Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Adam Randall

PictureWhile I do tend to prefer reviewing originals before I review remakes, I don’t think I’m ever likely to play the original Snake Eater, and so I shall just review the 3DS version as if it were the original. I also hear that it’s pretty close to the original anyway.

This game has a storyline which, it seems, the creators went to a lot of trouble to tie into real historical events. When you start playing for the first time, you’ll be treated to a thirty-minute long cut scene which establishes the story. This opening movie mixes actual historical footage amongst the scenes. In fact, all of the cut scenes in this game are a real upside; they’re very much like something from a film. Through these, you really get to know and like the main characters, especially Naked Snake, the protagonist. He may seem as if he’s just a typical tough guy at first, but you learn that he’s really rather loveable.

But, finally onto the subject of the actual gameplay. As Snake, you sneak around the jungle and into various enemy buildings and such, you have to avoid the guards and win the various tasks you’re given. Using various weapons to fight your way through when necessary, especially during boss fights. When you’re hiding under a table, and you see a guard coming your way, it gives you a real feeling of suspense! However, this suspense is occasionally let down by the fact that those guards can be complete idiots… Occasionally they’ll just entirely forget having discovered a body a few minutes ago, or miss seeing you walk right passed them. Though I suppose, the harder the difficulty you set it to, the more intelligent they are.

While the gameplay is very linear and you pretty much go to one place, do something, then get told to go to another place, there is still plenty to do other than just carry on with the story. You have a whole jungle to explore, and it’s full of secret little areas and items to discover! One particularly little fun thing, is the fact that every different area of the game has a small Yoshi doll hidden in it, so you can enjoy hunting around for them. I believe other versions of the game have a different type of doll.

What I also like, is that, while the game has a relatively serious story, there’s also a nice mixture of sci-fi and fantasy thrown into the mixture of things. This, for me, is a very good upside as, what is in my opinion the best boss battle in the game, is very surreal and verges very much into the realm of horror. But there’s also a lot of humour thrown in too, the small dialogues when you save the game for example, are hilarious. This game will certainly make you feel all of the emotions!

Overall, while it may occasionally feel slightly repetitious at times, this game is certainly worth playing and its faults can easily be overlooked. 8.8/10

Buy it here.

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Bus Stop

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Adam Randall
Just the other day, I popped by to visit a very good friend of mine and to watch some Star Trek: The Next Generation with them (I can’t tell you their name, they prefer it not to be easily found online). Once Star Trek was over (very good episode, by the way) it was time for us to leave the house and head up to university.

Sadly, we just missed the bus to university that would have gotten us there on time. As such, we caught a different bus which would have taken us to right outside the university and then we’d only have had to walk down the drive (an easy ten to fifteen minute walk). But this plan didn’t go too well.
When the bus arrived, I hopped on, showed him my bus pass, and sat down. My friend, however, was a little low on money and so was paying the driver in pennies or something, so it took quite a while to get the exact amount. Once she’d actually paid, we weren’t all that much later, when we got off outside the university we’d be, roughly, twenty minutes late (or so). However, the plan was still to go more badly…
Since it was only going to be a relatively short trip, the pair of us sat down at the front of the bus, since it’s easiest to get off from there. What we didn’t take into account, is that it’s also hardest to see where the bus is from the front. Plus, it was dark outside, and the road we were getting off on was mostly unlighted.
“I think we’re nearly there now,” said my friend.
I peeped out of the main window, and that looked about right, so I said “I’ll ring the bell” and then I proceeded to ring the bell.
Turns out we were wrong.
We actually had to get off on a grassy verge beside the duel carriage way (I’m not quite sure why there’s a bus stop there anyway…,). But, with no path, it was very hard to walk on. As well as being uneven, it was also terribly muddy, and huge bushes were sticking their pokey branches out in front of us, not that we could see them, in the dark! So we wandered along the verge, holding each other’s hands to stop each other from falling onto the road and dying. About half way along it started snowing too. My friend didn’t really like any of this, but me, I didn’t really mind too much, I like a walk!
After swearing unhappily about it, my friend said “You should make a blog entry about this!”
And so then we made it to university safely, I got home later, then two days after I did just that! We did also get a free (very short) bus ride when a kind driver of a university bus picked us up while we wandered down the drive, and when we finally arrived where we were going (The Sign Society) we were fifty-four minutes late… The event did only last an hour, so, we decided to wait until the end and apologise.They also said that they’re going to write their own entry on this, so keep checking The Kite Still Flies, just in case!

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Socrates

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Adam Randall

I’m sure you’ll remember a recent entry in which I explained that I’ll be doing some challenges on this blog. Well, it seems that, most likely, the challenge about planets will not happen, but, the philosophers one will, and so this is the first!
    Since Socrates is so often called the father of western philosophy, I decided I would tell you a little about him first. Interestingly, he isn’t known to have written anything of his own, instead all information about him comes from his contemporaries. But, basically, this is what’s known about the life of Socrates: he would teach various young people about his philosophical ideas (most notably Plato), and this ‘corruption’ of the youth is what lead to his eventual execution (because his ideas contradicted those of the current religion). He was also known to have rather poor personal hygiene (even by standards of the past) and to have a rather poor relationship with his wife. When he was executed, they handed him a cup of hemlock and gave him the option of either apologising and having no further punishment, or drinking it and dying… He chose the latter. He was, supposedly, so sure of his belief in the afterlife, that he didn’t fear death at all.
    But of course, that’s all biographical information; I guess I should talk about his beliefs… But that’s tricky. Since he didn’t write for himself, we can only trust what Plato and Xenophon wrote about him. However, Plato at least, is known to have used Socrates as a mouth piece for his own views, and so it’s hard to distinguish between what Plato believes and what Socrates believes. Something very definitely Socrates-linked, is his method of getting people to reach the correct conclusions, not by telling them, but asking them questions which will get them there themselves. I quite like that. He also gave the argument that it’s better to be good, because then good men are your ally and bad men are your enemy, than it is to be bad, because then both good and bad men are your enemy, but that may have been Plato. What’s also interesting is that certain groups in some religions (I.E. Islam and Christianity) see him as a prophet.
    But yes, that’s Socrates, and this has been the first of my entries on philosophers. Plato might come next…

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You’re Doing It Wrong

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Adam Randall
I remember one time, back in 2008, I was at my friend Milo Goodspeed’s house and my friend Elliott Egan was there as well. I was lying (fully dressed and everything) on a bed, while the pair of them discussed plans for the day. Once they were done, Milo reached into a cupboard and pulled out a magazine. He flicked through to find a specific page.
    “Here ya go, Randall,” he said as he handed it to me. “I want you to look at this.”
    It seemed that my friend’s magazine was one which contained naked ladies. The specific page he’d given me showed a woman who was either naked, topless, or in her underwear, I don’t really remember. What I do remember, is that she was wearing a pair of particularly sparkly shoes; they were all bright, slivery and glittery. Very pretty!
    “That’s quite an interesting pair of shoes that woman has on. I can imagine that they must have cost her an awfully large amount of money… Then again, she is a professional model; I expect she can afford it! Quite a good job, probably, although, it must be annoying to have to constantly diet and what not,” I said.
    “Ah, Randall, you’re doing it wrong!” Milo complained. “You can’t do anything right.”
    “What am I supposed to do?” I asked.
    “Just enjoy it?”
    “Oh, I see, I see!” I stared at the picture for a while, trying to follow his suggestion. After a few seconds, I realised he was looking at me, so I quickly added, “er, that’s very nice!”
    But he wasn’t very happy with my performance, and so he took the magazine away again. I can’t say I was unhappy with that.

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Tragedy

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Adam Randall
Picture

I’ve decided to keep the comic strip up to date with real life misfortunes. Depending on how things go, this could possibly be Colin’s final appearance. Hopefully not, but possibly. For now, we’ll just have to hope.

All finger puppets can be bought here.

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Television

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Adam Randall
Picture

This strip was made shortly before Colin broke, so I decided to post it now, rather than at its scheduled time. Colin in watching the five part Doctor Who story The Dominators. I had no reason for choosing that particular story, but I did want a Second Doctor one because he is my favourite. For some reason The Dominators is considered bad, but I certainly liked it. Also, better post a disclaimer and say that I do not own the copyright of the images on the screen.

All finger puppets can be bought here.
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The Significance of Colin the Cow

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Adam Randall

PictureYesterday I had the very big misfortune of having my beloved Colin broken (as you can see in the picture). I visited my Nan’s house for dinner, realised he was missing just as I was leaving, then found him in this critical state outside my house. I’m very sad that he’s broken, and that’s because Colin has a lot of significance to him.

While it may seem that he is a mere child’s toy, it goes quite beyond that. It’s not a case of me getting over excited and thinking “Oh my goodness! A cow. How lovely, I think I’ll carry him around with me!” though that is a small aspect. I bought Colin during summer last year, and since then he has developed a lot of meaning.

Initially, Colin was just an in-joke between me and two very good friends of mine, which is reason enough for me to be very attached to him, but there’s more than that. Colin embodies my friendships with those people, and should a sad time come along when I am no longer in contact with either of them, Colin will be a physical relic of that time which I will be able to look fondly on.

Other than that however, Colin is already a physical relic of a loved one who I can no longer see. When I visited my Grandad in the hospital last summer he said to me “I like your cow” and then he sadly died less than a week later.  Those were his last words to me, and he, already, could barely speak at the time. This was only a short while after I’d bought Colin, without him maybe he wouldn’t have said anything that day.

Then, of course, there’s the very first Finger Puppet Show. A good friend of mine was feeling pretty sad due to various reasons at the time, so I decided to make a small comic strip with Colin to try and cheer them up a little. From that sprang all of the Finger Puppet Shows, so it’s quite an odd string of coincidences that I make them at all.

So, you see, Colin has a lot of significance. To some it may seem that I have undue affection for random objects (such as my, sadly broken, yo-yo or my Trusty Water Bottle), but that’s not the case at all. This is why I feel so sad if one of them breaks, I’m not just losing the physical objects, but also all of the memories and emotions attached to it.

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Newcomer

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Adam Randall
Picture

That’s Jeb, and he’ll be appearing from time to time from now on. A very good friend of mine suggested a game in which we go onto Microsoft Paint and then take turns adding to a single picture. Jeb was the result. It was quite a fun game, and I was also quite happy with Jeb, so I decided to put him into a Finger Puppet Show, my friend must take half the credit for him though.

All finger puppets can be bought here.

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Relationships and Stories

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Adam Randall
I like to look at every meaningful relationship I’ve had with anybody as like a story. They’re all made up of a beginning, middle and end. While it is quite sad to think about the fact that a time will come when your relationships will all reach their end, I think looking at things like this helps to show how different your interacting with different people are, and even give a more positive outlook. Every friend, every family member, just, anybody they you care deeply about, has their own unique story. You’re not likely to meet two people in the same way, nor are you likely to depart from two people in the same. But most important, are the middles; once you finally get to know somebody and start having fun with them. All the fun and crazy adventures you have with people, the things you aren’t likely to forget. We all have to savour these middles, because they will end, maybe years in the future, maybe in a few days’ time. But all the different little signs of affection and the fun, unusual things done, they all add up to make our relationships with everybody unique stories. 
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The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien 

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Adam Randall

PictureThis is J. R. R. Tolkien’s first published novel to be set in the vast fantastical world of Middle Earth. The story follows the adventures of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who one day finds himself involved in a quest to defeat an evil dragon named Smaug, all thanks to a wizard named Gandalf.

While the story maybe a rather simple one of ‘hero has evil to vanquish, comes across obstacles on the way’ that doesn’t stop this from being a highly enjoyable book. The majority of things that Bilbo comes across are really interesting to read about and most certainly create some very strong images. When reading this you’ll find such cool things as: a forest so thick it’s almost as dark as night (and is also crawling with enormous spiders!), a race of giant eagles who live at the peaks of mountains and can talk, an enormous network of caves filled with goblins… I could go on.

Plus, while the world very impressive; there are some really wonderful characters in this novel too. First, you have Gandalf the wizard, a playful and mysterious person who aids the hobbit and his companions on their journey. It seems almost as if Gandalf is pulling all the strings from behind the scenes, making people do things without them evening knowing… or perhaps he is merely helping destiny along its way. Regardless, Gandalf is a character who improves every scene he’s in. The same applies to Gollum, a character who Bilbo stumbles upon in the caves. The character seems to be totally amoral, having lived almost the entirety of his life isolated from others, yet you still feel some kind of sympathy for him, almost as if you pity him. Almost as if you wish you could help.

The whole thing is a wonderful ‘escape from reality’ (if one is really needed) and gives you a big adventure that takes place in an amazing world. The only problem with it seems to me, that it feels like an excellent story sandwiched between a slightly long opening and an overly long ending. It takes a little while to get started, then, once you think the story’s finished, it goes on for another thirty pages or so!

But, still, it’s fun and exciting fantasy novel, and definitely worth reading: 8.7/10

Buy it here.

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