And Then Skyrim Ruined Everything

I used to write posts on a regular schedule for my gaming blog, then I took an arrow to the knee... OK, yes, that was terrible for me to use an over-used meme.  I apologize.  My absence here for the past two months was not planned, but rather that my time on the weekends regularly spent writing a blog post was taken up by other obligations.  That is, if you can count logging over 70 hours of playtime into The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as an obligation (among other things!).  Both Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone and soon we have a new year to look forward to.  For me this means one thing: hurry up and finish blog posts that have a lonely part one, including my adventures at this year's New York Comic Con as I want to wrap that before we're no longer in the same calendar year.  Time for some blog clean-up before ringing in the new year!

Happy Halloweekend!

Instead of blogging, I've been partaking in the Team Fortress 2 "Scream Fortress" activities in celebration of Halloween.  I just have one thing to say: human players are very annoying.  It may only be one person, but when everyone else is shooting at the boss and That_One_Guy decides he's going to kill everyone on your team, he instantly becomes everyone's target once the boss goes away unharmed.

Dance Intermission

This is what I get for only going to New York Comic Con on Saturday.  On Sunday two groups of Assassins took to the dance floor across the aisle from the Assassin's Creed booth for both Just Dance 3 and The Black Eyed Peas Experience.  Here's some YouTube footage, and some mad props to the Revelations Ezio in the second video.

New York Comic Con Wrap-Up Part One

Peach and Bowser invite you in to the NYCC Wrap-Up Post!

After all of my anticipation, my single-day excursion to New York Comic Con has sadly come to a close.  It was a lot of time, preparation, and money, but in all it was an enjoyable experience.  I'm going to split my wrap-up into several posts, and place emphasis on my personal experience rather than the entirety of what occurred at the show (since other news outlets already have all that covered).

Pros and Cons

Yes, I have a reason for my utter lack of updates: I had to prep for my single day excursion to New York Comic Con! And by preparations, I mean create a costume, of course. I never made a schedule of panels or booths I plan to go to, so I'm just going to wing it. Look for posts here on my experience and updates to my Twitter. So if an Assassin stabs you in the heart today, it could have very well been me.

Tweet20 - September 2011

#19 - One of the weirder moments of "Brawl in the Family" when Waluigi takes over the strip.

The scheduled last day of September post of news that didn't fit is a day two days late. Darn you internet service provider for deciding not to work during the brief amount of time I want to do something productive online! Enough ranting, on to the tweet-sized briefs:

1. How the Mighty Have Fallen - I don't know what happened to Silicon Knights, but the very negative reaction to X-Men Destiny may do the once-acclaimed company in.
2. Because, Honestly - Bad licensed games are inexcusable when games like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City exist.
3. Humble Indie Bundle - I'm a sucker for these ever since I bought a new laptop, though my backlog keeps growing.
4. World of Goo - I already own it for PC and Wii, but I couldn't resist buying it on sale for 99 cents for iOS.
5. Black Friday - Already making my list of game deals I want to look for with all of the major releases this year and around the holiday season
6. Assassin's Creed Revelations - Delayed on PC until December, so I can either see if there's a PS3 Black Friday deal or actually give myself time to finish Brotherhood.
7. Well, What About Assassin's Creed II? - I seriously have no idea why it's taking me so longer to finish - no, yes I do. My mouse moves to TF2, and a quick round turns into hours.
8. New York Comic Con - It's just two weeks away, so I have little time to decide on what panels I want to go to - so many options!
9. Playstation Vita Battery Life -3-5 hours for games with bluetooth off, headphones instead of speakers, default brightness, and 3G or WiFi off. So how long otherwise?
10. Dust off that 3DS - Zelda: Four Swords is a free download for DSi/3DS systems, though WiFi multiplayer is sorely absent.
11. Almost Played Pokemon White Again - But I got distracted by all of the other games that I never started or even installed. My Pokemon probably won't recognize me anymore.
12. Gesundheit! - I mentioned it earlier, but this iOS- exclusive game is a real gem that is both disgusting and cute. Buy it! It's cheap!
13. Cosplay - So this weekend I'm attempting to make a video game related costume as Halloween is fast approaching. Can you guess what it is?
14. You Can't Handle the Truth - As his CoD skills were deficient, a 46-year-old tracks down his 13-year-old nemesis and attacks him. If you can't take him out one way...
15. Old Games - It's time to make a hard decision on what games from the last four generations I'll definitely never play again and downsize.
16. Final Fantasy II- I questioned why I never finished the game when I was so close to the end, then I remembered how much I hated the leveling system.
17. Final Fantasy IV DS - I finally started this remake, though it's weird hearing voices from these old characters. The pace seems slower too, but I'll give it time.
18. A Lot of Kirby - After no entirely new games for a few years, three new Kirby games are released in a one-year window. Hooray for the little pink puffball!
19. Brawl in the Family - My current favorite gaming web comic, even when it's just cute instead of funny.  Nintendo and Kirby haters need not apply.
20. Not My Prince - Recently saw the Prince of Persia movie and I still think Jake Gyllenhaal was horribly miscast. Would I feel that if I didn't love the game?

A Snot-Nosed Pig Makes Me Happy

Click this adorable picture for a mucus-filled game trailer.

While I didn't receive copies of Kirby Mass Attack or the Uncharted Dual Pack for my birthday this past weekend, I did receive something that came as a complete surprise: an iPad!  Sure, I downloaded some apps where I convinced myself that they would be useful, such as the painting app "Inspire Pro."  But of course, therein lies a weakness for my wallet: 99 cent games.

The person who gifted me the iPad gave me a set of instructions of what I must download, one of which was the under-a-buck gem Gesundheit! The game has a quirky charm and features a little green pig with chronic allergies as its hero.  He must use his snotty nose to lure monsters into traps (as they like to eat snot, apparently) while avoiding getting himself eaten.  While the touch screen controls can get a little bit finicky when you're near the edge of the screen, this logic/stealth game is entirely enjoyable and packs a lot of game into a very small admission price.   

Gesundheit! serves as a perfect example of why Nintendo should be worried regarding their digital downloads.  While Nintendo finds it perfectly fine to charge at least $3 for 20 year-old, black and white Game Boy games, outside of the Marios and Zeldas, the price isn't worth it when you can find newly developed games for iOS and Android devices for cheaper.  With its touch-based controls and 40 levels, Gesundheit! could have very easily been a release for the Nintendo DS systems as either a downloadable title or even a retail release.  However, with the decision to release it as a 99 cent game for iOS devices, Konami seemingly expanded the audience for the game.  It could have been an ignored Nintendo eShop release or destined for the clearance bin.  But the person who recommended the game to me was not a gamer, but an average person who was looking for a diversion and gave a game with a quirky title and concept a chance solely because of its cheap price point. This game definitely benefited from the "Hey, it's only 99 cents, so why not?" mentality, while it would not have been able to on a Nintendo system.

So what's your opinion on all of these 99 cent iOS/Android games?  Have any recommendations?  How about Nintendo's pricing structure on its downloads?

3DS Ambassador Review: Phase 1

So now that us loyal, trustworthy, early 3DS adopters had over half a month to download and play the first 10 games of the Ambassador program, how about a review of Nintendo's choices?  Were they enough to keep us happy until the first AAA, non-remake, original 3DS game gets released?  Would I have purchased the games from the eShop if I didn't get them through this program?  Why am I asking more questions instead of answering them?  Breakdown after the jump!

Now Playing

"Archimedes! No! It's filthy in there!"

Here's a quick update to what games I'm currently playing, in a little bit more detail than my not-always-accurate Now Playing page:

I'm playing Team Fortress 2 a lot more as of late, after taking a month or so break.  I figured I should break out of the training mode and actually begin to earn some of the 379 achievements.  So far I earned 24, or a measly 6%.  There's plenty of classes that I need more practice with, such as learning to not die within 10 seconds of spawning as the Scout.  Oh well, I'm still having fun with the game, and that's all that counts.

I haven't touched Final Fantasy V Advance much since I wrote the post on my recall of Final Fantasy plot lines, and that was four weeks ago!  (And that's also a reminder to write part two of that post.)  I'm still waiting on the upcoming patch for VVVVVV before adding more to my Metroid homage custom level, so that got tossed to the back-burner as well.  I just purchased Darksiders as a daily deal on Steam, so at some point in the future that will get played, just not now.

I finally played (and finished) Portal over the span of less than a day, though there are still the challenges to do.  I was surprised at the short length of the game, even if it was originally packed in the Orange Box compilation.  Well, I now have Portal 2 to look forward to, though I'll wait on Black Friday sales for that.

Oh yeah, I'm still going through Assassin's Creed II at a snail's pace, so I seriously need to step it up a notch if I want to finish both that and Brotherhood before Revelations is released.  I think I'm near the end, though I suppose I could finish the game faster by not wandering around and looking for feathers and glyphs like I've been doing.

And my birthday's coming up soon, so if someone wants to get me the Uncharted Dual Pack or Kirby Mass Attack (complete with the American Kirby is Hardcore angry eyebrows on the box art).  More for the backlog!

Mega Samus

I have no idea what possessed me to do this, though I guess the logical progression of Mega Man to Arm Cannon to Samus made sense to me.  Perhaps I'll make sprites/headshots of Metroid bosses as if they were transplanted into the Mega Man universe as Robot Masters.

Or I'll just wait for someone else to do it, if it hasn't been done already.

An actual blog post should be coming tomorrow as long as I don't get distracted by something entirely random, which is what happened above.

The Reboot Pandemic

It seems no form of entertainment is resistant to the spreading infection of reboot syndrome.  While more prevalent in the film industry, an increasing number of video games have seen reboots in recent years, and it is not limited to games originally released in the 2D era.  While a reboot can be just what a franchise needs to reinvigorate interest (and sales), some reboots can completely backfire and alienate the game's original audience.

Tweet20 - August 2011

Tweet20 # 15 - Yep, that's the logo and it's exactly what you think it is.

Now it's time for the monthly round of news that didn't fit and/or didn't have time to write. 

1. 3DS Ambassador Program: Started a day early, and seriously needs a "download all" button.  Now I get to play 8-bit games on my fancy 3D system... in 2D!
2. Also Concerning the eShop: Still think a lot of games cost too much, especially given their age and lack of colors. Even some full-color iPhone games are $0.99!
3. West Coast has the Cons: Between E3, Comic Con, and PAX, I wonder why I'm still on the east coast, because our cons just aren't the same.
4. PS3 Price Drop: PS3 gets a price drop, so now what Microsoft?  Unless you need Halo or the Kinect, the PS3 is the obvious buy now.
5. But What About Nintendo?: With Mario 3DS, Mario Kart 7, Zelda, Kid Icarus, and Kirby out before the holidays, it's time to remember that you own a Nintendo system.
6. In the "Do I Need It?" Department: Zelda: Skyward Sword now has a gold Wiimote Plus with the Triforce on it... the fine line between wanting it and not needing it.
7. Also in the Same Department: Assassin's Creed: Revelations Collector's Edition includes an Ezio doll action figure, not sure if worth the extra $40.
8. Humble Indie Bundle 3: A great success! Over $2 million! Sort of wish I paid more than I did. Next time.
9. Osmos: Good game, however my ADD and impatience kick in fairly quickly on some levels and have limited my progress in the game.
10. Cogs: Reminds me of an old computer game I played at school called Gizmos and Gadgets. Anyone ever hear of this?
11. Revenge of the Titans: My refusal to step down the difficulty and some bad upgrade choices caused me to start levels over many, many times.
12. My Metroid VVVVVV Level: Progressing slowly, most of Kraid's Lair mapped, though the tough part is making the puzzle elements. Demo following next game patch.
13. Also by Terry Cavanagh: Just played his 2009 game Don't Look Back - beautiful, haunting, especially the moment the game's title made perfect sense.
14. Reboot Syndrome: Seeing way too many of these lately, and I just don't get the point of the new Spyro. The franchise should have stayed with Insomniac.
15. Mario with a Portal Gun: First just a parody video, now (hopefully) becoming an actual game. Looking forward to this! Especially multiplayer.
16. Good Thing I Waited: Uncharted 1 & 2 are now in a dual-pack to get people like me up to speed. More to the backlog!
17. Something I'll Get Around to... Eventually: Reception of Deus Ex: HR is great, so I should probably play the original before adding yet another game to the backlog
18. No Wonder I Couldn't Remember: In retrospect of this post, I fired up Final Fantasy II and I apparently never entered the final dungeon. Why did I stop so close to the end?
19. Happy 25th Anniversary, Metroid!: Doesn't seem like Nintendo is going to acknowledge it at all. Poor Samus, all alone on her anniversary.
20. Didn't Forget About You: I haven't played Pokemon White in a while, though I still need to finish all of the post-game stuff. I was very distracted.

The War Against Gamestop*

It took me way too long to Photoshop the damn gun out of the guy's hand.

*Unfortunately, the majority of people who purchase games from Gamestop, namely parents and grandparents looking to buy a whiny 12 year-old a birthday present, will not participate.

If you follow gaming news even in the slightest, it seems the biggest headline this week was NOT the aftermath of Gamescon or the impending Penny Arcade Expo, but the handling of a simple coupon in the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.  For the uninitiated, in short, the PC DXHR included a coupon to redeem a copy of the game on OnLive.  Gamestop, citing it as Square Enix promoting a competitor, opened the sealed games and discarded the coupons.  Once this fact hit the internet and following gamer rage, Gamestop pulled the game from store shelves and later issued a $50 giftcard as an "apology."  So, in the wake of Gamestop's shady tactics, will you continue to buy games from Gamestop?  And if you are, WHY?

"What You Remember, That is the Illusion" - My Horrible Recall of Final Fantasy Storylines (Part One)

At least this quote survived the three subsequent English releases.

After playing it on and off for a few months (beginning when I realized it was still in the shrink wrap after three years of ownership), I recently played much more of Final Fantasy V Advance to the point where it can actually be considered progress.  This got me thinking about the other Final Fantasy games that I played and that despite playing many of them to completion, for the life of me I can't remember many significant plot points.  Granted, for some it has been about 10 years since I last played them, so details will indeed get fuzzy.  But on the other hand, there are other games that also have convoluted plots that I can remember despite the length of time since my last play-through.  So after the jump is what I can remember of the plots of the first five Final Fantasy games, so here's a spoiler warning! (Or not!)

New layout, new domain

I wanted to change the blog's layout for a while since I no longer wanted one of Blogger's default templates.  I first wanted to do that way back in June, so it only took me two months to finally get it done.  Instead of designing something from scratch, I grabbed a design from Deluxe Templates and altered the graphics to fit with the established color scheme. 

Also, I went ahead and grabbed a domain name.  Sadly, the obvious choice was already taken, so the new shiny URL is http://www.all-powered-up.com/.  Luckily the old URL should continue to redirect properly, but it would sure be nice to update any links and bookmarks, should I actually have any readers.

Da Vinci deNied a Hug from da Fiernze

I can only assume this is a screenshot of the hug, as I missed the hug.

Ok, apologies for the terrible post title, but it accurately describes the events that took place while I continue to slowly make my way through Assassin's Creed II (along with doing level-editing in VVVVVV.)  I'm generally not a fan of Quick Time Events (QTE) in games, but this was one of the very few cases where it actually had an effect on me.

The scene in question is where Ezio and Leonardo da Vinci are given a tour of Venice.  At its conclusion, Leonardo welcomes Ezio to visit his studio anytime, and stretches out his arms, giving the implication that he wants a hug.  But I, of course, had no hands on the controller at this point in time since it was a cutscene and did not plan for there to be any interaction.  So by the time I realized that there was a "hug button" and grabbed the controller, the prompt disappeared, Leonardo puts him arms down, feeling rejection, and hides in his studio.  I'm there yelling, "NOOOOOOO!" at my computer screen because I really did want to give Leonardo a hug and I didn't like that sad look on his face.  And thanks to auto-save, I did not get the opportunity to play the scene over again.

So given that my game-playing time is limited and I have quite a number of other games waiting to be played, my only option other than playing the entire game over again was to find a clip on Youtube so I could see the hug.  And judging by the comments, many people missed the hug and subsequently felt sad for doing so.  Comments such as "I don't think I've seen homeless puppies sadder than Leonardo when you miss the hug button," "When I played that game for the very first time, I missed that button... and I seriously had to restart again because his face was SO sad," and "I was close to crying when I missed the chance to hug him, and I still can't forgive myself," express this sentiment.

 So while this little QTE bears no significance on the story and there's no in-game penalty for missing it, it still made me feel terrible for denying Leonardo a hug. 

Making Metroid V

What's this?  Metroid V?  A fifth game in the main Metroid Series?  No, that would be Metroid 5, which does not exist.  THIS, however, is a project of mine titled Metroid V where I attempt to pay homage to the original NES Metroid using VVVVVV's new level editor.  Released in conjunction with the current Humble Indie Bundle, the latest version of VVVVVV includes a new level editor that enables players to create their own crazy, puzzle-platform levels.  The game's official forums allows for players to post their levels to offer feedback and assistance.  For my first experiment in the level editor, I looked to the original Metroid for guidance as far as design and direction go.  Then comes the hard part: making the level both recognizable as a homage to Metroid and having the stages work within the design of VVVVVV.

Tweet20 - July 2011

Tweet20 # 16 - Nope, nothing's going on between these two. NOTHING!

For this post I'm going to start something new that I'll (hopefully) stick with for the duration of this blog.  Following the format of last month's Recent Developments in 140 Characters or Less, I'm going to start an end-of-month of random thoughts and things I want to comment on, but don't want to devote to an entire post.  So here's the first edition of APU's Tweet20 after the jump.

The Gateway Drug (Going Camping Part 2)

First off, wow!  Three weeks since my last post.  It sure didn't seem like it was that long.  Well, now that I've finished up a major project that I've been working on, it's time to go and play some games!  Continuing from my previous post, the Steam Summer Sale came to a close and I tallied up my damage report.  While the average cost of a game I bought came to just over $3 (only one was above $10), the total damage to my wallet wasn't apparent until the very end of the sale.

Going Camping (aka Being a Cheap Ass)

Continuing from last week's post, where I said I felt late entering the current generation of gaming, I never considered myself a PC gamer.  Whenever LAN parties occurred at college, I always thought it was strange when people would bring in their huge gaming rigs that they purchased/built for the sole purpose of playing games.  At one party a group of non-regulars decided to bring their laptops and play Diablo II, and I remember one person scoffing at the idea that people would bring laptops to a LAN party. *puts on monocle and a top hat* "What's this?  A laptop?  Hoo hoo hoo. Inferior beings. Take a gander at my 32 inch LCD monitor, my desktop tower that weighs in at fifty pounds with two graphics cards and five hard drives, and my $100 gaming mouse." OK, I exaggerated a teeny bit, but I guess I was a bit turned off by the bit of elitism here.  So why do I suddenly own more PC games than what I have time for?

Late to the Party

Parts of me blown up all over the place in Team Fortress 2. Please put me back together.

I remember a time when I was completely satisfied with only owning one console.  I was born and raised on the NES and I couldn't get enough of that little Italian plumber stomping on turtles.  I wasn't even aware that a thing such as the Sega Master System existed.  I continued on with the SNES and couldn't care less about the fast blue hedgehog on the Genesis.  When it came time to enter the next generation of system, I jumped ship and went with the Playstation.  My reasoning at the time?  Cheaper games.  Many years later I picked up a N64 to play a few key games, though I think my choice at the time was the better one.  It wasn't until the next generation of games that I owned two systems simultaneously, and each to fill a particular need: the Playstation 2 because it had games like Devil May Cry and the Gamecube for my first-party Nintendo games.  When it was time for the current generation of consoles, the only system I owned for the longest time was the Wii, and I could only feel like I was missing out.

Recent Developments in 140 characters or less

Stare deep into my magnificent beard!

I had originally intended to write an E3 wrap up post, but all of the major news outlets already have that covered.  So for this post I'm going to cover random gaming topics from E3 and beyond, all while limiting myself to Twitter's 140 character limit.

Extreme Makeover: Video Game Edition

(Top) Metroid II for Game Boy (Bottom) Project Another Metroid 2 Remake

When enough time has passed where even a classic game is considered to be outdated in terms of graphics and game play, rabid members of the fan community will beg for a remake.  Some of the more popular franchises will indeed see an update, while others simply get passed over.  That's when the most devoted fans will step in after the game's creators have failed them.  After the jump I'll look at two fan remakes still in development that I've been following.

The Hunt for Shiny Golden Bacon

Reward? You want a reward?  Contact me for details...

By this point in time, I really should have finished the majority of Pokémon White.  I mean, I defeated the Elite Four in its fifth iteration.  I caught my version mascot.  I now have access to all of the post-Elite Four locations and side quests.  New locations have now opened up.  But what's taking me so long?  One thing: a craving for delicious, shiny, golden bacon.

Five Sexy Gaming Guys

Look at this GQ mother F%&$er!

I'm just going to make one statement clear: While this isn't a video game blog only geared towards females, given the fact that I am a girl, you're going to get some posts like this.  While game creators generally have guys in mind for the game's audience, it's always nice to have some eye candy for the ladies.  Guys, you can go divert you attention to Lara Croft or whoever is the current jiggly-bits character of your gaming fantasies.  I'll be distracted by these five fine gentlemen.

Nintendo DS: 3D Edition

Face Raiders can give you the pleasure of shooting Justin Bieber IN THE FACE

One month into my ownership of Nintendo's shiny new 3DS (no, seriously, it's very shiny, I saw my face in its reflection when I took it out of the box), I can say that I'm able to give it a fair assessment of where the system currently stands.  Just one thing's for certain now: like the DS before it, it's got some growing up to do.

And Now Back to Our Semi-Regularly Scheduled Blogging

After an unscheduled one-month hiatus, I'm going to start up blogging again.  It wasn't so much as I forgot about the blog, but it became an "I'll get around to it" kind of situation.  And then a few days turned into weeks and then it became over a month since my last post.  A lot of things have happened in the past month, including having the entire Playstation Network being compromised.  (And I was seriously considering finally getting a PS3 soon, though now I'm going to wait a bit.) Tomorrow I'll get my post up about the Nintendo 3DS that's been sitting in draft form for a few weeks now and then follow that up with an update on how my Pokémon game is going.


Time to go grab an invincibility star and start writing!

My Pokémon White Adventures: Part One

 

Before I dive into reflections of my playthrough of Pokémon White, I must say that I almost completely forgot that the Nintendo 3DS launch is this Sunday stateside.  Normally a system launch would be a big event for me, but despite the fact that I have the 3DS pre-ordered, I find myself much too preoccupied with things like life, work, and of course Pokémon to be too excited about it.  (In fact, I wasn't even going to buy a launch title until Amazon offered $25 off a game with 3DS orders.) I'm going to give some periodic updates on my adventures in Pokémon White. And if you're not interested in hearing about Pokémon, don't worry, I'll try to intersperse these posts with some other topics.

Now on to the post after the jump.  Spoilers be abound!

APU is now on Twitter

This is moreso a site update rather than a regular blog post.  I recently received an email from Twitter asking me to revive my abandoned account, so I thought a better use of it would be for my gaming blog.  There I'll post quick thoughts that don't warrant an entire post as well linking to new updates.  I've added a box to the right.  So follow @allpoweredup!

Should I Keep My 3DS Pre-Order?

With exactly one month until the March 27th North American launch of the Nintendo 3DS, I find myself asking, “Should I keep my pre-order?” When the system first became available to pre-order on Amazon, I immediately put in my order. Now as the release date quickly approaches and more details emerge, I've started to question if I really need to have the 3DS at launch.

“Any Objections, Lady?” - Solving the Problems of Metroid: Other M

Metroid is one of my most beloved video game series. I've probably spent the equivalent to weeks of my life playing through Super Metroid time and time again in pursuit of 100% item completion in under three hours. (Did that, next goal is under two hours, which I'm close to achieving.) When Metroid Prime brought a new perspective to the series, I was skeptical at first, but it ended surpassing all of my expectations. As for Metroid: Other M's goal of combining the game play of the 2D side-scrollers with some first-person elements and having a greater emphasis on story, it succeeded in some respects while faltering in others. While far from a horrible game, it is very easy to focus on the bad and overlook the things that it did right. Here, I'm going to propose a few minor changes that could have had changed the popular negative views of the game.

This post is rated SPOILER-RIFFIC!

Black vs. White - Choosing My Next Pokémon Game

I previously established with myself that I would not purchase any more video games until I got through my current backlog of games, with most of them being the result of Black Friday deals and holiday releases.  But as I tend to do, I'm going to break that rule come March 6th when Pokémon Black and White are released.  Any other game that will be released in that time frame (or that I didn't get a chance to play yet) will be ignored, given the amount of time I've put into every Pokémon game.  Here, I'm going to make my decision of which version I will end up playing.

Five Games That Made Me Curse the Television

     I'm sure every gamer has encountered at least one game that caused him or her to yell some random explicative out at the television.  The reason for this can vary, be it an insanely difficult game that causes you to fling the controller across the room, an unexpected surprise, a confusing plot, or anger at a disappointing sequel to one of your favorite games.  Here I'm going to reminisce about five games that did just that.