Video Game Critique: Beyond Epic!

A few months back, I wrote about how simply awesome video game music was. Still is by the way!

So the purpose of writing this is because I just finished playing the latest installment of The Legend of Zelda series. And let me tell you this game is EPIC! But I'm not gonna spoil anything major for you if you haven't played it for yourself yet... Considering the game has been available now since late 2011, I can't find any reason NOT to own this game by now. Receiving critical acclaim and pretty much perfect scores from different publications and worldwide sales of over 3 million units, I can assure gamers out there this is a game worth playing. These are a few things I just love about this game:

1.) The Plot

Let's just say this game explains a lot concerning the origins of recurring characters and reprising quest items and weapons. I'll leave it at that.

2.) Weapons and Equipment

I am gonna mention that certain weapons and equipment get the "Final Fantasy" style treatment here. Meaning you can have the option to upgrade weapons and other equipment to gain a more powerful version of the original, granted that you gather the proper materials found, where else? The overworld of course!

3.) The Flying Element

Given the subtitle is 'Skyward Sword', you gotta assume this has something to do with the sky. Well, let's just say it feels like playing Star Fox when you're travelling from place to place. The music makes it feel like Star Fox as well; at least for a little bit. Okay, well not THAT much. But still, it's about time Link got some flying time in!

4.) Wii Motion Plus

This was actually my first Wii Motion Plus game. In fact, I've had this game since April of this year but haven't been able to play it because I lacked the Motion Plus attachments until a good friend of mine allowed me to borrow one (I'm poor and can't do anything about it right now...). I just love how the Wii Motion Plus makes the fighting style seem a bit more realistic. But seriously, if you don't have Wii Motion Plus, that's the downside to owning this game.

I declare this game 'Beyond Epic'! The series have definitely come a long way since the revolutionary 'Ocarina of Time'. And Eiji Aonuma, Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata, as well as the rest of the Zelda team sure outdid themselves this time.

"Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah"

After writing yesterday's blog post, I got the strange idea of writing about human nature. So what exactly is human nature? Well, there's a whole article on Wikipedia all about it if you wanna read in depth. To put it simply, it puts thoughts, emotions, and actions (all distinguished characteristics) under the microscope; various/regional cultures have a big play in influencing this it as well.

Enough said. (And no "duh" statements here on this blog post!)

While on my missionary service in Japan after much re-exposure to the culture over there, these are but few principles I learned concerning human nature:

1.) People have the ability to make decisions.

A good friend of mine said something cool a couple weeks back:

"He is the architect of his own destiny, and so are you."

In our belief, we have a term for it called 'agency'. Like I wrote yesterday when it came to what we can choose to do when at the "legal ages", we're free to choose for ourselves; as you recall, I choose not to do so since I want remain in a state of good health.

Enough said yet, nobody's perfect and there are people who still choose to do wrong.

2.) People inherited laziness.

Hey, so did I and nobody can help it. It's a God-given principle; we have to work hard for the things we need the most. If this was on my religious blog, I'd be pulling scripture references but this blog is to remain on more neutral grounds so I don't offend anyone. But for the majority of us who are Christian, I'm pretty sure the ancient writings we read will say in certain places to not be judgemental and so on... But it's human nature for us to be annoyed with each other when someone is being "inherently lazy". So to combat that, we shouldn't judge others; that classic saying "You shouldn't judge a book by its cover" really applies here. We also certainly shouldn't condemn others as well. We should however be forgiving. If you're familiar with the 1989 comedy-drama film 'Dad', listen to the dialogue towards the end; you'll hear it.

Going off track for a moment, what do you suppose happens or what does it mean when you to do the opposite of what's written in the above paragraph? Well, if you do get judgemental, you're metaphorically kicking a beehive and you're gonna get stung. If you do condemn others one way or another, you're no being honest, sincere, or appreciative. If you're not the forgiving type, that just shows you've got selfish tunnel-vision, meaning you don't know the perspective of others and you don't want to know.

In a nutshell, don't kick the metphoric beehive and get stung, express honest, sincere appreciation, and widen your perspective to know what it's like to be in someone elses shoes and you'll turn out alright.

Even so, it's fine to harbor some ill-will towards some people. It's human nature to be so and sometimes that has to be the case because the type of people they are. Just be sure not to paint a whole group of people with a broad brush based on the personalities and characteristics of just a small percentage of them.

3.) People know what you're thinking.

Creepy eh? That fact that a lot of us can figure out what's going on based on body language or the emotions we express sums it all up. Whether you're happy, angry, or sad, we can read each other based on facial expression, intensity of one's breathing, or even the tone of one's voice.

4.) People hate listening.

Hey, so do I but don't you hate it when someone else is dominating a conversation? This would be a typical scene that plays out in the movies or an RPG video game but suppose you're just a bar tender making an honest wage while serving customers who make business, and some guy in a sorry emotional state just starts off by saying "I need someone to listen to my life-story...". You're thinking "Oh boy..." and you act like you're listening with the occassional "Uh-huh" or "Right..." but in reality your head is going "Blah blah blah blah blah". Know what I'm saying? How 'bout barbers or hair stylists? There's a saying about that and it says, "They really "care" about their customers" meaning they're willing to go great lengths to make small talk but are really just interested in just keeping their customers. Trust me, I know. I had this Brazilian chick give me a quality haircut at this really nice (and very reasonable!) hair salon and she said she was interested in learning English but never showed up to our classes!

(And she gave one hell of a scalp massage!)

Going back to my time recently spent in Japan, I did A LOT of listening when we WERE supposed to be teaching and sharing about what I believed in. Half my time was surely spent listening to peoples "life story" in one form or another usually in another language. And listening is part of learning a new language right? How ARE we gonna learn a language other than our native one when we aren't willing to listen?

It all comes down to how things are presented and whether or not if there's a purpose to any of this. If we're good students in school, we'll get good grades when we pay attention in class and actually study the things learned. If anyone is so interested in another country and the culture it presents and really wants to (and does) visit for himself/herself, one would be all that more motivated to buckle down and really learn the language.

No purpose? Then what's the point? Action doesn't come without consequence. But what do you think???

The Stupidity/Annoyances Continue!!!

For those of you who have photographic memory, you'll recall on some posts two years back I wrote about things regarding the annoyances in life as well as the bull crap the Hollywood industry pulls (and I think I mentioned my list of pet peeves*...). You'll also recall on a post I wrote about a month or two back this year, I might have mentioned something about the pressure to marry and some other things... And that's just the tip of the iceberg (terrible analogy!). And this also has something to do with some of the things I've seen on Facebook as well. But rather than bring your eyes to bordom (and to make things easier for the readers**), I'm just gonna list off some of the things that caught my attention and honestly, annoyed me.

1.) Boyfriend/Girlfriend relationship statuses.

Go figure you can know all about this on Facebook. Hey, I found out that one of my cousins proposed to his girlfriend via Facebook and they're engaged; good for them! But seriously, people often use Facebook to over-broadcast  those annoying status updates about their own upcoming wedding or they just never shut up about their "significant other"... And the other thing that's annoying are these Facebook wedding group/events pages. The way Facebook operates these days, the admin of these groups puts his/her friends into the group(s) and these inserted friends are automatically admitted to the group membership; people admitted into the group later has to go through approval of the group admin(s). And until you reconfigure the settings on your own profile, you'll keep getting those annoying status updates you frankly don't care about. And another thing about this group is some couples ask you to post your mailing address so they can send you invitations/announcements. Am I gonna put my address on the part where everyone writes? Absolutely not! The way cyber crimes are committed these days, it's a potential way for cyber stalkers to become one step closer to doing who-knows-what they wanna do! And on the other hand, the last thing I (or my family) needs right now is MORE junk mail. No thanks!

2.) The whole turning 21 thing...

Just to throw this one out there, the legal age for tobacco and alcohol products in Japan is at 20 years old just sayin'... While it may vary depending on the individual states, the United States legal ages are generally 18 for the tobacco products and 21 for the alcoholic beverages. And quite a few people I knew from high school has recently turned 21. You getting the picture I'm trying to paint here??? And you guessed it, a few friends of mine started taking a few sips the day they turned 21; some even bragged about it on Facebook. All I'm gonna say about is that everyone is free to choose on this one; we all have that God-given ability to choose that product. Many choose not to which is totally respectable and some do and if that's considered a "rite of passage" for you, go right ahead and have the time of your life. But with all honesty, this blogger believes there are better ways to celebrate a 21st birthday than go out to a local bar/pub (if you're British!) and get sloppy drunk. And this blogger can't stand the smell of tobacco or alcohol!

3.) Justin Beiber

All I can say about that is BLECH! By far one of the most disturbing things I've seen on television recently was Katy Perry touching Justin Beiber's butt. That image has been badly burned into my mind and it will forever send shivers down my spine! But I'm over it. This was on a television documentary including footages of crazy fan girls going nuts to Beibers songs and going so far as following him on boats and anything that floats while he was travelling on his private yacht. Yuck... Back in the day, people had to have legit skills and talents in order to make into the Hollywood business. Now it's just sleaze, sex and controversial drama and scandals that makes up the Hollywood business.

So there you have it, my top three life annoyance of the year!

*Just so you know, I'm no longer in possesion of a pet peeves list; I burned it on a camp fire as I figured nobody gives a crap about what annoys me.

**Readers?! My so-called friends don't even... you know what, forget I said anything about that.