I won't even try to apologize for taking so unbelievably long to update here. I said I'd be back soon, but I didn't do that. I know, I've been lazy. But the thing is, I don't have that much of a reason to post here anymore. As you know, I fell out of love with Gamespot after Jeff and Alex left the staff. Also, I started having more of a social life in College, which means I had more people to talk to. This led me to finding out one of the things I loved so much about this place: it was one of the best ways I could talk to people about things going on in my life. Now, I have the chance to do that in person, with many people. Of course I still like you guys, but the urge to write on this blog just isn't there anymore. Yes, I will post occasionally.

So, anyway, here's what's new:

1- I saw Muse live! I went to São Paulo on a bus ride with a bunch of other Muse fans, and it was a fantastic experience. The concert was awesome. Here's a video, and a couple of pics:

2- I had a great birthday today, with one of the best cakes I've had in my life. I got a nice watch from my uncle, and a trip to see Nine Inch Nails in October from my parents.

3- I'm going to see NIN live!!! Here's a sample of what I'll be seeing.

Well, I hope to see you guys soon. I'm not making any promises, but maybe this new look GS just got might be a reason to post here. OR, I could go to blogspot, something like that, and start over. Would you still follow my blog if I did that?

Cya later, Gamespotters!!!

Wow. I think I'm breaking a record here. My last entry on this blog was posted on February 2, almost two months ago. That's a lot of time without posting. Trust me, I did have a lot of things to post about - but, as usual, couldn't bring myself to actually writing it. I'll fill you in on the big stuff, not going into too much detail:

-First of all, my Summer Vacation was awesome. What I usually enjoy the most about vacation is staying up until (very late), all by myself in my room, doing one of three things: playing games, listening to music, or talking on MSN. The first of those things was made extremely pleasurable by The Orange Box; the second was improved by my iPod; and the third was a very enjoyable experience thanks to a certain friend who would, on several occasions, login around midnight and talk to me til 5AM, never running out of subjects. Overall, I had a fantastic time, and it had a perfect closure...;

-...because Deep Purple played in Curitiba again, on the last Saturday of Summer Vacation. I was at the same hotel, and, as I've told you before, I'm friends with Don Airey, their keyboardist. I'll have to summarize the story, but the concert was fantastic, and I had one of the greatest experiences of my life, just talking to those legendary musicians. The highlight was probably after the concert, back at the hotel: the band went to the bar, and this great Eric Clapton DVD was playing on the TV. It was cool to see how much attention they were paying to the DVD, trying to figure out who all the musicians were (when the credits were rolling, I heard someone saying, "I know that bass player, I played with him before!"). I had a great talk with Don about bands he's played in, and Brazilian artists he's into. I almost felt ashamed that he knew Elis Regina much better than me. Don is just an amazing guy to talk to. Slowly, they started going up to their rooms, and the last ones on the bar were me, mom & dad, and Roger Glover. Roger sat down with us and we had this fantastic, philosophical conversation. I had no idea he was so nice, and so awesome. Sunday morning, Don asked the band to take a picture with the three of us. The whole experience is still kinda unbelievable for me;

-I got a job! My very first job! I work as an intern at the DER (Departamento de Estradas e Rodagens), which I guess I could poorly translate as "Traffic Department". Since I'm a Law student, I have to register the lawsuits that go through the place. It's a nice job. Not too hard;

-I bought Audiosurf, and it was worth every penny. What a wonderfully addictive game! And it feels so good to dethrone people! My username is FernandoDANTE - if you play it, add me to your friends list, will ya?;

-College is doing pretty good. I've got 5 subjects this year (as opposed to the 7 I had last year), and none of them seem to be "useless" (as opposed to two useless subjects I had last year);

-The Black Keys are releasing their new album today, which I've pre-ordered. The Raconteurs released their new album last week, and it rocks. Nine Inch Nails released their new album recently, and it's amazing;

-Juno is a perfect movie. Not the best movie ever, but a perfect movie.

Cya later, Gamespotters!!!

So, I finally beat Okami. The word "finally" should be highlighted with as many colorful markers as possible.

It's not just the fact that I started playing this game in 2006, and went through a long hiatus, only to start playing it again this summer. It's the fact that, once I picked it up again, I expected to finish the game in less than a week or so. As it turns out, it took me around 2 weeks of extreme playing, from midnight until around 4, 5 AM, almost every night. When I came back from the beach, I had played the game for 20 hours, and figured it would take another 20 to beat the game, as I recalled some reviewer saying that it would take "over 30 hours to beat Okami". That's because I like to take my time with games.

In case you don't know, Okami is an action/adventure game, and that type of game usually doesn't last very long. Anything over 20 hours is very generous for an action/adventure game. However, Okami proved to be much longer than the 40 hours I expected it to last. The game took me 90 hours to finish it. That's really, really long. Longer than a lot of RPG's I've played in the past.

I have to say, I was quite pleased with the game - and its length. While the game does take around 20 hours to pick up and actually become entertaining, the quest is consistently surprising after that. Based solely on gameplay, sound, and graphics, I'd say Okami is a good game - not great, just good. Once you get past the novelty, it's still amazing, but just not as amazing as you may have expected. Fortunately, those 90 hours turn this otherwise-good adventure into a fantastic, epic journey. Okami earns points by sheer longevity, something you rarely see in games these days. The fact that it just keeps going on, and on, and on is what makes it great. And it's not tiresome like Dragon Quest VIII.

After that long game, I figured it would be nice to play something shorter, more action-oriented. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay was the way to go. I'm sure you've all heard great things about it, but you have to play this game to find out just how amazingly awesome it is. Some say it's short - I think it's just the right length. Probably took me about 15 hours to beat it, and every one of those hours were just delicious.

So, beating these two games brings me to new conclusions about the longevity of games. I learned that dragging on a good game for a long time can turn it into a great game, as was the case with Okami; while I also found out that not extending an awesome game can work for the best - it's like an album with no filler.

Anyway, onto KOTOR.

Cya later, Gamespotters.