Let there be light!

On Saturday I finally got power. I went a total of 5 ½ days living like the Amish (how they do it I’ll never know). Again, not bad considering that some people still don’t have power (or worse, a home) but by my calculations it still felt like three months.

So, the joys of electricity meant we had the ability to stay up past sundown, find out what was happening it the outside world and close our windows and live the way God meant us to live - with air conditioning (I live in Miami here folks!).

Now that I had power I could also get back to that little game I’ve been obsessing over for the past 2 weeks, so Sunday morning I get up early and attempt to beat Ninja Gaiden. I succeeded after trying many, many times to beat the final boss. The ending wasn’t anything special, but the real reward is knowing that I just beat a damn hard game. I immediately started a new game - on hard this time - thinking I’ve got the skills necessary to tackle this new difficulty level. I immediately get my ass handed to me. Damn. I somehow make it to the first boss, stumbling in with a black eye, bruised ribs, messed up knee and very few health potions, and he proceeds to give me the beating of my life. Not only that, but he wasn’t alone this time. As if he wasn’t hard enough, they now have a few extra enemies in there with him to up the ante. Now, these enemies were the same ones that gave me the black eye, bruised ribs and gimpy knee while trying to make it to the boss, so the fact that there are more of them here AND I have this big-ass nunchaku swinging mo’ fo’ just makes it all the harder. After trying several times to beat the level, I decided to turn it off and play some Shadow of the Colossus. Man, I thought I would have been able to at least pass the 1st level on hard my first time through. This game is brutal!!!

I highly recommend anybody who is playing Ninja Gaiden Black to also play Shadow of the Colossus at the same time. After the constant dying and swearing you’ll go through in Black, SotC’s empty, beautiful, relaxing and serene environments is just what the doctor ordered to calm you down.

I have now taken down 10 of the giant beasts and each encounter has been memorable. The game is one of a kind. Like I mentioned in my first post about this game, it is definitely not for everyone. Aside from taking down the Colossi there is very little to do. There are no other enemies or objectives. The most you can do is just explore the vast terrain, taking in the vistas and tracking down the various fruit trees and white-tailed lizards to increase your like bar and grip meter. Maybe that is why it is such a great game to play in conjunction with NGB. The games could not be more polar opposites of each other. On one hand you have NGB, the very definition of action, a game that constantly has you fighting four or five enemies at once and moves at a blistering speed. On the other you have SotC, a game that features only 16 enemy encounters in the entire game and those could be far, far apart. Two games that are completely different and both completely engaging and satisfying at different levels.

I’ll continue to take down these Colossi and I’ll attempt to get through NGB on hard. I also have Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, but I am having serious technical difficulties with that game. The game freezes constantly, the sound comes and goes and is delayed on occasion. It is very annoying and completely ruining the experience for me. I’ve heard others are having this problem and it stems from X-Boxes that use the Thompson drive, which I unfortunately have. This is the only game I own that gives me these problems (the first BiA worked fine) and I’m pretty pissed off. I was looking forward to EiB, but every time I play it I can’t go more than an hour or so before turning it off in frustration because of these problems. I hope Gearbox releases a patch to address this. It kills the game for those unfortunate souls that have the dreaded Thompson drive. Please Gearbox, help us!!!