Video Games, Cooking, Working, and University

On 02/07/2012 at 07:27 PM by Xayvong

At one point in time, I promised to write a blog and never got around to doing it. Now that I've found some time in my hectic life, I guess I'll start with video games. 2011 was a great year for video games. We had many original offerings and just had a great time with video games in general. This was a good year for gamers.

As much as I love gaming, for some reason I just felt like I never really had enough time for it. I actually work as a chef at a small local Thai restaurant, and I'm also a reporter for my University. Writing and Cooking is a passion for me. I spent the better part of 2011 getting used to my new apartment complex, and feeding lots of hungry mouths. I didn't know telling people on campus that your a good cook made it a good reason for starving college students to come visit. Even though I was busy as hell, I did manage to squeeze in some video game time.

This year, I actually focused more on Wii games, and older ps2 offerings that I missed. 2010 was almost purely 360 time, with some ps3 added in. Since my roomate tended to keep up with 360 games, I decided to piggy back off of him if he had a game I wanted to play. For the time being, I ended up focusing on buying and playing games that I missed for the wii, and ps2. Near the end of 2011, I bought a total of...8 wii games maybe? I bought Metroid: other m, Fragile Dreams, Monster Hunter Tri, Skywards Sword (of course) and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Little King's Story ect.... After spending some time with all of them, I can say that I'm pleased with most of these purchases. Perhaps I'll post up some user reviews in the future for a few of these games.

Now, even though these are alot of games, I've only skimmed the surface for most of them. After beating Skyward Sword (amazing game by the way), the game that really kept my attention was Little King's Story. A cute and child friendly game at first glance, it's quite a dark game. Cute little Dictator? Check. Conquering the World? Check. Lots of Wives....check. This game is fun and addicting. If you were a fan of pikmin back for the gamecube, you may feel right at home here. This is a great gem that many people looked over in the Wii's library, I recommend any fan of Pikmin or Overlord to give it a chance.

Another game that I played a bit of is Fragile Dreams. This game is fucking sad. Not sad in the sense that it disappointed me, but in the sense that I cried. I cried hard. Gameplay could use some refining, but Fragile Dreams is just an emotional experience. It's more like reading a book than playing a video game. If your looking for an exciting game, then I would recommend you look elswhere. If your looking for a satisfying emotional ride, then give it try.

So that's my 2011 in a nutshell. Other video mentions is that I've been given every .hack// game ever made for the ps2 (7 total), so that will probably take me quite a while to beat. I also just bought Persona 4 and plan on giving that a go sometime in the future, but other than that, I hope this will be another great year for games.

Michael117

02/07/2012 at 07:59 PM

It's cool you work at a Thai restraunt, I've only had Thai food once and it would be nice to try some more. At the university there was a cultural night and people gathered to try out some Thai food and it was pretty good I thought.

Glad you got around to buying some games and getting some play-time in. I've never played a Monster Hunter game before I don't know what they're like, but when I've seen screenshots or advertisements it looks like something I'd want to check out. I'm not sure how many FF Crystal Chronicles games there are but I think they made a Wii version of the original, is that the one you bought? In one of my blogs I was talking about how I got Crystal Chronicles for Gamecube not long ago. I think it should be pretty fun.

As far as Fragile Dreams goes, I've never played it, but I think it's awesome that it made you cry. It's great when games can be that powerful and take you on a journey that is emotional enough to get those reactions out of you. I cried hard at the end of Zelda: Ocarina of Time when I was a kid and finally beat it. I cried a little at the end of Half Life 2 Episode 2 as well, because something ridiculous and sad happens right at the end and it like traumatized me as the credits rolled lol. Was there anything in particular about Fragile Dreams that made you real emotional? My name is Mike by the way. Good blog!

Xayvong

02/08/2012 at 02:33 AM

Working at a restaurant has its ups and downs, but it's a fun experience overall. Monster Hunter is a great series, although I've only played Tri for a few hours, it's definately not a game for the casual. Battles are long, and monsters that you hunt are pretty damn tough. A great game if your willing to sit down for a while.

The Crystal Chronicles that I own are Crystal Bearers and Echo's of Time. Crystal Bearers is actually more fun than the reviews make it out to be. Echo's of Time is fun, but has some problems that hold it back. I used to have the gamecube one actually, but I ended up selling it later on.

Ok, now on to Fragile Dreams. What made Fragile Dreams so endearing was the fact that it felt human. You go around finding items and your main character Seto can read the last memories on them. It ranges from suicide, regrets, and love. One example is there is one memory that a couple decides to get married, even though they know they are going to die. They want to make one last happy memory. Stuff like that....lots of stuff like that. If that doesn't get to you, your just not a compassionate person ;)

So give it a try, and thanks for reading my blog.

Travis Hawks Senior Editor

02/07/2012 at 09:54 PM

Sounds like you had a pretty good year. You played some good ones I haven't gotten to yet either. Fragile Dreams sure didn't get much mindshare in the community did it? Sounds like it might be worth tackling. Thanks for the recommendations and impressions!

02/08/2012 at 02:38 AM

Anytime! Thanks for taking the time to read my blog!

PixlBit