New theme, new inspiration, and a preview.

If there is one thing that I hate as a writer, it’s to lose focus. I’m not talking about writer’s block. Writer’s block is a whole other entity. Writer’s block is the final boss in an RPG to conquer while losing focus is merely circling the same dungeon for thirty minutes, lost and frustrated.

I intend to finish my Red Dead Redemption soon. My organization may be off, but my prioritization is intact! If you actually do read this page, you’ll notice the drastic change in theme. I originally went with black not as some aesthetic “moody” choice, but because black tends to be easier on the eyes when it comes to staring at computer screens. Although might I recommend F.lux? Regardless, I like the simplicity of it, as I, well, enjoy simplicity. I imagine anyone noticing the green is bound to label me as an Xbox 360 fanboy. Bring it!

I do have a few topics I’d like to discuss soon:

• E3 2010
• The release of the iPhone 4 (partially gaming-related!)
• Alan Wake
• Super Mario Galaxy 2
• San Diego Comic Con 2010
• The cranky ol’ young adult in me that really needs to rant…

So as you can see, I am already all over the place. More relevant to my journal here is my consensus of this year’s Electronics Entertainment Expo, the great (Dead Space 2, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kevin Butler), the good (Gears of War 3, Metroid: The Other M), the “meh” (Microsoft Kinect AND PlayStation Move, Call of Duty: Black Ops, PlayStation Plus), and the “WTF?” (the GoldenEye remake — seriously, my man-crush on Daniel Craig notwithstanding, WTF?).

Update (LTTP: Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus)

Holy crap does time fly.

So what seemed like a short period of time spanned into five days since my last entry. I’ve been dealing with my injury and working out other details in my life.

I’m writing this just to give Goosterblog a sign of life. When I first started, I wanted to write Monday through Friday. It turns out that’s a bit difficult for me given the subject matter of this site.

To keep true to the last entry:

I’ve been playing Sly Cooper for what seems to be quite a while in between hours of Final Fantasy XIII. Although the game has two sequels, and the studio Sucker Punch went on to create the PS3 hit Infamous, I’m not entirely sure the first game sold all that well despite its status as a critical darling in 2002. I remember X-Play‘s Adam Sessler absolutely gushing over the game, and I kind of regret not having tried it sooner. The game should have achieved the kind of status that Super Mario 64 did for the Nintendo 64 in 1996. I don’t feel like I am playing a 2002 game when I pop in the disc. This game could still easily work in this generation, in 2010.

You start in an overworld and you find your way to the world’s individual stages. In these stages, you can defeat enemies and avoid traps to collect the optional hidden messages that unlock new moves or powers and get to the end to reach the star, I mean, key to unlock the next area.

I enjoy that the game wants me to think on my feet. I love the world designs and the stealth/superspy/thievery atmosphere to them and the music. Maybe I’ve played too much Splinter Cell and Metal Gear, but I wish there were tougher conseqeuences to the stealth aspects. You aren’t supposed to be seen by lights or touch laser beams. Doing so can kill you. A lot of the time, you can just race to the other side and destroy the alarm and shut down the defenses. There are a few times where getting spotted spells your inevitable doom.

This brings me to another thing I enjoy about the game: the difficulty. Although Sly’s moves are fairly simple and the worlds aren’t too dangerous, the game is quite challenging nevertheless. For every simple hop and roll over defenses, you might not have timed it right for the next alarm you didn’t see coming. I’ve had my share of cheap deaths, though, but I think finding all those hidden messages, which gives you access to each stage’s secret vault and thus finding those new moves, might make the game easier or keep the playing field leveled.

I’m already looking forward to playing Sly 2: Band of Thieves. The Sly Cooper story is well-told so far, and it’s a fairly simple story, but like Sly Cooper himself, I’m in it for the challenge.

Next up: Probably more FF13, possibly Perfect Dark for Xbox Live Arcade.