Part I.

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So it's been almost a month now since my last blog, or maybe a little longer? Hell I don't know, I'm horrible at numbers, I'm damned good at using them up, but horrible at keeping them, making more of them, and half good at monitoring them.

ANYWAY.

Long story short? Anybody remember in a previous blob from yesteryear when I made the metaphor of inspiration being like mana in an RPG or something? (You more than likely don't) I've used up all my mana, and it's taking a fucking -long- time to recharge, and that's simply because I spammed the art button so much.

-Fuck-.

So guess what? I don't really have any art to show! I do have this painting that I did in my Painting I class earlier in the month that somehow got a lot of praise. So here it is; my still-life skull: acrylic on canvas using complimentary colors orange and blue, mixed into one 'neutral gray'.

There are indeed anatomical mistakes that are quite obvious, such as the sockets being anime-sized, holy shit.

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(For those of you wondering why it looks like there is color, and why there seem to be two different colors, it's because it's a 'NEUTRAL' gray, if you will. Mixing complimentary colors neutralizes both colors, therefore you end up with either a cool or a warm tinted 'gray' based on the amount of which color you used. You can also end up with a completely different tint depending on the brand of the paint you use; that being said, I used two different brands of prime blue, which got me two different neutral tints.)

Part II

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What else have I been up to? Well I got myself some cheap ass airsoft guns, though the Marine pack is quite good. I LOVE the close quarters rifle with the folding stock. The only problem with that is that the stock folds right over the cartridge release button, so if the stock is fully locked in, you can't release the cartridge to check rounds. UGH.

I also got this significantly cheaper, Chinese-made M4, but it came with a fore-grip and flashlight, so I just slapped that on my Marine rifle. It does pack a punch though for how flimsy it is. The mag also takes some muscle to take out and put back in, and when I say 'muscle', I mean you gotta basically RIP that shit out, for no reason should a mag be that hard to take out, lol.

This was a piece of shit that broke after a few days. It was completely inaccurate. It was just SHIT. IT SUCKED. And it was of my favorite pistol, the 1911 :c

This one was my other pistol that came with my Marines pack. It's badass, sturdy, shoots up to about 350 fps, and is just great and accurate. Problem is it can take a bit to cock the thing.

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I mean all of these are spring-powered, so you have to cock them after every shot, but christ, this pistol feels like there's six stocky midgets on the rear of the gun pushing against you. It is satisfying to shoot though.

Part III.

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GAMES, HOLY FL;ewalewjfa. I swear I've bought more games and shit that I don't need (but really wanted) this month than any other month of the past -decade-. I've just pure loaded up, like some freaking Y2KX apocalypse is looming, and I've chosen to stock up on GAMES of all things!

I'll list out what I've gotten in the past 3 weeks. in order of purchase.

-Dead Space 3: Limited Edition (Xbox)

-Red Dead Redemption (Xbox)

-Fallout 3: GoTY Edition (PS3)

-Crysis 3: Hunter Edition (PC)

-DmC (Xbox)

-Max Payne 3 (PC)

-Prototype 2 (Xbox)

-Forza 4 (Xbox)

-(And another new game pending)

-XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Now that's a lot. And you know what? They were all well worth it. Okay, maybe except Fallout 3, because I rarely touch my PS3 anymore, I just play it for the occasional round of Starhawk, but mostly SSX online. I did used to play a lot of Killzone 3, but PSN made sure I couldn't enjoy it as often as I wanted.

At this point I'm probably less of a gamer and more of a collector. I got hundreds, spanning across 3 systems, half of which I don't play anymore (hell, some of them I have -never- played), half of which I have never/ will never beat. And I will continue to obtain MORE!

There's something wrong with me.

ANYWAY. Yea. School, gaming, drinking, arguing with my ex, spending the majority of my days talking to my ex, and doing the same thing over and over every single day is what I've been up to.

At this point I'm probably less of a gamer and more of a collector. I got hundreds, half of which I don't play anymore.

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So yknow what, I think to make use of all of the crap I got, I think I'll do a game review or overview or WHATEVERview tonight

TL;DR, enjoy or not, it's up to the peeps. It's about 4am and I need something to do before I sleep.

PART IV.

Max Payne 3

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So I managed to get my hands on Max Payne 3 FINALLY, after months of being on edge whether to get it or not, and my reason being the bullshit line " I don't like games that play themselves for me," yet I have Asura's Wrath, beat it, and loved it. That game is nothing but QTE's and button mashing, literally NOTHING but that! So I asked myself as I launched up Max Payne 3 for the first time 'wth was I thinking'?

It took an Amazon sale, and JID's preaching about the game for me to finally cave and give it a chance. And I found out -very soon- how freaking stupid I was for not picking this up earlier, though I probably appreciate it more now than I would have if I got it earlier.

Gameplay:

There are a metric ton of cutscenes, no, not MGS4 style, but nice cutscenes that aren't hours long and are a nice, sweet, length. They add to the flow of the game, acting as transitions from one part to the next. It's just one big movie (a GOOD movie) that you can play. No like, there is actually good freaking TPS gameplay, holy crap. Bullet time hasn't felt this good since the F.E.A.R. series. It's like candy FOR MY SOUL.

The weapons feel great, and there are a lot. Some of them I never actually got to use in the single player campaign, and I haven't played multiplayer, so I don't know if I missed them or not. Anyway, they feel good. You can carry up to two handguns, and a heavy weapon (shotgun, AR, or SMG), and you'll often find yourself switching out for others, though you'll eventually find some more preferable than others. Some guns can be found with modifications such as flashlights, lasers, or scopes. They're all good and dandy, though the laser equipped weapons are more of a hastle than it's worth; they get rid of the static dot in the middle of the screen which helps a lot with placing accurate shots. Instead you now have to control the laser which sways with the weapon, making it significantly harder to place a good shot from a distance.

Now difficulty… Well the game is hard, I mean, I didn't play on a higher difficulty than normal,and thank the gods I didn't. You will DIE. YOU. WILL. DIE. And no amount of bullet time can save your ass.

Actually it can. There's a sort of 'last stand' feature in this game, very similar to what is seen in Borderlands and Borderlands 2 where you're given the chance to kill your potential killer in order to be given a second chance (only if you have pills). It regenerates a bit of your health too, which is awesome, because this feature will be your best friend the majority of the game.

The one BAD thing about this feature, is that Max seems to have a hard time shooting while he's standing up… Actually, he just plain out CAN'T shoot while he's standing up, which takes a good second or two. That leaves you a sitting duck for any other oncoming enemies to just unload lead into you and finish you off before you're even able to aim again. So basically, choose your course of action, or you'll end up in a bad place.

Graphics:

The visuals, particularly on the PC version look just fantastic, Rockstar did a hell of a job with the visuals, and on top of that, it is really really optimized. I was able to run this maxed out with high AA, very high tessellation, and at my native resolution of 1600x900 with very minimal drops in fps. And when it did drop, it wasn't very noticeable. Textures are great, characters models are GREAT, the freaking wrinkles on Max's shirt when he moves are just fLFkw, why don't more games do this!? It even has (what looks like) realtime local reflections on those really shiny floors. I mean all the little details just make this game come to life.

Now there were a few times that the game had a few… hiccups. Particularly with animation. The game is animated awesomely, Max is just so flexible in how he moves, enemies react to where they are hit, when they are hit, and it feels very believable. But sometimes Max and others just likes to break out in yoga exercises. This is most noticeable when you're in cover, and you get sent into that Down But Not Out mode. Your arm will seek out your potential killer like it's possessed, no matter what position you're in. If that means your arm has to clip completely through your body in order to get that shot, so be it, it's going through your damn head. If an enemy dies and his leg happens to crumble under his body, it'll find a way out by defying physics, and glitch-dancing its way out.

But really, overall, it looks freaking just. UGH, YES.

Story:

I shouldn't be talking about this at all, but I'll keep it short. I've never played a Max Payne game before this one, but the narrative structure of the game makes sure you know that whoever Max was in the previous games is NOT the man he is now. In Max Payne 3, you're playing the broken shell of an ex-cop turned hired gun who seems to turn everything he touches into shit, and then makes a valiant attempt to clean it all up. There isn't much character development, everyone is really straight forward. Max is Max, good guys are good guys, bad guys are bad guys, shady guys are… shady, and characters you expect to get killed? They get killed.

The dude narrates the whooooole game, and it's really engaging actually. It reminds me of what Bastion did with its narrative structure, it makes you feel like the character is 'thinking', and it's all seamless.

Blahblahblah, It's a damn good story for a damn good game. The ending is a bit like "Well guys, that was an awesome ride, wasn't it? The game is over now, byeee :3!" And leaves me wanting.

Overall:

Get this shit. This was the best damn story-oriented TPS game I've played since Spec Ops: The Line, only falling behind in the powerful ending that Spec Ops had, but rising FAR above in terms of gameplay and mechanics. It makes you feel helpless all while making sure you know you're a complete badass; you are the Max-fuckin' Payne, bullets are NOTHING to you!

Oh also it's a good length going about 14 different levels condensed into 3 chapters.—————————————————————————————————————–

So yea, that was my review shit. If it's any bit amusing or insightful, I may keep doing them. If not, I probably wasted a BIG ASS CHUNK OF TIME on a TL;DR, which is understandable xD.

Annnyway. Until next time… I may fill my meter and like, actually draw stuff. I don't know.