Lucifer is Dead!

Wow... So, two nights ago, I finally managed to kill Lucifer, Dante's Inferno's final boss. Well, who else would it be, eh? But man, I must say, that, was a HARD fight! One of the hardest boss battles I've fought in quite some time, seriously!

Indeed, it was so hard, I actually gave up, the first time I tried. And tried. And died again. Trust me, I tried a lot of times. I'm not one to just give up like that, but in this case... I was actually angry at the game! Not a good thing, is it? I mean, getting angry at a game? Unhealthy, almost. Well, I wasn't really angry at the game, ofcourse. I was angry at the people responsible for it. The people responsible for this totally unfair fight. Man, I was almost thinking about buying souls to be able to unlock the things I thought I needed. Almost, mind. I didn't do it. Just to illustrate how desperate I had almost become.
See, I had already watched a clip on Youtube that showed how it had to be done. In this clip, the player used the projectile cross power, with which he totally wasted Lucifer's first form. You could see Lucifer's energy bar dropping at lightspeed, as it were! Nice, I thought. Really nice. So, the only effective way to take out this sod is by using a pumped up cross attack. Something I didn't have, having gone totally evil. I seriously thought the game was broken, at that point. You know, that somehow, it was impossible to finish it with my current powers and moves?
But no! No, no, and no! This was not going to happen! I was not going to not finish a game just because I couldn't kill the final boss. No way.

So, I went back to the game. I just went right into the fight and... got my ass handed to me, again. This convinced me; it was not going to happen, not like this. I might as well have been throwing pebbles at him, since my cross was doing almost zero damage. Come to think of it though... I mean, if one were to constantly throw pebbles at someone...
But no, that's silly. It was more than evident though, that I had to come up with a plan, if I was ever going to get this done. So, I took a good long look at my options. Not enough souls. Not the right powers... Hmm...
After mulling this over for a bit, I took a look at my list of saves. There were four, the oldest of which was only two arena fights away from Lucifer. See, before that final battle comes, you first need to fight through the ten levels of the Malebolge. These are arena battles, with different winning conditions for each one. What if I did those last two again, and tried to fight really well, so that I might have more souls than I did now? Worth a shot, I thought, and that's exactly what I did.

The result was positive! I now had 2.000 more souls than I did before, ending up with a total of 5.000! Now, what to do with them? Why, power up that cross-attack, ofcourse! All souls in the cross! I tweaked my items a bit as well, so it did even more damage and I took less... This was it! I thought. I was wrong. It turned out that I had actually powered up my cross-attack too much! It now had three stages, the last of which was like a circle of crosses around me. Very useless, that was; Lucifer could only be hit in the exposed stomach area, which was directly in front of me. Not to the side or behind me. Another reload sorted that out, and I used my remaining souls to get a bit of extra health.
Kitted out like this, I finally managed to kill Lucifer's first form. It was still a very hard fight but, well, after having gone through it for about 30 times, you know, you kind of get an idea what he's up to at any one point. His second form was pretty tricky as well, and yes, I died again. Thankfully though, there was a checkpoint! Makes me wonder: did the people that made the game realise the fight was too hard as well? Anyway, I managed to kill the second form after a couple of tries, after which the third form wasn't too hard.

And so, I had finally finished the game, which made me do something I rarely do, if ever. I felt a bit silly about myself, especially since I was all alone. I cheered, out loud. I whooped with pleasure and satisfaction. Heck, I may have even punched the air! Seriously, it was a hard fight, and I felt like The Man for having won it.
And so, I am in need of a new game! But, there isn't one now. Not really, anyway. I mean, sure there are a couple of games I don't yet have and do want, but they'll have to wait. There's Mass Effect 2, but I haven't finished the first one, and there's Dragon Age, but I feel like I need more time for that than I would have if I bought it now. It's a good thing then, that I've ordered Bioshock 2, which should be arriving sometime next week.

So what then, I didn't play anything, last night? Why, ofcourse I did! Me not playing any games in the night? No, that wouldn't do. That wouldn't do at all. I thought about playing Bayonetta, since I still haven't really finished that. I mean, I have, on Normal. But the game only really starts to shine when played on Hard, so...
But no, I didn't play Bayonetta. Instead, I dusted off The Saboteur! You know, that GTA-like game, set in Paris during WWII. Glitchy as hell, but actually pretty good! But then, as I've said elsewhere, many, many times, I'm a sucker for GTA-like games. I'll be sure to write more about this game tomorrow, amongst other things. I feel this entry has gone on for long enough now, so... There's one thing though, that I do want to mention, and I'll try to be brief about it. I'll try.
See, I heard Sean Devlin, the game's protagonist, say something that sort of shocked me. Well, maybe shocked is too strong a word. I'm not easily shocked by anything. Let's say it made me stop and think, then.
You know, there's so much fuss about games these days. They make you violent, and if they don't, they've got content that is unacceptable. Like, for example, the infamous No Russian mission in Modern Warfare 2. Which made me stop and think as well, by the way.
Now, The Saboteur's setting is Paris in WWII, like I said. So, inevitably, there's some implied racism in there, what with all the Swastikas and everything. But to have it shoved in your face so directly? And not even aimed at the Jews?
I got to the point in the game where I had to race. The second race was against a Moroccan guy. A dangerous assumption maybe, I don't know. He told Sean there was no way he was going to lose from an Irishman. The reply was: "We'll see about that, you slack-jawed sheepfucker!" Eh??
Quite how Pandemic got away with that one, I'll never know. Although... EA did close them down, right after they finished the game...
And, with that, I'm ending this entry! As always, stay safe, and game on!

Dante's Inferno IS a Good Game!

It's that time of night again. Or morning, actually; it's 05:10 hrs now. Regardless, it's time to do a bit of writing. You know, time to find out what to write about. Besides the usual stuff, that is. And, as usual, I have no idea, at all.
In my first post, I said I had heard that talking about food is a no-no on Twitter. Apparently, there was a Super Bowl match today, apparently won by the New Orleans Saints. Apparently. I know nothing about that at all, nor do I care. The thing is though, during the break, or half-time, or whatever it's called, they showed commercials. For as long as they lasted, these commercials were all the American people I follow on Twitter were talking about. They were tweeting about commercials! All of them, constantly!
If I had any worries about whether the stuff I write about is appropriate for a blog or for Twitter, they're all gone now.

So! What did I do, yesterday? Well, like I said I would, I played some Dante's Inferno again, which was fun. You know what though? I may have mentioned this in my previous post, I don't know, but DI just seems to... plod along at this steady pace. Is that the right way of saying it? Does that explain how I feel about it? Not sufficiently so, I think. Okay.
Ah, yes, that's what I said about it. I checked. Indeed, it's kill demons, jump a ledge, solve a simple puzzle, kill demons, rinse and repeat. It doesn't really have any highlights, is what the problem is, you know? Well, it does actually, but the weird thing is that even these don't really stick out. Like yesterday, I got to control a huge giant demon... guy. Yeah. It was pretty cool, actually. It started with me having to kill lots of regular demons on a series of platforms, while that huge giant demon guy was pounding his fists on said platforms. Gameplay-wise this meant having to fight while dodging the giant's attacks. Pretty tricky stuff, actually. Some of those regular demons have some really nasty, hard to block moves, you see. When all that was done, a cutscene came, showing me getting on top of the giant's head, after which the game continued, now with me in control of the giant.

Now, that all sounds pretty epic, right? It does to me! But... it just isn't, unfortunately. The giant really was quite gigantic, so I guess the fact that it walked at a really, really slow pace makes sense. It would probably have been silly to have it skipping and jumping around like Bayonetta I suppose, but still. I got to smash some pillars with the giant, and some bridges as well. All I really did though, was walk a narrow path I could not deviate from. Well, I guess that narrow path may have in fact been highway-size, but with me being a giant, you know... Anyway, almost at the end of this path, the game pulled another GoW trick. While I was walking, the camera started zooming out more and more, until my giant was about the size of a just about visible pixel. This way, they could show me arriving at the city of Dis in an epic way, showing it in all its glory. You know the kind of shot I'm talking about. I had basically been reduced to a camera moving device.
Now, again, all of this is supposed to be really epic, you know? The kind of stuff the word epic was invented for, almost. It isn't. It's... well, I hate having to say it again, but I will anyway: it's like God of War, only not as good as.

Still! All of this negative talk about this game! You might almost think I hated it, right? Well, as you may have guessed, I don't. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: it's the subject matter and the way it all looks that saves it for me. And well, apart from that, I really don't mind a bit of mindless hacking and slashing. Sometimes, I'm more than willing and able to, you know, lower my standards a bit. Once you recognize a certain game just isn't as good as it could be, but there aren't any game breaking things in there, well, why not just enjoy what is there? As opposed to getting al worked up and annoyed about what isn't, thereby spoiling your own fun. Exactly the same theory can and indeed has -by me- been applied to movies. Just try to enjoy what is there, instead of bitch about what isn't. Yeah, profound stuff, or what?
Having said all that, I do feel I have to add that I can and do appreciate quality. Not too long ago, I played and finished both God of Wars on the GoW Collection for my PS3, and seriously, I was and still am blown away by the amazing quality of these games. Almost everything seems to have been polished to perfection. Level design, pacing, the fighting system, everything! Indeed, almost, because the games weren't totally perfect. Ofcourse they weren't. Right now though, I couldn't really point out anything specifically bad about them. The thing is, they were just so good, that you just didn't notice whatever was bad about them. Indeed, as opposed to Dante's Inferno. It's glaringly obvious what's bad about that one. It's also obvious what's good about it, and there's enough quality left for me to have fun with it. So there.

Ah yes... all those games! Too many of them! If I only think about all the good stuff that's still coming, all of it being released in the next two months... Thankfully, I've become a lot less impulsive, when it comes to buying games. There used to be a time where I simply bought, well, pretty much all of them. Which was cool, but it also had the major disadvantage of me almost never finishing one of them. Hell, I can easily name five games that I really, really should have finished, but never did. Shall I? Here we go. Fallout 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Mass Effect, Oblivion and, let's see... Okami. And I could go on, but the point has been made.
I am however, happy to be able to say that I've been finishing quite a lot of games, lately. I already mentioned GoW, then there's Bayonetta and Darksiders, and I'm pretty sure I'll finish DI as well. And then what? Not Mass Effect 2, that's for certain. I want to play and finish the first one, er, first. GoW3 won't be coming until next month. How about Heavy Rain? Isn't that supposed to be released one of these days? I'll just see what's available, when I do.

Now however, I must end this entry. My last nightshift is almost over, with about 10 minutes to go, so... Indeed, I've got a few days off now, which means I won't be blogging. My pc is still very dead, and well, writing a story like this using my PS3's controller... don't think so. My next shift will be this Thursday though, and that will be the day my next post will appear. So, until then, stay safe, and game on!

A Short Entry Because I Didn't Do That Much

Right... The next one then! If I keep this up, this thing might actually become something! I mean, right now it's just one post, with another one in the making as I type. It's not a big thing right now, is all I'm saying. But who knows, one day, it will be! Maybe one day, my blog will be known all over the world, and Steven Spielberg will want to make a movie about it, saying it could be his best work yet, if I only gave him the go-ahead.
Yeah, maybe...

Until that day, I'll just keep on doing what I do best, which is wibble on aimlessly. Which, strangely, is exactly what people seem to like! Sam said so, in his reaction to my previous post, and then someone, somewhere else said pretty much the same thing to me. Weird. Too bad you can't really use this technique when writing an actual story. Or so it seems to me. I have made a few attempts in the past, you see. At writing a book, that is. In fact, I got quite far with one of these. The trouble with all of these stories is that I simply started writing them because I felt like writing, at the time. You know, I had an idea for a story in my head, and I just started writing it. Without some sort of plan about where the story was going, obviously. Indeed, I just started, and made that shit up as I went along.
The result has always been the same: I wrote myself into a corner, so to speak. I always got to a point where I was like, owkaaayy, and, now what? Where does the story go next? Or indeed, how does it end? I've also written and drawn a comic, which still doesn't have a proper ending. Actually, that comic might be a bit of a bad example, since miraculously, that story does make sense from beginning to, er, almost the end. In fact, the story is over, it just hasn't been concluded yet. You know, the Bad Guy has been defeated (or has he?) the prize has been won, everybody's happy. I know, I could just end it with that, but I don't like it. It needs a good and proper ending. And it's the 'good' part that's the problem. I mean, I could easily say "It's all over, and everyone went home and was happy." Yeah, like fuck I could. That's no ending. That's the same as going "Oh, it was all a dream"! Not gonna happen. Not in my story. Oh well, I'll think of something, someday. Indeed, someday, because stupidly, I've said to myself that if and when I do finally pick up that comic again, I'm going to completely redraw it, thereby getting back into the story, after which the good and proper ending will come naturally. Sounds like a good idea, maybe, but in my particular case, it really isn't. It seems that the bigger a challenge becomes, the more I tend to not be able to deal with it. And it's not just the writing of stories that's affected by this problem, I can tell you.

Wow... how's that for rambling on, eh? Indeed, and getting a bit too heavy for my liking, as well. I mean, I want people to be entertained when reading this, not wanting to commit suicide or something because they got all depressed and stuff.
So! On to lighter stuff! Let's talk games! Yeah, well, as far as the 'which-games-did-you-play-yesterday' and the 'tell-me-all-about-it' stuff is concerned, there isn't a whole lot to say. I'll try anyway.
Since no one was online when I started, I popped in Dante's Inferno and had fun. I didn't really do anything special though. You know, the game just went on for a bit; jump this ledge, kill those monsters and punish them afterwards, rinse and repeat. Ooh, that, by the way, is actually something to say a little something about! The Punishing or Absolving of enemies. Just as in God of War, some enemies can be killed in a special way, as soon as you've kicked their balls enough. Indeed, the well-known QTE moment. In DI, what you do is you grab the purple-balled enemy, after which you get to decide whether you want to punish or absolve it. Punishing can then come in the form of simply bashing a button. A cooler way is when you get to rip an enemy in two, which is cleverly done by moving the two thumbsticks away from each other.
Absolving is completely different though. Here, you get a... um... Well, it's a small minigame, actually, mixed with the QTE thing. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, um... It's like Gitaroo Man! Only, different. Okay, never mind. I always punish my enemies, so I don't really know that much about the absolving Gitaroo Man-like only different QTE minigame, okay?
What I do know is what the result of either punishing or absolving is, which is what matters. See, in DI, your main melee weapon is Death's scythe, which I like, a lot. Then, Dante also has this cross sewn into his chest, which can fire off cross-shaped magic bullets, as it were. A projectile attack, at any rate. Now, in DI, you've got a skilltree that you can spend points in to... Yeah, well, like GoW, only not as good as, you know?
The difference though is, you've actually got two skilltrees; one for evil, one for holy. Depending on how you finish off an enemy, you get experience for one or the other, which unlocks higher skills. Here's the trick though: building up the evil skilltree makes the scythe more powerful, building up the holy one increases the damage on the cross-magic. Well, that made my choice easy, I can tell you. It's simple: I want to hack and slash, not shoot! I'm not saying the cross-magic is worthless, because it isn't. It's great to have, as a secondary weapon! I'd like my main weapon to be a soul-reaping, baby-chopping, kickass-scythe though, thank you please. Yeah, that and, I'll admit, I do love being evil, in games. But, that's a different subject. One I may or may not talk about in another post.

Anyway! Like I said, there isn't a whole lot I can say about what I did, yesterday. I'm sorry, I did it again, didn't I? I can't help it, I'm sorry.
Like I said though, I only played a little DI. Because then, suddenly, one of my friends came online. Not long after that, two more appeared, and so a nice game of 4 player co-op Borderlands ensued, after all. And a very profitable game it was, as well! All four of us reached level 50! Yeah baby, yeah! Right now, this is the level cap, and we were all rewarded with a well-earned trophy for reaching it. Indeed, I said right now, because that level cap will be raised with the arrival of the next bit of DLC. Well, bit... I've heard it's going to be quite large, actually. Larger than the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, anyways. I think it's going to be really good, at any rate.
Yeah, Borderlands... I really had some great times with that one. Or rather, my friends and I did. Easily one of the best co-op experiences to be had these days, this game is. I'm sure Left 4 Dead 2 is pretty sweet as well, but that's different. Completely different, actually.
And then, near the end of our session, we all suddenly decided on getting Modern Warfare 2, for even more multiplayer fun! Is that a strange thing? Is there something wrong with that? No, and no. Bear in mind though, that I already own the game on my 360, where I'm somewhere around level 35. Indeed. But hey, I'm a social guy, right? And since neither of these three friends in question own a 360... It'll also be nice to get some more Trophies, by the way.
All in all then, I think I can safely say that I had a very satisfactory gaming session, yesterday. I wonder what this morning will bring, in that respect!

And with that, I'm going to end today's entry. Only an hour left before my shift ends and, well, I don't really have that much left to say anyway. I mean, I could easily go on I suppose, but I won't. There's no need to get all biblical here, length-wise. Or in any other way, for that matter. Still, if I keep on blogging, I might just get there. Length-wise. And I do believe I like doing it, so yeah, it just might happen.
It just might...

A Blog!

Okay! Well, let's see how this works out! I just Googled 'Blog', and obviously this was the first thing that came up. Well, why not, I thought. I might as well start somewhere, and if I come across something better, I can always switch, I suppose.

So yeah, a blog! With this being my first ever attempt at something like this, I wonder, are there any rules for doing this stuff? I suppose there are, just like, apparently, there are rules for Twitter. I've heard that it's not done to tweet about food. Why is that? It's my Twitter account, isn't it? I think I'll bloody well tweet about anything I bloody well want to, thank you very much! And if that happens to be food, then food it is.
So, I guess I should just apply that same logic here. It's my blog, so I'll bloody well blog about anything I bloody well want to, in my own inimitable way.

But, why blog? Do I feel like the stuff I do is interesting enough to share with the world? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, I don't know. What I do know is that a few years ago, I used to do Vinkin's Diaries on a forum, and everyone seemed to like it. So much so in fact, that I still get asked about it every now and then. So I guess one of the reasons I am now doing this is simply 'popular demand'. Or something. That, and I just love to write.
I really do, but the trouble is... I'm lazy. Very much so. You know, to actually sit down and write something, I don't know, I just never seem to find the time. As in that I'm always busy doing other stuff. Like gaming, for example.
Indeed, gaming is what most of the subject matter in this blog will be about, in all shapes and forms. I might write about what I did in a certain game, I might write about what I think about it, and lots of other stuff.

I suppose, at this point, it's only fair to point out that I have another possibly bad character trait. Besides being lazy, if and when I do write, I tend to ramble on a bit. At times. Is that a no-no in blogging? Should I think about what I'm going to write before I do? You know, for the sake of clarity? I suppose I could, but then... I don't really want to! I prefer making this stuff up as I go, actually. I'll just do that then, for the time being.

So! I suppose I should really write about something now then, instead of going on about how I'm a blog-noob. That has been established now, so we can move on, thank you please. Yes. I guess I can rack my brain trying to come up with something really relevant and what have you. I can also just play it safe for now, and write about a game. Or games, as may be the case. Yes, that is what I will do. I'm going to play it even safer by writing about the game I'm currently playing. My memory is freshest about that. Yeah, see, I've got a bit of a bad memory. Something I'm sure I'll be mentioning more than once, in the future. You have been warned!

Well then, the game here would be Dante's Inferno, for my PlayStation 3. I also own an Xbox360, by the way. But, since a good friend of mine only has a PS3, and Dante's Inferno is going to have co-op DLC... Yeah, I'm a social kind of guy. Sometimes.
Anyway, DI, as I shall call it from now on. I'm lazy, like I said, and I don't want to have to type out the words Dante's Inferno every single time I feel I need to. Abbrevations, acronyms... you gotta love 'em!
See? I'm rambling again. DI then! A lot has been said about this game, in lots of different places. What can I add? Well, how about my opinion? Indeed. I'll try to tackle a few things then. First, I've read that there are people that have problems with how Visceral Games interpreted the source material. To that I say, I don't give a toss! Sure they've mangled the story into an almost unrecognizable mess, but who cares? The result is a really cool game, and to me, that's all that matters. I think it would have been a boring as hell game had they stayed true to the original, no pun intended.
So yeah, a really cool game. Really though? I mean, you can't talk about DI without mentioning God of War, now can you? And the comparison is, well, truth be told, less than favourable. That is not to say that DI is a bad game, mind you! It's GoW's fault for setting the bar so impossibly high, is what it is. DI just does almost everything GoW has done before, only less so. The fighting system is less exciting and satisfying, the platforming bits are horrible, and, well, it really is a good game, just not as good as, you know?
What makes it all good for me though, is the subject matter. Or, more specifically, the overall graphic design. Graphic design, see? Not level design, because, well, never mind... Not as good as, you know? Seriously though, the design... I love it!!! All that stuff is just so up my proverbial alley! The highlight so far being the unbaptized babies with bloody knives for arms. I really love that sick and twisted stuff. I also really love Visceral for having had the guts to put them in! I think there are a lot of developers who would've steered well clear of sensitive subject matter like this. In that respect, I was quite worried about DI, before it was finally confirmed and released. I mean, all the stuff I had read and seen about it, I was so worried they'd censor the whole thing to bits! But no, it's all there, in all its deliciously sick glory.

Again, I love the subject matter, you know, demons and stuff. And angels, I like them as well. A design development of late that I'm really happy with. Bayonetta, Dante's Inferno, Darksiders, God of War... All of these games use angels and/or demons in different shapes and forms. Which is so much better than using human enemies, in my opinion. Or, more specifically, undead humans. Zombies have been in fashion for quite a while, which was cool. Nothing wrong with zombies, except for one thing. Design-wise, there isn't a whole lot you can do with them, I feel. Sure you can give them cool looking wounds, festering or not, sure you can change their size and behaviour, but in the end, they almost always have a human form.
Demons and Angels however! Indeed, what do these look like? No one really knows, right? Exactly, and that gives designers all the freedom they could ever want. A head, a torso, two arms and two legs? Boring! How about no head, a split torso with teeth in it, six arms and one leg? Much better, much better... Really, as far as I'm concerned, designers can go as far as they want, and then some. Man, I should really be a designer as well. If and when I get the opportunity to do so, I'll add some of my own work to this blog. Sick and twisted are definitely two words that very much and very accurately describe it, so...

Anyway, I think I'll leave it at that, for now. I'm working a nightshift here which is almost over, so I need to shut down anyway. Only forty minutes to go! And then what? There's a small chance that I'll be playing Borderlands with some friends, but failing that, well, I think I'll just play some more DI. Good times!