PixlBit

For those who don't know, I used to do blogs in 1up with that title. They were updates focusing mainly on things I had done lately on videogames, television, movies, music and literature, which I did wherever I had time and/or weren't lazy.

At first, I was going to do some first impressions on a game I have been playing lately, but because I wanted to talk about other things (and do shameless gushing on a webcomic i've been reading), I decided to return this series of blogs to Pixlbit. The only two changes I will make would be that I can omit sections on future blogs if I feel that I don't have much to say, like for example I haven't seen any movie lately, and I can also add things like Webcomics, Web Shows, etc.

With that said, let's start Pixlbit's first blog of TIHBD.

Videogames:

This is the most recent game I have right now, which I didn't buy, but was a gift I got from a friend who went to the United States and bought it in GameStop, in the shelf where they sell DS for 10 dollars. According to him, the clerk told him that it was one of the best games on the DS, so that's why he got it.

I heard on the internet that this game is disliked in the Mega Man community and according to Metacritic, much of the press thought it was average (which could mean the clerk got his statement wrong, or just simply didn't know). So far, I think it's average, but i'm hooked into it.

There are some things that are a bit annoying. One thing that annoys me it's the random enemy encounters, which I know it's a staple of many RPGs, but here they are annoying as they happen more frequently than they should (and sometimes you can't exit the battles) and I really think they aren't necessary when I have to get from point A to B in a hurry. I also have to say that I don't care much about the story or characters so far. I think the story and characcters will develop later to make me care, but i'm just very early in the game and except for Omega-Xis (the alien who's in Mega Man's arm), the characters aren't really interesting and Geo, the protagonist and titular Mega Man here, its kind of an antisocial crybaby who doesn't stop complaining about his dissapeard dad (atleast, so far). Good thing Omega is giving him lessons on being more social.

That said, I don't have that much problem with the combat system, even with some cheap enemies and randomness, the graphics look good on both 2D and 3D and well, I do have a feeling that the story and characters will get a good development. Let's just wait and see.

For information on the story, just go here.

Literature:

I decided to repeat one of my favorite books of my pre-teen years, Tunnels. It's the first part of a saga it created, of which I have the the first three books, but for some reason I didn't continue to the fouth book. To see how much it has aged and to remember the story if I would like to get the fourth book, I started from scratch the saga.

The plot is about an English fourteen-year old kid named Will Burrows, who has a hobby of digging holes, something which he shares with his archeologist father, Dr Burrows. They both find that below London and their neighborhood (I think) Highfield, are many mysterious tunnels and abandoned underground places (which they keep as a secret to anyone). After the dissapearance of his father, Will embarks on a underground journey with his friend Chester, to find him. To not spoil anything, i'll just leave the summary like that.

On the book, I just finished the first part and i'll continue to the second. Overall, although I could finally understand and catch many things I didn't notice on my first read, the first parts is very slow and not much is happening. Fortunately, the book still hooked me in to continue and as far as I remember, the story gets better and exciting at the start of the second part (much like something I will mention later).

Speaking of repeating books, I also decided to repeat I, Robot. I had this book for like four years   but I never finished it and although I was pretty far on it, I decided to start again, to understand better the story now that I have a better level at english (I have Tunnels in Spanish, while I, Robot is in english).

So far, I'm hooked again. With my current level at english, I could understand many things I missed on my first reading and follow the stories better. So far, the themes are very interesting and I like when some of the characters explore the Three Laws of Robotics that Isaac Asimov created. Since this is a collection of short stories with a small link between them, the two ones I like so far are Robbie and Reason, and i'm halfway in Liar!.

Webcomics: 

> Proceed to gush talk about Homestuck.

Image from tvtropes page.

I think anyone who has spend a lot of time on the internet has heard of this webcomic called Homestuck. If not, then proced to go to the tv tropes page linked above to know more about it.

I won't deny that I also created this category here to talk about Homestuck. The thing is that it's currently my favorite webcomic and one of my current obssesion lately. This comic it's just epic. From the story and the setting, to the characters actions and probably other things, this comic is something that needs to be seen to be believed, with things of big scope and lots of complex time traveling and issues, and everytime something epic happens, the author, Andrew Hussie, manages to top that with something even bigger. Combine that with great animation and music (it's also an interactive comic that uses Flash), very interesting characters and blending of other genres, I could say that you got something never seen before.

Although, if you want to read it, you'll need to set an schedule as the comic is very long and might get tedious to some and much like Tunnels above, it starts slow at the beginning (Acts 1 and 2 on the comic), even if I enjoyed a bit the starting chapters. 

So far, because of the longevity, I haven't finish the comic and i'm around Act 5 Act 2 (yes, some of the acts are named like that).

Now, if you want to start this monstruocity, start here. But before starting, I recommend to explore more the site and get to know it.

 

Well, that's it for today's first entry of this blog series (even with the shameless free promotion at the end). You can expect more to come.