I am playing... Dark Souls 2 - Impressions thus far

I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so pleased and disappointed by something at the same time.

Still used to this.

                I’ve always been a cynic about many things, but I’m also an optimist about many things. This has always left in a bit of a conundrum about many things, like if something tragic happens I don’t know if I should stand sullenly in a corner going “I knew things weren’t going to end well” or to go on a march declaring “We shall overcome.” I suppose in reality I’m the kind of person who believes that ultimately we are all going to go up in flames and slowly be reduced to ash, but it’ll be more interesting to burn while dancing rather than sitting sullenly in a corner going “I knew this was all going to happen” while my spleen spontaneously combusts.

I just watched... Pan's Labyrinth

Some things say more than they say.

                Guillermo del Toro originally put himself on my small map of ‘directors whose movies I’ve really got to watch because their movies are interesting, innovative or just plain good, especially when compared to the typical standard of most movies which are like articles which are incapable of keeping a logical word count for each sentence in order to keep them from getting out of hand and making readers lose all semblances of sanity and devolve into dictionary and prime grammar hungering zombies’, which aren’t as great in number as I might hope.

I just played... Path of Exile

Of sprawling forests, sprawling caves, sprawling dungeons and sprawling ability trees.

Always online can be annoying, but it's a fair trade off for the fact that the game is free.

                Path of Exile is a strange game that seems to defy all conventions of existing. Yes, it’s a free to play game, in the truest sense, akin to Valve’s Dota 2. The only difference here is that ‘Valve’ is a company automatically synonymous with several beloved titles, great love for quality and lots and lots of money. On the other hands ‘Grinding Gear Games’ is a company that is a bit of a blank slate and one that’ll make you think of the numerous RPGs in which you, well… grinded for gear. Which is a bit of a nice move since Path of Exile is modelled after Diablo and Diablo 2, both games in which grinding for great gear and hunting for epic loot formed an important part of the experience.

I just watched... Kino's Journey

Have you ever wanted to just take your sentient motorbike and go on a journey?

                Kino’s Journey is definitely an odd show, but what’s not odd about it is that it can easily, truly be defined as a ‘philosophical’ series. And the issue with anything ‘philosophical’ is that it immediately falls into one of two categories: pretentious or non-pretentious. It’s very easy for a story to swing a big question around itself, like a briefcase filled with smaller briefcases filled with dead whales, to the extent that the story begins to, like a briefcase filled with smaller briefcases filled with dead whales, repel you.

I just watched... Battle Royale

Sometimes, I can’t help but wonder why there aren’t more movies involving children killing children.

                Well, perhaps the above statement is a bit of a paradox because of the bit of a paradox that intermingles with the kind of movies that have children spill the blood of other children, and that’s the fact that there movies typically cannot be seen by children because they are possibly too graphic and ‘traumatic’ for children. So that bit of a paradox exists in the fact that the very actors acting in the film, present in all the scenes with blood and murder and the blood of children and the murder of children, isn’t legally able to actually see the movie. A bit of a conundrum, really.

The Sunday Hardcore #2 - Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

Sometimes, you just learn how bad you actually are at a game. 

And so it begins.

"What is this series?" you ask with sly little smile on your lips.

I answer:

This is a weekly series in which I take a game and attempt a hardcore run of it.

I just watched... Le Chevalier D'eon

Cross-dressing, zombies and weird magic – can the French get any more Japanese than this?

                If I were to make a list of TV series I want to see in the foreseeable future before the dolphins decide to take over, one of the things I’d put in the list alongside ‘Requiems for Sean Bean’ would be a full-blown production-values-high-as-hell adaptation of Le Chevalier D’eon. One with luscious sets, monumental locations, great actors, great CG, multiple languages and an ironed out plot.

I just played... DmC: Devil May Cry

Hey guys, do you see the parallels here? DO YOU SEEEEEE THEM?

Yup.

                The media uses it influence to paint the protagonist as a diabolic figure to be feared and loathed, an energy drink is actually a kind of demonic poison to turn humans to cattle and the world actually runs on capitalism. DmC: Devil May Cry tries to be political, and it definitely isn’t subtle about it, and prefers to shove everything in your face and then rub it around a little.

The Sunday Hardcore #1 - Torchlight 2

I really need some coffee next time.

And so it begins.

"What is this series?" you ask with that cute twinkle in your squeaky eyes.

I answer:

This is a weekly series in which I take a game and attempt a hardcore run of it.

I just played... Devil May Cry 4

GotY 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 – Amnesiac Gamers Association 

I have a technique to help you enjoy Devil May Cry 4 to its maximum potential, with the following steps:  

I just played... Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition

Hell hath no fury like a d20 scorned.

Unfortunately, this Jon doesn't have a cat. 

                To be fair, the above statement is a bit of a lie since the game differs from its predecessor in the luck dependence department. In the first game a lucky roll was often what separated your Halfling thief from nimbly sidestepping an enemy swing and getting blown up into pretty little red chunks; this isn’t necessarily the case this time around because the higher levels translate into relatively consistent chances to hit and get hit.