Played: Metal Gear Solid 4

Now that my no kill, no alert first attempt is finished, I can give this game a proper review.

"I'm no hero. Never was, never will be."

The quote from Old Snake gave me a great impression of his character. This is Solid Snake's final mission, or rather, (Solid subtracted by is) Old Snake's... This game is truly epic, with 5 Acts to go through and a whole lot of cinematic cut scene to bring conclusion to Snake's saga.

The controls have been refined too... Now you can execute a lot more moves compared to previous installments of Metal Gear Solid. The most useful improvement is the crawl stance, so no more position adjusting from crouch to be able to crawl in the correct place. Another major change is the over-the-shoulder shooting camera. The shooting part now is more like a first person shooter.

Another new feature is the Solid Eye system. Radar, night vision + thermal imaging, and target identification device all in a monocle. And also OctoCamo, the new camouflage system that can mimic the texture and color of the environment. Not to forget the threat ring that shows the presence of enemy in the vicinity. All these features help a lot in the sneaking part of the game, but also change the usual way of playing the game.

Continuing to the arsenal. Now Snake can choose from 69 different firearms in the game. Each with a slightly different handling to suit the shooting needs of the player. The firearms now fall into several categories: handgun, submachinegun, rifle, other firearms, and explosives. This vast arsenal gives player freedom on how to dispatch the enemy in Rambo way, hahaha...

I won't spoil the story in here, but it can be viewed as the closure of Solid Snake's journey and also, another characters'. There are several questions unanswered though, for the enthusiast. But for most of the player who follows the Solid Snake saga, this game gives a pretty good sense of completion.

Oh and for all the completionists, this game gives you tough 40 emblems that can be gained by completing several conditions throughout your play. From wickedly hard Big Boss Emblem, to the patience-needing Chicken Emblem. So this game will keep you entertained during all the replay to get all 40 emblems. And it's not without any benefit, once you get all 40, you'll be rewarded with some items.

All in all, this is the must played game of PS3 right now. And to end this review, let me write down Snake's monologue on the beginning of the game.

"War has changed. It's no longer about nations, ideologies, or ethnicity. It's an endless series of proxy battles fought by mercenaries and machines. War -and its consumption of life- has become a well-oiled machine."

"War has changed. ID-tagged soldiers carry ID-tagged weapons, use ID-tagged gear. Nanomachines inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Genetic control. Information control. Emotion control. Battlefield control. Everything is monitored and kept under control."

"War has changed. The age of deterrence has become the age of control... All in the name of averting catastrophe from weapons of mass destruction. And he who controls the battlefield... Controls history."

"War has changed. When the battlefield is under total control... ...War becomes routine."

The Dark Knight (2008)

"Why so serious?"

Perhaps that's the most popular line of this movie. And it represents the presence of the character Joker in this installment of Batman. Heath Ledger surely plays the best Joker I've ever seen. It's dark, gritting, satire, and insane at the same time. It makes me realize how big our loss when Heath Ledger died...

Story wise, it's just another Batman movie. Christian Bale, as good as ever, plays a suitably new take on Batman in this version of the tale. This time, Batman must face Joker -his nemesis- with a new vision of Joker and his whole villainy. The movie starts with daytime Gotham (pretty much rare on a Batman movie), and a superb introduction to how maniac Joker is this time. And then the story moves fast to showcase the battle between Batman and Joker. And when I thought the movie was over, I'm up to some surprise. There's actually a whole arc after the capture of Joker! All in all, this movie is so satisfying...

Ever wonder why The Dark Knight is taken as the title? It all begins with the simple quote from Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart).
"You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
And this time, Batman was set up by Joker to become the villain of Gotham; by demanding Batman to reveal his identity or Joker will kill someone every day Batman avoid to do so.

All in all, this is a must see movie, with the best Joker -hands down- so far.

First Road Trip

Here's the picture of my first road trip, to Mt. Rushmore (and Devil's Tower before that). And now for the story part. This was my first ever real road trip in the States. From Wyoming through northeast, stopping by Devil's Tower, and into South Dakota we went. Devil's Tower is the first national monument of USA, so it's pretty much historical... rock (well, it's only a textured cool rock anyway). Next stop would be Deadwood (like the HBO series), where we spent a night in KOA cabin.

Seriously, it's pretty much a small cabin, and fitting 4 people on bunk bed and queen-sized bed is gonna be quite a challenge. And (considering it's a campground) the wireless internet, wait, did I say wireless internet on a campground? Yes it was my friend... Well, I guess you can still check your e-mail even during your camping time.

After checking the cabin, it's time to sightseeing! Deadwood is an old west town, with casinos along the downtown street. And we're just in time to catch on a street performance. It's about some wild west story, so there were actors wearing wild west style outfits, shooting blank rounds around, and getting tourists (that's including us) attraction. But all of that commotion along the main street of downtown was just a teaser for a theatrical show, $5 if you want to see the continuation... Let's talk about something else I noticed there, the casinos. There's sure a lot of casinos in this small town. Tried my luck on the slots machine, seems like I already ran out of my beginner's luck. Pretty good $5 worth of fun though...

The next day is Mt. Rushmore... To be honest, it's not as big as I imagined. All those Hollywood movies with Mt. Rushmore as the setting? Truly great camera positioning. Oh, and the lake behind Mt. Rushmore featured in National Treasure 2? It's like several miles back of the carved faces. All in all, it's a great exercise following the trail circling in front of the four American presidents. That done, we're back home through mountain trail.

Now the mountain trail was exciting. It appears that the road in this trail was already there for a long time... Wooden support on the bridge, one car only short tunnels (so you need to honk your klaxon upon entering/exiting the tunnel), and twisting roads. It wasn't the road trip feeling I usually have, this was more like mountain trails back home... After the exciting mountain snaking experience, it's just the boring open road of America. Good old open road, now I only need some country music (and if possible a convertible car, hahaha...) and it's gonna be just like movies.

Now for the thriller part, around two or three hours of my driving... *eerie music cue* It's my first experience driving in American highway; giving the nature of my driving and the long empty open road of the highway, it's a perfect yet scary combination. A combination of me speeding up and my friends reminding me to slow down. Apparently, the fact that the car driven in 80+ mph was scary for them (and hey, my hand is pretty much so stiff when I drove at that speed). And not to mention several slight wavering I need to do because of the traffic condition. That might be screaming, "Don't let Nico drive on the highway anymore next time." Hahaha...

But all in all, we're arrived home safely and I can still type this. So it's not that bad right? (My driving I mean)