Blur

I'll try to make this short since I still got homework to do.  The competitive racing game "Blur" just came out recently developed by Bizarre Creations and I gotta admit it look pretty cool:

It's racing with weapons!  Anyways, I use the title "Blur" more referring to my future.  I'm still not certain how my future will unfold as I learn more about life, our modern day society, and the game industry as I'm going into the business during a recession and a time where publishers rule and developers are slaves.  Sad but true.  I'm not certain how I'll get through these next 2 weeks as I have 5 major assignments to take care of (which I should be doing right now).  Also, graduation?  I can't even imagine that really.  I don't care about the ceremony.  Just give me the paper and let me move on with my life because I don't want to be in lecture halls, doing all nighters, doing tons of homework and hearing things that don't even pertain to my career.  It's also hard since I'm going to be leaving a time where I get to socialize, meet new people, and have the convince and perks of a university student.  I don't even know if I can get a job right after graduating.  And do I really want to start working right after getting out of school?  I am so behind videogames (yes I am) that I feel I need a long break and really gather myself together and really work towards what I want (to make videogames for one).  I think I want to start "completing" projects I've held off for years and really start doing things I want.  Compose, arrange, and mix music; draw comics; make videos; and developing games (I'm really getting into indie games.  I think I might get into the scene of creating them).  Wishful thinking, we'll see.

In terms of my non-working/boring part of my life, the game industry has been very slow as of late.  Especially Nintendo.  The surprising thing was their release of Super Mario Galaxy 2 with 17 critic scores of 100/100.  I may have to pick a copy up after I beat the first one this summer.  I'm suspecting that all the companies are hold information tightly closed until E3 rolls around.  I guess I'll find out in 3 weeks since I'm going to E3.  Yup, I'm not lying.  I'm going to E3 this year.

The MMO and online gaming side of things however has been booming like crazy with a new game announced each month or something.  I've decided to give up a few in order to try a few new ones only to realize that I've accumulated quite a bit over the past year, mostly on steam.  Here's some videos as a tribute to the ones I've given up on: (None of the videos are mine btw)

I need to give them up and start moving onto new MMOs if I ever want to check them out.  I don't have enough time or Hard drive space for them.

Steam has been continuing to tempt me with their awesome deals every week and I've already bought five games (most of them costing $5).  Other games I got for free either from special offers, or friends gave them to me.  Here's what I got from steam as a demo, free offer, or bought:

Beat Hazard - An arena shooter that creates levels based on your music choice. (Indie)

Global Agenda - A unique MMO Action RPG Shooter (I'm playing demo for now)

Irongrip Warlord - An RTS/FPS Tower Defense Multiplayer Co-op game.  (Indie)

Killing Floor - 6 player co-op Zombie Survival Horror FPS.  UT2004 Mod originally. (Indie)

Torchlight - Single player "Diablo-like" game.  It's pretty fun~ (Indie)

Trine - Physics based platformer with 3 player local co-op.  Funny game. (Indie...sorta)

Okay, back to homework~

My "Local" Agenda...

It's late, yet I feel that I should write a little to unload the information out of my head.  It's the end of the fourth week and I feel like every week has been a finals week for me this quarter.  I have not eaten a proper breakfast in the past 2 weeks and I have been going to sleep quite late every night now and failing to attend some of my classes.  2 weeks ago, I host a Game Making competition in the Videogame Development Club of UC Irvine and accepted the responsibility of audio for both teams.  To make it short, it was a productive experience that was both tiring and fulfilling.  I am still waiting for the judges to make their decision.  Our Vice President was able to get faculty members of the Game Culture and Virtual Worlds Department of UC Irvine, employees from Obsidian Entertainment, and the producer of Diablo 3 to judge our games.  It's very exciting, but that week spent working on the music has really taken a toll on both my schedule and health as I haven't been getting enough sleep or proper rest.  Every night I worry about getting work for my classes done and dreading the classes I feel is wasting my time.  I have already missed 2 assignments due to shortage of time and not knowing about them.  I keep a scheduler at hand and I still have assignments that slip past me.  Either the teachers are not stating the assignments clearly enough or I seriously have way too much on my hands.  I have 10 assignments this weekend that's all due all across this weekend (with the exception of one essay).  This high stress is really difficult to handle, and I can usually cope with it when I play videogames, play piano, or draw.  But I've been so busy that I rarely get to do any of them let alone sleep.  I get to play about 2-5 hours of Videogames a week if possible, 1-3 hours of piano a week, and barely 30 mins of drawing if I'm lucky and I'm just sitting somewhere at school waiting for a club meeting to start.  To say the least, I'm very unhappy and feel rather depressed with my situation.  I really want to concentrate on building a portfolio, creating a great resume and start applying for jobs now while I still can.  My classes are doing very little to help me in my career or make me feel good about my work.  There are nights where I feel I should just drop out of college and learn the actual way of getting a job.  I've gone so far in my studies that I feel that it'd be a waste though, and I'm a very stubborn student who doesn't like to give up.  If I didn't have as much homework, studying and reading as I did now and didn't have letters reflect my value as a student or person, I would be enjoying my studies so much more and possibly be even learning something from my classes.  Unfortunately, I have about seven weeks of school left and am so deep in work right now that I fear the possibility of failing some of my classes.

It isn't just this quarter though.  The finals week of Winter quarter 2010 was very stressful, even though it was only Chinese Art History.  I couldn't sleep the night before the exam and had only 2 hours of sleep.  Then when it was all over, I thought I could enjoy my spring break only to go home and get sick (cold maybe? I never found out) for the rest of the week and didn't start recovering until Saturday of Spring Break.  What was great about spring break was not having to deal with school and having "some" good things happen to me.  Upon returning home for spring break, I found out that the Game Crazy that I visited once a week back in Sacramento City College was shutting down and had games 20% off.  I went in and saw that they had Persona 3 FES and couldn't let up the chance, so I bought it for $24.

Then I went to Costco, still with my family, and saw Final Fantasy XIII for PS3 and Pokemon SoulSilver for Gameboy DS.  I couldn't resist and couldn't decide, so my dad let my get both.  Happy with my new games, I went home and remembered that a friend left his Modern Warfare 2 for PS3 at my house.  The day I started feeling the sickness, I got a call from a friend I haven't seen in 1.5 years and had him over to hang out.  He stayed from Monday to Friday morning.  We played Modern Warfare 2, DotA, Phantasy Star Online and some Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  But at one point in spring break, my sickness had my allergies affected too and I couldn't breath, see, or think.  He knew I was sick, but still came over to hang out anyways.  So I was mostly watching him play games while I suffered the effects of allergies raping my face while coughing and sneezing.  To end Spring Break, one of my computer stopped displaying and essentially stopped working.  It was possibly one of the worst spring breaks I've ever had so far.

I don't think I should stay up any longer, I have a mid-term to study for, an essay to write, and 8 other assignments to attend to tomorrow.  hmm, actually a few more things:

I signed up for the Beta testing of Genesis A.D. on ijji.com and was selected as one of the beta testers.  I had the incentive of winning prizes, but didn't win any and doubt I'll win anything.  But I feel that it's good practice and experience in game testing since I'll be applying for that position in my first step to the Interactive Entertainment Industry.  It's quite fun, though the gameplay does take a bit of adjusting to play efficiently.

I'm also keeping my eye on a game called "Lead & Gold" which I really want to get.  It's only $15, so it's very tempting.  Lots of tempting deals actually.  Left 4 Dead 2 is $20.09 right now, but I don't feel like getting it now.  I wish I had more time to play games and do more productive activities I enjoy...