Hey, listen!

http://genpphotography.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/painting-with-light/

So I posted a few shots I took for an assignment, figured I’d share :) check it out!

Exploring Photography

I do believe I have launched my photography blog!

Check it ooout!

http://genpphotography.wordpress.com

Strategic Writing

So, I’m learning to write better for web.

This should be interesting!

Photo blog coming soon, once I figure out a name/title.

Oh my update!

Hello hello,

So you may notice I’ve changed the title of my blog. Sorry for recent inactivity, been busy and such.

I currently finished beating all of the Assassin’s Creed up until Revelations! Because I was really interested in playing Assassin’s Creed III, but I was about to just jump into the newest game of a franchise. It took me a little while, the first game is sort of difficult to trudge through because the controls and game play are definitely still quite iffy.

Anyway! So I haven’t been posting anything game related, I’ve been brainstorming and trying to come up with a sort of identity that I can bring across blogging to video blogging. I’ve always wanted to have a youtube series of sorts. There’s tons of video game blogs out there, and even more that are trying to make it as “youtube stars” one would say. So, who knows if I actually go anywhere with that.

Nonetheless! For anyone who does read this post, tell me what you think about something along the lines of GenGames or GenviGames. Acronym GG, which I think is kind of cool, haha. I don’t know, urgurgurg.

Also! I’ll be starting a photography blog for my class. I’ll probably link them together on wordpress soooo stay tuned.

Gem Games: Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning

Hey hey folks! Yayy game review! Finally trying to make myself take a break from playing to write this up, hahaha.

Awwright! So where to begin, there’s just so much to talk abooout!

Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning was released, to my shock and awe, February 2012. I haven’t been paying as much attention to new releases lately, but I feel like this game should have gotten muuuch more advertisement. Although it did come out in the wake of Skyrim which, of course, as part of the Elder Scrolls series had sooo much anticipation and publicity. Now I don’t know if this is blasphemy to say this but… I loove and enjoy playing Reckoning soo much more than Skyrim! I had such a hard time getting into Skyrim, for various reasons, that I actually didn’t get very far at all.

Reckoning is just so different and dynamic. I didn’t play the demo, though I’ve read that the demo left much to be desired and actually didn’t impress a lot of people. So I guess the demo really did not do the game justice. I’m also surprised to find out the lead designer of Elder Scrolls III and IV acts as such for this game. No kidding, huh? Upon looking at the game box itself you couldn’t tell unless you know who Ken Rolston is. I also had high hopes for the games storyline as the world and lore is written by renowned fantasy author R.A Salvatore.

Originally the game, rather the Kingdoms of Amalur universe was originally being designed as an MMO, but turned RPG as an introduction to the world. Which if they do come out with an MMO, I’m definitely going to be interested in that!

Moving onto the game itself. You are the Fateless One, the first and only individual to be brought back to life by the Well of Souls. You are not bound to any Fate, and it appears you can change the Fate of others. Now go kill stuff! Woo!

Combat is pretty fun from the get-go and only continues to get more dynamic and fast paced as you continue on. This is one aspect I find this game wins over Skyrim. It’s fast, it’s fun and it’s pretty seamless. You have a primary and secondary weapon, respectively bound to X and Y so it’s super easy to use one or the other. You aren’t limited as to which weapons you use, neither or both can be long-ranged or whichever. There’s an array of weapons to choose from; daggers, swords, hammers, staves and FREAKING CHAKRAMS. CHAKRAMS ARE AWESOME. (I immediately jumped on those, being that my main character in most Dynasty Warriors games was the one that used chakrams.)

ANYway, so once you find your favourite weapon you can start to choose what Abilities you’re interest in. You have 3 class trees; Might, Finesse and Sorcery. You can pretty much guess what kind of classes they are. The weapons you want to use can get upgrades and bonuses, as well as special attacks and all kinds of cool abilities. With that you can bind 4 to the ability wheel for quick access. Health and Mana pots are automatically bound to left and right on the D pad. (By the way, I’m playing on the 360 derp.) Which is a simple detail that trumps Skyrim again, I’m sure whoevers played knows how annoying it in to go into the Menu, inventory, searching for health pots while in the middle of a fight. It completely halts the battle just so you can drink your 10 potions just to get back to get slammed again by another attack. Not in Reckoning! You’re pretty darn mobile with dodging and running around in a fight.

You can plow through dungeons and exploring with the fast action combat. There’s also some quick time events with the ‘reckoning’ mode where you can mash the random button it tells you to for more experience. Along with HP and MP you have a Fate bar that fills up during combat. You’re actually encouraged to mix up your fighting style between melee, magic and abilities to quickly fill it up and enter this god-mode state where you’re attacks are beastly and strategically kill as many enemies in the time in takes the bar to run out and attack the boss with a type of finisher move. I gatta say, you feel pretty badass. So that’s my quick gist of the combat, hopefully you get the idea.

Oh man there’s just so much to talk about! Along with just that, there’s so much loot in this game is crazy. It really appeases any horder gamers out there that just love picking up everything. (Thankfully inventory deals in slots, and you can buy backpacks that increases your inventory by 10.) Gold isn’t hard to come by in this game either, especially if you invest in the Mercantile and Detect Hidden skills. Skill points are granted along with ability points when you level up.  Alchemy, blacksmithing and sagecraft are your crafting skills you can choose to put points into. Along with persuasion, lockpicking, dispelling, stealth and whichever else I’m forgetting that you’ll be putting to use during your time in Amalur.

Quests are in abundance in this game. It really puts my need to complete everything 100% to the test. Your usual kill this kill that, those things kidnapped my daughter go save her, etc etc. Personally I don’t find it tedious at all, and I’m someone who has to pick up every single quests  and complete it. The only problem with that, and one of my few complaints of the game, is you cannot drop quests. So you either have to ignore some useless ones, or you have a packed up Quests list. Which isn’t so bad because they are organized into categories and you can hide some of it. It also keeps track of all your completed quests which is cool.

I have to also mention the sound effects in this game are so satisfying. Is that weird? I like the lockpicking and opening chests effects and the slashing and hitting enemies  especially with a fire weapon, just feels so powerful! I’m all about the details.

Graphics are not incredibly impressive like in Skyrim, but honestly I’ve always been a firm believer in gameplay over graphics, every time. Some complain that it’s too cartoony, but really if you judge the quality of a game by the graphics shame on you.

As I said I’m all about the details, right? Well Reckoning really hit the spot with some of the details. In your inventory you have the option of throwing items into ‘Junk’. When you visit a shop to sell, you can hit one button to ‘Sell all Junk’. Voila! Inventory all clear and you’ve just made yourself a nice sum of money! I feel silly for having been so excited over this feature, but it’s just awesome! You can periodically go through your inventory while questing and keep it more or less organized. My OCD is pleased, thank you so muchhh.

Maann okay I think I’ve gone over most of the main points I wanted to, I feel like I’m leaving so much out though! I can’t remember the last time I’ve enjoyed a game this much. The map is expansive, I’m something like 48 hours in and I’ve only finished half of the map it seems. You can fast travel to areas you’ve discovered, so you don’t waste too much time running from place to place. The map is big, but it’s not exaggerated either, you can easily spend some time running to every little corner making sure you picked up all the treasure and loot, and there’s definitely some there!

so GG Reckoning, you are a gem game and a good one at that!

(Ahh there’s still so much more I can say ; ;)

Ta for now!

So… I drew something today.

Haha I’m sure some would be like “Oh you did? Well woopie for you.” very much filled with sarcasm.

Though for me I guess it’s sort of a big deal. I gave up drawing and I haven’t done so in over a year. You see, I went to college for art, so I was attempting to pursue a career in it. I’m not the first, obviously, and lots of people encourage you to try to make a career out of something you love. At times though, it does the opposite, and it destroys the love you had for it.

I’ve struggled with it because as I went to school and met these great people, I also saw just how talented some people are. They were at a level I could never be at. I didn’t have the drive most of my friends had. (And those that I speak of are in their last year of Animation, or graduating Illustration, congratulation guys! :D) It just wasn’t for me I guess. Now some would say that giving up on drawing all together is exaggerating if I just decided it wasn’t a career for me, but you have to understand I really admired my friends. I also let it get me down though.

The realization that I didn’t have the talent some had really discouraged me. The thought that there will always be someone better, and in my case tons of people better, didn’t encourage me to want to get better. As I said I don’t have that sort of drive, or confidence in myself. I did do my best in my school work and I did spend many hours trying to improve at first, but then I found that it just wasn’t happening. The amount of extra work I would have to put in to even be half as good as some of the people I knew was just too much for me.

I’m not sure what the point of this post is, hahaha. I posted my sketch on DeviantART and was beginning to rant and ramble, so I figured it could become a blog post.

Because I’m certain there are many artists out there who feel the same, and I guess I want to say to them don’t give up as I did. In the end I miss it, I feel as though I am a creative person, and giving up drawing has taken away my creative outlet. I feel as though I’m no good at anything, because the one thing I thought I was good at I let go.

In my post on DA I started to say something that there’s some sort of unwritten artist’s creed. Along the lines of “I like it now, but I’ll hate it later.” which I find was very true, even before my college years when I was just drawing for fun. I let that discourage me, instead of making me want to improve. I guess that’s another thing I hope some artists with do differently; let it propel you forward and want to make the next piece, whatever it is, even better.

I should really follow my own advice, huh? Haha. People are terrible at that. It’s something I hope can change, I may never love drawing like I used to, but I hope to still gain confidence in the things I do. Even if it’s writing blog posts, I’m always worried that it’s trash and not good enough even though there’s really no standard or rules for blog writing haha.

Ah the insecurities of a young adult! What will we ever do with ourselves.

I do have a game review in mind, if I can stop playing it that is, hahha!!

Oh and here’s the sketch I guess. Ta!

How does my signature always end up looking like a heart?!?! Urg!

Right now feel like it would be a great time to make a post.

Though I don’t have much to post about, other than me rambling on about god knows what. Maybe blogging can be therapeutic for me? Though I’m not witty nor do I have a way with words like my friend Cheryl. (http://miscellesbian.wordpress.com/) Whom I just discovered has a (multiple?) blog(s). Though she may have been an English Lit major…Which I got tired of University pretty quickly and only finished 2 courses in English there. (Along with all the College English I’ve done, but that doesn’t really count.)

Anyway. I feel silly just complaining on and on about how stressed out I am lately. Really it’s because of work. Which raises the question to myself “Is money really worth being so miserable?” Perhaps I’ll have to ask this question on SoulPancake. (soulpancake.com not sure if I feel like explaining it right now, maybe I’ll do a post on it specifically.)

I know I don’t want my life to be controlled and all about money. Though I’m not naive enough to understand that you need money no matter what. Bills to pay and things to buy. So you can’t go without a job and no income, I realize this. Though at the same time, I’m only 20, why do I have to work my life away right now? I feel like I’m not living, because it’s just all about  trying so hard to relax when I’m not working that it’s already time to work again.

Though I know I probably feel this way because I don’t really have any hobbies other than gaming. Often I don’t even feel like doing that. I really need to find something else, I just don’t know what there is. I have explored some interests, but I’ve only come to realize I have no talents. When I was younger I tried learning the guitar; my brothers played better than I did and they were just reading off my notes whereas I was the one taking the classes. Drawing used to be something I enjoyed, until I went to College for Art Fundamentals. I passed with alright grades, but I was so discouraged by the fact that there will always be someone better than you. And In my case, pretty much everyone was better than I was. I’ve practically given up drawing since.

Everyone thought I would go into something that required drawing skill, and I tried but really I feel like everyone made me think I was a lot better than I actually was cause honestly I sucked. And It’s not like I didn’t do the work and didn’t practice and draw and try, because I did. It’s just not in me anymore.

Which makes me sad, because I always wanted to paint. I feel as though I have a good eye for art and such, I’m great at critiquing and I know how things are supposed to look, I just can’t seem to succeed doing it myself. I don’t know if I’ll ever try to pick it up again.

Other than that, I don’t think I have much else. I mean there’s writing, but I’m really mediocre at it. I’m just good at talking on and on like this, because I don’t really talk to my friends. (I have some very odd and deep-set issues about friendships.)

It really is awful how useless I feel sometimes. I’m no good at anything. Even at video games I’m barely at par with the friends I play with. Haha I don’t even think one of those motivational speakers could make me get up and go and do something.

Really though, I just don’t want to go to work today LOL

I’m 5’1” working in an assembly plant. Where most of the jobs were created with your average 5’6” male in mind. Every job is probably twice as hard for me than it is for the next guy working in there. It’s really frustrating. It’s good money and all, but as I said earlier is it really worth all the anxiety? Everyday before work I have to worry, hope and wish I get one of the “easy” jobs. Which even then, doing something so repetitive for 8 hours is really mind numbing. You really can’t even try to mix it up and do things differently because well the job can only really be done one or two ways it still ends up the same thing. There are a few women in there that I guess I could look up to that aren’t much taller than I am, but they’ve been working there for 25+ years (how I don’t even know). So even then you can’t really say “If she can do it, you can!” cause they’ve had so much more experience than I.

I’m just tired of struggling everyday to get through the shift. Generally I cry while I work now, and I want to quit so badly everyday. Yet I have to try to last the summer because of “All the money you could save up! Think of the money!” although that isn’t very motivating to me anymore. People make it on lower wage jobs all the time, why is it such a big deal if I want a normal job? Part of the stress is the pressure my family puts on me to somehow like  working there.

I’m the youngest of 4, and everyone’s been through the same thing. Though I’m not them. This kind of work isn’t for everyone, and I’m not as money obsessed as they are. It just feels like they don’t understand that, and all they see is “money money money, doesn’t matter what kind of pain you go through, the money is worth it.” though I don’t believe this.

Just pisses meee oooffff. I know I’m not the only one, and there tons of people who sacrifice their own happiness for money. Some they have no choice, because they have to support children, or have debt, or whichever. Though again, I feel like I have the rest of my life to work, why can’t I enjoy being 20 now?

I can’t wait for September. At least then I can say my school schedule conflicts with working there (which I’m secretly hoping it does.) Though even then, in my family everyone works while they go to school.

…How ridiculous it is for students nowadays is a whole other story. Students are so doomed no matter what they do or how much they work.

Alright I’ve hit the 1000 word count mark, I’ll just shut up now LOL

So, I’m no good at being a blogger so far

Hahaha I haven’t updated anything worthwhile in the past month it seems. I’m sorry. I always go through these tiny bouts of motivation and inspiration to do something but it dies down pretty quickly.

If I can make excuses here, I have been stressed out by work and such. Just this weekend I had to get away and spend the long weekend with my boyfriend and his family. Had a great time of course, I just got back yesterday and I already miss them lol.

To be honest, I’ve been struggling with my depression a lot lately. None of my friends really know this at all, I haven’t told anyone. (And here I am just posting it on the internet for everyone to see, haha, how does that even make sense!) Because of it, I really do lose interest in things easily and it’s not really something I have control over. This weekend definitely was a pick me up, but coming back and being back to “reality” you could say, makes it hard to try to hang onto the good feelings I had when I was away.

Before I left I was really breaking down, at least I feel a little better for now. Don’t worry about me strangers of the internet; I don’t expect anyone to anyway LOL

There was a point where I thought maybe this blog could be somewhere where I could communicate a lot of what I was having issues with. For one I feel like no one would care, it being the internet and all. But at the same time the people who might actually care, those who know me, I wouldn’t want them to read it and find out either. So it didn’t seem like there was much point to it for me anyway. I’m still not sure what this blog is going to turn into. Just somewhere to write my thoughts when I’m in the mood to I suppose.

I know I’m not going to write much about whatever is big and exciting going on right now just to get views. I’d rather people find my blog because they’re interested in whatever specific subjects I talk about. Although there is a wide range and people won’t like everything here.

Uhm alright I’m done for now.

Dovahkiin!.. Dovahkiin…!! Da ra da dun dun…

…Been playing Skyrim.

DRAGONS ARE IMBALANCED.

Holy hell. D:

I wish I had be…

I wish I had better command of language. Some people are able to express themselves and their ideas in such a way that it just moves you.

aaaand now my train of thought has been interrupted. lol.

This is inspirational, and simple.