Truly, if there is evil in this world, it lies within the heart of mankind.
Seeya!
2007 is going to hit in a few hours, and I have torrential words to speak but no messages to convey. Do I have any regrets from 2006? No, not at all. But have I accomplished anything?
Well, let's think of it this way. I torrented the best show of all time and watched it for a hundred hours - and matched that time in community service. I started to make money, went to prom, and bought a Nintendo Wii. I started driving, turned seventeen, and watched twenty-five different anime series. I joined one message board, quit another, and applied to college. I had my best academic year ever, my best first term ever, and my favorite summer vacation ever. I wrote hundreds of kilobytes of text, slaughtered hundreds of zombies, and spent hundreds of dollars. I lost my mind to drama, lost my respect for my family, and lost my contact lenses.
So have I accomplished anything? Well... no.
And therefore I find it inappropriate to write any sort of reflection on what I did. What will remain from 2006? The betterment of my character and a sea of memories. And 2006 is far too early to reflect on the memories of 2006.
Well, that was a bit more sentimental than I had intended it to be. Time to switch gears to a quick look at some gaming and anime.
Sparse is my playing of my Nintendo Wii. Since my purchase of it, I have paid back all that I owe and have played precious little. As a result, my knowledge of the most legendary series of all time is sketchy at best. From the looks of things, though, Twilight Princess will be a decent game. Yet my objectivity is in absolute tatters.
Graphically, Twilight Princess does not impress. The rumor wast hat Wii's graphics could not compare with those of the Xbox 360 or the PS3. I had no objections to this; graphics certainly enhance a game, but they are not necessary to make it a masterpiece. But Twilight Princess hardly shows any improvement over the Gamecube. While stylistically, it is Zelda through and through, it fails to uphold the standard of excellence that I have come to expect. The N64 games and The Wind Waker blew me away with their art styles. Twilight Princess looks like Resident Evil 4. Its palette is also often dim and drab at many points, making me long for Wind Waker's bright gaiety.
Musically, nothing of note has yet surfaced from this game. It sounds nice enough, but none of the tunes has matched the greatness of the classic Zelda theme in Majora's Mask, nor the grandeur of Ocarina of Time's and Wind Waker's overworlds. But I will not forsake hope here, because one dungeon does not fit all.
Gameplay-wise, it's the same old. There are new sword techniques, and swinging is much more fun. Aiming, too, is way more intuitive and uses the Wiimote brilliantly. But as far as the series goes, no new features have yet intrigued me. The stages lack Ocarina of Time's charm and Majora's Mask's depth. They can't even match The Wind Waker in visual appeal. The first dungeon was decent, but not spellbinding. Something good is bound to happen, though, if my father's utter engagement with the game means anything at all.
Not so sadly, I have personally been putting my GameCube to excellent use. When Robert and I came empty-handed from our second attempt to buy the Wii together, we swung by EBGames and bought some gaming materials. Robert went for FFT Advanced, while I, even mourning the loss of my PS2, spent a ridiculously legit forty dollars getting a GameCube memory card and Resident Evil 4.
So I've been playing over vacation, and I've come to the conlusion that it is Very Good. So far, I would say that it's on track to become my favorite GameCube game. In terms of graphics, this game, thus far, matches Twilight Princess pound for pound. Every surface is harrowingly textured; every enemy disgustingly detailed. Environments are rather bland, with uninspired colors, but it always fits the mood of the game perfectly. Music is similarly unremarkable but atmospherically perfect. Sound effects replete with Spanish yelling, guns blaring, and heads exploding.
Oh, speaking of which, this is one of the goriest games I've ever played. I read somewhere that there are over a hundred and forty ways to die in Resident Evil 4. From what I've seen, this is absolutely true. Leon has had his head lopped off by half a dozen different enemies including a chainsaw-wielding mad scientist; he's had both his chest and his forehead impaled by a blind gladiator; he's had his neck snapped by a truck and a village elder; he's had his face digested externally and eaten by rabid insects and dogs. And then there are the traditional deaths: skull broken by a mace, throat slit by a knife, falling to oblivion, being eaten by giant tentacles, being crushed by ogres.
So what is it? It's an action-based survival horror game. The reaper is never too far behind you; you have your weapons, your merchants, and your save points, and you face up against a thousand possessed villagers, castle priests, demons, dogs, and insects. Why are you there? Because you're the only dude in the world bad enough to save the President's daughter. That's right - it's you, the villains, and the President's daughter. Oh, and some Spanish ex-cop with a repressed libido. From what I can determine, basically everyone wants to kill you, so you have to kill everyone to survive. And doing so is fun.
That's really what the game is about, which is why I love it so much. Resident Evil 4 is unpretentious; it knows how ridiculously simplistic and shallow it is. It shamelessly tosses out puzzles which involve opening one treasure chest or literally putting together a puzzle. Several areas involve no work but just shooting and killing. And damned if Capcom doesn't make it fun. Enemy after recycled enemy; bosses upon horrific bosses; and cutscenes with near-Yu-Gi-Oh!-quality dialogue.
Easily on pace to become my favorite GameCube game of the generation. Borderline unreplayable, yes - but still possible.
Next year, I'd better get crackin' in Tales of Symphonia, Super Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, and other assorted Nintendo games. I don't want to miss a thing.
SD
Dec. 31, '06
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