Games of 2014 - July - December

July-August: Spec Ops: The Line. Average FPS on the surface: white male lead, tons of military jargon, enemy AI aren't particularly bright, 'action movie music,' and so-on. However, the story is what draws praise, but I wasn't really following. I have to go through again on hard mode, so I'll be able to shed more light in the coming weeks. The game goes along a moral path, but they give you some really shitty choices: choose if a comrade or an innocent dies, use chemical warfare to easily win a battle or fight more fairly. Your character isn't happy to do the things he does, and the context of everything is pretty dark.


Bravely Default is a game that I've been waiting for for a while. It plays like a final fantasy, complete with job classes that determine how much effort your battle takes. There are a million features to make the game easier--you can step and slow down battle speed, set your characters to auto-battle, even decide how often you want random encounters to happen!




The backgrounds in cities remind me of the layered paper art, and it definitely pops in the 3D mode. The music is quite awesome, and is the same composer of Attack on Titan. The developers left the Japanese audio in the game!! With all of the region-and-language locking that games from Japan still do, this is a nice treat!





Mario Golf: World Tour was almost free for me, and I can't say I expected much. No complaints, but it's definitely going to be a resell.

This summer, my closes friends and I gathered around a 60-inch tv and cursed each other out while playing Mario Kart 8 . This game RULES! My favorite thing about the game is the music, which you'll hear through all of your octane-burning, shell-throwing and opponent-cursing.

Red Pikmin are fire-resistant, and carry things quickly. Black pebble Pikmin break glass and do more damage when thrown.

Mario Kart 8 came with a promotion to download Pikmin 3 for free and I've been very happy with this. You are three captains that crash on a planet and have to solve puzzles, build, and collect resources during the day to survive at night. You have to make progress through sections of the levels within a certain time limit, unlocking more and more of each area.




September: Titanfall, Need for Speed: Rivals, Venetica, Destiny.

High-speed "pilots" running around shooting each other for a few minutes and then you hear a pop as a vehicle breaks the sound barrier. After a crash and some shaking, there it is: a giant customizable mech. You can either mount it, or have the AI do your dirty work. Titanfall is almost a perfect game. The graphics kick ass, the gameplay is fast, responsive, and lag is very minimized. This game is a rarity in that it is purely played online, in multiplayer mode. There is a campaign which is poorly narrated, which is 9 maps that play in constant rotation. As far as I know, the story was never promoted. It's a half-assed attempt anyway.

Need for Speed Rivals is a shame in that it's made by the same developers that did Burnout Revenge, which is the best game featuring cars ever made. Need for Speed, however, is boring. You play either the racer-criminals who....race, or the police who catch the racers and do all this cool shit with destructive car modifications. The story sucks, but dem graphics is tight! Too bad the studio doesn't make Burnout anymore.

Venetica is a buggy, bland, poorly-made game. You're the daughter of death, and the story starts with your love getting killed. You learn you have to go to Venice to catch the murderers. On your way there, you realize that there's a circle of villains who do their best to screw up your progress. Uhh...eventually you kill them. This game has repetitive combat, and some cool spell ideas, but between poor graphics, loading and saving errors, and bland voice acting, this game was simply an easy platinum trophy.

I didn't read a whole lot about Destiny before it came out. I was never a huge fan of Halo, so I didn't have my expectations higher than normal. After playing this game pretty much nonstop, my problem is that it's very repetitive, but the structure is amazing. The fps part of the gameplay is addicting, and the missions and bounties have been great for the month that I've been playing. The next major update is coming in December, and I'll be finding other games so that I'm ready again to spend countless hours playing at the end of this year.

dat draw distance...

October, November: Final Fantasy X HD, more Titanfall and Destiny,

Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Wow wow wow! I was never an Xbox gamer. I had enough to keep up with PS2, Gamecube and the occasional Blizzard game. I missed the Halo franchise almost completely. I played the first 2 games' multiplayer for enough hours to learn my favorite weapons and the changes they made between games. I always thought the lack of music during multiplayer made the game way more boring than it should be. I guess the idea was to play your own music, but I respect game studios that consider music when they make games.

Sgt. Johnson is one of the best parts of all of these games. Ohh, and the graphics.

During November, my friend Zack and I played through Halo on Legendary mode, and Halo 2 on normal, after finding out that the hardest difficulty in the second game was harder than hell. I'm not a fan of 60hz in games, or that shitty 120hz refresh rate gimmick that all of the new tvs come with, but otherwise, the games are pretty. The only issues I have are the same with all of the Xbox One titles I've played: bugs bugs bugs bugs!

December: Sonic Generations.

casin' da scene...clearly some shit went down.

Murdered Soul Suspect . Published by Square Enix, this short story is about a detective who is killed trying to find out his murderer. You play the game as a ghost, and are able to walk through and manipulate a limited number of objects. The gameplay is rather slow and easy, and you could complete the game in one 7 hour sitting. However, the story and side stories are very engaging. The game is like the Last of Us in having a teenage girl who is well written enough and nuanced to make you care about as a partner.

The atmosphere is very well done, and I would heartily recommend this game for both casual gamers and trophy/achievement fiends. It's also a good girlfriend/boyfriend/younger brother game, because watching it is almost as fun as playing, despite it being a single player adventure.

One of my favorite gaming experiences of 2014: Okami HD (PS3)

100 years ago, the white wolf Shiranui died defeating the evil 8-headed serpent lord to save the village of Kamiki and all of Nippon...Here comes Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess who was resurrected as a white wolf to do the very same thing. Okami is a Japanese homophone that could be understood as "wolf" or "great/big god," and the title's cleverness is not the only pun in the 30+ hour epic story.



Freeze battle to use your Celestial Brush Slash - cut the enemy in half!

There is a lot of comedy, voiced by your flea-sized companion, Issun, who handles all of the brush-work and incorrectly voices your mute hero's decisions. Issun constantly chides Okami Amaterasu and makes greasy comments about the game's various attractive women, but he's not the only hilarious character. The other heroes, based on Japanese legends often make asses of themselves, and the game is mostly light-hearted, until it's really time to kick ass. You are a wolf, after all.

A bull-oni

This game drips with Japanese mythology and Ainu folklore that exposed me to more content than my confusing semester in East Asian studies, which I dropped as a major. The enemies you fight are different kinds of oni, Japanese devils, and you randomly collect cultural products (vases, traditional dishes) and artifacts (like Zodiac animal statues) to sell to buy other things for your quest.



Graphically, the game looks like the ukiyo-e (woodblock printing) painted on shoji (paper scrolls).

The artistic buck doesn't stop there; a massive feature of the game is that you can pause at almost any time, and use your Celestial Brush to paint missing or broken things into existence, slice enemies, and call various weather patterns and attacks as you acquire them. Each time you meet one of the gods, they are introduced in some kind of comical fashion, and half the time they'll try to kill you, or Amaterasu gets pissed off and tries to kill them. The game's score has lots of use of flutes, taiko drums and koto leaving no doubt that this game is 200% Japanese.

I was 8 years late to play this game, but I really understand why Clover Studios pushed this game through 2 rebuilds on 2 more consoles. It is badass, fun, culturally rich, hilarious, and incredibly gorgeous to both look at and listen to.

Voice acting

    I just started a game with a decent story, fun battle mechanics, and a good sense of progression. However, this three-year-old game (Tales of Xilia) still suffers from bad voice acting. I know it isn't as easy as it looks. I feel like good dialogue scenes have a couple components that can cause you to skip through the scenes or watch them: translation, lip-syncing, and context. The translation these days is quite amazing, but at times, I miss text-only dialogue because the other two aspects just aren't met.

I never understood why programmers can't write an algorithm for dynamic lip-synching. This would shape the characters' mouths to their words as they say them, instead of just flapping like games quite often do. A lot of newer games motion-cap the faces, and the voice actor is also the basic model for the character. This method produces cutscenes like this:

started at the 2:00 mark. No, it's not a sex scene!

This Californian game studio, Naughty Dog, has the absolute highest quality of games I've ever played. Every cutscene drives the story, is incredibly well-done, and is flawlessly animated. The characters point to the spots on maps that they're talking about. It's almost like they wrote a long movie, kept half of it in scenes, and drew the rest out of climbing, shooting, and artifact-collecting goodness. Very few studios make games like this, but that's not the standard I'm asking for, either.


For some reason, it's always decided that Japanese games need to be translated and voiced in English. We're often left with these bland scenes, done by actors who probably don't even play the game. Not only that, but a voice actor's talent has a chance of being thwarted by poor lip-syncing, or otherwise poor timing, like the characters giving WAY TOO MUCH room between lines of dialogue, or characters standing almost completely still while talking.

These dudes are a bit over-the top, but it fits the context of the game. Regardless, the timing is much better, though the lips still move to the original language. The characters are animated to do stuff, and sometimes the voice relfects that (like the straining of voice for the wounded guy at ~50sec).

Sometimes, it's quite obvious that the new voice talents don't understand the context of their lines and it really bothers me that this is still a persistent problem in video games. In a story-driven game that's over 30 hours long, the main character better be tolerable. Finally, there are also terrible scenes in general (I'm looking at you, Final Fantasy 10 [2min in for the climax])

Staying with an immigrant host family? No Problem!

I've heard it a billion times, usually with a sigh or huff of disappointment, My host family is from the Philippines*. I want a "real" American family. My host mother's English is hard to understand! I can understand the initial confusion when someone arrives to their host who doesn't look like the people we see in most movies from Hollywood. The popular stuff that makes it overseas can really distort the reality of how diverse the US is, and international students expecting a white (or black, I'll dole out the benefit of the doubt) American family are in for a surprise, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing.

*Over the 4 years at my school that found host families, the most common immigrant hosts were families from the Philippines. I'm not trying to disrespect our friends from the Philippines, just reporting the comments I actually heard.

I think these students are missing out on the fact that these host families who immigrated have experience similar to the students themselves. This is extremely valuable! If you find yourself paired up with an immigrant host family, you can ask questions like, "What made you decide to stay?" or "How difficult is it to get into the workforce (after university) as a foreigner?" and very relevant questions that the "real" American probably can't help you with.

Of course, students who are visiting for their first time may not be considered with making a long-term life in the US. Some people write off parts of their town as 'touristy' and will use their intimate knowledge of the city happenings as substitute. I took a 'Ride the Ducks' tour of Seattle after living there for more than 20 years and still learned stuff about my city! My family did this to welcome our newest member, who's from Cameroon.

Your native hosts will know routes and restaurant recommendations, but might not know about how to get around without a car. Some of my friends wrinkle their noses at the mention of taking the bus somewhere! How many foreign students enter the US with a car?

Ultimately, a good host family will be ready to give personal tours and explanations whatever generation of American they are. This is part of the agreement of hosting. However, an immigrant family's empathy can go a long way.

ユー・アー・マイ・ゲスト (You are my guest!)

There are days where Japanese people won't speak Japanese back to me. First, they switch to terrible English, and then I start speaking quickly. Then they stop understanding me. If the person talking to me would have stayed in Japanese, then we probably would have been able to communicate better. So, sometimes I ask myself what's it worth learning the local language? In Rome, Italians let me struggle with their language and listen with a smile, give me a slow and simple reply. I learned from the smile that they appreciate that I am speaking their language. However, after 15 years, I still don't know how to read Japanese people's feelings (when it comes to language).

I don't clearly know the reason for the switch to English, but I think it's tied to the Japanese concept of convenience. Everyone knows that Japan is best at transportation, services and mail, but if you live here, you can see that there are also a ton of tangible things that make life easier. Food comes in easy-to-open packages, there are vending machines everywhere, and restaurant menus have 'recommended' in big letters. By the way, Japanese people almost never make changes to their order (like "Hold the pickles!") They just completely take the food how it is. You're probably wondering what this has to deal with the English-switch.

My earlier examples show that this culture is all about doing everything for the guest or partner. It's very important in Japanese culture to give wonderful and happy feelings towards your guest, and make sure they don't lift a finger. So, of course the person trying to help me, the English-speaking foreigner, is going to do their best to speak English - it's for my benefit!*

*Update: When I translated this and ran it by my Japanese friends, they couldn't see the connection between physical convenience (vending machines, small menus) and the convenience of using the guests' language, so the content is quite different from this post.

日本語を８年間勉強しましたけど、時々、日本人は日本語を話してくれない。その代わりに話し相手はカタコトの英語で話してくることして、僕はペラペラ英語をしゃべってしまうので、相手が分からなくなる。僕の日本語はまだまだですが、自分のレベルでなんとなく日本語会話ができる。でも、話し相手は英語で会話ができない場合が多い。僕の日本語は英語で答えられるのはいやです。その経験からなんで日本語を勉強したの意味はなんだろう気がしてくる。
ローマに旅行したときにイタリア語で話したら、イタリア人が笑顔で聞いて、ゆっくりやすくとイタリア語で会話しました。スマイルから「この人が私の言語をに感謝してる」が分かります。日本語を話すの経験と違う理由が分からないで、１５年後になっても、私は日本人の感覚が理解できないかもしれない。

日本人が英語で話しかけてくれる理由をよく考える。僕の結論はこれ：日本人は自分を助けようとしてくれる。日本の文化はみんなはストレスをなるべく減ることですが、やはり日本人は僕に難しい日本語じゃなくてや優しい英語でがんばります。

Japanese engineering

I've lived in Yokohama, Japan for 2 years and want to point out some little efficiencies that have been thought up by clever people. You probably know about the two-flushing toilets (big, small) and the fact that some toilets' refill tube protrudes out of the tank so you can wash your hands.

You may even know about the microwaves that also double as ovens (it took me 6 months to get the balls to put metal in this thing...works just fine!)

That's right: I made a collage to show
how to change toilet paper.

You know those stupid dildo spring things that fall apart all the time? None of that here. Just upward-folding tabs for one-way transfer in and transfer out of tp.

Mine is one of very few with no bidet

After a certain size of dwelling, it's pretty common to find the toilet in its own separate room from the shower and bathtub. You don't have to breathe in your girlfriend's methane-y deuce while you take a shower!

Speaking of baths, lots of tubs make you bend your legs, but submerge more of your body. Not only that, but this console (there's also one in the kitchen) lets me draw a bath at whatever temperature, volume and time I want. There's also a reheat button so I don't have to draw more water. Eco friendly, AND tech-sweet!

While they certainly sell washers that also dry laundry, most of us air dry our clothes. There's a panel that gives you control over a regular bathroom fan, drier fan, and of course you can set the strength and time. If the wetness doesn't evaporate, don't worry, the moisture falls into the bathtub.

Right over the front door is the kitchen fan duct, with a light to remind you it's still on. The doors have attached mailboxes for personal deliveries. Doorbells have attached intercoms and cameras, and this has been a standard everywhere I've been.

When it comes to food, I'm not completely satisfied with the portions designed for much smaller adults, but there is one final moment of genius. Trash is separated by burnables, plastics, and recyclable stuff, and Japan would really appreciate it if you put your stuff in the right place.

That arrow left-of-center shows where to tear

Every snack bag has a notch

Little glass spice bottles, soda labels and medicine bottled all come pre-perforated so that you can strip off the label and go about your business. My medicine bottles in the US required soaking them and growing out my fingernails to scrape them off...because fuck privacy in the United States, right?

This certainly isn't the most interesting of topics, but the fact is that a few people bothered to think about small innovations to minimize everyday bullcrap like the savage chip-bag tearing, the losing-the-toilet-paper-bouncy-rod-mid-duece, and the more-important aversion to house fires and water-wasting. Thank you, engineers!

The Age of Entertainment

The future is here! Okay, I want to state something that may or may not be obvious: in 2014, we are at the apex of entertainment. You can Google search for a video on just about anything. Want only short videos? Check. Also, 'google' is a verb in the English language now, as well as all the other text/chat terms in the world's languages. Videos longer than 20 minutes? Check. It's also the world's best signpost to free porn, which is at an all-time high, by loads.

Why the hell would you hop a bus or drive out and buy music, movies or games on a disc anymore!? Sure, you miss out on that excitement of unwrapping it and the good whiff of that new electronics smell. But instead of all that, you can download that shit in about 2 minutes, with money that doesn't even exist! Our devices are getting less and less unique-looking with Apple's success at creating an ever-shrinking rectangle, and game consoles being mistaken for printers in their boxiness. It's really easy to see why some of the future flicks of the past and present show bright rooms with almost no furniture and square panels everywhere.

Y' know wh'um talkin'bout *nudge nudge*

For the last 10 years, everyone has been able to be an instant hit with a million-person audience via Youtube or Vimeo or some other free service with the standard. White girl with a dirty mouth? People laugh at that! Korean teenager who dances typical girl dances?  Even the dumbest ideas make money (I'm looking at you, "What does the fox say?")

*You'll also notice that I make you click on the links for pictures. Personally, my web browser usually has a minimum of 10 pages open at the same time. One page at a time is for the birds! If you don't already do this, try holding CTRL befo' you clik da link.

Games are pressed onto 50GB discs now, which is roughly 71x as large as a CD, which was only 2 generations, or 15 years ago. The newest generation of games have run out of significant graphic and sound processing leaps and have shifted on the finer details of realistic textures, like reducing the shine on human skin, and rendering individual strands of hair. Voice acting still remains a question, but since almost every game has been vocalized since the last generation, the tech doesn't really factor in.

Though luckily, Lara Croft is still fine as fuck.

My favorite thing about all of this is that the dearth of available entertainment means that it means it is harder to stand out. This explains nonsense garbage like LMFAO and What does the Fox say? But there are also really serious investments into quality. The sophisticated audience is stronger through the internet community.

There were always those days in class where your teacher brought in some hokey lo-fi documentary that would cut just before the lion got that goddamn gazelle. Or the one where they make up a cute story about the mother cat and her naughty kittens, and there are sound effects when the kitties fall. I rolled my eyes when I was 6, and I think the extra few members of the audience you snag with such pandering isn't worth the change in tone.

So among all the trash that FOX shows and Discovery Channel shits out, like "Bad Teachers" - a series dedicated to cutting down the most important profession for humanity, you get something like Planet Earth or Cosmos. Cosmos is a remake of an 80s Carl Sagan series of the same name. Science gets updated, and with better cameras and special effects, the explanations can evolve, too. The new host gives a very personal homage to Sagan, and quits the name dropping after that first segment in a very classy way.

I'm not gonna lie, it's a cherry on top that the host, Neil DeGrasse Tyson is black. He grew up with the advantages of middle class, as my children will, and now they'll know an incredibly successful black nerd. I would like the series anyway, as it does shit like cleverly overlapping the facts we vaguely remember from school with another topic like Social Studies. One episode was about the age of the earth, and during one scientist's research, he uncovered the poisoning effects of lead. He then went against the big gas corporations and...well, that's why our gas is 'unleaded.' I had always wondered why it needed to be specified.

http://www.cosmosontv.com - you'll like what you see!

There are still a couple hokey things about the show, but the biographies are interesting and most of the graphics augment rather than simply sensationalize.

Either way, it's nice to be in a position to enjoy all this crazy entertainment.