Why You Should Play Journey (PS3 Review)

What is a video game by definition? It's a question many gamers still ask even now, as the answer is not so simple to figure out. Some may see it as an escape form, others a challenge, and some a fusion of both. Some judge it like other games and view it as a form of art that tries to convey a message or emotion to the player. Some think it has to have platforming, shooting, role-playing elements, realistic effects, and the like. Once in a while, we get one of those rare titles that shows us how a game can feel more like an interactive experience than a play challenge and somehow, still be a "game" despite. My friends, Journey is one of those very games.

From thatgamecompany, the creators of other Playstation Network classics like Flow and Flower, I feel we finally have the group's true magnum opus. It's hard to explain quite what makes Journey so special without actually showing you. You play as a sort of shaman/monk-like character, trying to get to a destination on top of a mountain. You're not given much of any other explanation; you just know that there is something amazing for those who reach the top. Getting there is not so much a challenge, but rather an experience. There's no scores to beat, no deaths, and no fighting. You travel across plains ranging from a vast desert, to the top of a wintery mountain, and everything in-between.


Other than walking and sliding down hills of sand and snow, your character has two main abilities; jumping/gliding and an action button. How long you can continue to jump and glid for is dependent on how large your character's scarf is. The size of your scarf increases with each little symbol you find throughout your journey, which become harder and harder to find as your playthrough goes on. In order to refill this, you either need to find more creatures to touch, or another online player. The action command can have different functions depending on how you are using it. Sometimes you will encounter little floating creatures and such that you can use this button to communicate with, sometimes walls and hidden glyph images. The longer your hold the button the farther the communication will reach out. Your character even makes a small sound with this, though has no actual dialogue otherwise.

One big feature that separates this game from others is it's unique use of online play. Throughout the game, you will eventually come into contact with another player who will look like yourself. This is actually another person playing the game, and can be from pretty much anyplace. You can choose to help each other find secrets and progress, or you can go your separate ways and just do whatever you like. There is no other communication between the two players. You cannot talk to them. You can only walk with them and follow them or let them follow you if you choose. I've never seen such an unusual approach to online gaming, and I doubt I ever will again.


Journey is a game that showcases how sometimes a lack of spoken dialogue can still lead to some of the most emotional moments in gaming when you play all of your cards right. The combination of beautiful cel-shaded artwork and incredible soundtrack will leave you breathless, especially by the time you have reached the end. I easily felt more emotion for my character in this game than just about any Final Fantasy title on the market. Now THAT's saying something!

It's hard to give more specific thoughts without going into spoiler territory, so I'm going to say this instead: The best way to go into this game is to know as little about it as possible, other than what I've already mentioned here. Any further details would be spoiling the experience, and games like this simply need to be seen to be believed. This is one of the most unique experiences in gaming out there, and it's the type of game that everyone should give a try at least once. While short (it takes around 2 hours to complete a playthrough), you'll find yourself wanting to come back and see what else there is to find in this imaginative world; in fact the game encourages it with trophies focusing on replaying and finding new things again and again.

One more point I'll make is that if you haven't already downloaded this game, to go and get the Collector's Edition if you can. It includes thatgamecompany's previous entries, Flow and Flower, some extra mini-games developed by them, a free month of Playstation Plus, avatars and themes for all 3 games, and bonus features like an amazing documentary made by the development team. I suggest watching this after playing the game at least once or twice. It provides insight as to what the developers were trying to accomplish with this project, and you even get to know the people behind the game a little better; something we sadly don't see in many documentaries of this type.


To sum it all up, for a simplistic downloadable title, this game exceeds just about every expectation I could have had. This is one of those experiences you will never forget after playing through because it's simply that unique. If you're still on the fence about trying it at this point, I would say to simply give it a go, and finally see what all the broken online sales records are all about.

10 out of 10. All day. Every day.

My Research On Smart Phones: How To Save Some Serious Money!

Here’s a funny little fact that you probably never knew about me. While I am very much a geek in the ways of just about every type of media out there, as well as technical subjects like programming, I have never been very educated when it came to phones; smart phones in particular. I used to simply know phones as a device we would use to call people and even send the occasional text message to once in a while. The prospect of a smart phone seemed very nice to me, albeit a little unnecessary. It’s a nice thing to have surely, but how many people actually need one? What really answered that question for me was the monthly costs, especially under 2-year contracts. After a ridiculous amount of research over the subject (I actually lost count of how many hours I spent learning all of this information!), I was finally able to decide on a smart phone and plan that I felt worked best for me. I am writing this in the hopes you may take something from it, and even save yourselves some money in the process.


Where Do These Charges Come From?
So to begin looking into how much I’d pay for such a monstrosity of a device, I used the mighty powers that be (aka the internet) to look through each major carrier and how they charge you. The most interesting thing of all to me is how contract charges work. When you set up a 2-year contract with a major carrier, you will pay less than the full retail price of the phone, but you pay monthly installments with your plan that will pretty much pay the carrier back, with interest. One of the biggest reasons people will go for this option of course, is because phones today (especially smart phones) are VERY expensive! The top-of-the-line Samsung Galaxy S3? It’s about $650 before tax. But how about the cost when you set up a 2-year contract? Try about $150-200. Why do the phone companies want to lock you in with contracts? That one’s pretty easy too. When you buy either a prepaid or unlocked phone, you can usually form a much better limit on how much you are spending per month with prepaid charge cards. The phone companies don’t really make a profit off of this set up, and they don’t lock you in the way they would with a contract. Another money maker for these companies is termination fees. Terminating your contract with them ensures they’ll still make a large sum of money off of you, even if you choose to leave them early. By either sticking with the contract or not, they’ll have made a profit from you, rinse, repeat. Overage charges and “hidden fees” don’t make the plans any easier. Another thing to note is 3G and 4G networks. While they are larger networks (and quite the convenience to use), they eat up data very fast and have to be monitored closely in order for the customer to know just how much they have left to use each month before the next billing cycle.


How Do We Combat This Menace To Society?
So what’s a confused geek to do? Research up the wazoo, that’s what! The first thing I noticed is that pretty much every contract is pretty highly priced when concerning smart phones. It’s not due to the talking or texting, but rather the data plans. The way each provider handles the data charges are what makes each plan's options so different from company to company. Making up a data plan is difficult for these types of companies, due to the various ways people will use it. Some will use less than 1 gigabyte of data a month, checking their email and Facebook, and maybe downloading a few apps along the way. Others will practically abuse the system by streaming videos on Youtube constantly or taking and sending continuous pictures and videos to their friends. This has caused companies like Verizon and AT&T to re-think their “unlimited” data plan options, and eventually scrap them altogether. Even worse, many companies will claim to have unlimited data when what you actually get is a limit of how much you can use before it stops working at high speeds. This is again to limit the amount of data that people can use and prevent abuse of the system. The only company that technically still has “unlimited” data at this point is Sprint, but some will argue that they also have ways to “nickel and dime” their customers with extra charges that aren’t initially brought up.

Honestly, I was just about ready to give up on the idea of getting a decent smart phone altogether, because the best phones cost too much, and the monthly charges were still high, even if through prepaid charges instead of a contract. For example, a Verizon prepaid card for unlimited talk and text, with 1 gigabyte of data will run you $80 a month. Want 2 gigabytes? Make it $90 (If you can’t tell already, Verizon has been my phone company for years, for better or for worse). It seems the only companies that charge slightly reasonable prepaid rates are some specific regional and prepaid carriers (the former of which I don’t have any specific examples of off hand, as they are designed to provide service for areas the major companies don’t cover). Virgin Mobile is a popular choice, selling prepaid phones with all of the basic bells and whistles, while running off the Sprint network. It’s a good budget choice, but it doesn’t carry many types of phones that people would consider worthwhile (besides their inclusion of the iPhone 4S, which was admittedly a nice move on their part, even if you do have to fork over $649 for the prepaid version). I’ve also heard that Straight Talk is a good option for some due to cheaper costs and using towers from Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T. Once again however, this one doesn’t quite work for me, as the phones are generally average to poor quality, I’ve heard mixed stories about how confusing their customer service can be, and once you start adding on the data, you can get warnings and eventually cut off altogether for that billing month.


So What The Heck Did You Do Already!?
Ah, how nice of you to ask. I ended up going with a prepaid Samsung Galaxy S2 (with 4G) from T-Mobile. Now you must be wondering how that could possibly work (or have already begun to label me as an idiot and are standing outside my door with a pitchfork), so I’ll be quite happy to explain it, as well as the reason T-Mobile is actually not the lackluster company you may remember from a year or two prior (and why I’m not an idiot… you jerk).


As I referenced before, the Samsung Galaxy S3 is about as nice as you can get in the smart phone market, but $649 is simply too much money for a phone, and I was not about to get a 2 year contract in order to buy one either. A prepaid Galaxy S2 however, was available (in my case at a Walmart) for $299.99, with the SIM activation kit included (more on that later). Well, imagine my surprise to see on their website, a small listing for a prepay option (specifically for new activations. Sorry faithful older customers…) for $30 a month, giving you unlimited text and unlimited web (a whooping 5 gigabytes of data on high speed!) with the catch of having 100 minutes of talk time. Something to note is that this option is available exclusively to the T-Mobile website, Walmart, and Walmart.com. Now, this specific plan may not work for those who need to talk on their phone all the time, but for someone like me who doesn’t usually go over 100 minutes to begin with, this plan is a dream. I compared the main differences between the Galaxy S2 and S3, realized there actually wasn’t a great deal of them (in the cases that I’d be using it for specifically), and decided to go with the S2. I almost didn’t even realize this phone could be used with T-Mobile’s plan because it wasn’t advertised the same way as the rest of the phones that use it at Walmart. It’s very important that the prepaid phone also included a SIM card activation kit, because this is what allowed me to enable this prepay setup in the first place.


So What Is A SIM Card And Why Does It Matter?
Yes, a valid question indeed (as I only learned about this over the last few days myself). A SIM card is known as a “Subscriber Identification Module Card.” It creates an identity of the person using it within their phone and stores the person’s data on that card. It’s also used as an authentication device, should the owner ever have to transfer his data to another phone, or replace their old one. This will eliminate having to set everything up again from scratch. For companies like T-Mobile, a SIM card is actually required for this particular setup. It's hard to complain however, since they included the activation kit for free. The setup on the website was pretty painless as well.

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Okay, So The Price Is Good, But How Are They Any Better As A Company?
That’s right, I never explained. Over the last couple of years, T-Mobile has been taking a lot of hits from customers, and more importantly, they’ve been listening to those customers. Their biggest issue has always been their coverage. When they announced their 4G plans, people were immediately skeptical (and for good reason) since the majority of their phones couldn’t even use 4G (most were limited to the 3G network only at the time). Since then, this issue has obviously been tackled, and T-Mobile’s overall coverage (while still less than Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint) is actually quite good depending on where you live. I'm in Central to Northen New Jersey myself, and have no issues whatsoever with my service and coverage. (It’s always important to look on the company’s website for the available coverage with each provider of course, as not all companies will offer the same. You wouldn’t want to be stuck with a nice phone and plan, but no service area to use it in!) My point is, this plan may work perfectly for me, but could just as easily not for others. It’s all about your preference (which is exactly what keeps these phone companies so interesting and diverse in the first place!). Do you have a bunch of a smart phones and a tablet you’d like to consolidate into one plan, maybe for a whole family even? Verizon or AT&T is likely your ticket. Do you want true unlimited for your phone, even if it means spending just a little more for a network almost as large? Sprint will lead the way. I’ve found T-Mobile to be the best in terms of pricing/plan options myself, even If the coverage is technically smaller than the “Big 3” mentioned above.


But How Is It Better If You Could Only Get The Galaxy S2 Out Of This? You Can’t Even Use Android 4.0.4. You’re Still Stuck With 2.3!
It’s funny that you should say that. A freeware program called Samsung Kies actually contained the answer to that little conundrum. After downloading and installing the program and installing all the proper codecs to connect my phone with the computer, it was just a matter of telling it to update my firmware, and BOOM. I now have Android 4.0.4 (the latest until 4.1 comes out) on my phone, the same operating system all current Galaxy S3 users have! It may not have the biggest and brightest screen with little hardware tweaks like the S3, but that’s a small price to pay.


In Conclusion!
So there you all have it. With the way I set things up for myself, I now pay $30 a month for my Galaxy S2, with no contract to restrict me if I want to change my payment options or even my choice of phone in the future, and with the latest version of Android up and running. Even if the plan I went with isn’t for you, that’s just fine! The point of writing this was to help inform everyone about how these phone companies and charges work, and how you may be able to get around some of those charges, now that you know where they’re coming from. I hope after reading this, you may have seen ways that you too can save some money in the long run. Thanks for reading everyone!

The Worst Of Collector's/Limited/Etc. Editions In Gaming

Sorry for the delay on this one folks. On top of a hectic work week and awesomeness at the US Open this week, I finally decided to stop playing Journey for PS3 and watching Doctor Who long enough to make this blog post follow up to my "best of" list. I'll probably make a post about Journey next, but right now, it's all about the cream of the crap! Without further adieu, here is my list of the worst of the worst.


5. Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition
It's a fact that people were going to buy this regardless of what came with it since it was a Nintendo product, and a "limited edition" set. To celebrate Mario's 25th Anniversary, Nintendo decided to release the "All-Stars" version of the Mario games on a disc, instead of a downloadable game like the rest, with a bonus soundtrack CD and a small 32-page art book, showcasing Mario's history. That's. About. It. Even at the original retail price of $29.99, this one was a bit steep. The soundtrack CD totaled about 25 minutes, almost half of the tracks consisting of sound effects, rather than actual music. Nintendo had a lot of potential to give Mario's anniversary much better treatment than a lackluster release such as this. There's no denying the integrity of the games, as they are legendary and will always remain that way, but for being one of the only game companies actually making a profit off of their games, this could have been much more, especially when you compare it to other Nintendo anniversaries like Zelda (new title with a soundtrack CD and a golden Wii remote controller) and the upcoming release for Kirby (another soundtrack and art book, BUT with Dream Land 1-3, Adventure, and Super Star, with new Challenge stages based on Return To Dreamland, and finally an interactive timeline). And don't even get me started on how Nintendo handled Metroid's 25th Anniversary... Oh wait, that's right; Samus didn't get one...


4. Assassin's Creed: Limited Edition
While the first Assassin's Creed certainly proved to be an interesting release, followed by even better sequels, this limited edition for the first game wasn't quite so spectacular. The tin came with a mini-strategy guide (we all know how useful those are), a set of Penny Arcade comics (not bad), a bonus disc with "making of" films, trailers and a few well-made short films, and finally a figurine of Altair, the game's main character. When the first shots of this edition were showcased, the action figure looked quite nice. It wasn't until gamers actually opened up the box that they noticed the figurine was a mere 3 inches tall, and on top of that, the figurine wasn't well-sculpted in the slightest. It actually didn't really look like Altair at all! It didn't help that the statue made for the UK version of the game actually looked quite nice. All in all, this set just wasn't worth the extra money in the slightest.


3. Perfect Dark Zero: Limited Collector's Edition
This one almost needs no introduction. Even if it was the same price as the regular edition of the game, it would have still probably felt like a disappointment. What we got with this awful release was a black metal game case, a bonus disc with some extra content, a comic booklet mainly serving as a preview for the graphic novel, a worthless holographic "collectible" card, and weirdest of all, some images of the game staff and testers. Seriously... what? How is that even a bonus? It's almost hard to believe anything could even top this...


2. Fable II: Limited Edition
When this edition of the game was first announced, it was announced with all sorts of goodies. Joystiq.com's image above perfectly showcases exactly what the problem was however. Most of the items in it were cancelled due to "supply chain" issues. We lost out on premium packaging, the five fate cards (which would have looked quite nice), and most depressingly, a Hobbe Qee figure. Anyone who played the game would have loved to have this little guy, I'm sure. What we were left with by that point was a making-of DVD, some bonus DLC content (all Halo related equipment and an extra dungeon), and... that's it. It was nice of them to at least lower the price to only $10 more than the regular edition to soften the blow, but by this point, many gamers hopes were shot for it altogether.


1. Resident Evil 5: Collector's Edition
This is about as bad as it gets, though it may not seem that way at first glance. This marvelous disaster of a set comes with a steel case, a tricell messenger bag, a Kijuju necklace, a BSAA patch, a figurine of Chris Redfield, and a bonus disc with the usual "Making of" feature, HD art, and a few other things. Still doesn't sound awful, right? Well it will after you realize that the tricell bag is actually ridiculously small, with fragile straps that would break as soon as you tried to put much of anything in it, the figure of Chris is a joke in how cheaply made it was (the knife on Chris broke for many people upon un-boxing, not to mention you wouldn't even know it was Chris if it didn't say so), and the necklace is made from pewter on a really flimsy leather strap. Other than the steel case (which is actually quite nice!) and the patch (which is kind of hard to get wrong), this set was utterly worthless for many, myself included. Rarely am I shocked at how bad something like this can turn out, but it was just one of those times for me.

Some honorable mentions in this category go to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II: Collector's Edition, Halo 3: Limited Edition (with it's lovely habit of scratching most players discs due to the horrible packaging), NBA 2K10 (for having a strange mini-locker, a Kobe poster and figurine, and a DVD with more useless content), Saints Row: The Third (for claiming to have a headset, when in fact it was actually just headphones without a mic, even though you need a mic to use its main features! The soundtrack CD also features no licensed songs...), and Forza 3 (with an overpriced flash drive and more useless DLC content).

So there you have it once more folks! Hope you enjoyed both my previous and current posts on the subject, and as I stated before, I'd love to hear your opinions as well! Thanks for reading!

The Best of Collector's/Limited/Etc. Editions In Gaming

I felt inspired to talk about this a little after coming across the new "Solid Gold Premium Edition" of Persona 4: Gold for the PS Vita, and showing a bit of disappointment over the fact that it's basically $30 extra for a travel case (while everyone should have already had one to begin with), stickers, and screen covers, along with a few wallpapers. I personally don't feel it justifies the price tag, but maybe you do? That's fine if so; I'm not here to say that what's valuable to one has to be to another automatically.

So as you can see by the title, I've decided to do some looking back on the various special editions of games that we've seen over the years and talk briefly about some of the ones I felt were the best (and soon the worst) of their kind. I have created a top 5 countdown list of what I felt were the best of the best. Feel free to give me any of your thoughts on the best/worst yourselves as I write up these two posts. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this one! Note that this list does not comprise of anything that hasn't yet come out (as awesome as the Street Fighter IV: 25th Anniversary Collector's Edition looks!). Let's start things off with the best of list. I'd also like to point out that what really makes the "best of" list shine is the creativity involved in some of these:


5. Metroid Prime Trilogy: Collector's Edition
This one may not seem like much to someone who's never played these before, but the ability to get all 3 of these amazing games together in one bundle, especially with newly-designed Wii motion controls for the first two games is truly incredible. The updated graphics look great and the games came in a nice steel case with a plastic sleeve, and an artbook and very fancy looking instruction manual (think about the last really good-looking instruction manual you've seen in a game case and it's not hard to see why that's a big deal). Nintendo completely spoiled us with this one. It would have been one thing to simply port all the games over, but the overhaul done here was excellent.


4. Bioshock 2: Special Edition
This set is the perfect example of how a modern special edition of a game can deliver, even when the game itself isn't quite up to par with its original. In this edition, players were granted a fascinating-looking box made of matte paper, a 164-page hardcover art book, 3 vintage advertisement posters from Rapture, an orchestral soundtrack CD with music from the second game, and most interesting of all, a 180-gram vinyl LP of the orchestral soundtrack from the first game. The vinyl fits perfectly with the tone of the game and the time it's supposed to take place in. These are the kinds of items that make collector's editions so interesting and worthwhile in the first place in my opinion.


3. Catherine: "Love Is Over" Edition
And here we have yet another creative set, fitting the mood of the game perfectly. In a stylish pizza box, you get an "Empty Hearts" t-shirt, a pillowcase with Catherine displayed on it, a pair of Vincent's boxers, and an art book and soundtrack to finish it all off. Bizarre, definitely. But that's what makes it so cool!


2. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete
This thing was quite a beast, especially for its time. It included the 3-disc game, a soundtrack CD, a making-of disc, a hardcover instruction manual and art book, a cloth map, some pop-up cardboard characters, and if that wasn't enough, a replica pendant necklace. JRPG fans still have to spend a pretty penny for this one, and for good reason. This was pure love in a collector's edition set.


1. Ultima IX: Ascension (Dragon Edition)
This is the cream of the crop here folks! This over-sized box contained a disc with all 8 of the Ultima games leading up to IX, a soundtrack CD, tarot cards, an ankh amulet, a poster, a journal and spell book with leatherbound covers, a cloth map, a mini-illustration of the famous "Tapestry of Ages" art piece, and last but not least, a certificate signed by by Richard Garriot (creator of the series!), thanking you for your purchase and giving some hints about his future plans.

And there you have it! That's my personal top 5 list for collector's editions over the years so far. Some honorable mentions include the Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas Collector's Editions, The Collector's Editions of Starcraft II and Diablo III, The Alan Wake Limited Collector's Edition, The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition for Nintendo Gamecube (porting over Zelda I, Zelda II, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask, and a demo for Wind Waker all on one tiny disc, albeit an overall average job of porting the games), and the Duke Nukem: Balls of Steel Edition (ironic, considering how lackluster the game itself was of course). Stay tuned for the next exciting blog, where I go into some of the worst of the so-called "collector's editions" we've been force-fed over the years. Later!

Some Thoughts On The New Color Edition Of Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1

Not long ago, Bryan Lee O'Malley must have decided he wasn't making enough money off of the Scott Pilgrim franchise anymore, and decided that he would be putting out new color editions of all 6 volumes. I made this post to talk about some of the differences with the new editions and help everyone decide if it's worth the double dip or not.

For those who don't already know, this awesome series focuses on a boy (Scott Pilgrim), who is getting over a horrible breakup by dating a high school girl, even though he's 23 (because it's "safe"). At a party, he literally encounters the girl in his dreams, Ramona Flowers and knows he has to meet her. As they talk and eventually begin to date, Scott is attacked by an ex-boyfriend of Ramona's, and has to fight for his life. It's then that Scott finds out that in order to continue to date Ramona, he has to defeat all seven of her evil ex's, all while making a billion geek/indie rock references. Is the plot absurd? Absolutely. And that's just what we love about it.


Now let's go into the actual differences of these new editions. The new volumes are put out in very nice hardcovers, which detract from the manga-like feel the originals put out. For a comic like this, I think I actually prefer it (though I still like the original look too, I admit). The black and white feel of the original versions were fun for what they were, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel very limiting, especially by the 4th volume, where we got a few color pages as a bit of a tease in the beginning. The mentions of Ramona's hair color constantly changing was another irksome factor when you couldn't actually see it. It's also worth mentioning that the pages are larger (now 6"x9"). As you can see in the picture below, the touch up job is very top notch.


There's more to this new edition than just the color palette however. We also get some nice extras like an afterword from Bryan Lee O'Malley, mentions of influences, the history of how the book came to be, and other interesting little tid bits that take us into some of the author's own personality, something I wish we'd see more of in projects such as this.

Summing it up, this is the deluxe version we always kind of dreamed about for this series, and I'll be happy to pick up each release as it comes out (though there will be a serious gap in the time each comes out. We'll be getting about 2 of these a year...). Not only do I think it's worth reading a second time, but at the same time, I don't even feel it should replace the original volumes, as those had a distinct feel themselves. If you had to go with one or other however, I'd say this this is a no-brainer. The only other question left is if you want the regular cover, or the more expensive "Evil Edition" cover for almost double the price. That's right, for $40.00 retail price, you can get the same thing with a variant cover as seen below.


Personally, I think the price is a bit steep for my tastes, nice looking cover or not. I do think it's a fun idea to have alternate covers with all of the evil ex's on them however, so I won't knock anyone for trying to get both here. And don't get me started on the collector's edition (pictured below). You already missed your chance to get it, and even if you had the chance, you probably still wouldn't have paid the $100 asking price. While it has some nice extra stuff (art prints, digital copy with signed card, gold coin, etc.), that is quite insane. Maybe I'm just not hardcore enough...


With all those conundrums aside, I give this my highest recommendation. It's one of those comics that just about everyone is reading/has read these days, and everyone should get the chance to at some point to see what all the fuss is about. This is a must read.

What The New Achievements In The Final Fantasy VII PC Re-Release Should Have Been

A few days ago, Square Enix re-released Final Fantasy VII for the PC, without really touching much of anything up at all. One of the few things they actually tried to implement was a new set of achievements. Personally, I was hoping they would go the creative route with some of them, but it seems we got some very boring and tame ones instead. Here's a link to the full list, just so you can see what I'm talking about.

http://kotaku.com/5934947/wow-the-new-achievements-for-final-fantasy-vii-sure-are-boring

Seriously, "Use 'X-Character's' first limit break?" "Win your first battle?" Is this the best they could come up with? Just about the only one I thought was a nice mention (more by default) was getting Aeris's final limit break. Anyone who's played the game knows why that one is actually quite a big deal, but I digress... I'm writing this blog not only to point out how disappointing this is to the fanbase in general, but also to show that we the fans could have come up with some much better achievements ourselves. I'd like to get the ball rolling by listing some achievements I've come up with, that I felt would have complimented the game perfectly. I'm now going to ask that you, the readers, add on what you feel would be fitting for this re-release. Whether you wanted to prove a point to Square Enix about creativity, or you simply had some funny/creative ideas off the top of your head to let out, then by all means post them.

Dude Looks Like A Lady - Have Don Corneo choose Cloud as his "Honey Bee"
Different Strokes - Go on a date with Barret at the Gold Saucer
We're Going To Be Here A While... - Used a Materia combination of W-Summon (Mastered) - Knights of the Round + MP Turbo (Mastered) and then had another character follow this with Mime
How Did You Know That Was In There!? - Found The Key To Sector 5
True Adventurer - Learned all possible enemy skills
No Fear - Chose to use the front door when invading Shinra HQ
Are We There Yet? - Chose to use the stairs when invading Shinra HQ
Elementary - Found all hints and opened the Shinra Mansion safe in Nibleheim
You Look Like You've Seen A... - Saw a familiar presence in the Sector 5 Slums Church (Disc 2 or 3)
You Can't Handle The Truth! - Viewed the special scene after returning to the Shinra Mansion in Nibleheim (Disc 2 or 3 after Cloud's reawakening)
Cha-Ching! - Reached Lucky 7's in battle
Sight Seer - Found all 6 Turtle Paradise Flyers

I think you all get the idea. What else can you come up with? GO GO GO!

Some Recent Updates And Cosplay Announcement For NYCC

I haven't really made many updates since my Dark Knight Rises review, so I thought I'd give a more proper one this time. I was on vacation all of last week in New Hampshire and Maine on the last day. Good times abound. The weather could have been a little nicer, but it was still a very nice atmosphere in general. People are much more polite and welcoming over there, as well as less defensive and protective like you normally see in NJ and NY all the time. Visited some nice sights and trails, and picked up some old NES games and comic books, even a Steely Dan vinyl LP I was looking for.

I also started playing some more games since I came back. The new Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance for the 3DS is excellent so far (more along the vein of Birth By Sleep's level of importance than something forced like Re: Coded was). I'm hoping to get through more of that next week. I also started Persona 4: Arena for PS3. Wow! for a fighting game (sequel to an amazing RPG or not), this may contain some of the most story I've ever seen for this type of title! I'm already reading it takes most people between 30 and 40 hours to beat. That's incredible, even if 95 percent of it is likely a visual novel in itself. The fight engine itself is great too (though feels a little broken in some ways. I'll post more thoughts on that soon). I'm also eager to read over the re-prints of the first Advanced Dungeons and Dragons books which came out not too long ago. My friends and I are going to start a new campaign and I'm really excited for this, as I've never played with the first edition rulebooks before.

I've also been catching up on reading lots of things. I read all of the first Girl With The Dragon Tattoo book and will likely get to the other two at some point. I then read all of the Batman Inc. comics up to the most recent issues thanks to that awesome deluxe graphic novel they put out. Grant Morrison is usually love it or hate it, but I doubt many can find a lot of faults with this series in particular. I've also recently started to read the first Game of Thrones book after all this time. So far, I've read almost a quarter of it and it's already exactly like I remember the show being. Look forward to seeing what's different even more.

So you likely saw the "cosplay announcement" part of my title and are wondering what in the hell that's all about. Well, I've finally decided that after these last few years of not doing it, I want to again, and New York Comic Con will be the perfect place to do it. So what cosplay would I go with after all this time? It's actually painfully obvious, so I won't try to hide it any longer. I plan on finally cosplaying Deadpool at New York Comic Con 2012. Is there going to be an influx of other people doing this one as well? Of course, but I plan on making mine quite memorable. Not everyone knows the character the same way, and I intend to go full on into how I feel he'd act at a place like that, right down to the social commentary, fourth wall-breaking, and screwing with other cosplayers. This will hopefully be the most fun NYCC ever, and I really want to make it that way. If anyone has any suggestions on the best ways to make the costume, by all means. I'll take any info I can get as I attempt this one.

That's all for now. Hope to do more updates and reviews soon. Thanks for reading!