Games Played 01/04/2010 - 01/10/2010

With the recent set of events, I have to put aside my 2009 Yearly Gaming Analysis for a little while. All the data is at the ready - it's just a matter of sitting down and writing the analysis. I hope to be doing just that in the next couple of days if time permits. My mind is at peace with the current situation but it doesn't mean that things are less emotional than they were before.

- 01/04/2010 -
Crysis - PC
Peggle - PlayStation 3
Trine - PC

- 01/05/2010 -
Bayonetta - X-Box 360
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - NDS
Demigod - PC
Tinker - PC

- 01/06/2010 -
Bayonetta - X-Box 360
Dark Void Demo - X-Box 360*
Matt Hazard: Blood Bath & Beyond Demo - X-Box 360

*The title refers to its fun factor.

- 01/07/2010 -
Bayonetta - X-Box 360
Demigod - PC
Matt Hazard: Blood Bath & Beyond Demo - PlayStation 3/X-Box 360*
Söldner-X: Himmelssturmer - PlayStation 3

*Fun shoot-'em-up. Contra- style. There's no online co-op though.
No graphical nor performance differences between the two consoles.

- 01/08/2010 -
Demigod - PC

- 01/09/2010 -
None.

- 01/10/2010 -
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - NDS

- 01/11/2010 -
Bayonetta - X-Box 360
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - NDS
Demigod - PC
Tinker - PC

Personal Tragedy

Yesterday was not a good day for me and things may get tougher in the following days depending on how things go. Ccelia, a very close friend of mine is currently in the hospital, still unconscious from a heart attack from early yesterday morning. I went to visit yesterday and stayed there until early in the evening. She is using a ventilator and is currently in a comatose state. It was very hard to see her in her current predicament and though things look grim, I still want to keep a positive outlook on the situation, hoping that she is going to be able to come out of this alive. Besides being a close friend, I have always considered her as a mother figure to me since relationship between me and my biological mother is nonexistent.

About three years ago, I gave Ccelia a Nintendo DS as a present when I heard that she likes playing card games on the Personal Computer. It's always a hassle for her to play at night with the laptop on her bed, so I thought the NDS would be perfect for her. Alongside the handheld, I also got her Clubhouse Games and Nintendog. Though she always has problems with Nintendog's voice recognition commands, she often tells me that she plays Clubhouse Games every night before she goes to sleep and that she always have the NDS with her wherever she goes for quick gameplay sessions. Just recently, I let her borrow Brain Age and Hotel Dusk because she wants to try some new things with the handheld. This was after we played Cooking Mama, Nanostray 2, and Personal Training: Coooking together.

Being an atheist, I do not have a grand outlook on the afterlife. Though I understand that some people need religions to live a sane existence, they are outdated tools to control the flow of society. So death is not merely a transition, but the ultimate end - thus it is more impactful for me. I hope that Ccelia is going to pull through. The hospital is going to do a brain wave scan today to see if there is still any activity in her brain. I am hoping for the best and though I am prepared for the worst, my heart is constantly heavy with the fear of losing someone I love.

Update Note: 11:47pm - As we feared, the neurologist informed us that there is little amount of activities showing in Ccelia's brain and that there is no sign of higher brain functions. She is no longer with us and only her bodily shell remains. Today is one of the saddest days in my life.

Update Note: 01/12/2010 - Ccelia passed away yesterday evening.

Life is a quick stream of consciousness and memories...
Ccelia, I hope to see you smile and laugh again.

Return to Demigod!

I haven't played Demigod in a long time. The last recorded playtime I had with the game was in November of last year. Several days ago, I decided to check it out again to see if the long awaited new Demigods have been released into the game. I was delighted to find out that two new characters have joined the game's cast of unique characters: Demon Assassin and Oculus. These new Demigods, like the others, are definitely well-crafted and astutely designed. Unfortunately, only the Demon Assassin can be selected for play currently but at least you can have the computer play as Oculus. These characters may be both the first and the last free additions to the game. Future contents will probably be offered via a micro-transactions - that is if the community would remain strong and continue to demand more from the game with Heroes of Newerth now being available for open beta. I think I am being lured back into the game again and I have a feeling that I will be playing a lot of Demigod in the days to come.

An over-powered rogue type? Quite possibly.


A floating blind minotaur... How very zen.

Review: The Butcher

The Butcher (2007)
Genre: Horror
Format: DVD
Director: Kim Jin-Won

Torture porn: it's a love it or hate it movie genre. I personally don't mind dark films that dare to push themselves beyond the boundaries of conventional cinema. Despite the rigid conventions of what a movie means to your casual moviegoers and cash-starved film producers, there are others who are more open minded about the extreme power and boundless potentials film-making. If you are one of the latter and you are interested to see the utter depravity of human evil, I present to you The Butcher. This low budget horror movie may not ever reach the popularity of the Hostel films, but those movies just cannot compare to how bleak this South Korean movie's representation of the horror of physical torture.

The movie has no plot framing it. Basically, you are just taken to a decrepit chicken farm to witness some people getting brutalized. Here's what's so remarkably brilliant about the movie: from the opening scene up to the credit roll, the whole entire event runs in real time. You watch the unfolding horror in two ways: a) the camcorder of the people video taping the tortures in hope of selling their masterpiece to the snuff film market, and b) the cameras strapped on top of the victims' heads. The movie doesn't overplay the victim-perpetrator perspectives too much though - for the most part, you will be seeing extended scenes from the camera of a male victim experiencing all the nastiness happening in front of him. The limited perspective switch ensures that the viewers get the full brunt of everything that occurs on screen. It's bad enough to see terrible things being done to a person. It's worse when you have to watch them through the victim's eyes.

With a running time of about 1 hour and 14 minutes, you can really tally up your body count. In The Butcher, it's not a matter of how many gruesome deaths you are able to witness. It's all about giving you an unadulterated look at the streaming consciousness of the victims during their final moments of life. The Butcher is a dark, dark movie. For the most part of the viewing, you constantly hear the whining cries and tearful pleas of these regular people who are constantly trying to survive through their ordeals. There is absolutely no pleasure to be found watching the movie. Instead, you will only find anguish, sadness, desperation, and pain here. I had to ask myself after the viewing: why did I watch the movie? I was looking for some form of entertainment. Was I entertained? No, the movie wasn't entertaining. But how was the viewing session? It made me sick to my stomach and it was psychologically draining - which is what the movie wants its audience to feel. The Butcher is a realistic portrayal of a day in the life of a snuff film production. This is not a movie, it's a unique experience albeit a nasty one with a long-lasting, sour aftertaste. For those of you looking for the ultimate torture porn, make an appointment with The Butcher. Just don't bleed too much, you'll see what I mean.

RATING: 5 out of 5

New Game Alert - 1 Million Gigaton Edition!

My copy of Bayonetta has finally arrived in my hands! I am installing the game to my X-Box 360 hard drive as I am typing this with shaky hands. I am ready for my promised bliss. I must say that I am disappointed that the game manual is not in color. I think that this game deserves a special packaging but enough rambling. I am off to commit the sins of witchcraft against some nasty angels.

She's ready for some hair-raising action.