SPOILERS ahead: gamer siblings + stuff

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Yeah, some more fun material from the World Wide Web...

...I sounded soooo 90's right there.

Hi everyone, after lots of weeks without posting regularly, I'm finishing some entries that were on my "to-do list" and you will be seeing them soon. After the Avenger's one, I want you to know some of the upcoming material, but first I'd like to give a big geeky apology. I will update weekly again, I'm back at college so I've been having a hard time updating the blog due to projects, books and homeworks. Anyway, won't happen again, here's the plan for the next entries:

- There is a new blog in the recommendation section. It's made by my dear geek friend Number XIII. Check it out, show some love and give some feedback =D.

- I'll be posting some geek-movie analysis (I have already decided which one, but is a surprise for you. Also if you'd like me to talk about some particular movies, just post them as a comment or send them to me by mail).

-  A new Paradigm Shift-section entry related to digital discrimination.

- Also, I'll be beta testing the Assassin's Creed Brotherhood multiplayer so expect a review about it as soon as I get my hands on it.
-  I've found some amazing and funny stuff around so expect more "SPOILERS" entries.

- I may attend the Electronic Game Show by the end of October, there are no big revelations expected to be made, but still I'll be covering the event. I'll tell you whatever I can. 

If you wonder why I'll be talking so much about video games is because we like them right? Also with the recently over Comic Con and Gamescom, and the upcoming Tokyo Game Show, there is a lot to say in that area, and there'll be even more. Nonetheless I will be balancing it with some other material, like some technology and science news. I also want to make an statement: The reason I "moderate" comments posted here so I get emailed every time you post one, I AM NOT a censor and I APPROVE every single one.

Now for the "SPOILERS" part of this little piece of blog let us watch and admire the not-unknown, random and great...

Burch siblings!!!

You may know Anthony and Ashly Burch for their "Hey Ash, Watcha Playin'?" (HAWP) videos. They basically make reference to a different video game (or sometimes a movie or event) in each of their videos and make somewhat of a parody/fun situation out of it. Here you have on of my favorite ones, the Uncharted 2 HAWP video.


Tell me what do you think about the video? I think they are great. If you wanna go see all their videos you can go here. They upload a new video each week so go check them out =D. This one is taken from GameTrailers.

Video Games | HAWP | Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

HYPE alert! The Avengers film

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Original Marvel Studios artwork for the upcoming film

Since S.H.I.E.L.D.'s appearance in "Iron Man" along with Nick Fury's, it was known: "The Avengers" film would be done for sure. Later the same year (2008), Tony Stark's scene in "The Incredible Hulk" confirmed it. "The Avengers" have always lived criticized as an answer to DC's "Justice League of America". Despite of this fact, they consisted on an ever-changing, but still strong and solid team, as well as a platform to launch some, more or less, unknown heroes.

During the last decades, Marvel's had the upper hand with more superhero movies than DC. Launching "The Avengers" film, is a huge step to place themselves even higher. This attempt comes together with huge risks that put in great peril both the overall reception along with the fan community's opinion. Although The Avengers have had many members since 1963, some members confirmed for the film might be a weak slink in the chain in popularity matters.

There are two major risks that will define the upcoming film as either an acclaimed or a harshly criticized one. First of all, fans like when new released media is canonical. Either adding new content or just recreating already stories to fit a universe so large is surely a challenge, but it pays off when fans like it. As of today there are four things that causes Marvel movies' canon to start falling off: Chris Evans already portrayed Johny Storm (the human torch) in the Fantastic Four movies. Now he will be taking the role of Captain America in his upcoming film. This means that either the Fantastic Four movies are just spin-offs or The Avengers will be. Also, Edward Norton won't be returning as Bruce Banner. This wouldn't be a problem if Robert Downey Jr. haven't appeared as Tony Stark at the very end, but he did, and now a new face for Bruce Banner will be a minor problem, but still a problem.

Adding up to this problems, two of Marvel's most popular and known to non-fanatics heroes won't show up along with the rest of the Avenger's team: Wolverine and Spiderman. Marvel decisions regarding the reboot of Spiderman are wasting which already has become a fully built hero that is fresh on people's minds. Together with the arachnid, Wolverine's franchise has been simply straying away from the official plot, wasting yet another strong figure within Marvel's all-star group. One more problem and challenge for the writers is trying to put more than seven major characters together along with a deep plot. 

Finally, the movie may succeed, it is known such projects are developed after considering every matter evaluating "pros" against "cons", but still there is another in-universe final problem: credibility. Regarding to superhero movies, the most successful ones in the last years have been both the Iron Man and Batman franchises due to their believability: multi-millionaires trying to do some good and developing expensive gadgets. As Downey Jr. said: it will be strange to put Iron Man along with the Thor's mythology for example.

What do you think: will The Avengers be the hero film of the decade, or yet another Marvel fail like "Hulk"?

9 things that can ruin FFvXIII

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So, as you could see in my last post about the upcoming Final Fantasy versus XIII (FFvXIII), I'm pretty excited about it, but I also have some worries concerning this game. As we know, FFvXIII is being made by the same team that makes the Kingdom Hearts (KH) series (except for Disney-related influences) and I must say I'm a big fan of KH. Even though it has a lot of child-oriented Disney stuff, the story is nicely constructed and pretty deep overall. About the main games in the series (KH & KH2) it can be said that graphics are nicely presented, although textures are cartoonish-flat ones (they seem sometimes even like Mario 64) in most of cases. Character design is stylish and revamps Disney's franchises in an interesting way, clearly aimed for those who grew up with their classic movies.

Gameplay is pretty simple and neat. The way action and RPG genres are fused in here, helps simplifying RPG's customizing nature without making it unnecessary (great for young kids and people who are not keen on spending more time on the menus than actually playing) and gives the average RPG gamer a more realistic way (yeah I said "real" within a fantasy-themed game commentary) to fight and explore. Let's face it, FF XII and they still couldn't make heroes jump or swim outside of a battle... COME ON!!! Turn-based gameplay is getting old, and if they don't come up with something actually new, and keep adding factors to each turn that instead of making them faster, makes turns more complex and slow, that will be aweful.

Given that Tetsuya Nomura's most recent video game involvement (as director, character designer and much more) has been in the KH franchise, those are the games which I'll take as an example as Nomura's team most recent tendencies. It is precisely some gameplay related issues I'm worried about considering the following:

1.-Summons.

Remember how amazing summons have been throughout the whole FF series?. Nice. Now, look back at how summons were simple, but nice in KH (perfect for an action/RPG game. Finally, they de-evolved just to become crappy and lame in KH2? What were they thinking (yeah, AVGN reference) when they chose a freaking ukulele as Stitch's brilliant (!) weapon and tried to turn Chicken Little into Master Chief. On the other side Mr. Nomura's statement of trying to recreate the battle style and feeling of FF AC makes me hope that to get summons, we may have to defeat them first which might be great.

SUMMARY: Please include well thought summons, gargantuan size and DO NOT turn them into lame minigames.

2.-Freaking "x" button.

Yeah I know every video game is about pushing buttons, specially "x" in the PS ones, but COME ON! KH was a challenge in various points even in a "normal" difficulty. Remember Kurt Ziza for example. Abilities on their own were an RPG element that could give us the edge on battle without taking out the challenge. The problem is that the abilities they made in KH2 were something awful. You can actually beat the entire game in a "hard" difficulty without touching the analog when there are enemies on the screen and just pressing "x" until your thumb explodes. It would have been more difficult if there was an ability called "Turn off" which turned off enemies' A.I. I know that KH is more childish and Nomura said he wants to create a "more serious KH" with FFvXII.

SUMMARY: Make it difficult, challenging and make it so we need to be skilled and not just press "x" like retards.

3.-Freaking "▲" button.

You thought I was over with talking 'bout buttons?... well I'm not. If a game may get boring by just keep on pressing "x", believe me, Quick Time Events (QTE) are not the solution. Yes, they look nice and are surprising, but after watching them eleventy zillion times it get boring, not to say  that they are like using fatalities in MK when the enemy still has a full HP bar.  It made the game  even easier game and turned the coolest moves into QTE's which gamers only sat through. Almost every boss from the first KH was harder than Xehanort which was defeated almost entirely through QTE's. They did make the battles look stylish, but in Nomura's attempt to bring "Advent Children's" battle style on to FFvXIII I hope they stay clear from QTE's. If their idea of Advent Children-ish fighting is "action commands", they'll release the game and I will cry.

SUMMARY: Keep the style without the QTE's, we DO NOT like them, we actually want the "darkest FF ever" and not the "darkest FF interactive movie ever".

4.-Magic.

Do I have to say more on this one? Not just KH2 crapped over magic, but in general, spells MUST be renewed. I don't mind the common, -ra, -raga, -raja system, I mean in the way they can be used. Maybe some way to mix spells or a more complex, yet not confusing element relation system.

SUMMARY: Think out of the box, we don't want crappy magic, but the same old thing is also crappy by now. Oh yeah, and no drawing please, not in a fast-paced action/RPG seamless-intended awesome game.

5.-Roxas.

Good plot device, hid correctly the mess they did because it is clear KH wasn't intended to be a franchise, BUT I hoe they do not make us spend 2 or 3 hours in a tutorial that is boring. Sure, the first time it is new and great, but it takes out replay value. I actually get bored just of thinking of starting a new KH2 game because I do not want to spend 2 hours with Roxas in a tutorial that is no fun anymore.

SUMMARY: Maybe no tutorials this time, if it is seamless, learning to play in some other ways  than being told what to do might be interesting.

6.Job system.

I'm not very sure on this one. I'm not pro nor against it, but I want them just to do it right. Here is what I mean: Final Fantasy VII, IX, X, etc. (just some examples) = good, job predefined characters. FFT is an example of a multi job system that works. FF XII's first version, is an attempt to let you customize characters that end up in everyone being able to do everything without really giving any character-specific strengths. This got nicely fixed in the International Zodiac System version that was sold some time after the first FFXII release.

SUMMARY: Whatever it is, we need it to be 

The next three things are not gameplay related, but are still as important for a good experience.

7.-Final mix versions & DLC's.

What's up with that! One could say they want to make more money, but if that was actually the case Square Enix should remember that some of us gamers actually don't live in Japan. I'd rather have a FFvXIII that is whole on itself: no Final mixes, +'s and whatever else. BUT if they do that again, PLEASE, @Nomura_Tetsuya (XD) sell it on this side of the Pacific too!. The same thing about DLC's, I hate it when they do things like in Assassin's Creed 2 and make you buy DLC's to fill up some not-even-that-good plot holes.

SUMMARY: Guys at Square Enix have had more than 7 years, and it might get to 8 years before its release, I hope they at least sell a COMPLETE game.

8.-Locked files.

This really pisses players off. Don't you my beloved geek brothers get pissed of by locked files that you cannot copy? I'll get mad if I keep writing about this, so I just hope they do not lock the save files.

9.-New game+

Finally, I hope that this game is like 10008000 hours long, I hope we get to play at least 85% of those hours, not like Kojima's MGS4 which was made more like a big movie with playable segments. I loved it, but whoever is not a fan, simply won't But Over all those things I hope it has great replay value. Since last generation of video games, replay value is a MUST and a FF without it may lose great possibilities.

If you survived after all of my statements, tell me if you agree or not? I trust that Nomura is not a dumbass and FFvXIII will not be KH3, but still, they might include some of the things I just mentioned. I do not claim to be right, I just hope it is a good game because it promises so much, it is returning to the old school (FF VIII-like sprites, open world, vehicles and so on). But who knows, in a few months I may find myself writing that Nomura shut my mouth xD.

See ya!

Old school: Independence day

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Let us waste spend a minute of silence... or two.

So with all the 4th-of-July fuzz just starting to fade off I felt an urge to talk about Independence Day. I want to express the joy it causes me to remember all those brave men and women who fought for it. I feel sorry every time I remember those who died, both soldiers and civilians. Every life is sacred and fighting for freedom is one noble cause that won't be regretted.

Last Sunday was the day meant to remember all that we earned through that war. Last Sunday we united to remember what freedom is all about. We joined the celebration in which fireworks were promised and delivered on time because a little child wanted them and we won our right to live and survive. Three days ago we celebrated the 14th anniversary of our independence in which great men fought for freedom: Captain and badass pilot (AND Karate/Kung fu Kid's father)  Will Smith Steven Hiller; ecologist programmer and harcore geek Jeff Goldblum David Levison along with old-fashioned-garbage-talker and politician/pilot Bill Pullman Mr. President saw the enemy aliens right in the eye and kicked them in the ass because they couldn't find balls to kick them at.

Also, none shall forget nor erase from IMDB history books Russell Casse's last drunk words which make a great quote for humans to remember: "hello boys... I'm baaaaack!" Yeah, unbelievable right?, someone before Sheldon Cooper Ph.D. said he was back in that tone. An Casse said it right before showing humankind what every video gamer, geek and freak strategist on Earth figured out wanted to know since the beginning of the film historical document (except that geeks are a hoax made up by Cuba) which was: where the shiny, obvious and huge weak spot of the alien ships was.

Although not the greatest movie historical document ever, it has its nice emotional moments, some cheap but laughable comedy and for its time, some nice dogfight scenes contains completely accurate information. I really think the alien exoskeleton is a nice add to the classic greys and the fact of showing that Earth was almost lost by the end of the movie historical document  was a risky plot device great piece of footage not seen since Macross the beginning of mankind.

The production is not that good, but has its "thumbs up" moments. Certainly, the interior of the "mother ship" (or whatever it was called) scenes are not one of those moments. It conains awful illogical interior design and everything was as greenish as in the matrix.

We may always have in our memories the noble people at Area 51 the no longer existent desert base which only had about 3 guards at their only entrance and allowed a bunch of civilians military personnel to pass right trough in their moment of need and thus saved a lot of human lives with the decisions made by some of those who entered the Area 51 no longer existent desert base. For those who said classified related areas' workers were mean. Maybe the best of it all was the moment in which Mr. President gave his awesome speech and how the USA orchestrated the entire world actions to bring down the aliens in one final blow. Isn't that kind of world control just great? It is a real shame that it never happens outside of fiction, our world would be much better.

For that and much more (like Russel Casse's crappy alien tales Intel, Julius always knowing the truth and the very original welcome Smith Hiller gives to the alien enemy) we shall forever celebrate our Independence Day on th e 4th of July (or 5th for those earthling who like to travel in time. I never get it, if they can go to the future, why do they keep going just one day ahead. Not that anyone cares, as Mr. President of the world will always be a white guy form the USA which celebrates on the 4th). PEACE! (no nuke this time).

NOTE: Sarcasm was not used at all some parts in this entry historical document commentary.

SPOILERS ahead: geek drama

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So I just came across this website called youtube... NOT!




Now into the serious stuff. While looking for some fun videos in youtube I came across this fake trailer that most geeks will understand. Even if you don't know the specifics about programming (like me), you will laugh for sure, just watch it all.



So what do you think about it? Anyway, the REAL discovery is the user: gboy0, come check his videos (which are indeed hilarious) at: http://www.youtube.com/user/gboy0

And now, for the random fact about myself: I never go to sleep before 1am.

PWNED! Molyneux v. Greenberg

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For all of you who are into Kinect check this out.

At an interview with ABC, Aaron Greenberg from Microsoft, stated that Milo was just a demo and no future game was in development or expecting to be released. So according to him, what we saw Milo was all about with Kinect at last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) would never be at gamer's reach. Along with it's absence from this year's E3 Greenberg's declaration seemed to be truth until Molyneux spoke.

Peter Molyneux (yep, the one from Black & White) told everyone that Greenberg was wrong and that Milo is really going to be a future game released for Xbox 360 developed specially for using with Kinect. Greenberg being in the PR area of Microsoft and not knowing what's going on in the company makes him the winner of this blog's first PWNED.

This fact speaks of lack of internal communication or conflicts between departments. It is very risky to let someone talk to an audience and make official declarations when they are not sure about it. This is specially dangerous when competition is very hard in the industry and it becomes even a bigger mistake when realizing that this video game generation is having breakthroughs that are bringing down some factors that used to be constant within the video gaming world.

Final result: Peter Molyneux PWNED Aaron Greenberg.

What's this all about. UPDATE

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As you may have guessed, entries' head titles include some reference to their respective section-to-be. So here I want to let you all know how this blog will be composed and what will you be able to find in it. Hereby I officially announce the next to be the categories/sections of this blog. Remember that everything here will be about, but not only, geeky, technological. scientific, gamer and/or movie-related topics.

• "Hype alert" Here you will find some analysis about various upcoming products or services related to technology, video games or movies. Mostly those which promise a lot of new stuff or the ones that have been keeping us waiting for a long time. Head titles will be constructed like this: HYPE! alert + product/service.

• "Old school" is the place where I'll talk about some old TV series, movies and video games. Not EVERY time they will be classic or good ones, you have been warned. Titles will just say: Old school + anything I come up with.

• "Other" will be the place for everything I write that cannot be placed in any section until I create a suitable one. Or who knows, they will linger there forever.

• "Paradigm shift incoming" This will be mainly about social, economic and/or politic changes occurring because of technology usage. I'm not calling myself a prophet, I just like to imagine different scenarios that may emerge from our present and read about your opinions. Titles of this section are shown like: Catchy topic + (Paradigm shift incoming!).

• "Pwned" will be a fail-like section. Sometimes it may include some video or images. I will be commenting on ridiculous stuff or about different kinds of mistakes made by people or companies. Titles will be found like this: PWNED! + company/person/mistake-reference.

• "Spoilers ahead" In this section you will be able to find all kinds of stuff that I wanna share with you all. From personal short stories or poems, to random interesting/fun stuff in the web. Plus, ate the end of each entry you'll get a random fact about me. You'll be able to find them when the title looks like this: Spoilers ahead: + reference to the discovery.

• "Updates" will clearly tell you about the changes made in the blog. Some might be like this entry, or about design, publicity (which you can place here, just contact me), and do on. What do you say about including a newsletter? As you can see in this one, entries will look like: Topic + UPDATE.

• "What you always wanted to know about" will be a list section. With different numbers each time, I'll make interesting, but yet funny lists about different topics. Title structure may resemble this one: # + things/facts/terms/etc. + you always wanted to know about + topic.

There will be more sections and I will also be glad to hear your opinions about this ones and your suggestions for further sections. Some posts (like this one) may not be included on any section until now. Also, some articles may be edited as time passes, marking the edition with a big "EDIT" sign in front of the paragraph/line edited/added.

Finally, some time between this and next week, I'll post "Index" and "sub-index" entries. This ones will be constantly edited. The first one will include this sections (and the ones that I add in the future). The sub-index entries will be one for each section. Each sub-index will be a compilation of every entry in that section and their links, having the ones that do not belong to an existing category under th "Other" section.

So what do you think about this organization scheme? Good, bad, pwned? Tell me about it.

28 facts you always wanted to know about us geeks

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I consider myself a geek, but that doesn't mean that ALL of you are. Whether you enter in this category or not, here are some facts you should know we all geeks share in common. By reading them hopefully you'll laugh, or maybe start worrying about yourself.

1.- You use technology. We understand it.

2.- You understand this sentence until here, bµ7 933|{$ (4n  r34Ð £337.

3.- You rather talk face to face to see others' reactions. If we could make our faces look like this:   XD   *.*   ^^   T-T   :3   we'd love it too.

4.- You dream of having a big nice entertainment center. We dream about having a holodeck.

5.- You google terms. We google you.

6.- You read Wikipedia. We are Wikipedia.

7.- You download. We torrent.

8.- You upload. We seed.

9.- You never believe it when we tell you we didn't study for a test. We just KNOW.

10.- You know about stalkers. We know about Facebookers.

11.- You waste your time in front of your computer. We get rich in front of our working stations.

12.- You love. We <3.

13.- You get some of the jokes made in "The Big Bang Theory" TV show. We get them all.

14.- You wanna play. Wii wanna play.

15.- You surf the web. We make the waves.

16.- We have more friends than you... at least online, but they are more useful.

17.- You look for tutorials. We make them, so you could just ask for them.

18.- You can choose to use sarcasm while you speak. We always use it.

19.- You play the guitar. We play Guitar Hero.

20.- You know Johny Lee Miller since "Trainspotting". We know him since "Hackers".

21.- You say yes. We say 0.

22.- You watched "I, Robot". We read "I, Robot".

24.- You know who Rowling and Tolkien are. We know who Lovecraft, Gibson and Follet are.

25.- You laugh about us. We LOL you.


26.- You think video gamers are mostly kids. We are the proof that you're mistaken.

27.- You think Wikipedia is great. We know Uncyclopedia is even better.

28.- You think English and Chinese will be global languages. 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100010 01100101 01110100 01110100 01100101 01110010 00101110

If you identify yourself with at least 7 things in either side of the list be either proud or sad. Either way be sure to laugh. Whatever you say, you are all becoming "one of us, one of us".


NOTE: For the ones having a hard time reading some parts of this entry, whichever they are, try this translator http://home2.paulschou.net/tools/xlate/ The good thing about it is that it works both ways so you can get this all in binary if you hate letters.

Real + Virtual = Ritual (Paradigm shift incoming!)

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Today technology will be our lady.


The link between virtual reality and the internet is becoming clearer its results are just beginning to show up and may develop into an "unreal" or "virtual" plane of existence, but still a very influent in the real one. Virtual reality is known as the mix between hardware and software that allows people to experience events as if they were "real" while they're actually simulations showed on a screen or some other output device. The users can control a given avatar and act within the virtual world by inputting commands through keyboards, controllers, or some other specific-made hardware. Some accept voice commands and/or include motion-tracking systems.

As ridiculous as it may seem to buy intangible things or use unreal money, internet-based sales are very common and services like Paypal which help make them easier are available to almost everyone. By 2008 eBay had more than 200 million registered users and as of February 12th of this year, more than 50 million people have joined the PlayStation Network (PSN). According to the United Nations, world population is around 6,800 million so .75% of every one of us humans is registered in PSN and more than 3% of human population has registered at eBay. I know some people may have multiple accounts and some other accounts may be used no more, also there are people who have closed theirs, but still reaching 1-3% in worldwide population with not so many years in the market is HUGE!, just imagine how can this grow in the next 10 years.


Now, into the gaming area. These get their success mainly because they offer experiences mostly impossible for players. The bad side of this is that psychiatrists have made it clear that almost everything can make people addicted, technology and video games are no exception. Although its a relatively new concern, it is very real and he effects are seen more commonly. I mentioned PSN, and in PlayStation Home (for those who don't know about it, imagine playing Sims online without the job/work element), more than 7 million users get to know each other, but the amazing thing is that people spend real money to get furniture, clothing or new apartment displays.


If PS Home seemed too much, almost every MMO game has its own internal economy which allows players to become richer if they spend real money in exchange of items or in-game currency. Where it gets to be a matter deserving attention is with games such as Second Life. In there we have 18 million registered users playing. Let's make it just 10 million because of duplicated accounts and abandoned ones. Each one of them can offer services and not only exchange real money into Linden dollars (L$ is the in-game currency), but people can also offer services, work, rent their lands and such recreations of so-called "real life" and turn the L$ they make into US dollars. Surely this has its advantages for people who cannot find a job, but also, it creates major inflation problems if more and more people get US$ from L$, it is making money out of thin air and collaborating with inflation (not so different from what speculation in financial market is all about). So people making a reputation and spending their time clicking a mouse in front of a monitor is no longer a waste of time as we know it.


Right now addicted people are labeled, pointed at and marginalized, but what happens when addiction starts to become normality, then the "weirdos" might be the ones who cannot adapt to the new practices. Don't misunderstand me, I HATE prejudices and discriminating stereotypes, I think whoever choses to, in this case work realistically or virtually, should be respected. My concern here is to make the ones between you who never thought about it, that both virtual avatars and real life individuals and their actions affect each other. Imagine if today all electrical power went down and couldn't be restored, you get what I mean? It is not only about politics and economics being shattered down to pieces, our very own way of life and communication even among family members would be done for, to mention just something. Today, "virtual" and "real" are really connected and our daily activities and rituals involve both of them to some degree.

Technology surely is being developed quickly and its uses, more than doing "good or wrong", can get to create a new world. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about video games exclusively. Some may say that things you can't touch or smell are not real (Morpheus should have a little talk with them) and here comes some generational abyss. Generation Y (like myself) which are the majority of so-called digital immigrants and Generation Z composed almost entirely of digital natives, both are generations which have integrated technology into daily life in a major degree. Yes, everyone depends on some degree of technology, but I think an example can make things more clear: I'm here blogging and you are reading this. I know (and thank) that my readers may include also people from Generation X or from the Baby Boomers, my point is: new people is being born having technology as a common/normal aspect of life, today it is as common to have a way into the web as it is to catch some rain living in England. We depend on it and we like it to get more and more into our lives that it whether it turns out dangerous or improves life, virtual and online based realities are bending together with real reality sucking us into a new way of life, a new monotony, a new ritual.


By the way, before you leave, would you please spend some minutes giving me some feedback? It is much appreciated.


Thanks, see you all next time.

HYPE alert! Final Fantasy versus XIII

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Original FFvsXIII logo by Yoshitaka Amano

It's been four years since its announcement with an awesome trailer at E3 2006, but actually more than six years have passed since its development started in 2003. We've all seen the graphics: both the FMV's and the real-time renders look awesome and very similar to each other. Recently, Famitsu published some information and pictures which confirm the inclusion of an open world map and a glimpse of gameplay which keeps the tradition of party-based RPG's.

What really worries me here is that the hype is getting out of control (some may remember Cloverfield as an example of something small and with good quality, but creating expectations that couldn't be handled and were as high as Shinra's building). People (me included) are filling game forums asking to know some more about FFvXIII, sharing links and translating whatever material they find in the web or printed and still not much has been revealed. Truth told, viral campaigns and word-of-mouth publicity is great AND cheap for investors, but it's a miracle that it is still out there after four years.

In the Famitsu magazine interview Nomura also said that they are preparing for a big announcement. I honestly think that they missed a big chance at E3 to be the best game of the show. This year's E3 was mainly used to announce hardware (Kinect, Move, 3DS) and games were left aside. We know they cannot hold back this new game much longer and Nomura's declaration make me think of an official debut on the next Tokyo Game Show, but still, if it had been shown at E3, it would have been more of a worldwide presentation. I know the TGS allows general public entry which is good for more viral campaign/word-of-mouth publicity and if they show it there, we can expect for sure that the hype will finally show its true consequence: either more hype and a pretty awesome response from gamers (and a huge amount of pre-orders) or a big FAIL in which critics make it crash and burn when it finally gets released (In any case, we'll get more media for sure). I know the first scenario is the most probable (not to say the most desired) and my personal favorite since I expect this game since last year, but if they do something like the action commands in KHII there will be problems and I'll cry.

Lastly, for the ones who know nothing about FFvXIII, don't worry, there is not a lot of info out there and here's a little summary of what's known and the most important aspects: It is part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis (a set of three independent games, with the only relation between them being the universe/mythology, but not the story). The creating team is directed by Tetsuya Nomura: director, character designer and story creator of ALL Kingdom Hearts until now and he's also being involved in important gameplay roles since FFV. He stated that it'll be the darkest FF until now. As for the gameplay we can expect his team from KH doing a realistic version of the action we found there. Nomura also said that they want to reflect fights similar to those found in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (which he also directed), so if you haven't seen that GO GET IT NOW (well, after you finish reading this of course), buy it or rent it, I don't care, just watch it, you will thank me. Finally there WILL be vehicles (car and airship confirmed) and an open world map for the ones that have missed those concepts since FFX like myself (the open world map is more like XII open scenarios, just much more huge and much more detailed, I was truly amazed when I saw  those pictures because the real-time quality is just GREAT).

Letting the known stuff aside (which is very little info in comparison to an almost seven-year-old development), we can expect something better than FFXIII, which has received complaints from critics and gamers stating that although the story is good, it is somewhat confusing and feels like a linear game. On the good side for FFXIII we have graphics and new gameplay, which conserves the party-using and as always has new elements whith some people loving it and some hating it. Let's face it Motomu Toriyama, the guy behind FFXIII had only being director of FFX-2, which is not that good (I liked it though).

The only thing for us to do now is to wait for a release date to be announced (hopefully at this year's TGS) and some gameplay to be shown (video please!, not just images), because even with a good story and movie-like graphics which are nice, if it is boring, simple or way too easy, we know it would be bad. Let us hope for a good game. As before, I encourage you to leave some comments on your way out =D.

Yep, me again ^^

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So this is me blogging once again, hopefully more constantly than before. This one won't be topic-exclusive like my other blogs, I'll just write about anything, sometimes in English (most of them) and once in a while you'll find some Spanish in here. (I may upload entries in both languages, I still don't know).

So let's get started by letting you read a short story I wrote last year:

I am here as part of my endless search through all three worlds: the dreams, the web and that other one in which we're all stuck in.

A search very few people dare to start...

A search even fewer people get to complete...

A search which offers a great reward...

A search for... my rice pudding which you stole from me *.*

So yeah, some cheap comedy to begin the day/blog/whatever. But you all should know that it is based on a tragic real event in which Kalegiro and his girlfriend stole my rice pudding from me when we met xD. So yeah go and visit "A new life" from my recommended section at the right side of this page and give him some love. 


BTW, feedback is much appreciated.

c ya!