulate time itself, changing the past, present and future.  Eggman wants to revive Solaris and use it in his plans for world domination and Sonic and his gang is back and plans to foil Eggman's plans.  Despite Eggman's ambitions, after a mishap about 10 years prior to the story, two demonic entities appear on the scene, namely Mephiles (an evil figure that takes on the form as an evil clone of Shadow the Hedgehog) and Ibis (a firey monster that is known to raze towns and cities it visits as you will see in the Crisis City level). Mephiles and Iblis are two entities that can form the infamous Solaris when fused together with the power of chaos emerads and have no intention of cooperating with Dr Eggman.  Mephiles actually becomes the main villian in the game and wants to not only bring about Armageddon to Soleanna (and the rest of Sonic's universe), but he also wants to become Solaris and destroy time itself (it is hard to really explain, but you would have to play through the game to learn the full plot).   Meanwhile, Shadow the Hedgehog becomes an ally of Sonic and a new hedgehog is introduced, namely Silver, who is from the future and is made to believe Sonic is the enemy (remindes me of Knuckles a bit in Sonic 3, where Eggman tricks him into thinking that Sonic is the enemy).  It is up to Sonic, Shadow, and Silver to 1) foil Eggman's plans, 2) defeat Mephiles and Iblis, and 3) to ultimately stop the resurrection of Solaris before he can destroy Sonic's universe.

Characters of interest

Heroes, NPCs and Support Characters
Sonic -

Sonic is back and is the series hero.  He has been around since the beginning of the series and has been in most if not all sonic and related games (the only Sonic game I am aware of that he is not in was Knuckles Chaotix).  Sonic has the ability to move at lightning speeds, jump, morph into Super Sonic (a much more powerful version of Sonic), bash enemies in his saw mode, etc.  He also has 2 side kicks, namely Tails (a flying fox that has been around since Sonic 2) and Knuckles (an Edincha that has been around since Sonic 3).

Shadow the Hedgehog -
Shadow is back and is aligned with Sonic this time around and is joined by Rouge the bat and a robot named, Omega 123.  Back in Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow was a villian and was in leage with Eggman.  However, since then his relationship with Eggman has deteriorated significantly and has repented of his villianous ways.  In Sonic 2006, he and Rouge had stolen a special wand called, the Scepter of Darkness (a mysterious object that has sealed away Mephiles after the Soleanna Disaster that took place 10 years prior to when the game begins) and was being pursued by Dr Eggman's robots.  After a mishap that takes place when Robotnik tries to take the Scepter of Darkness from Rogue, the Scepter of Darkeness breaks and inadvertantly releases Mephiles, an evil entity that clones himself in the image of Shadow and wants to not only destroy the world, but also wants to destroy time itself.  Mephiles soon becomes Shadow's nemesis and it is up to Shadow to stop Mephiles in his ambition to destroy the world as Shadow knows it.  In addition, Shadow is a part of a government organization called, GUN and some of the levels in the game will be GUN themed (such as the first level in the game, where he has to infiltrate Robotnik's artic base).  Shadow's abilities are similar to that of Sonic, but also includes: the ability to do combos when he initiates homing attacks, the ability to drive buggies, motorcycles and other vehicles in the game, shooting energy spears at enemies (which stuns them), as well as a chaos mode ability, where Shadow's attacks gets stronger as well as the availability of extra moves (such as an explosion attack, where Shadow sends out a shockwave that kills or damages enemies within a short radius around Shadow).

Silver the Hedgehog -
Ah, don't you remember the good ol' days in the Sonic the Hedgehog series when Sonic and Amy were the only hedgehogs known?  Then came Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow was introduced.  Now, in Sonic 2006, a new hedgehog is introduced, named Silver and now there are now 4 hedgehogs known in the series (namely Sonic, Amy, Shadow, and Silver).  It appears that Silver is from the future in the game (approximately 200 years or so into the future), in a post Apocalyptic Soleanna, which was destroyed by Iblis, a fiery monster that can destroy entrie cities by starting infernos and was presumably brought about by Dr Robotnik after he kidnaps Princess Elise and sends Sonic and gang into the future via a time rift portal.  You would have to play through the game to the the full details about Iblis's story, but anyways, Silver is out to avenge the destroyed world and wants to destroy Iblis and find out who caused Iblis to form (known as the "Iblis Trigger").  After being tricked by Mephiles into thinking that Sonic is the Iblis Trigger, he sets out to kill Sonic at the advice of Mephiles (probably in an attempt to cover up his true colors) and is joined by a cat named Blaze as well as Amy Rose (though naturally, she does betray Silver when she learns that he wants to kill Sonic).  His main mission is to stop the Iblis Trigger (is it really Sonic?  I won't spoil the true identity of the "Iblis Trigger") and to defeat and seal Iblis.  Silver's moves are alot different from Sonic and Shadow (he can't do homing attacks on enemies for example) and has the power to levitate and throw objects and some enemies through a move called telekines, glide (though he can't glide as long as Knuckles can), stun and throw some enemies, as well as hover.

Support Chracters and NPC

Tails -

 Tails is a young two tailed fox that has been Sonic's #1 side kick since Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (after being rescued from Eggman in the Game Gear version of Sonic 2).  Tails probably Sonic's closest companion and has the ability to fly for limited periods of time (allowing him to get to places out of reach for Sonic).  Tails is younger than Sonic and even envy's Sonic's abilties at times (he wishes he can move as fast as Sonic can), though his ability to fly makes up for his slower speed.  Tails is a mechanical genius and can easily pilot planes, mechs and other vehicles throughout the series.  Unlike the previous installments of the 3D Sonic games, Tails does have a lesser role (he functions more as a NPC most of the time) though you will play as him on certain levels occasionally in Sonic's mode (such as in the Wave Ocean level, where Tails has to stop an orca whale from eating Sonic by hitting a special switch to open a gate that lets Sonic to break free of the orca).  Unlike previous Sonic games, it appears that Tails no longer has the ability to morph into a sawlike ball as he does in previous games nor the ability to wack enemies with his tails.  Instead, he will throw ring bombs at enemies (though he can divebomb enemies with ring bombs).

Knuckles-
Knuckles is back and is another support character in Sonic's story.  At one time, Sonic and Knuckles were enemies (play Sonic the Hedgehog 3 as well as Sonic and Knuckles to see Knuckles' back story), but since Sonic Adventure 1, he became another sidekick of Sonic (though it appears that he can still be tricked by Eggman as was the case in Sonic Adventure 1, where Eggman tricked Knuckles into thinking that Sonic was after the Master Emerald).  Anyways, like Tails, Knuckles does play a lesser role in the game (though there are some levels where you will play as him, such as in Dr Robotnik's Aquatic base level, which is the last level in Sonic's portion of the game).  Knuckles can punch enemies, climb walls, do homing attacks on enemies, as well as glide.  BTW, unlike Sonic Adventures 1 and 2, he does not have the missions where he has to collect Chaos Emerald fragments.

(this post will be added to over time)

Amy dies in quicksand, Funny Stuff!

Posted a new video about Amy falling in quicksand in the Dusty Desert level. enjoy

castle crashers review

Check out the latest article I wrote at hub pages: castle crashers review (note: I will post game reviews via hub pages and squidoo).

Fresh new website online: Ryan's Xbox 360 fan site :: HeraldNet Classifieds

Fresh new website online: Ryan's Xbox 360 fan site :: HeraldNet Classifieds

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Total n00b playing Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare

Here is a video a friend of mine took of me playing Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare on Xbox live. As you can see, I am a total n00b at this game and die alot. Pretty hilarious if you ask me

Snowboarding Mt Baker local Pros W.R.D.

Here is a cool snowboarding video I saw on youtube

Unlimited +25 Paragon/Renegade Boosts on Mass Effect

Speaking of going renegade, here is an interesting glitch video I found at youtube

Making a renegade character on Mass Effect

I actually recently bought Mass Effect 2 for my brother for his birthday.  However, I have not beaten Mass Effect 1 yet, but I have decided to make my guy go renegade.  As a nickname, I named him "OJ Simpson Shepard" as a cool villian name for him.  However, he will not be entirely evil and will have some good in him.
Will post updates on the game over time.  Currently, I just beat the Matriarch boss and getting ready to go to Feros (though I might do some side missions as well)

Check out the final boss in the Ghost Busters game

I recently beat the Ghost Busters game today on the Xbox 360 and thought that I would show off the final boss fight to you all:

Redoing the affiliate directory page at my site

Just fyi, if you are planning to visit my site at http://www.xboxfreak.ws/, you will find that the related affiliates link has been deleted.  I am planning to revise the affiliate directory and give it a new name, called "sponsored links".  It should be up and running later this week.

Ghost Busters Game review

Check out the Ghost Busters Game review I wrote at hub pages.

Twisted, but fuan and sometimes popular games and series worth mentioning part 1

Image caption: here is a typical "finish him" message in Mortal Kombat that appears when you have knocked out your opponent's health bar 2 rounds in a row. Note that Liu Kang has the option to perform a brutal fatality on Kano if the person playing him chooses to do so. The Mortal Kombat series is one of many twisted games out there.

In my years growing up and seeing the evoloution of gaming, I have noticed a very interesting trend these days: there have been many different twisted games out there and some of them are surprisingly popular. In this blog I will talk about a few of these games. I have at least 7 games in mind, though this post will be too long if I talked about them all on one post, and so I will break up this article into several posts. The first two games I will talk about are the Mortal Kombat Series as well as Grand Theft Auto.

Disclaimers: 1)given the mature nature of these games I am about to talk about, this post may be offensive to some (though the idea with this post is to give a commentary about these titles), and 2) never try anything you see in these featured games (especially) at home. Ever! No fights to the death, jacking cars or anything like that (unless if you are trying to go to jail as doing stuff you see in these featured game in real life will certainly land you in hot water for sure).

Game #1- Fight to the death (literally) in The Mortal Kombat Series

Fighting games have been around for quite a while, with early titles including Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Double Dragon, Battletoads, as well as the classic Street Fighter series (especially Street Fighter 2), with modern hits beign titles like Street Fighter 4, Wii Sports Boxing, and Soul Calibur. In most fighting games, the aim is to knock out the opponent and win. Usually the fight goes the best of 3 rounds and you win either when you wipe out your opponent's health bar 2 rounds in a row or when time runs out. Of course, there is also the Mortal Kombat series, which puts fighting games into a whole new ball game. On the surface, the Mortal Kombat series will appear to be much like any other typical fighting games out there. The fights lasts 2 to 3 rounds and the objective is to wipe out your opponent's health bar. However, one huge thing that sets Mortal Kombat appart is that upon defeating your opponent in the final round (unless if time runs out first), the game's narrator (Shao Khan?) will say "FINISH HIM!" and when that happens, you basically have the option to literally kill your opponent (if you know the right button combination as well as the distance of course). Every character have their own unique personalities, moves as well as fatalities (the classic fatality for Scorpion, for example, is to take off his mask, revealing his skeleton self and fry his opponents). Some characters have relatively quick and painless finisher moves (such as decapitations), while others may have more brutal moves (such as Nightwolf in his Animality finisher where he transforms into a wolf and mauls his opponent to death). Of course, if you prefer not to kill your opponent, you can always just knock out your opponent with an uppercut or in some games, perform a friendship move, where your character becomes "friends" with his/her opponent and lets the defeated foe lives.

video caption: here is a fatality demonstration from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 that Igi40 posted on youtube. Warning: this video may be offensive to some (though it does go to show the twisted nature of the Mortal Kombat series)

So, there you have it with the Mortal Kombat Series. Despite the brutal nature of the game, it hs been surprisingly popular since it's debut back in the 1990's and has produced many sequels (with the latest ones being MK Deception, Armageddon and Shaolin Monks), 2 movies, as well as a short lived cartoon series that was on USA Network back when cartoons were being showed on it (networks like TNT and USA network used to have lots of cartoons on them before Cartoon Network came into being). Perhaps my favorite in the series was probably Mortal Kombat Trillogy (which is a spin off from the Ulitmate Mortal Kombat 3 game). By the way, does this game remind anyone of how it was at the time of the Roman Gladiators? Because, fights to the death were a real sport back in ancient rome, where Gladiators (usually slaves and other outcasts of the roman empire) would fight either other Gladiators or beasts (like lions) in fearsome death matches. Sometimes public executions were also performed in the colliseum as well. Thought that I would ask.

Similar titles and games:

- Celebrity Death Match from MTV (this was the hit series on MTV where celebrities fight each other to the death)

- Killer Instinct (no mercies replace fatalities here)

Game 2 - Become a common criminal in Grand Theft Auto 4 (and other GTA games for that matter)

video caption: here is a short video I made a few months ago via a flip camera showing my guy going on a short and cheesy rampage in GTA 4 (I got wasted both times of course) just for fun. This video shows one of the many things you can do in GTA 4, as well as the twisted nature of this game.

Ever wondered what it might be like living the life of crime? I've only been to the Los Angeles area twice since moving to the Seattle area and though I did grow up in Chicago, I lived in the suburbs near the Wisconson border, and so I am not familiar with living in rough neighborhoods. Even medium cities like Seattle do have gangs and rough neighborhoods (such as Rainer, Capitol Hill and White Center). Anyways, if you are looking for a good game where you get to be a common criminal without becoming a real life criminal, you do not have to look much further than the Grand Theft Auto series, with the latest one being GTA 4. The grand theft auto series has evolved alot since its inception back in the '90s and has a huge storyline to follow and has gotten lots of good reviews in gaming magazines. Of course, there are lots of common themes throughout the series:

- you control a thug (such as Niko in GTA 4) who does jobs for various criminal masterminds (ranging from petty thefts to assasinating deliquent business contacts that the your boss has developed a grudge against).

- there is an open ended universe out there. Even if you don't want to play the storyline missions, you can always go on a rampage in the game, hang out with girlfriends (in GTA San Andreas, for example, CJ can have up to 6 girlfriends provided he has met special requirements), explore the huge map that the games cover (especially GTA San Andreas where you have 3 cities to operate in instead of one, with a huge country side seperating each city).

- The primary mode of transportation (besides walking) is to steal cars from unsuspecting people (usually by car jacking) and driving off with them. Even if you wreck one car, you can always steal another one.

- There are no rules on the road. You can drive like a maniac and nobody will care. Police officers will only go after you if you either hit them, hit another car in their presence, if you already have a wanted level, or if you are driving drunk (in GTA 4).

- You can go around killing people and commit other crimes (such as committing arson with Motogiv Cocktails in GTA San Andreas). Of course, as you commit crimes, your wanted level will rise represented by wanted stars and police officers will try to bust you or kill you. The more wanted stars you have (usually up to 6), the more officers will come after you and try to either kill or bust you (3 stars, for example will cause a swat police helicopter to spawn and hunt you down). Of course, if you get busted, cops will simply arrest you, strip you of your weapons, take some money from you as a bribe and release you at the nearest police station, after which you can go around committing more crimes, and then when you get busted, the same routine happens: basically catch and release (even if you commit the most henious crimes in the game). Unrealistic isn't it? Try crimes like the ones you see in GTA in RL and you are probably going to be looking at lenghty jail sentences or worse in real life. Also, if your guy gets killed, he will simply respawn at the nearest hospital.

- If you do storyline missions, you will get involved with organized crime, whether it is working for the mob (as is the case with GTA 4), join in a gang war system (such as the Grove Street gang in San Andreas), work for corrupt police officers (such as Frank Tenpenny in GTA San Andreas, as well as other criminal masterminds doing various quests.

- In later games like GTA 4 and San Andreas, you can also get multiple girlfriends (and other girls will usually not care if you date more than one in the GTA universe). This is unrealistic too, since if you try to take on more than one girlfriend in real life, they are bound to get jealous and break up with you (sometimes even the slightest act of disloyalty such as cheating can produce disasterous results in your relationship).

Well, this list goes on, but you get the picture, and the m rated nature of these game have spawned lots of criticisms and controversies from parents, law makers, as well as other opponents of these games. Interestingly the Simpsons Game (which was released for the Xbox 360, PS 3 and Nintendo Wii not long after the Simpsons movie) has a huge parody of the GTA series, with Bart wanting to get Grand Theft Scratchy and Marge, being a typical mother (no offense intended, though I know my mom does not like the series for example), wants to have the game banned (there is even a level where Marge and Lisa will find themselves in the Grand Theft Scratchy universe and try to make Grand Theft Scratchy world "G" rated instead of "M" rated by cleaning up the 'hood to say the least). By the way, never try anything you see in the GTA universe (i.e., stealing cars, joining your local gang, going on rampages, etc) as that will certainly land you in hot water (to say the least) if you do.

Similar works:

- other titles in the GTA series

- Scar Face (GTA Vice City seems to have gotten its inspiration from Scar Face)

- Saints Row

- Simpsons Game (has a few parodies of the GTA universe)

I will talk about more of these games on a later post.

Have a twisted game you want to share? Feel to post it in my comments thread.

The Ghost Busters game brings back my childhood memories

Besides the Nintendo Wii, I did get two new Xbox 360 games: Batman Arkane Asylum and the Ghost Busters game. When I was a kid, I used to watch the Ghost Busters cartoon series all the time and even watched the two movies that were made featuring the crew from Ghost Busters. I tried the NES version back during the NES days, but did not like it. However, the new one for the Xbox 360 is quite cool. In the game, you play as the new recruit who joins the ghost buster crew (which features voice actors directly from the movies: Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray and the rest of the ghost busters crew) and you go to many different locations in search of ghosts, equipped with ghost hunting equimpent as well as the signature ghostbuster equipment and traps going after evil entities bent on taking over New York City. And there are plenty of memorable missions and moments. In the first mission, you explore this haunted hotel (which may remind you of a real life haunted hotel, such as the Stanley Hotel at Estes Park, Colorado) in search of the paranormal and fight this ghost pirate at the end of the mission, along with a mission where you fight the notorious Stay Puft creature from the first Ghost Busters Movie (who ends up being the first major boss in the game). In the third mission, you tour a haunted library in search of the infamous Grey Lady (I acutally live close to the former location of the Snohomish Library btw). This game in my opinion rocks. Reminds me a bit of Ghost Hunters on Syfy, except you actually fight the ghosts at paranormal hot spots. (more will be added to this post over time)