Wanderer in the Dark

So, since I’m actually writing for 1up now, I should probably keep this thing updated.

I guess I’ll go ahead and start with the basic question. Who am I?

My name is Andy Keener. I’m a 21 year old gamer (obviously). I’ve literally been playing video games since I was 2 years old, maybe even earlier than that. I enjoy just about every type of game, even if I’m not particularly good at it (I’m looking at you, sports games in general). I currently reside in bright, sunny, and hot Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, where I’ve just moved into a new apartment, and thus, 3/4 of my stuff is in boxes or trash bags. I own pretty much every console released in the last two generations, along with many retro ones (NES, Genesis, SNES, I even have an Atari 2600 with about 55 games). I also love movies. Good ones, cheesy ones, whatever. And Battlestar Galactica, I LOVE Battlestar Galactica. I even bought that BSG game for Xbox Live just because I wanted to support it.

I’ve been writing for GameSpite.net weekly since, ohh, I’d say August. I do the weekly new release game column there; it goes up Tuesdays if you’re interested!

I look forward to everybody’s constructive criticism, just so long as it’s not a giant flame.

See you guys next week, when I relive the great points of the column!

–Andy

So, another week, another games release. This time, however, I go a little far and start ranting. Which is awesome. I’m gonna keep that up.
You should check it out at this link right here.

Dear Internet:

How’s it going? I hear that some emo kids are hanging out in Mexico or some such nonsense. Anyway, I’d just like to inform everybody that I’ve got a lot of things to do this month. Besides looking for a new job and going through that backlog I’ve got, I’ll also be taking part in both Script Frenzy and the Talking Time Game Design Comp.
But, I’ve got to ask everybody here a favor. I need you to harass me. I get horribly sidetracked and I’m a rather horrible procrastinator, so everybody here needs to post incredible amounts of comments and e-mail me at reibeatall@gmail.com to demand that I post my progress up here on the blog.
If I fail, it’s all your fault.

I’ll be back next time with a talk about how much I love Battlestar Galactica.

XOXO Andy

For several reasons, the least of which being logic, I’ve decided that the next few months are a great time to go through my backlog and actually finish these games. Earlier today as I was staring at them, I realized that not only do I have a lot of games, but they basically fall into two categories: Games I Want to Beat, and Games I Want to Play.

Now, there’s a fine line between the two. A careful glance will reveal that while I’d like to beat God Hand finally, a game like Burnout Paradise is something I’d rather play for the fun. That’s not to say I won’t have fun playing God Hand, or that I won’t beat Burnout Paradise, but the objectives are different.  The upcoming lists are games that I have actually started and stopped playing, and does not factor in the games I own but haven’t tried yet (that’s a whole other can of worms.) Without further ado, my backlog.

Games to Beat

Ninja Gaiden Black- When this game came out, I rented it and played about halfway through, maybe a bit more. I then returned it and always wanted to finish it. When it came out for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace, I knew what I had to do, and that was download and play it. For those of you who’ve played it before, this next part might hit home pretty hard. Currently, I’m stuck at Alma in the church. The first time I played it, she was a joke and I beat her no problem. But now, I have no healing items and she’s hurting me bad. Good thing I’ve got multiple saves up to that point, so maybe I can buy something.

Overlord  - Boy did I enjoy this game when it first came out. I’d been following it since they first announced the title, and I had pretty high hopes. All in all, it’s a fairly fun game with a few problems, but nothing game breaking. Except for that part where I stopped playing. So there I am, about to get some new minions, and my guys get stuck. I clear the path for them, and they just stand there like the retards they are, doing nothing except holding that magical totem. After twenty minutes of trying to figure out what the hell is going on, I give up and haven’t touched the game since. I think it’s time to reclaim my kingdom. I hear they’ve added some co-op since the release, and maybe I’ll check that out too.

God Hand - Ugh. No other game has been so aggravating while at the same time being insanely awesome. The action’s fun, the mood is hilarious (you fight a gorilla in a wrestling mask), and the enemies WILL kick your ass. A lot.

Odin Sphere - The art is simply fantastic and the story seems fairly good, but boy does this game get repetitive. And that’s a lot coming from somebody who actively enjoys the Warriors games. I’m just about done with the second book, so there’s plenty left for me to finish. This will probably be my in-between game. Plus, I bet it’ll look awesome on my PS3.

XenoSaga Episode II - Haters, go away. I was one of the biggest fans of the first game, but the second game really misses just about everything the first game did right. I’m in the final dungeon, but I’m having problems forcing myself forward. I really want to finish this one so I can finish the trilogy (Episode III is sitting next to it, sealed, waiting for me like Charmander in that one episode of Pokemon). It’s going to take all my willpower.

No More Heroes -  I’m the second ranked assassin, and the fight against number one is really hard. I’ve gone back and I’m grinding to get my weapon upgrades, but ugh, I must be doing something wrong.

Games to Play

Burnout Paradise -  I firmly believe you can never “beat” racing games, so I have no problem simply playing this game for fun. I’ve only gotten two or three licenses, so there are plenty of events for me to finish. Plus, the online’s really fun, and they’re about to add a whole other island to explore, so it’s about time to get back into the swing of things before it releases.

Culdcept Saga -  I really like this game, but it just takes so freaking long to play through. I’d really like to play this online with people, but my deck is rather lacking, so I’ll have to grind in the single player before I can stand against the might of Shivam the mighty. Or anybody else.

Civilization 4 -  The lone PC game on my list is probably the most involved of them all. I don’t quite know the techtree of Civ 4, nor am I going to hang up the included poster, but I will try to learn the specifics of mining and specialized units. I’ll be playing this game for years.

Ghost Squad -  Sometimes, you just need a light gun rail shooter.

Patapon -  I’m not sure I could play this game for hours on end, but I could definitely play twenty minutes at a time. Pata Pata Pata Pon.

Of course, there’s always Smash Brothers Brawl, Call of Duty 4, and Halo 3 for my online multiplayer fix.  But that’s a given, right?

Before I go to bed, I wanted to direct people over to www.scriptfrenzy.org . It should be familiar to anybody who attempted NaNoWriMo last year. It’s basically the NaNoWriMo of script writing (every goddamn time I type that word, I do it scrpit), and it’s something that I’m much more interested in script and screenplays than novels, because I like watching movies more than I like reading books.
So guys, if you don’t sign up and do this with me, I’m going to cry. Or maybe I’ll just ignore you forever. Yeah, that might work.

See you guys later. As in days. I’m outta here for a while.

Yes, I did that on my own, thank you. I’ve got some excellent skills.

I just got done watching American Gangster. By “just got done” I mean “watched a few days ago and need something to blog about.” I’m a huge Ridley Scott fan. Well, that’s not entirely true. I really enjoy the movies he produces, but I haven’t seen them all, but what I have seen, I’ve almost fallen in love with. Black Hawk Down was just 2 and a half hours of distilled USA awesomeness, whereas Gladiator made me want to be back in Roman days so I could watch the shit go down. I’m not qualified enough to talk about Alien and Blade Runner, but that’s only because I haven’t seen them a billion times a piece.

I didn’t really know what to expect when I went into American Gangster. I wanted it to be action packed, but realizing it was based upon a true story made me rethink that. Sure enough, it wasn’t very action packed. It didn’t seem like there was a lot going on, and that the main part of the story was dragging, and that the finale was just very anti-climactic. But I was still captivated by everything going on. Crowe and Washington are among the best Hollywood has to offer, and they play their rolls perfectly. It wasn’t until I realized that instead of a story, this movie is a chronicle of the lives of two men. It simply shows what goes on in their lives during this time. And it was incredible. After watching it, I felt that I totally understood the men and what drove them, why they made their decisions, and why the people around them acted the way they did.

I’d write more about how much of a badass Russel Crowe is, but it’s time for me to jet.

In summary:

Black Hawk Down = awesome action

American Gangster = amazing drama

I just spent the past 4 or 5 hours assembling a new game storage unit and then moving everything around my living room to make it fit. It’s nice, relaxing work, and I feel pretty fulfilled with what I’ve done with myself today. I’ll have pictures of my collection up soon.

Edit: Here it is.

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A few months ago, I bought a digital camcorder, and I love it. I’ve always had this wild dream to make movies, even short shitty ones, but I’ve never really gotten around to it. But, I think I’m going to take the plunge now. If anybody has any suggestions for script writing/idea gathering for my short films (probably 10-15 minutes in length), let me know.

Since I’m exhausted, I’m off to bed. Gotta get plenty of sleep so I can have NG+ up on time (last week didn’t turn out so well.)

I started playing Lost Odyssey today. I don’t think I’ll be able to get into it.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I used to LOVE jRPGs. I’ve played through every crappy and every excellent RPG on the SNES and the Playstation 1, and I’ve played a great deal on the PS2. But there must be something about this generation of consoles that has changed me. It could be the whole work + school + girlfriend taking the time away from 60+ hour games, or it could be that I’ve changed.

I’ll let you guys know in a few days if I can get into Lost Odyssey.

That is, if this cold doesn’t take me over. I can feel it coming on.

After I brought up the earlier question regarding internet friends, I went on a journey. That wheel in the sky kept on turnin’ and I didn’t know where I’d be when it came back up. But I’m back; and I have the truth.

At this point in the life of the world, things have drastically changed from the way they were 20 years ago. If you disagree, you’re wrong. Computers and the internet have truly changed the entire landscape of the world. Information (not just “smart” information, either) is being distributed at an insane rate. People are spending hours upon hours of their lives in front of their computer, either wasting away or working hard; to somebody watching them, they appear the same. We literally have the world at our fingertips.

With that in mind, the old concept of “friend” simply has to go. We’re not living the same way, so why should our words mean the same?

So, I propose a new definition for “friend.” How about “people that you enjoy exchanging conversation with”? Of course, this doesn’t take into account people who act like other people online. They’re just dumb, by the way.

I wish to extend my gratitude to everybody on the internet who I don’t hate. Talking with you about how stupid I am for believing in ghosts or any of the numerous other topics we’ve discussed helps me get through the days. I’d actually have to be productive if it weren’t for you. You guys are awesome, and if you’re not an eAquaintence, you’re an eFriend.

By the way, I still am not sure what I’m going to do with this space. Hopefully now that my work schedule has calmed down a bit and I have days off, I’ll get around to doing something with this. By the way, I’m working on the new New Games+. It’s a doozy (read: not really).

Everybody needs to purchase No More Heroes. I don’t care if you aren’t interested, or if you don’t even have a Wii. Everybody needs to purchase this game because we need to show publishers that real games can belong on the Wii, and also to show developers how it’s done. Is it perfect? No, but it’s damn close enough.

Also, feel free to register/subscribe. It makes me feel good when I see people do that.