Would you like to play a game? (recommendations for new gamers)

If anyone is bored and is looking for a game to play (a.k.a. people who aren't playing Reach or Black Ops), here are some good ones, organized by platform. They are mostly old games.

PC:
Civilization, any of them (try II if you haven't)
Dawn Of War: Dark Crusade (Great RTS, especially for fans of 40k)
WarGames (doesn't have a whole lot to do with the movie, it's a pretty old game, but a good RTS)

Xbox:
Republic Commando (A solid Star Wars Squad based shooter with good in-game dialogue)
Knights of the Old Republic (If you've played it, play it again)
Crimson Skies (Probably a bit dated now, but it's got great airplane combat with upgrades)
Ultimate Alliance 1 (better than 2) is a little cheesy, a little buggy, but somehow captures the fun of putting all your favorite superheroes in a team and upgrading their many abilities far better than the second one. The in-game graphics are aging, but the cutscenes are pretty amazing for original Xbox. And you get more powers in this one, as well as items you can pick up and equip.

Gamecube:
Metriod Prime (I actually haven't played these, but I will when I get a system that can)
Jedi Knight II

360:
I can't really recommend any games here that haven't already been lathered in press. That said, Reach does live up to the hype. Haven't tried Black Ops yet. However, if you missed it, Mass Effect 1 is a must play. The graphics still hold up after 3 years. The gameplay is occasionally buggy, and the menus can get annoying, but it still earns a 9.5/10 in my book despite all that. The game is so good, you will completely forget its minor flaws. It's that great.
If you like Wolverine, and haven't played the "Origins" game yet, let me just say this: There are about 100 different ways to kill dudes, the combat is true-to-character, and it's about 12 hrs. long. It may not be for everyone, but I played through twice, once on medium, and once on hard after unlocking it for beating the game. Plus, the QTEs, for the most part (save a couple mini-bosses) are pretty cool, not too common to be annoying, and occasionally jaw-dropping.
Flaws: Story is meh, but I actually liked it better than the movie's story (both are still wrong). The occasional graphical glitch (largely forgivable, especially considering it's a movie game), as well as the rare glitch where you get stuck outside of a level. That only happened once, but it did cost me an achievement.
I think I already reviewed that game when it came out. Oh well, there it is again.

PS3:
Haven't played anything on this yet.

Wii:
Umm... anything first party, almost nothing third party. You should know that by now if you have one.

So, this is essentially a list of games you may have missed over the last 10-20 years that I didn't (mostly), and you should play.

Also, if you're new to gaming, here's a list of recommended titles to start with, depending on the genre that interests you.

Shooter: Halo 1 (combat evolved). Why: because it's not too complex, it has an easy setting, but it has controls and gameplay that will prep you for any modern shooter.

RTS: Age Of Empires (1 or 2). Why: It's got all the key components of an RTS, but not overwhelming on easy. Plus, it's great.

RPG: Um... I don't recommend jumping right into an RPG if you're new to gaming. Start with Halo, then move to Mass Effect, because the RPG element there is pretty light, but enough to prep someone for a deeper RPG after that. Or if you're eager, you could just skip straight into Mass Effect 2, but you'd miss some story from 1, and the RPG element is so light there, that you might not even get a taste of it. (traditional RPGs, of course. The story element is heavy like rain).
Alternative: play a text-based RPG, if you like reading.

That's about it for now.

It's a... whatever, it's a post.

Just wanted to post. I'm still playing Super Metroid, I think I'm close to getting the final suit upgrade. That game is harder than Reach on Heroic, which is hard by 2010 standards, but it was apparently not too hard by 1994 standards. Anyway.

Umm... Check this out? It's good. I promise.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Stemage?blend=2&ob=1

Edit: the post before this one was post #123.

LEGITIMATE

....I bought Super Metroid the other day. The actual cartridge, from 1994, and have been playing it on the SNES. The difficulty is such that I can no longer think of too many other things than playing the game while I'm playing it.
I suppose I should let you know I've never played this game before (!).
But it is AMAZING, I love all aspects of it. The music, art, level design, and sheer amount of upgrades are great. It is just so deep for a game of its era, especially of that genre. This game is easily the equal of Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario World, games I have spent a solid amount of time in. It is chillingly mysterious and so full of variety in the levels. The idea is that you are on one contiguous area the whole time instead of levels that you progress to and cannot go back. I have only put a couple hours into it, but I would go so far as to call it the pinnacle of side-scrolling games on the SNES.

I implore you to check it out.

Also, if you're interested you've probably heard, but The Hobbit has been greenlit, it will be directed by Peter "the man" Jackson, and will be released in two parts, Dec. 2012 and Dec. 2013, I believe. I guess pre-production actually began in '08 or '09, and they have had all the script, concept art, and sets pretty much hammered out for some time. What held it up were several lawsuits against New Line by Peter Jackson and the Tolkein Estate. I'm not sure I like the movie being split up into two parts, because they will have to make the second one "better" and the easiest way to do that is to not make the first one as good, and it seems like one continuous story to me.

That's about that.

If Blogger has automatic spam detection, then I have laser eyes

But enough of that.

I saw the movie "Memento" recently, and it was crazy. And good. But not crazy good, because then we would have to put it in our mouths.

Also, I played Spider-man Shattered Dimensions. I only got about 34%, but it's pretty fun. All four Spider-mans have a slightly different play style. Ultimate has the tendrils and rage mode, Noir has to stick (no pun intended) to the shadows to survive and perform stealth takedowns, and 2099 moves really fast and has a slo-mo power that slows enemies down. And Amazing, is just classic.
The game has some pretty funny parts, too, it's never too long between chuckles or laughs. Decent third person action with a good amount of upgrades. The tactics, from what I saw, are fairly varied. One level you are fighting sand creatures, and have to throw water barrels into them before you can inflict damage. Also on the same level, Sandman turns into a huge tornado, and you have to webzip between flying debris. Pretty epic boss fight.

If you are a Spider-man fan, you have to try it. If you like third person action games, give it a shot, it's different. If you don't like these types of games, well, you may not like it.

overwhelmed valid lolly! confirmation us now

That is a quote from one of our more prolific commenters. Please ignore the spambots, I left my can-opener somewhere inaccessible.

The Twilighter Zone does not endorse any of these link spammers, disregard their attempts to convince you to have a lolly good time confirming them at sea.

Also, you should be ashamed of yourself if you haven't heard of Penny Arcade. I went to PAX (twice), their expo, and it was the awesomes. Here is their link again: Penny Arcade

Read their material, witness it. Avail yourself of the mind-chocolate it contains.

Beware the mist.

Do it

Listen to this: WWW.metroidmetal.com

Also: http://metroidmetal.bandcamp.com/album/varia-suite

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Ahem...

So, I kinda forgot about this blog. I mean, I knew I had it, at some point, but didn't think about it until now. I thought "I wish I had a blog...". And so I do.

A lot has happened since I started this thing, so just to keep my dignity, I will state that this blog was started before I even heard of that "Twilight" crap. It might have even been before the books came out, but it was at least long before the movies.

The name was inspired by "The Twilight Zone". It's an old tv show, most kids these days would probably think vampires first (however I haven't seen the show as it ran decades before I was born).

Anyway, recommendation here, http://soundcloud.com/alainjohannes/sets/spark.

That's the first solo album by Alain Johannes, touring guitarist of Them Crooked Vultures, and creative member of so many other projects. Listen free. Buy on the 5th if you like. Whatever.

I've only seen probably 5 new movies or so since I last posted here. I liked Inception. And Kick-Ass. And Shutter Island. In that order. Well, I liked Inception the best.

Halo: Reach is awesome (!!), but would be more awesome if I could play it online. Internet situation prevents me.

Also, I have to wake up today. I should sleep.

Happy Late New Year

Really late. Speaking of which, I should go to bed. Just thought I'd post. Also, Mass Effect 2 is amazing, I'm playing the first one again, and I bought the soundtrack from the first. $9.99 gets you all 37 songs. Not shabby. What are the origins of that word, shabby? Shab? Does it mean shab-like? I'll let you chew on it.