Deadpool: Mouthing Off 2

Part 2 of 2

I've done my best to stay away from the review sites across the Internets, but I'm assuming this game is going to be well received by Deadpool fans and lumped into an average rating by most gamers. The Deadpool game fits the summer-popcorn-movie stereotype. It's good but not great; kind of short for the $49.99 release price. I'm also guessing that people who are unfamiliar with Deadpool will be put-off by his antics and confused by his humor. Or just irritated. Probably irritated

Now that I've finished the story campaign, I wish there was more to the story campaign. I feel like I got enough; I played the game for three hours a night, starting on the Tuesday night that it released. I finished the story campaign on Thursday night. Normally, I hop around from game to game while playing. Deadpool had me hooked and satisfied from the minute I started playing. That doesn't happen very often. Now that I know the story and how it ends, I just wish it could continue...or have a new arc start in the same universe.

To wrap this up, in the best way that I can, I have to label the Deadpool game as scatterbrained. If this were a normal game, that label wouldn't be compliment. I think the game would be accused doing or including too many things. For example: most of the Deadpool game is a hack n' slash, beat 'em up....but it's also a third-person shooter/platformer/adventure/stealth game. It contains a side-scrolling level (I would take more of this), a couple shooter-on-rails sections (think turrets), and a retro-style Atari level in the sewers (only for a couple minutes). The point being: it is all over the place.

And that's Deadpool. He's all over the place.

Speaking of all over the place, go to Part 1

Deadpool: Mouthing Off 1

Part 1 of 2

After sinking 3 to 4 hours in it, I think I'm qualified (by Internet standards) to talk about the new Deadpool game that dropped this Tuesday. I walked out of GameStop with a copy of the PS3 version, stopped at Chick-fil-A (sorry, no chimichangas), and plopped down on my couch to get reacquainted with the Merc with a Mouth.

The first little section of the game serves to do just that, teach the player about this masked madman by exploring his apartment. I was laughing the whole time, especially while Deadpool made fun of achievements by giving me the first and second ones for "free," I'm glad Deadpool shares my opinion on trophies and achievements.

Once out of the crazy-filthy apartment, it was sword-swinging, gun-toting, tutorial time. At first thought, I'd call Deadpool a hack n' slash game with a bit of platforming, but that's because I didn't want to use my guns, like ever. I guess I have more fun slicing and dicing enemies; even when the enemies were poised for a duck-and-cover shoot-out, I would run head-first into enemy fire (what's the point of a healing factor if you're not going to use it) and stab, stab, stab.

The non-shooting combat is easy to learn and the enemy AI is pretty dumb. And, oh I forgot about the teleport dodge: it makes the sword combat and countering very over-powered. I had honestly forgotten that Deadpool had that teleport technology. Where's Weasel when I want to thank him? Anyway, it was later into the game when I realized I was in trouble for not using/upgrading my gun arsenal.

The "heavy" baddies are much easier when Deadpool is dual-wielding shotguns. Maybe that's the case for all the baddies. Still, I get bored with third-person shooting faster than I do stringing together bloody-bladed melee combos. The melee gameplay is no Arkham Asylum, but I still enjoyed it. I like my Deadpool with his blades; I also like the sai, but I haven't used them much. The swords are fully upgraded, the sai are newly unlocked, and the hammers, well, I haven't purchased them yet.

Most of the glitches that I've seen have occurred during combat, but nothing has made me want to eat my controller. Occasionally an enemy will end up on top of Deadpool; sometimes my hits connect with the displaced enemy and sometimes they don't. Meh. Deadpool points (DP) don't always revert to the previous amount if you die and then continue from the nearest checkpoint. Last, but not least, enemies can deal lots of damage to each other; I've always thought friendly fire is a stupid concept, so when a "heavy" baddie clears all the normal enemies for me, I wonder if that was intentional.

Even though the game is linear, I'll praise the level design and variety. From Deadpool's apartment to the mucky sewers to the catacombs of Genosha, the scenery is a sight to behold. I'd also like to get my hands on some concept art, especially the final level in Genosha. Floating platforms as far as the eye can see. Again, thank you Weasel for the teleportation.

Speaking of teleportation, BAMF over to Part 2

What About The Rest Of The Year?

Blogging? Am I still doing that? By missing E3 this year, I shot my blogging-self in the foot. Last year and the year before, E3 was a prime time to chime in on the world of gaming. Starting right now, there are only 4 games that I'm really looking forward to for the remainder of 2013. They are, in order of suspected release:

6/25/2013 - Deadpool
9/3/2013 - Diablo III (Console)
9/17/2013 - Grand Theft Auto V
Q4 2013 - South Park: The Stick of Truth

I'll definitely be talking about the Deadpool game, because it looks awesome and hilarious.

The other two games, Diablo and GTA, look to be early fall releases but I'm not really sure about South Park. Who knows? Anybody. I can wait for that one, because I want the South Park game to be done right or not done at all.

Good news though, I'll have plenty of time to play Deadpool before I get bogged down with the other new games. Deadpool is my favorite Marvel Comics character and I've been anticipating this game since I first heard about it. And it's about damn time that it was released. I'll try and get a huge chunk of it played shortly after release so that I can post my thoughts on the game.

There were some tempting pre-order bonuses, but nothing too blingy. So I put my pre-order in at GameStop and got two more challenge maps, two extra costumes, and a wallpaper. Let me see if I can dig that sucker up.

October In Full Force

It's been four weeks since Resident Evil 6 dropped and I still don't think I've played enough of it to adequately "review" it. Then again, I haven't played it that much. I blame the game itself. But I can also blame another game: Dead Space. Yes, the original Dead Space. This red-cased, greatest hits game is scarier than most of Resident Evil 4, all of Resident Evil 5, and what I've played of Resident Evil 6 combined.

Sneaking through the Ishimura a couple weekends ago was satisfying and creepy; to add extra tension, I'm going for the plasma cutter challenge and only using that weapon. At first I thought it was hard to shoot for the limbs and appendages (I'm a seasoned zombie killer, aiming for skulls) but I slowly got the hang of it. I'm also a fan of the Kinesis module; sharp objects and explosive canisters are launched at anything that moves. The most fun I've had in-game has involved creative killing with gas tanks and shrapnel.

Unfortunately, the Kinesis module isn't that original. I've encountered the mechanic before in Half-Life 2 and Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, but it's still fun to use. It's definitely a good thing that weapons like the gravity gun don't exist in real life, because I would cause all kinds of trouble armed with one.

Out in the real world, everything around the DoNothingMan is falling apart. I still can't get my twitter feed to display in the blog margins (this just suddenly started happening and I don't know to fix it) and last Thursday my van decided to stop running. Hopefully I can bring it back to life.

Resident Evil 6 Demo: The Rule of Thirds

After a boring, 8-hour work day, I came home yesterday knowing that the Resident Evil 6 demo was going live. I hopped onto the PlayStation and I found nothing. No Resident Evil 6 Demo to download. WTF, I thought to myself. Eh, it's probably just Sony being Sony and effing something up. I'll play Skyrim instead (yeah, I haven't killed a dragon in months).

So I killed a dragon outside of Riften. Then I looked at my to-do list of quests and thought they all seemed mundane. Pausing, I checked the Internet for any news about Sony not having the RE6 demo (couldn't find any) and I switched to a Skyrim wiki and landed on a page about the Ghostblade. That's what I need, the Ghostblade. So I played until I obtained the Ghostblade.

An hour or two later, with the Ghostblade in my hot little hands, I checked PSN again and the RE6 demo was there. Spooky. So I downloaded it and played it. Here are my thoughts:

Finally, I can set aside all my speculation and muckraking - I have played a demo for Resident Evil 6 and it wasn't that bad. I'll get into more detail below, but I generally enjoyed the appetizer experience contained within the demo. As a preview for all three main campaigns, the demo lets you play as Chris, Leon, and Jake (their partners we're also selectable, but I only played the main characters). Each campaign is different and each character plays differently (we already knew that) but there is wide gulf that separates them, wider then I suspected.

Twenty Minutes of Chris

Band of Bros

No, I'm not abbreviating "brothers" here or alluding to the epic series. This is the BRO GAMER campaign. "Is he always this awesome?" says the rookie BSA moron as Chris Redfield walks away. Yes rookie...Chris is so awesome that he's probably the only one who will survive this mission. This means you’re going to die a horrible death at the hands of zombie hulk.

The running and gunning in Chris's twenty minutes felt exactly like RE5, but slightly faster. Switching weapons has the same intuitive directional pad controls as RE5. Healing was less intuitive until I realized herbs were picked up and compressed into Tic-Tac form. You have to go into your inventory to combine herbs and load them into your Tic-Tac container. The pop-a-health-Tic-Tac button is R2 and you can pig out like fat kid with Pez dispenser (as long as your container is loaded).

I used Chris's pistol more than his automatic weapon; the machine gun hopped around as you fired (I guess that's realism for you). Anyway, I was able to pick off a rocket launcher goon all the way across the map with the pistol as I was killing time while the BSA rookie was planting charges or something. Timed survival seemed to be a common theme. Twenty minutes of Chris's foray into the world of Call of Duty wasn't bad. But I don't know if I can survive the brotastic bullshit for an entire campaign; I played Chris's first because I knew it would be the hardest for me to stomach. And I was right.

Twenty Minutes of Jake

Zombie Tyranitars

Of the three characters, I am the most curious about Jake Muller, the supposed son of Albert Wesker. The demo didn't give away much of Jake's story; he is paired with Sherry Birkin and that can't be for no reason at all.

Jake's gameplay featured the most variety and the most surprising enemies. He comes fully loaded with a pistol, hand-cannon (think elephant gun, stranger), machine gun, sniper rifle, and hand-to-hand. Yes, you have to equip hand-to-hand. Jake's twenty minutes trained me in the ways of melee and close combat of RE6 and that's only because it was the best way to deal with the zombie lizards.

More like zombie tyranitars. Almost every infected enemy crusted over after you defeated them. Some of the crusties then broke apart revealing this new enemy. Sure, I could've wasted all my ammo on the zombie tyranitars, but it was most effective to engage the beasts in hand-to-hand and beat the brains out of them. More satisfying too.

Jake's run felt more familiar then Chris's; it actually felt the most like RE4 when you get onto the island. And I'm okay with that. I can only hope that Jake's story is well hashed out in the full game. After all, he has his father's shoes to fill.

Twenty Minutes of Leon

My Knife and the Ghostblade

I almost played as Leon S. Kennedy first, but I'm glad I didn't; I saved the best for last. Leon's twenty minutes felt like classic Resident Evil crossed with RE4.

I remember when books were used to hide things like keys, emblems, and clues.

The opening cut-scene drew from the first zombie encounter in the mansion back in 1997. Only I didn't actually get to shoot the zombie...cut-scene Leon shot the zombie and he looked cool doing it too. You then assume control of Leon on a college campus with a new flesh-bag partner (who isn't completely worthless) and joining the team again, codec-style is Hunnigan. Yesh!

Leon comes equipped with a pistol and his combat knife. I switched to the combat knife right away because the pistol only had forty bullets. Better conserve ammo, I thought. It was a good feeling, one I've not felt since Code Veronica. The zombies are zombies, occasionally they'll be carrying something that you can snatch away and use against them only once. I used the knife and the melee attacks for Leon's entire twenty minutes. Awesome. But I did notice the new stamina bar, which I drained quickly going all up-close-and-personal with the undead. My partner did help me get out of some tight spots and I had to use grapple quick-time events to get the touchy-feely zombies off me.

Resident Evil 6 now includes decorative urinal cakes.

The demo ended with an awkward quick-time event in a police car looking for the keys as zombies attacked and climbed all over the cruiser. Annoying, but it was tense. Leon's run was definitely my favorite; I might even play it again. I might even use his partner...I forget her name already and I don't feel like googling it.

Two Thirds Satisfied

One Third Worried

That seems to be a good summary of my experiences with the Resident Evil 6 demo. Overall, I was happy with it. Chris's campaign bothers me and it will probably still bother me when I play it in full. However, if I hadn't already pre-ordered Resident Evil 6, this demo would've sealed the deal. I am looking forward to playing the full game on October 2.

A Summer Sans PS3

August always signals the end of summer for me. Yeah, schools don't start for a couple more days, but by the middle of August, summer is basically gone.

After flipping through a couple older posts and looking over my gaming notes (yes, I have gaming notes), I arrived at a shocking revelation. I have not played my PlayStation 3 at all this summer. My gaming time consisted of the following:

Diablo 3 (PC)
Tribes: Ascend (PC)
League of Legends (PC)
Saint's Row 3 (Xbox 360)
Just Cause 2 (Xbox 360)
Pokémon Emerald (GBA/DS Lite)

Yep, that looks about right. I'm almost finished with Emerald and I'm a complete noob on League of Legends, but Diablo 3 and the sandbox games have kept me pretty occupied. Receiving the most ink, though, are Diablo 3 and Pokémon because I just enjoy writing about demons and pocket monsters.

As an avid PlayStation fan, I feel I must explain my summer of transgression. Excuse number one is that I moved and it's taken time to get things set back up. Lame reason. Excuse number two is that my PS3 currently has no sound. During the move, I decided to commit my surround sound speakers to my gaming PC for demon slaughtering eargasms. This left the PS3 with no audio device and me with an excuse to explore the world of surround sound headsets. And I haven't found a pair that I like.

I've never been an audiophiliac, but recently, I've had an unusual appetite for video game audio and becoming totally present in a gaming reality. That means tuning out the real world and tuning into the game world; the complete immersion of self. And listening to a game through sound cancelling headphones seemed like the best way to accomplish such immersion.

The plan was to pick up a pair of headphones for my PS3. The problem is that one does not simply "pick up" a pair of gaming headphones. Maybe I just don't know enough about quality audio, but between Turtle Beach nonsense and Logitech fluff, I'm not really sure what I'm doing.

The minute I decided on a pair, the Tritton Ax Pro, I read about a new pair coming out this fall; an updated or upgraded version of the Tritton Ax Pro. I really wish the name was Tritton Axe Pro, which sounds like a wicked combination of two-handed melee weapons.

The Nostalgia Sell: Resident Evil 6

It's time for more of this Resident Evil crapfest. Is crapfest a word? It should be, because it paints a perfect picture of how Capcom has transformed Resident Evil. Quite a feat, if you ask me; if Capcom set out to maim the Resident Evil franchise, then they deserve to celebrate, because they have ruined a magnificent series of games.

The truly sad part of all this: I still like Resident Evil games. I can't say love. I used to love Resident Evil back in the PlayStation days. So when I saw this on Amazon, I was excited. Harkening back to my craving for sweet pre-order bonuses, when I saw the Resident Evil Anthology pack, I thought: that's a super-awesome deal. Forget Leon's jacket, an Africa necklace, or a mini Chris Redfield (and think other shiny pre-order goodies), let's give out the other RE games.

The Resident Evil Anthology: at first glance, this looked like an amazing deal. Then my common sense started tingling.

Wait a minute...
This contains six Resident Evil games. Three of my favorite games (the first three) and three that I'm not all that crazy about.

Wait a minute...
I already own all of these games (in disk form) except the 6th one.

Wait a minute...
Resident Evil 6 costs $59.99 alone, which means they're charging thirty bucks for the five other games.

Wait a minute...
That means Resident Evil 6 is insanely over-priced.

Nostalgia clouded my judgment, nearly causing me to make a bad decision. Touché, Capcom. You almost had me there. Marketing strategy suggests that when we look at this bundle, we think we're getting all this awesome stuff with the new game. The reversal (and maybe closer to the truth, I fear) is that Capcom is re-selling what made Resident Evil so great and tacking on RE5 and RE6 like the backwards little runts that they are.

Kind of like the Indiana Jones 4 Pack. Nobody's going to buy Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by itself. So they have to bundle it with the other three good movies.

I'm being pretty harsh here. I haven't played Resident Evil 6 nor have I played its demo. I've seen some cool gameplay footage over at Kotaku and that's about it. The bottom line is that I'm not fond of the Resident Evil action game. And I hope Capcom doesn't turn Resident Evil 6 into a knock off of Call of Duty Zombies.

Apartment 101

Three years and nine months. That's how long I've been living in Apartment 101; that's a long time for me, considering I moved every summer while I was in undergrad. In the end, it'll be three years and ten months because the lease is up at the end of June. But my new lease at my new place starts sometime in May. So I'll be doubling up on rent for part of May and all of June. Easy for moving. Bad for the budget. So let's take a moment and remember the good times at Apartment 101.

I can't think of any. Kidding.

Apartment 101 housed me at my most productive and my most lazy. I think of John Nash and Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski; spanning one far end of the spectrum to the other and back again. Graduate school, teaching, working for the university, and unemployment (six sweet long months of it). Video games, video editing, and travel preceded job hunting, interviews, and eventually returning to work. I'm not back to John Nash, but I moving in that direction. Thousands, if not millions, of zombies have died by my hands in bowels of Apartment 101.

The Northern Alaska University was founded in Barrow, Alaska thanks to my Apartment 101 roommate and NCAA Football 2007 on the PS2. The NAU Grease Rats football team is still undefeated. However, the NAU Grease Rats synchronized swimming team has a very high mortality rate. University officials are currently investigating this problem. If I want to continue coaching the Grease Rats, I'm going to have to pick up my own copy of the game. Shouldn't be too hard to find.

When I talk about the bowels of Apartment 101, I'm specifically referring to my bedroom. I used to call my bedroom Frostbite Heights because as I moved from apartment to apartment during my undergrad years, I always seemed to occupy a third floor room. The name didn't stick in Apartment 101, because we were basically in the basement of our apartment complex. No complaints here; I always think of basements are really shallow dungeons. The new place is an actual house and I'll be occupying a second floor bedroom (there's no third floor) so I can break out the Frostbite Heights sign again.

In the end, Apartment 101 has been an awesome stop on my journey so far. It will be missed; it will always be remembered.

There's Too Much M in UMD

It's March. I guess I'm supposed to be mad or something. Let's see, is there anything I can be mad about? Technically, this March celebrates my one year anniversery of ceasing to be the Do Nothing Man. I can't really complain about that; even though I'm employed, I still do plenty of nothing.

The fact that the PS Vita isn't getting the UMD transfer passport program in the states kind of pisses me off. I mean, makes me mad, march mad. Too much M.

Anyway, I have a decent UMD library. And I bought what will probably be my last UMD PSP game this week from Amazon. That makes the count twenty games with three UMD Resident Evil movies for a total twenty-three part collection.

What about another type of madness? What if the UMD had actually succeeded? Knocking off DVDs and CDs as perfered media, there would be packs of ten blank UMDs and a special drive for computers (or you could take the stupid plastic shell off the disc). Car UMD players and special visor sleeves. Out there, occupying the infinite space between the atoms of our universe, exists another universe where the UMD dominated. Think about that. That's madness.

Eventually the physical disc format will completely die, but I wish the UMD had caught fire and lived until the age of the Blu-ray. Blu-UMD? Think of all the crazy data we could've squeezed onto those cute little discs.

Gravity-Bending Astro Cats and Lip Rings

While browsing through a GameStop yesterday, my curious fingers found a wall-tethered display PS Vita with a demo of Gravity Rush. One of the two games I care about on the PSV right now. So I settled in and started the demo (I really hate that I have to touch the touch-screen and can't arrow-key through the "home" bubbles and hit X to make a selection) it was quick to load and quick to start. No complaints there. The demo's control tutorial guide was even a cat. Not just any cat, mind you, but a gravity-bending astro cat.

You can't go wrong with gravity-bending astro cats. I wouldn't want to meet a pack of them in a dark alley. But you get my drift.

Once the movement tutorial was over, the fighting tutorial started and I was gravity kicking little blob monsters, which was fun. Well, that apparently pissed off a larger blob monster. The tutorial boss seemed easy enough; I started landing hits on it immediately. Then, suddenly, I wasn't able to deal damage to it. I couldn't figure out what had changed, because I was just spamming gravity kicks the whole time. Annoyed, I hopped back to the Vita's bubble home screen and walked away.

The demo hinted at a story with the introduction of a pathetic police officer and a stuck-up, anti-gravity chick with a raven. An astro raven, to be exact. But other than that, I couldn't glean any juicy story details.

Right now, to me, the game is pure eye candy. The city looked big, expansive even. A place that I want to see and explore. Other than that, I can't say much more.

I'm no fan of GameStop; however, I reserved Xenoblade Chronicles (apparently a GameStop or Nintendo Online exclusive) which is why I was there in the first place. Honestly though, I do like this store's location (on the way to my grandmother's house) and I was surprised by one female employee who actually has opinions about games. She caught be off guard enough that I had an intelligent conversation with her about the Persona series (I don't go to GameStop looking for intelligent conversations) which I've never played.

Anyway, this encounter made me realize that I enjoy discussing what other people play and why. Plus, a spoken endorsement is worth millions more than an online review.

Pick A Side, Buy With Pride

So I've got a crap-ton of 3DS links and articles tabbed up in one Chrome window and a second Chrome window filled with another crap-ton of PS Vita links and articles. The question is: If I can only have one, which portable gaming device should it be?

Erroring on the side of caution, I'm always happy to wait on the brand new console and let its first batch of bugs work through the system. This means that I feel comfortable picking up a Nintendo 3DS right now. It's rookie year is almost over and there's one particular Resident Evil game that I want to play.

The PS Vita, on the other hand, is the shiny new toy. I played with one at a Best Buy while it was attached to a young man like a high-tech ball and chain. Did I mention shiny? It was shiny.

Only the Little Deviants game was playable, but I fiddled with camera (wasn't impressed) and the UI (enough to know that I still prefer buttons over touch screen tapping) and thoroughly annoyed the machine's fleshy anchor. The only launch-day game I'm interested in is the new Lumines: Electronic Symphony. Gravity Rush also looks neat, but that's it. New game prices are over-priced for games that just look neat. Of course, there's a Disgaea 3 port in the pipe, but I didn't really care for Disgaea 3 on the PS3, so I'm not biting at the moment. Just looking.

The big question right now: What are the chances that Resident Evil Revelations will end up on the PSV? I hope that those chances are good. However, an excellent counter point is that no Resident Evil game appeared on the PSP in its entire lifetime. I'm not counting the PS1 "classic" downloadables. Here's to hoping.

For now, I can stick with my trusty silver PSP. But if Nintendo cuts the price of the 3DS to compete with the PSV, I might have to cave.

Resident Evil Rising

Ug. Two posts about pokemon. How lame. Let's talk about zombies.

Resident Evil 6 was recently announced. I'm curious. That's about all I can say about a game series that I used to love. Don't get me wrong, I still love Resident Evil (1, 2, 3, Code Veronica, and 4). I guess there's even a trading card game. Nuts.

Right now there are three Resident Evil games out in limbo for me. One is out and two are about to be released in the next two months. I'm talking about Mercenaries, Revelations, and Operation Raccoon City. Two of these outliers are for the Nintendo 3DS. That instantly makes me cringe. But let's break these down.

Starting with Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, this little guy came out over the summer and tripped tons of used game land mines with the controversial save feature. I don't care about that. What really pissed me off about this was Mercenaries started as the mini game at the end of RE3 and was further hashed out at the end of RE4. I really find it hard to believe that this title can stand alone as its own game without a story arc laying the foundation. When this came out for the 3Ds, it didn't make me want to buy a 3Ds. On the contrary, it made me go back to RE3 and RE4 and play the Mercenaries mode.

Over the years, Resident Evil has definitely shifted from the actual survival horror genre into the action survival horror space. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is meant to satisfy that action survival horror audience. I can't complain too much about the third person over-the-shoulder shooter style (because I liked it in RE4), but I did get tired of it in RE5. However the action-oriented game play makes for great co-op. The setting, story, inventory, and lack of zombies in RE5 bothered me, but I loved playing it co-op with my best friend (and fellow Resident Evil fan); I hope Operation Raccoon City will offer a similar experience. Additionally, it takes place around RE2 and RE3 (two of my favorites) and has zombies. And then there's the pre-order swag. Look at all this RE bling.

My only worry, stemming from playing as Jack Krauser in the RE4 Mercenaries, is that all these super-powered Umbrella spec-ops characters are going to have clunky controls to execute their special abilities. I don't want to play with six different Krausers.

Last is the upcoming 3Ds title: Resident Evil: Revelations, this game makes me extremely nervous. Here's why:

I don't always use twitter for this kind of thing, but when I do, I'm never afraid to ask the guys of the 404. Revelations claims to return to RE's roots while keeping the over-the-shoulder visual style. I don't think the zombies are coming back, but this game does take place on a cruise ship, which reminds me of past games. But it also reminds me of Deep Rising. What a horribly hilarious movie! Which also sounds like Dead Rising, another zombie game. Shit is getting weird. I better call it a day.

Will Resident Evil: Revelations force me to shell out the cash for a Nintendo 3Ds? We'll see.

Five Bucks, Sour Gummy Worms, Or Best Offer

It's time to start thinking about the future. I have too much shit. And I'm not talking about all the crap I have stuffed in a dresser at my house in Whiterun.

When I first moved out of the dorms and into an apartment, I could fit everything I needed into my full-size conversion van. After moving off campus, I lived in an apartment for a year with friends. At the end of the year, we packed up and moved to a new place. I did this for three years in a row. By the forth move, I had found a stable job and an awesome roommate. With so many moves under our belts, we decided to stay in our apartment for a while before packing up and moving again. Well, it's been four years. Now it's time to move again.

And I am not excited.

Eight months and my lease is up. That's plenty of time, right? Maybe. Maybe not. I need to get rid of some crap. I've amassed a strange collection of junk; assuming there's someone else out there who likes the kind of junk I like, maybe I could sell some of it.

I'm not one to toss everything in the dumpster; I'm a huge fan of thrift stores and I'll probably donate at least a couple boxes to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. I'm also going to try and sell some things on Craig’s List, which will be a whole new experience. As an avid browser of Craig's List, I kinda know how it works, but I've never bought (or sold) anything on there.

I already have my first item in mind. A total splurge and fandom impulse buy, I picked up the Hero Edition of inFAMOUS 2 for the game (obviously) and for the rockin' Sly Cooper/Cole MacGrath sling pack; this special edition also included in-game items, a comic book, and a statue of Cole. I absolutely don't care about the statue. Maybe some inFAMOUS fan will really want just the statue? Maybe some crazy inFAMOUS fan will want two statues? I guess a pair of Cole statues could make good bookends. Or PS3 game case-ends?

That's my idea for my first Craig's List sale. Is five bucks overpriced? Maybe I should ask for candy, instead. Sour gummy worms might as well be currency, in my opinion.

Gaming this Fall: Features and Distractions

After much consideration I've decided not to endorse your park. No wait. That's not right. After much consideration, I've picked my fall gaming line-up. It was tough. Skyrim. Rage. Arkum City. Gears. Saints. The Old Republic. I can't play them all at once.

With plenty of backlog to go, I had a hard decision ahead of me. But I have a system; not a schedule, a system of features and diversions. The feature or features are the games that occupy most of my screen time; I let go and get sucked into these gaming worlds.

My features for this fall are Skyrim and Disgaea 4. I didn't put D4 in the opening list, because it was a given. I'm kinda hoping Skyrim will be my next Fallout 3. Bethesda, I'm throwing you a bone here. You surprised me with your take on the Fallout universe. Having never touched an Elder Scrolls game before in my life, all I can say is I hope your dragons do it for me. But seriously, I want the world and its story. However, if the dragons disappoint, I will let you know.

The real measuring stick for Skyrim's success will be how much it pulls me away from Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten; this game drops on September 6. There's an event in my google calendar and a bookmark in my graph paper notebook where the map designs start. Skyrim will only stand a chance because it lands sometime in November. That'll give me plenty of time to break my controller playing D4. And (hopefully) enough time to find another PS3 controller.

This time around, the diversion was the most difficult to pick. In my system, the diversions are games that I turn to when I need a break from the feature. Rage and Gears of War 3 were the two biggest contenders this year, as shooters usually fall into the diversion role for me. Stirrings of madness often require me to blow hordes of enemies into steaming piles of fresh and bone for my sanity's sake. Aka, I like diversions that help me blow off steam.

After seeing more videos then necessary, I decided to pass on Gears and Rage for Saints Row: The Third and I must shamefully admit that the man-a-pult car had something to do with my choice. It's like the cannons in Mario 64, but rated M. Like Elder Scrolls, I have never touched a Saints game and I don't give two shits about its gangland story; I just want to reek havoc and be goofy. Goofy. That's what I want in this fall's diversion title.

On a closing note, I'm just choosing to wait on The Old Republic and Batman: Arkum City. I cracked open Arkum Asylum about a year after it dropped and loved it. Hopefully waiting (again) will make the bat and the cat that much sweeter.