Monterey Trip

Those of you who read my last post know that I went to Monterey, California with my girlfriend over this last weekend. We had a blast. Here are some of the pictures I took while we were there.

I earned the gold metal in a kids game at the aquarium. :3

Best Restaurant Owner ever.

This was an awesome penguin.

If I see that freaking fish one more time...

-_-

Hello Seattle, I am an Albatross... made of spoons.

Can you find the bird hidden in this photo?

Save some fish. Feed me butts.

Crooked tree.

Creepy Plaque.

And here's some scenery.

Going on Vacation

Hello all. Just letting you guys know I'll be on vacation until the 27th, so you won't be hearing from me for a few days. My girlfriend and I are going to Monterey, California.

It should be a blast. We've been looking forward to this for months now. Anyway, I'll be sure to let you guys know how it went when I get back. Alright, Content Hedgehog, out.

And Content Hedgehog's #1 video game of all time is...

#1: Kingdom Hearts II

And thus the true weeaboo in me comes out. Some people couldn't stand this game. Said it was too much teenage angst and not enough Disney magic, as opposed to the first game which was more Disney-oriented. Some can't even stand the franchise - I mean who cares about that big-eyed kiddy Japanese sh*t, amirite?

Well, I do. This game was amazing. From the catchy opening song (admittedly not as catchy as Simple and Clean), to the exhilarating final battle, this game had it all. The gameplay was fast and exciting. The graphics were extremely good for a PS2 game, flashy and eye-grabbing. The music was all amazing, with several outstanding renditions of classic Disney songs, as well as some wonderful new tracks by video game composer Yoko Shimomura.



Kingdom Hearts II is my favorite video game of all time, and I'm anxiously looking forward to future titles in the series.

Content Hedgehog's Top 5 Video Games of All Time

#2: Sonic Unleashed
(Only the 360/PS3 version, the Wii/PS2 version sucked)

I'm Content Hedgehog. You knew there was going to be a Sonic game on here somewhere. And at the risk of sounding like too much of a fanboy, I decided to limit it down to only picking one game from the series for my top 5. Now for those of you that are actually into Sonic games, I'm probably going to get a lot of crap for this, but I actually prefer the later titles in the series. The earlier games were fun, but with the technological limitations of the time period, I just can't say there was anything amazing about them.

Now when the Dreamcast came along, things were different. You could finally be a part of Sonic's world in a full-blown 3D adventure. There were some parts in the Sonic Adventure games that were just plain awesome, namely the intro stage along with the cheesy dialogue in SA2. The Sonic and Shadow levels in SA2 were amazing. Same goes for the Sonic and Tails levels in SA1. But unfortunately, these games were also bogged down by graphical limitations and other annoying gameplay styles.


But this post isn't about the Sonic Adventure games. This post is about Sonic Unleashed, the generally poorly received second Sonic title in HD after Sonic 06. While I can see many of the points the reviewers bring up, everyone can agree on one thing - the daytime levels in this game were awesome. The game was split into two parts, levels that took place during the day where you ran around as Sonic, and levels that took place at night, where you played as Sonic as a "werehog," crawling around beating up enemies.

The night-time stages were terrible. But the day-time stages... They blew my mind. The amount of graphical detail that went into these levels is incredible. I could play any one of these levels over and over again and never get tired of it. Take a look at a run-through of the ice themed level for example:



The speed... the intensity... the music... the atmosphere... Everything about this level is incredible. Although to be fair, I suppose you have to be into this sort of thing to really appreciate it. The only thing bad about this game was, again, the werehog levels, which is why it is only #2 on the list...

Content Hedgehog's Top 5 Video Games of All Time

#3: Tales of the Abyss

Tales of the Abyss is a part of the "Tales" video game series. The best in the series in my opinion. At least out of the titles released in the US. Unfortunately a bunch of the titles don't make it out of Japan, and the last one that did I wasn't able to play because I don't have an Xbox. But I digress, Tales of the Abyss was what all RPGs should strive to be. It had a great story, great music, great characters, and most importantly, a great battle system.

It also had an anime, but don't watch it. Play the game instead.
The Tales series doesn't have your traditional RPG battle system. Once you run into enemies on the map, you enter a battle where you tap X to slice, tap square to use a skill, and quickly enter the item menu and such by tapping the triangle button. You'll see similar battle systems in games such as Star Ocean and Eternal Sonata, but as far as I'm aware, this is the series that started it.

But back to Tales of the Abyss, you start off this game as an angsty teenager (like most JRPGs), but as the game progresses, you become a not so angsty teenager who is actually pretty awesome, and... I'm bad at explaining. Just go play the game if you haven't. And if you have, good for you. You know how awesome Jade is. Oh, also it has a kick-ass opening video.