A man and his Game: Kingdom Hearts- Part I

A few days ago I picked up my controller and played a game I haven't played for a very long time. From the very first menu tone I got chills. Why? Because it was freakin' Kingdom Hearts 2: FM+. One of the more harder- to ace games I've ever laid my hands on, possibly 2nd to Demon Souls.

But that's not important, cause when I got KH2:FM+ I wasn't even thinking on acing it -- and I still don't! The only reason I invested my time in Final Mix, was to expand with my own eyes and gameplay to cutscenes that show us a probably lot more darker side of things to come. Whether it's the scene with Org.13 trying to decide who's gonna kill Sora (Or somin' like that) to probably the biggest scene in all of KH2: Xemnas' paying a visit to what looks like an Aqua (from BBS) armor, and calling it "friend"!

If you are a real KH fan, you either smiled cause you know how that scene spooked you out or you remembered how shocked you were at the time. It's moments like these in gaming, that you know that games become more -- they have an influence about how you feel towards them later, it twists your mind and you stick along is something that says a lot!

Now, to finish this blog I'll spread out what you can expect from parts to come:

Part II: A personnel connection to a game?

Part III: The rise of Kingdom Hearts.

Part IV: The fall of Kingdom Hearts.
Part V: What to expect from the finale of Kingdom Hearts

Thank you for reading guys and as always -- Good Gaming!

Game prices in Israel: Why so expensive?!

A huge reason that I turn to piracy from time to time, is the outrageous prices of games in Israel.
In America, the price of a new fully featured game is 59.99$ (USD), which equal to exactly 227.767 ILS (Israeli Shekel). The price in Israel for a brand new game? Well, depending on the store, it ranges from 280-400 ILS. 280 ILS is equal to exactly 73.7473$. Isn't it a little pricey? Yes, but not outrageous. But remember that this is the cheapest you can find, and the games in Israel NEVER go below 200 ILS! That's 52$ for what could be a 5 year old game! So OK, they are imported from Europe. Understandable. But what about the 400 ILS price tag? Where are the most expensive games found? Take a moment to guess. If you guessed Toys R' Us, well your very wrong. It the one and only- PlayStation Store. Yep. The online store of Sony themselves dare claim your precious 400 ILS-  103.350$!!!!! 
WHY?! It's not even imported! It's an online service! No physical media involved! And those are the new games like Battlefield 3, FIFA 12. Actually, they aren't even THAT new. And besides the price, it's not like there really is a big variety of full retail games available on the Israeli PSS. And those that are considerably old, like a year to two are 369 ILS, about 90$. I'm talking about games like Black Ops, Mass Effect 2. But there is ONE good thing about the Israeli PSS, it goes below the 200 ILS. Games that are older than 2 years are 169. A very good price and probably the best! Games like Borderlands- GOTY, GoW Collection Vol 1 & 2, Motorstorm Apocalypse. The lowest a full game will go, is 99 ILS. And that's rare. I only remember seeing CoD:MW 1 and Crysis 1 with 99 ILS price tag. Other than that the PSN games are from 48 to about 80 ILS and minis I think are from 10-20 ILS. Not too bad, but still the games that are considerably new are pricey as sh@t! You can't really blame me for pirating games! I know it's not  an excuse, but I promise you I wouldn't have done it if I were in the USA.
Every trip to the USA will now consist of at least 10 PS3 games I've been wanting to buy since the last trip.

Good Gaming, Fellow Gamers!

Gaming as a Lifestyle: The Return of the Gamer

Hello fellow web-users!

This is GTarablus making a (hopeful) full return to my blog, Gaming as a Lifestyle.

I haven't posted on here for over a month, due to my return to school and a massive amount of tests, including maths, history and biology. Disgusting, I know. But now with only 3 tests left in the trimester, I have a lot more free time on my hands, which will probably be un-equally divided between the blog- and Skyrim ;).

The break from the blog doesn't mean it was completely out of my mind, I did actually brianstorm a few awesome ideas: A Skyrim review, a new series i'd like to call "A man and his Game" where I will share my personal connection with certain games that for me are much. much more than entertainment, and a few other posts along with every day posts.

On a closing note, I just want to say that I'm making NO promises. I really want this to work, and I'll do my best to make sure it does, but I can't guaranty that another test era won't consume me.

Good Gaming! 

An awkward request

Just a short post, in which I ask you, my readers for a favor.
If you read and enjoyed my posts, please click on the ads spread across the page to help me out. Each click ads a certain amount to my Google Adsense account. The money will be used in improving this blog by (eventually) adding Gameplay footage and commentary by me. Thank you.

Call Of Duty V.S Battlefield

Before I
get to the main subject, I just want to apologize for not posting in the past few days, I wasn't feeling well and I am still a bit ill.

People keep asking themselves "Whats that great about CoD? Why is it the top selling game? Whats so special about it?" Well, nothing really. Just a good combination in an even better timing.What makes the past 4 and the upcoming Modern Warfare 3 CoD's so successful is the multiplayer mode(s). The arcade-ish like system and the FPS elements make for a fun and long yet simple experience. You can go solo and rack up kills, or go tactical and play as a team. Simple right? So why isn't Battlefield this successful? Its a lot more realistic, and you have to play as a team or take control and be a leader in order to win.

Unlike CoD, a squad of 8 bad players playing together and defending tactically have a better chance against a squad of 8 egoistic A players. In CoD, you can be the only good player and win the game on your own while your squad has a Kill-Death ratio of -5.0. Some people- MOST people see this as a good thing. "I'm good, all my other players are bad why should I lose because of them?" BECAUSE YOU ARE A TEAM. Help you teammates get better ratio rather than going for the objective, talk to them, guide them. When you see they are aiming for the objective, not for cover you can win the game.

That's what I fell when I play, if I win with an awful ratio I don't give a damn about the victory, I care about how well I played the game and how I helped my team. That's why I'm buying Battlefield 3 and not another Call Of Duty. I want to play as team not as an egoistic individual.
And just for the record, I enjoy more arcade like gaming than realistic. I play NBA Jam, I don't ust the super advanced defending in FIFA 12, and I'm super hyped about SSX and FIFA Street, so the only exception is Battlefield, a real FPS for a change.

What Treyarch's next project should be

No. Not the sequel to CoD:BO. But what I think should be their next project involves Black Ops and World At War quiet a bit, a stand alone Zombie's game.

The only reason i'm holding onto my copy of Black Ops, is because of the amazingly addictive Zombies mode.

I consider myself a pretty good Zombie killer with a record of 46 rounds survived in a single match in the map "Ascension". My PS3 was on for about 48 hours in total while creating this record. The reason was that I started the match 2 hours before I called it a night, and the next morning I had school so it had to wait until I got home and after I've finished eating and done some homework I was finally able to continue my match which lasted for another 2-3 hours.

Why do I find a game mode, that has a dozen stand alone games circling the exact same idea, to be so addictive and unique? That's easy: It's simple. It's fast. And it has maybe the four funniest characters gaming has seen for a while. Well, right behind GLaDOS and Wheatley that is.
The party of four characters include: A drunken Russian, a blood-thirsty U.S. Marine, a crazy-ass Indian doctor (Whom later turn out to be the main antagonist of the Zombie's campaign ) and at last a Japanese former imperial soldier who's obsessed with honor. Most people will see this as stereotypical behavior by Treyarch, but I see this as an amazing addition that makes you laugh while sprayin' and prayin' you way through the game.

The Marin, Tank Dempsey.

The drunken Russian, Nikolai Belinski.

The Japanese Imperial Soldier, Takeo Masaki.

The antagonist, Edward Richtofen.

The Zombie's mode isn't just about doing your best to survive, it has a rather complicated story behind taht seems to ends at the final map added to the mode, "Moon", where Richtofen, the Indian doctor's plans are revealed and the three other team members sabotage hes plans and possibly end the story.
The game has a total of 10 different maps, 8 of are somehow story related, and 9 of them you play as the regular characters. The one that you don't play with the regulars, is "Call Of The Dead" where you play one of 4 celebrities: Danny Trejo, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Robert Englund and Michael Rooker. The antagonist of that map is the famous horror movie director-turned zombie- Geroge A. Romero.

The last map released in the "Rezzurection" DLC, "Moon".

Now if this didn't make you understand why I crave for a stand alone game, I'll describe the gameplay part, the part that makes this mode simple and contributes a lot to the addictive part.

You start off in a closed room in the map of your choice with a pistol, 40 bullets, a knife and 500 points. The objective? Well, in the first 6 maps its to survive. In the last 4, you have hidden tasks that can only be accomplished by doing certain tasks with a full- 4 player party. These "Objectives" are called "Easter-eggs" and the game will give you small hints as to what to do and how but will never tell you exactly what to do. These "Easter-eggs" contribute A LOT to the story and after they are finished they will give the players bonuses.

The "Easter eggs" are not mandatory what so ever.

The survival part is the main objective in a never ending game. After you start in the first room, you will have zombies coming in from windows you can later rebuild for points, or in some maps they will rise from the ground. The key to surviving a zombies match is to be smart with your ammo, and rack up a lot of points in the first 10-13 rounds and from there it could go long with a safe tactic that's called "Rape Training"- The zombies will run after you. So to make the best of it you have all the zombies run behind you in a group and as soon as they stop spawning, you turn around and shoot them with everything you got until there are no more left in the round.

Rape Training on the map "Ascension"

Another thing that is mandatory to surviving, are the "Perk-a-cola's". They are power-ups that are spread across the map and their price ranges from 1500 points, to 4000. They include stuff like the ability to take a lot more damage before getting killed, faster reloading, faster and longer sprints and the ability to revive a team member in an instant. But the only perk that exists in all the maps, is "Mule Kick", which lets you carry an extra gun you buy off the wall or from the "Mystery Box". The "Mystery Box is a box that costs 950 points that can give you any weapon in the game, some are available for purchase off of one of the walls in the map and the rest are Super Guns like the Ray Gun, Thundergun and The Wave gun.
The Zombie's mode has an enormous community that, in my opinion was expanded with help of a famous YouTuber named "The Syndicate Project" who creates and commentates on his own Zombie gameplay. He used to hold the world record for Most Rounds Survived, 77(?) but since then it was broken and the current record is more than 100 rounds. Syndicate makes many videos about his idea's of a stand alone game and he has brilliant idea's for features.
So I would really like to see a stand alone zombie game by Treyarch because I Truly think that with this much support and fans, this much fun in a game and so many hours spent into the Zombie's mode, its a shame you have to buy an overrated game to have the full experience.

Playing Black Ops with my girlfriend

If there's one thing a love about my girlfriend, Gaya, except for her amazing beauty, is how she loves playing Call Of Duty: Black Ops with me.
Every time I go over to her house I bring the PlayStation with me so we could play some Zombies together.
Now, it varies from being intense at moments to being hilarious! I'll describe what goes on, we start in the first map available, Kino Der Toten, in the first room we usually survive until round 4-5 while she downed at round 2 and I am left to deal with huge of waves of zombies until I cant anymore. Now whats funny about is her aim and skills are of a 3 year old even with my assistance. On a lucky run, or in other words a run where I am able to survive a lot more rounds on my own we could get to round 10-11.
Despite the fact the we suck at the zombies mode, its surprisingly really bonding and an excellent thing to do with your girlfriend. You get to play Black Ops AND your girlfriend doesn't get pissed at you and breaks you disc!
I got Gaya to really like the zombies mode, so much that in her free time she plays it on her iPod/iPad.
Another reason I bring the PlayStation is to win her brother's heart over. He didn't like the idea of his sister giving him a lot less attention and spending time with someone else, so I bring the PlayStation to satisfy and distract him while I spend time with Gaya.

My Crysis review for PS3

When EA announced that Crysis, the critically acclaimed and probably the best looking game we've seen for years is coming to consoles, I was one of the few who actually said "YES!".
There is no doubt that an FPS is 99% of the time better on the PC, especially if we're talking about Crysis a; game that murdered even some of the best PC's back in the day with its outstanding graphics.
So whats new in the PS3 version that makes this purchase a must-have? Well, not much. But if Crysis for 20$ didn't sell it for ya, then the "New" stuff wont even make you blink.

-FEATURES-
The critically acclaimed Crysis comes to console! The amazingly beautiful Ling Shan island packs at least 3 playthroughs of the game. You play Nomad, an American Super Soldier sent on a mission to find & retrieve an American group of scientists and archaeologists. Things get messy when there discovery, a mysterious 1 million year old fossil turns out to be one of the hundreds of alien, lets say soldiers, sent to earth for an unknown reason, probably to destroy man kind (That always seems to be the reason..). On the way to an epic battle on a ship you will face the APK, Korean soldiers who will annoyingly stand in you way and shout out stuff in English or Korean (Depends on your difficulty).
The new thing is the control scheme, which unlike PC Crysis, you don't have the wheel of suit powers and weapon customization. Instead, you have the incredibly comfortable Crysis 2 controls: Armor- L2, Cloak- R2, Look down sight- L1, Fire- R1 and at last Weapon customization- Hold Select.
The downside of this purchase? No multiplayer. Which normally would've ruined the replay value, but in this case? Not at all. Why? Cause its Crysis.
A bonus you get with the game is a super easy Platinum trophy to add to your collection. It can be obtained on your first playthrough, as long as you read the miscellaneous trophy description and as long as you play on Delta, the hardest difficulty, you can get another Plat' in a day or 2.
OVERALL SCORE: 8.5

-GAMEPLAY-
What I really like about Crysis, is how it fools you into thinking the game is an open world- sandbox. But its not. The levels are open, really open but you cannot roam the whole island on the get go. Now whats there to like about this? The fact the there are endless ways to attack a Korean patrol (This is were replay value comes in). Whether its from the water/river, Coming down a mountain cloaked so that your invisible and take them by surprise or if you head first all armored up with a shotgun, you will eventually find the best way to attack and easily defeat your enemies. Now, this isn't like this for the whole game, after about 70-75% into the game, your enemies change in an instant. From Koreans to a super advanced Alien race that will want you dead! As soon as you get to the aliens, the open world and endless way to attack are over. You must go head first, preferably with a shotgun and do your best in finding cover. Cloak wont fool them, they will know where you are. As I said before, the control scheme is really comfortable and everything is in arms- well, fingers reach. I just want to advise you bump up the sensitivity cause it is really slow on the default 50.
OVERALL SCORE: 9.0



-GRAPHICS-
For 3.8 GB of a game, Crysis packs a lot of beauty. And I mean A LOT. Although its not crazy as Crysis on PC is, its still amazing to look at and it has a solid 30 FPS. Most of the time. The game also uses the same engine that was used for Crysis 2, the Cryengine 3. I noticed the Voice sync isn't really 100%, and the subtitles can be late sometimes but that's not a big issue. The enemy's look as good as they can on a console, and I have to tell you, the face of the enemy when your choking him and getting ready to throw him off a cliff is priceless! The aliens looks scary at times and extremely "High-tec" with there glowing blue-ish lights and the floating body's. The game has built in 3D support for those who can afford it making everything a lot cooler. And lagish. Just sayin'
OVERALL SCORE: 8.5

PS3 & Xbox 360 Graphics are equally stunning using the new Cryengine 3.

-SOUND-
Crysis has a really cool soundtrack. The voice acting is great, the gunshots sound really good and even better with a silencer. Go figure. The sniper on the other hand, or as the game calls it: "Precision Rifle", has an incredibly LOUD sound when fired. The Koreans will shout out in either English, Korean or a mix of the both, depending on your difficulty. It;s really good having the Koreans shout out in English, so that you know when they see you and when its time to go run behind a tree or Cloak up. The game supports up to 5.1 Surround sound for the ultimate experience. The music isn't really heard until your either finishing a boss, discovering something, or finishing a level. You will hear "Epic" music when you do one of those.
OVERALL SCORE 8.0

-THE VERDICT-
Crysis on consoles is an amazing game, especially for the price tag of 20$. It's beautiful, it's fun, it sounds and runs great on PS3 and in my opinion, it has a pretty interesting story that I must admit I hated Crysis 2 for not telling the rest of the story. Just a little side note, when chaos starts on the ship, check a game guide so that you don't make the same mistake i did which made me restart the level.
GTarablus's Score for Crysis: 9.0.


Thank you for reading my review, please leave a comment with feedback on my FIRST ever review :D. Please visit my blog again for more on my gaming and more game reviews.

My Games & ratings (as of 15.10.11)

Bioshock- 4/5
Borderlands GOTY- 4.5/5
Bulletstorm- 4/5
CoD: Black Ops- 4/5 (Just because of the Zombies mode)
CoD: MW2- 4/5 (Multiplayer is pretty good)
CoD: WaW- 4/5 (Sniping in Multiplayer is so F*cking annoying.)
Crysis- 9.0/10 GTarablus' Review
Demon's Souls- 3.5/5
Farcry 2- 4/5
FIFA 10-12- 4/5
GoW 1- 4/5 (Platinum)
Gow 2- 4.5/5 (Platinum)
Gow 3- 5/5 (Platinum) (Really loved this game, to bad it super short :/)
GTA IV- 3.5/5
GH5- 3.5/5
GH6- 4/5
Hunted: The Demon's Forge- 4/5 (Dunno why everyone hates it :S)
LEGO Star Wars- 3.5/5
Little Big Planet- 3.5/5
Lord Of The Rings: Aragorn's Quest- 2.0 (Worst game iv'e ever played!)
Mortal Kmobat- 4.5/5
NBA Jam- 4.5/5
Portal 2- 5/5 (AMAZNG GAME!)
Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within- 3/5 (One of the first game I played and really liked)
Prototype- 4.5/5
Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time- 3.5/5
Resident Evil 4 HD- 4/5
Resident Evil 5- 4/5
Rock Band 3- 4/5
SpiderMan 3- 3/5 (Serious FPS issues ruin what couldve been such a good game)
Star Wars: the Force Unleashed- 3/5(The controls are a bit slow)
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2- 4/5
Super Stardust HD- 4/5
Wipeout HD Fury- 5/5 (Really nice racing game!)

First blog and introduction :)

Hello world,
I opened this blog because I really want the world to see my life as a gamer. In this blog I will post stuff that, well be about gaming. ;)
What I want besides you guys seeing my life and reading what I played every day, I want you guys to tell me what you played and how you live as a gamer and even give me advice about, well anything really!
So before i get into the actual blogging I just want to introduce myself a little better. My name is Gil Tarablus, im a 15 year old gamer from Israel and my native language is English because having an English speaking teacher has its influences. ;)
I game on a PS3 and sometimes PC, when i can't afford a game i really want (So yes, I pirate games sometimes. NOT PROUD OF IT).
My first console was a PS2 back in 2002, since then I have had: 3 PS2's, an NDS lite, PSP-3000, PS3 slim 120GB's and a Intel Dual-core , Nvidia Geforce 8800, 2GB ram Win7 PC.
My favorite game(s) of all time is with out a doubt- Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2. I first played KH at the age of 9 and the way I came across the game is in my opinion fate. I first heard/saw the game on TV in a gaming channel and me being naive I tried to download it on my Computer and of course it was a virus (didn't know it back then). So after a while I forgot about it and at times when I used to rent games from blockbuster I didnt see it standing there on the rental shelf. One day I went with my dad to pick up my PS2 from getting repaired at Sony, and we went into Sony's shop and then I saw KH in the game section and I remembered how badly i wanted it so i convinced my dad to buy it. I have no idea how long i spent in front of that game but i do know I maxed out the timer at one point. I think the game really changed me and made me a better friend cause that's really what the game is about, friendship and love.
Besides gaming, my 2 other passions are: Music and horror movies.
The music I listen to is Alternative- Rock- Heavy Rock-Punk-Post Grudge- Grudge- Metal- Heavy Metal- Speed Metal. My 3 favorite bands are Avenged Sevenfold, Skillet and Finger Eleven. My 3 favorite songs are Seize The Day- Avenged Sevenfold, Lucy- Skillet and Stone Soul- Finger Eleven. I dont have favorite horror movies cause I just cant choose :P.
NOW ONTO TEH BLOG:
Today, Saturday the 15th of October I spent my time only playing Crysis 1 (PS3) getting some trophies and last night a finished Crysis on Hard. The only trophies I have left are the Delta difficulty ones and I finally have my 4th Platinum (1-3 being the GoW trilogy).
The blogs themselves will be longer than this, I just haven't really played to much today.