Harry Potter - Deathly Hallows part 2 review

Non spoiler review:

It's pretty good.

Spoiler review:

I cried, a lot :( I mean, there was a lot of dust in the cinema! Or, things that set off my allergies, or...yeah. Well, I had to stop reading the book at certain parts, I couldn't go on because of the above reasons.

Anyway, some random things I remembered:

- I liked Longbottom's heroic act(s) in the book more.

- Snape's scenes were pretty good. Nagini's attack was brutal! Very cool scene.

- I like how a lot of people died :D But I still mourn Lupin and Tonks. Although they hardly had any scenes in the films I guess.

- THAT hug. I think it was actually quite clever. I mean, Voldy obviously never hugged anyone in his life, so of course it looked awkward! And I'm sure it was done in a sort of "isn't that what you losers do all the time?" way.

- Epilogue. It was about as good as it could be I guess. Obviously it looks weird, but tell me, person-who-hated-it, how else could they have made it better? (other than cutting the scene altogether that is)

- I was pretty upset when Mc...what's her name ordered all the Slytherins to be locked in the dungeon. I mean, Slughorn's a Slytherin, and he's a "good" guy. And, you know, the REAL hero of the Harry Potter saga was a Slytherin (Snape). I'm sure there were some kids who wanted to fight against Voldy, but didn't get the chance because of the bad name of their house. I mean, that's just sheer discrimination, and that really rubbed me the wrong way. I'm not sure if that was in the book as well, but it's definitely something I didn't like. Especially since a lot of things in the HP world aren't 100% evil or 100% good.

- Related to that, compared to the books, Dumbledore got off pretty lightly here. Aberfort said something negative about him, but Abe just sounded like a whiney, spiteful bastard, and the whole Dumbledore family history was summarised into "oh yeah, shit happened in his family, and he's probably maybe to blame. Maybe." Lame. At least Snape said that thing about Dumbledore "breeding" Potter to let him die at the right moment.

- Half-naked Ron. *Duff-man OH YEAH* But surely there's a spell to dry clothes? Enclothesdryo! Or something. And If You're A Wizard Then Why Do You Wear Glasses? (I'm capitalising that because it's a Liars song).

All in all, I think I every so slightly prefer part 1. Part 2 has a lot of action and emotional scenes, and obviously it's The End, but...Idunno. Meh. I enjoyed the last couple of films about equally I guess, I don't have any clear favourite.

That's all I can think of for now. Feel free to abuse the comment button.

games games games omg I'm drowning in them

Yes, let's talk about my current-gen game collection!

Xbox360:
(you can click on the picture to see it full size)

+ Just Cause 2, which came in a few days after I took this picture, + Fable 2, which I somehow forgot. That's...53 retail games, and since Xbox.com says I have 100 games, add 47 XBLA games. Owned it since early september 2007. I bought a PS3 a year later, but since I prefer the Xbox360 controller and Xbox Live to PSN, I still buy most multiplatform games on 360.

Not sure what else I'm supposed to say about it... there's 3 special editions in this pic (Alan Wake, Mass Effect 2 and Modern Warfare 2), but Fable 2 is also a special edition. I got Modern Warfare 2 really cheap though, otherwise I wouldn't have bought it really.

I think there's a fair amount of diversity, I don't really have one favourite genre. Most games would fall under the "action" genre I guess, but that's a pretty meaningless word in videogames. If you make subgenres though, "3rd person action" would be the dominant genre, with Bayonetta, Vanquish, Dead Space, Gears of War, Assassin's Creed, etc. I also have a fair number of racing games (Blur, Ridge Racer 6, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, Sega Rally), RPGs (Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Lost Oddessey, Mass Effect), first-person shooters (MW2, Halo 3, Bioshock - although I personally consider that an action adventure game that just happens to be in first person, a bit like Metroid Prime - but that's a discussion we'll have another time), some sports games (well, just tennis really: Virtua Tennis 3 and Top Spin 3 & 4), and hell, even some strategy games!! (Halo Wars - bought for €5! - and Civilization Revolution - which is awesome by the way). Oh, and a bunch of fighting games of course (SoulCalibur IV, Street Fighter IV, Virtua Fighter 5, etc.), one of my favourite genres.

As for the games I played the most: probably Fallout 3 and Mass Effect. Replayed Mass Effect about 3 times, Fallout 3 twice. Not surprisingly, they're also 2 of my favourite games this gen. I wish the Xbox360 had a built in game timer like the Wii has, I'm sure it would show some interesting results.

PS3:

PS3 has basically been my Rock Band/Guitar Hero/DJ Hero/Singstar console from the start. I have some PS3 exclusives, but only God of War and Demon's Souls are my thing really. Some fighting games as well, mostly because I have people on my friend list that are into them. And even though football games aren't really my thing, I got World Cup so I could play online with a friend. I think we played about 3 games in total -_- Which is why I started buying most multiplayer games on Xbox360 again.

I also have some games I downloaded - the big one being WipeOut HD/Fury. I also prefer Tekken Dark Resurrection to Tekken 6.

Wii:

+ Tatsunoko vs. Capcom - weird that I forgot to include it, since it's pretty much my favourite Capcom vs. game EVER, and my second most played game on Wii (first being Zelda).

I think I own about 90% of all Mature/18+ Wii games haha. But seriously, Dead Space Ignition, Madworld and No More Heroes are awesome. Although I really prefer the first NMH to the second.

You'll also notice I don't have any Mario games - I'm probably the only Nintendo fan who doesn't care at all about Mario. But then I don't care about platformers in general, so yeah.

There's actually quite a lot of "hidden gems" on the Wii. Games like Cursed Mountain and Deadly Creatures might not be for everyone but I quite liked them. Also, EA's Grand Slam Tennis is the second best tennis game this gen (first one would be Top Spin 4).

I downloaded quite a lot from the virtual console the first couple of years - but I pretty much have everything I need now, and nothing on Wiiware turns me on.

Anyway, I freely admit that Wii has been my least played console, even though I owned it the longest (since launch!). There's still plenty of games I want for it, but somehow I always prioritise 360/PS3 releases.

Right, that's all I think.

Edit: the title would've been a lie if I didn't do this, so, on popular demand, here's me drowning in games:

Yeah. I only took about 50 pictures like that. And it gets quite hot being burried under a pile of games...

Portal 2 review

Finished the single-player part of the game today. I have to say, it's my GOTY (that's game of the year for you non-gamer geeks reading this) so far.

I enjoyed the first Portal, but mostly because of a) the humour and b) the last 2 or 3 chapters. Oh, and c) that ending credit song of course. I thought the game was a bit overhyped for what it was - a clever, funny puzzle game - but then puzzle games aren't really my thing, which makes me enjoying the game all the more special. Though the hype surrounding the game still amazes me. Especially when it comes to the companion cube. I mean, it's a cube with a heart on it!!!!!! I felt worse taking out the turrets ("...I don't blame you") than I did pushing that cube into the fire. Seriously, gamers can be such...girls sometimes! And don't get me started on all the "the cake is a lie!" memes and internet stuff. I mean, all the above was a really clever move by Valve (creating a game with its own "mythology" so to speak), but that doesn't mean I have to like it. The average gamer's reaction to it, I mean, not the game, which I like a lot.

Anyway, rant over, on to Portal 2 then.

Just like with the first game, I lol'd several times in the first couple of hours. It wouldn't be Portal without GLADOS' sarcastic remarks (yes, she's...STILL ALIVE!!! Sort of). But just like the first one, I felt the best moments of the game happened outside the test chambers. Chapters 6 and 7...oh man. SO GOOD. For a variety of reasons, but I won't spoil anything. Actually, I went in completely spoiler-free myself (didn't see any trailers or anything), and I think it made the experience all the better for me. I went in with no expectations at all, and came away impressed with the story, characters, game progression, etc.

The game is also quite a bit longer than the first one (I finished it in about 9 hours). I also have to admit I got impatient and looked up some solutions to certain puzzles :/ Also, on several occasions, I was making things far too complicated for myself, and the actual solution was something as simple as going back one room and change one portal. Like I said, puzzle games aren't really my thing, but I think I did fairly well at this one. I also finished the game in basically 3 big sessions, but it was probably better to play it in short bursts so I could tackle the puzzles with a clear mind. I thought it was pretty strange that I had some trouble with a couple of puzzles in the middle of the game, but in the last 2-3 chapters, I could figure out most puzzles with relative ease. It's also weird that solving larger test chambers towards the end of the game went easier for me compared to some smaller ones - which made me think how interesting it must be to see stats of how fast people solved every test chamber. It'd be even more interesting if there was also a way to register how left-handed and right-handed people solve things. Because I'm quite sure there is a difference. Then again, I guess people could always cheat and look up the solutions before they start a chamber. Meh.

The music and sound effects in the game also impressed me. Every test chamber object now has its own unique sound, so a big part of the music in the game is basically from different objects resonating. It makes the whole experience weird, but in a good way, and it reminded me a bit of Rez/Child of Eden.

I was looking for some sort of official soundtrack to the game, and, guess what? It's available for FREE!! There are already 2 volumes up on the official site, with a third one underway. Awesome. I have to say though, the end credit song isn't as good as "Still alive" from the first game, but that was to be expected I guess.

A review wouldn't be much without screenshots, amirite? Okay, I'm wrong, but have some anyway. I took a bunch during the game, mostly from all the warning signs and stuff, you can see them all here. Here's a selection:

Right, that's all. This was an unusually long review by the way, normally I do a bunch of short reviews per entry, but this game was worth spending some more time on.

Also, it made me think that a lot of my favourite games have mute protagonists. The Half-Life series, Portal, Bioshock series (sort of), the first Dead Space (which I prefer to the second one, by the way), Fallout (yes, there are dialogue options, but you never HEAR him/her speak do you?) and uhh, Zelda, if that counts. I wonder if it's a coincidence that I like these game so much, or does a silent main character really add to the immersion of the game? I don't know, but it's interesting to think about. Maybe.

Why did I make this blog?

Well, mostly to talk about videogames, films, music I like, tv series, and so on. It's mainly going to be an entertainment review blog, but it's not supposed to be serious or professional in any way. I might post some entries and pictures not related to anything above, but I mainly want it to be a drama-free blog (I have a secret livejournal account for all my "oh no life sucks!" talk), and hopefully some people find at least some posts interesting/entertaining.

Also, the background is art from the Every Extend series (in particular the Every Extend Extra Extreme game - now available on Xbox Live!). I came up with my blog name first (I wanted it to be videogame related, in a lot of games that have checkpoints, you often get a "time extended" notification - and since this blog was made to give me more "time" to talk about stuff compared to twitter, I thought it was a good reference.)

When looking for a background for the blog though, I stumbled across this one, and remembered that this game also has a "time extended" notification. Hurray! So it all makes sense really.

I try...

New blog!!!

The background is a bit too much isn't it?

... :(

Maybe things will look better once I make more posts and fill up the page...

no?