Oh look! It's a new post for the new year! At least I'm posting this at the end of this month. lol Still, this is to let you all know that I'm here and ready for what 2013 will bring!

TRIP

The trip to see my friend was great! It was a bit of a hassle driving up since I had to deal with some snow fall in Illinois. Still, it was worth it to finally meet them! I managed to get a few drawings done while I was there. Other than that, we really do a whole lot besides going out to a couple of hang out places they like to go to. I managed to pick up the first Wild Cards book compiled by George R.R. Martin along with picking up some games like Outrun (Genesis), Tin Star (SNES), Beyond Oasis (Genesis), Legend of Kay (PS2), and Auto Modellista (PS2).

GAMING

Speaking of gaming, I did start and finish my first game of the new year. That would be Asura's Wrath for the PS3. I was able to play it thanks to a friend in town. I had been curious to play it myself even though the game received mostly average ratings. After playing it, Asura's Wrath wasn't as bad as I thought it might have been. Still, there are better action games than this. The story is pretty good while cliched, but there really isn't much of a game.

There were plenty of occasions when the frame-rate would slightly drop when there was a lot of action happening at once on screen. That led to some issues when doing boss fights since a lot of them rely heavily on QTEs. Depending on how much the frame-rate drops, it'll hinder your timing to get an "Excellent" score.Towards the end, a few QTEs will take cheap shots after you've become adjusted to pressing one button during boss fights.

The game did keep me playing throughout, but it rubs me the wrong way to know that you have to buy the game's fourth chapter DLC to finish the game completely. There are even individual DLCs that add to the game's existing chapters though, but that's still a very shady tactic on Capcom's part.I mean if you were to pay for the game when it originally came out ($50), the DLCs would slightly exceed the average current-gen game price.

If anyone is curious to give Asura's Wrath a shot, I would wait until it's a bargain bin deal. $10 would be your best price.Overall, Asura's Wrath has a decent anime-inspired story and above average art style, but it relies heavily on repetitive gameplay and QTEs.If the game had more variety, I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more. Regardless, I did like it more than I did with Rise To Honor.

And so, it gets a 6/10 rating.

It's funny to mention that I thought I was playing the God of War controller scheme with the right thumbstick being able to dodge. lol Whoops!

MOVIES

I haven't been to the movies lately, but I did manage to see three just before the year ended. Argo, Wreck-it Ralph, and Skyfall were all great movies, and I hope to get my hands on the Blu-ray/DVD copies when they come out.

This year, I managed to see Les Miserables with my mom and sister. It was a good musical film overall even though it was a bit excessive on singing throughout. I've seen bits and pieces of Evita, and it's kind of like that style as far as singing goes. To me, it can get to the point where the music suddenly becomes noise to the ears while only picking up noticeable selections.

I do like musicals, but I usually prefer those that do have dialogue to break up the flow inbetween musical numbers. As for Les Miserables, I probably would have to see the stage version to see if it transtioned well to film. Although the music was great, I wasn't too thrilled with the film's cinematography in several scenes. I mean couldn't they have varied the shots a bit more and kept the camera steady in some? It's great to see that they can carry their voices out in long periods, but I found myself wanting more camera angles and sweeps when they were singing.

Still, I enjoyed it for the most part, and it was what I had expected out of a movie musical. I do hope to see the stage version soon.

Les Miserables gets a 3/4 rating.

DRAWING

One of this year's resolutions for myself is to post on Sundays on both DA and FA. Hopefully, that will get me motivated to draw more. If anyone has noticed on my Twitter, I've been tweeting my uploads, and I think it has helped for the most part. For that, I'm really happy, and I do hope to keep it up this year. It is to be expected that I may miss a Sunday here and there, but I hope to be more active regardless.

THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES

With that, there really isn't much to say. I will try to find a better job even if it still isn't the one I had studied for. Still, it's better than not having one as long as it pays well. lol Also, I'm going to try to get through a lot of games I've put off for a long time. Particularly some RPGs. ^^; I think it's best to put up a poll of sorts and see which one you guys think I should work on finishing first. lol

Anyway, I hope you guys are having a great start to 2013! Thank you all for reading and have a good one!

Until next time! This is Eddie the Wolf signing off!

BREAKING GAME NEWS

As of tying this, I found out that Heavy Rain music composer, Normand Corbeil, has passed away of pancreatic cancer. He was 56.

Ethan Mars Theme from Heavy Rain