Assassin's Evil Mash

Only one update in September, really?! Well, let's make that two updates, to fix the problem. It has been somewhat of a distracting month, with the most prominent distraction being the empty shell that is my wallet. When I finally decided to continue work on The Legend of Zelda, I realized that we're only four days away from Resident Evil 6. Needless to say, the reviews for the remaining games I have lined up for the Legend of Zelda marathon will be pushed further back. The next one is very near to completion and could be published next week, if I wasn't distracted by another game - rather, game series - right now.

Ratonhnhakéton vs. Ezio Auditore da Firenze. My
money's on the classic, but this dude is looking
awesome, so we'll have to see in a month.

No, I ain't replaying Resident Evil like everyone else seems to be. That would've been fun, sure, but I decided to have another go at another franchise that is scheduled to continue on October 30th... a continuity which I was supposed to ignore due to the last game being so disappointing. Well, after watching just about every trailer of the game and reading about a hundred different articles on the game as well as the real historical setting it's based on, I'm FINALLY stoked about Assassin's Creed III. Even though the series' biggest problem is that it's become an annual release, I just recently found out that they've been making this game behind the scenes for the last three years, ever since finishing Assassin's Creed II, which I still consider the all-around finest game in the franchise.

With Brotherhood underway, I've gotta say it's been a fun trip and a really educational one. I've really paid attention to the plot from the very beginning, especially details I might've missed. Even the first game was much more gratifying than it was the first time around, with Achievements thrown into the boring mix to stir it up a little bit. I'm guessing Revelations won't be any more wondrous than it was the first time around, but I won't bury all hope for it to shine a little brighter. I've watched every short Assassin's Creed movie by Ubi Workshop, to get even deeper, and read almost every article there is on the Assassin's Creed wiki. Damned if I don't know what's really going on in Assassin's Creed III, now!

I wasn't supposed to pre-order the game but I ended up doing so, anyway. I walked into GameStop one day to buy a couple of cheap games, and the first three Assassin's Creed games not only fit my budget, but they've been on my wishlist for ages, so I decided to finally fill in that gap on my shelf. Of course, the clerk, the businessman he is, first asked me if I wanted to buy the fourth game, as well. I told him it's beyond my budget and besides, it's not a great game. Then he offered to put my name on the elite list of customers who pre-ordered the Freedom Edition of Assassin's Creed III. I told him to hold his horses, I wasn't there to pre-order anything. Well, he managed to talk me into it (it was afterwards that I first read/watched some previews of the game), but I refused to buy the Freedom Edition due to its price - I'll never pay a hundred for a single game again, much less some huge game that I have no personal expectations for! - and settled with the Limited Edition. When I left the store, I started thinking that even if I didn't really like the game, it would make no sense to leave Revelations out of this clean row of games, seeing that even if the game's individual plot is a little stinky, it's an important part of the larger scheme that is the whole franchise. I went back a couple of days later and bought the damn thing just to get it out of the way.

This basically means that there are going to be a few more current-gen reviews that I had planned for the remainder of the year.

Finally, the Monster Mash is at hand, and it begins with the LOOOOOONG anticipated review of Resident Evil 6, hopefully in two weeks' time. I'm trying to come up with something to fill in the long gap that is bound to spread - not reviews, but something fairly exciting. If everything goes as planned, the Monster Mash will consist of about ten reviews, with both retro and the current generation represented, with the main emphasis on older games after we've got the lead game of this year's Mash out of the way.

So fell autumn rain...

...Lots of it! Gone is the summer and the year 2012 comes to the beginning of its end. As far as this blog is concerned, 2012 has been a really quiet year - although I proclaimed to go for the busiest one thus far. Well, as you can see, I've picked up the pace a little lately, and enjoyed it a lot. Maybe 2013 is the real deal? We'll see.

I hope you Legend of Zelda fans out there have enjoyed my out-of-the-blue marathon, after all the prior, less positive statements I've made about the franchise in the past. I have to say this marathon has taught me a lot, and it will continue doing that - I'm not even halfway through it. The reason I've been so silent for the past week is that I'm heading to games that are less familiar to me and which I have close to no experience with, with the exception of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Yes, it would seem that I'm not going to review it since I've talked about it so much already, but it's going to happen, sooner than I'm exactly comfortable with.

Progress with the Legend of Zelda marathon has been kind of slow after I beat A Link to the Past, and as I just said, it has nothing to do with the game being so damn alpha and the strongest game in the franchise. However, I'm trying to wrap things up with the remaining games before October 2nd, 'cause I think that from that day forth, my focus will entirely shift to Resident Evil 6 for many weeks to come. The review of Resident Evil 6 will kick off this year's prominent Monster Mash, and be published in time for Halloween. Resident Evil 6 will also be one of a total of two current-generation reviews I've planned to do during the remainder of the year.

Nowadays, I end each one of these monthly updates/rants with a tip related to movies or music, I really don't have any this time besides some friendly advice: skip the Total Recall remake and wait for the international premiere of Looper. (The Looper trailer was the best part of the Total Recall showing I went to see last Saturday, apart from my lovely date.)