Updates for the cup

Ok, this must be brief, yet I need to post something for all cuppers to know whats going down.

1. I am still very busy with mid-terms
2. I am very much behind on my spiritual studies
3. I will as a result be invisible for a couple of more weeks.

Still I had a few things to share.

Nine Inch Nails is going to Vegas on May 18th!!! I plan on attending for sure, itd be nice if others joined in. Considering that everyone is in a couple these days Id be assuming that significant others will be joining as well. That would be awesome! The more the merrier as far as IM concerned, they are playing at the Palms but I doubt very much that I will stay there, too much money to be too far away from the strip, Ill have to check the rates because if its cheap maybe I will just stay there, who knows. For me its all about the best rate and the closest proximity to the strip. It would be much more if you guys went, I think my L.A. crew will be mostly absent on this trip considering that those of us who really cared just went to Vegas in December to see Nails, of course for me, there is never enough Nails in any given year.


In other news. XBOX 360 rocks, here is a short review list. I grant my scores on what each game is trying to achieve in their individual genre, and what they bring to the current video gaming experience in general.

1. Mirror's Edge 9.0

A fantastic and innovative game that will challenge you to rethink what you consider a game is. Along the lines of portal but even more challenging, and of course, its much longer to complete to from start to finish. I believe it took me a little over 12 hours to complete the game on normal.
Great graphics and great sound help to round out this game and bring it into the arena of such classics as Halo 3 or Gears of War II, but the constant trial and error with jumping off of difficult jumps hurts the game a bit because at times it got to be so tedious the average gamer would likely give up rather than continue. I of course continued to try again and again and again until I figured out each grab, jump, hold, dive, jump, pattern necessary to complete each chapter. Overall its a great game maybe they could have thought a little more extensively about making certain aspects of the game a bit more conducive, than again thats the whole point, its a strategy game.

2. Gears of War II 8.9
Flawless in many ways but the game play is linear, just cant justify giving this game 9.0 or above when it didnt bring much more to the system than its predecessor offered years ago. Of course many gaming magazines gave the game near 10.0 for its amazing graphics and sound/movie like gameplay that puts you in the center of some of the most amazing scenarios ever thought of by any shooter, or any game period, but I just cant get over how straightforward these games are, point and shoot. As far as these types of games are concerned its one of the best.

3. Bioshock 9.5

I love this game! It helps to reinvent first person shooters by creating a more dynamic experience with tons of upgradable abilities (freeze, fire, electricity, telekinesis, etc, etc) upgradable weapons (more ammo capacity, stronger fire power, faster reload), and this really fun hacking challenge that allows you to hack any machine in the game so that the machine will become friendly to the player with the risk that if they fail in their hacking attempt they will loose massive amounts of health or set off alarms that bring unwanted foes. Its just straight up fun. The graphics and sound are superb. The soundtrack is the best Ive heard on the xbox as of yet. Its set in the 1950s so lots of golden oldies come pouring through loud speakers connected to old record players, it has this vintage tone that can not be funnier as I slashed my way through hordes of freaky ass mutants. The only reason this game does not get a 10 is because IT HAS TOO MANY OPTIONS! After a while all the upgrades can become combersome as the player asks him/her-self, which way is best? There is no real best way, any option was viable, meaning I could run around killing people with the wrench they gave me in the first level, or splatting them with grenade launcher, and the result was the same, there was no advantage as long as I was skilled enough to get by without the stronger fire power. I wish the game would have had more oppurtunties to use specific weapons for specific enemies, there is a way to conduct research so that you know which enemy is weak to which attack, but if every method is more less as effective as any other, who cares to do the research? Still a wonderful game!

Street Fighter 4 9.0
Graphics, flawless, sound, superb, game play, intuitive and innovative, but this game looses mass amounts of points for fucking up Chun Li. hehe, they changed her super combo so its much more difficult to pull off, I have no idea why, she WAS my favorite character, but everyone else seems more less intact, why Zangief was sooo pumped up is beyond me, perhaps he just always sucked in the old versions, but now he can kill anyone in 3 moves, I suppose his slow speed makes this ok.....I just dont like playing against anyone who uses him. Aside for a few character imbalances
this game offers everything a street fighter fan could hope for.

GTA 4 10.0
Perfectly perfect in every way. I have still yet to beat it, Ive been all the other titles mentioned, but this game is sooo looong I have yet to be able to conquer it considering how little time I can spend on games per week (a few hours here and there). Still, I wont let that detract from its score considering how much fun Ive been having while trying to beat it. This game will get re-scored after I beat the game.

Well thats it for me and all my random updates, I hope everyone is having a great day or morning or night or whatever it is when you read this. Back to the belly of the beast, or some would say, studying. Peace