My
Square
Eyes

Today, I finished my first run through Super Mario Galaxy. The game is tremendously fun and a statement of superiority in gameplay. I have had so much fun running, jumping, swimming and flying around in Nintendo's great take on outer space and I was astonished over how well the game rewards curiosity and exploration! Everytime I looked round a corner, I discovered something new and exciting and that is a proof of good game quality, if you ask me. I ended up with 65 stars and I pretty much skipped the last two rooms, because I couldn't wait to see how Mario's epic space saga would end. And what an end it was. 

As I said, Super Mario Galaxy's quality had my eyes, ears and brain cheering of joy throughout the whole time I played. Until I beat Bowser for the final time. Then, the final movie sequence rolls and something happens to the playful and innocent story that has so far coloured my experience. I can hardly explain what the ending was about! I mean; I saw what happened, yes, I UNDERSTAND what I saw but I just can't believe that they went for such a convoluted, cryptic ending when the rest of the game was so straightforward and fairy tale-like.

There is a theme of death and rebirth, or rather a theme of cycles. When one thing ends, another begins to take its place. Fine, I got that. Why does everyone get sucked into a friggin' BLACK HOLE, accompanied by an out-of-place graphical illustration, and then all just goes back to "normal"? What do this ending have to do with cycles? It's no wonder that when you google "Super Mario Galaxy ending", Google suggest "Super Mario Galaxy ending explained". You need to get this thing explained to get it. Thing is, no one really knows, there's just different thoughts on the matter. Here is my thoughts:

After Mario defeats Bowser, the galaxy-to-be collapses (due to its unstableness), causing a black hole. Now, since the black hole is located at the centre of the universe - and because it's a really REALLY big black hole - the entire universe  gets sucked in. Yes, Mario, Princess Peach, Bowser, Rosalina, Luigi, all the Toads, all the Lumas, Princess Peach's castle and Rosalinas spacecraft too. Everything disappears. But... All the Lumas sets out to prevent all existence from being erased and so they come together to stop the vortex of the black hole and create a new universe (or a new galaxy). After this, everything turns black. Then, Rosalina (who's now HUGE) talks to Mario about rebirth and the cycle of life. Then Mario awakes, back outside princess Peach's castle in Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser and Peach also wakes up just beside him and Bowser seems quite out of it. Luigi is nowhere to be seen, however. Then Mario looks out into space and discovers the new galaxy and upon this, he cheers. End.

There are several ways to interpret this but I think it's hard to avoid the possibility that Mario, Peach, Bowser and everyone else died and then was recreated (or reborn). Yes, Mario and friends were wiped from existence and then, new characters replaced them. Oh dear... I don't know why they wanted me to feel like when I saw the ending of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (and they succeeded) but was this really the ending they aimed for from the beginning? Nintendo has never been very keen on making things more complicated than a ten year old would understand so I just don't get why they ended Super Mario Galaxy in such an ambiguous way. And my description of the ending isn't really a good substitute for experiencing the thing yourself, so that you may understand my confusion and irritation, take a look at this.

So, the only thing left for me to do is to collect the remaining 55 stars to get the "120 Stars" ending. At least I know that the way there will be nothing but sheer platforming perfection, even if the final ending also leaves a funny taste in the mouth.

  The other night when me and my friend Svedlund played a round of Rush in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with a third guy we met through the game, my friend asked him why he speaks so quietly upon which he replies: "My kids are sleeping in the next room". Svedlund was very surprised by the answer and when we talked about it later, he told me it sounded so very old to say that you're keeping your voice down in a Xbox Live chat to not wake your kids up. I started to think about what he said about this video gaming father and the fact that we're not kids anymore. But when did that happen? The way from my childhood, through teenage and up to adulthood seems so short and even if we've changed, we're still the same in the end. We still play video games and avoid growing up too much.

  All those kids growing up in the 70's, 80's and even the early 90's have grown up now. All those who played video games and still play them have gone through school, they have jobs and possibly families now. But they're still gamers and that is fascinating! In the 90's, video games were intended to be played by kids, developed to be enjoyed by 10 year olds (boys) and games meant for older audiences were scarce. The scene has changed now and we actually see games being targeted to adults and by "adults" I mean people from 20 to 80. We have brain training games (Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training), we have games that activate you physically (Wii Fit Plus) and we have intriguing story driven games (Heavy Rain). This evolution of video game market is interesting and very promising for the media of video games! People grow and find new things they like, they need new kinds of games to keep their interest. Having a wider range of video game genres to choose from will also establish video games as a serious part of modern life.

  But I digress. The thing I mostly thought about when my friend and I talked about the third guy's fatherhood was that I might have kids some day. Will I also become a father who, after tucking the kids in at night, goes online and starts killing virtual Russian soldiers a couple of hours before bed (gotta get up early to work the next day)? It's almost scary thinking about it. Becoming that guy is far, far away from where I am now. Today, I turned 23 years old. Nothing worth making a big deal out of but... My own father was 23 when mom first got pregnant with my big sister. That puts this birthday in a new perspective. "Growing up" is a loose term and saying it implies nothing without context. For now, I'm glad being a 23 year old kid-youth-adult-thingy. At least for one more year.

Travis DG Edna

  Finally back on familiar grounds, I had the chance to upload our latest episode of AIE on Youtube. We're still working hard to refine elements of the show to make it more appealing and entertaining and during the next few episodes I believe you will notice some changes that'll make us look a bit more professional and hopefully the pacing will benefit greatly from this. I have several ideas to change and expand the show and it remains to be seen how many of these ideas that makes it in to the show: Not every good idea is good, so to speak,

  Anyway, be sure to take a look at our latest episode and share your opinion with us. We will listen to your critique and, if possible, adapt to what you like and don't like.

  No that I'm back in Sweden and have access to Internet 24/7 I will of course update the website more often and make more videos and such. I also plan on writing a few reviews, after finally getting my hands on some of last years (!) greatest games. Pata already reviewed Dragon Age: Origins, the bastard, but I have now played the game for over 100 hours and have discovered what a great game it is! Truly, one of my absolute greatest gaming experience in years. One thing bad about the game is the glitches that cut out the sound in conversations some times. I also discovered a very strange glitch, trying to put on Noble cloths on one of the main characters, the cloths turned yellow and you could read the words "DO NOT USE" written on the front and the back of the dress. Very odd.

  I have yet to played the game as a mage but I will do this as soon as I'm done collecting some of the harder Achievements from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Needless to say, the game is an experience no role-playing gamer should miss. I guess I should recommend the PC version, which has superior control possibilities. I myself played it on my Xbox but I found it a bit difficult to manage the team during combat so I mostly played it like a action-adventure game, controlling only the main character.

  What else is new? Oh, it's 2010 now! Looking forward from here, it seems that 2010 might be yet another great year for video gamers. The question is if it can top last year, it won't be easy. Come to think of it, we've had some of video games most important years in history just during these last years of the 21st Century. What year do you regard as the best/greatest/most important? I leave you with this question. You can answer the new "Flavour of the Month" to let us know.

Travis DG Edna

  Oh! I was also told to tell you that Aegidrom won't be writing new posts on the website for a while. Both he and Pata is graduating from high school this summer so they're pretty much buried in schoolwork from this point until they graduate. After that, however, I hope they'll be more involved here. We will still make videos though, don't fret.

It's time to say howdy to your favourite undersea peanut, Aegidrom. To this day I've been letting Travis and Pata get all the fun posting action here on MSE, while I am pushing myself harder, better, faster and stronger in terms of homework. I haven't been able to post anything due to lack of time! But now things are getting a little out of hand, as five posts already shines on this wonderful page, without my name under 'em. Heck, I still haven't got any time, but I'm posting anyway.

So, christmas time is here once again. Time to spend it all on wonderful video games, right? WRONG! The line must be drawn here! We can't let our money run out by buying games to other people, we must make them buy games for us! Make your wish list big this year, and get as many pre-orders as you can on next year's games. We got sequels to Mario Galaxy, Mass Effect, Mafia and Starcraft coming up; we got a new Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear Solid and Metroid approaching; we'll get the third Rock Band, Skate and World of Warcraft expansion set next year; plus I am greatly excited about Alan Wake, a game I think Pata will love.

Of course christmas is about much more than video games (it's hard to imagine) and I think we all need to keep in mind that christmases are getting greener and greener (that's bad). Try to keep your consumption to a minimum and we'll get ourselves a jollier earth, ey mate? Do you know what I do when I don't buy games for christmas? I listen to good music. Now, I know everyone is all jittery about Spotify, but personally the app annoys me with the constant ads. So I'll just go ahead and promote what I'm using: Grooveshark. It's free of charge, free of audio commercials, free of apps, free of invites... It is great, and you should check out this playlist to change that sceptic frown into an awesome smile.

Merry Christmas now everybody!

Regards,

Aegi. 

  Today has been a busy day. I and Stella are moving out of our shared apartment, to our own little flat and I have travelled by bus to and fro, carrying heavy backpacks and various bags with all our belongings. We decided it was best if one person did all the "moving" since we'd save money if we bought one day-ticket. Stella stayed at home and made all the other arrangement.

  To be perfectly honest, I'm glad I got away from cleaning the old place, because every  bus-travel meant Zelda-time for me! I beat a temple and explored the vast world of Hyrule by train. I enjoy "Spirit Tracks" over "Phantom Hourglass". It is as many reviews have pointed out: They've looked at the old game and weeded out all the slow downs and made it smoother, more streamlined. Or should I say "Steamlined"? Sorry, but I really enjoy the new train-feature in the game! It's so much fun riding around and pull the whistle of the locomotive. Speaking of trains, this is the second really great game on the Nintendo DS that has trains in it, this year. Yeah, Professor Layton, and now Link. Peculiar fashion.

  But I'm getting off track here (haha). Living in a shared apartment have means that a lot of things comes for free. We had Internet from day one, all the furniture and kitchenware. Not to mention the fact that our flatmate took care of all the bills and things like that. In that way, many things will change. Starting tomorrow, we won't have Internet, we won't have a really big LCD-screen, hooked up to a computer and we won't have a guy taking care of all the bills and garbage-disposal. No, all that, we have to sort out ourselves. Personally, I think that the Internet-issue will have to be dealt with first and I have already begun to look at some alternatives. Until then, I'll have to visit the nearby library to check my e-mail and keep this website updated.

  Another thing happened today, of the more sad nature. Stella and I were working on a new short film, one which I have been anticipating for some time since it would mark our first try at making something more dark and serious. However, due to artistic differences, the project has been put on ice. It is sad and the short film had a lot going for it, being based on a novel by Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar). But don't be afraid! I have many ideas of my own and as soon as we've safely moved into our new place, I will begin production! Be patient and you will be rewarded.

That's all for this time! I'll try to keep you updated as often as I can but from now on, it'll be more difficult. 

Regards,

Travis

  Today, the new Zelda-game for the DS arrived in the mail, like an early Christmas gift! I was of course very excited and the release of a new title in that particular franchise is always the highlight of the year for me. More so because the Wind Waker was and still is the greatest Zelda-title to date in my opinion and I adore Nintendo for keeping to that graphical style, even if it's just for the handheld games.

  I haven't got around to playing the game yet, though. My cheeky girlfriend snatched the game just as we unpacked it. I was subjected to listen to hear giggle and talk to the game. Very frustrating. I asked her after she was done what her first impression was, to which she replied with a high pitched shriek of joy! That is reassuring and makes me want to play it even more!

  Wait a minute... Why am I writing this when I could be playing "The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks"?

Regards,

Travis DG Edna

Ok guys, this is my first review of a videogame so forgive me if this seems a bit sloppy.

Well then, lets dive in to the wonderful world of art!

At the first sight, Dragonage did not seem so special to me.

I watched a couple of trailers and was not very impressed.

I never liked the roleplaying style in videogames so I did not expect that much.

However, the game was better than I could ever imagine.

For those who dont know about Dragonage, its a roleplaying game where you create a character

and begin a journey to your destiny.

You can be three different races.

Human

Elf

Dwarf

Three classes

Rouge

Mage

Warrior

The main story is that you become a recruit  in the Grey Warden.

The Grey Warden is a company of welltrained warriors, mages and rouges who strives for a better world.

They slay dragons, demons and monsters and you help them do this.

I love the controls in the game!

They are simple for a xbox360 player but I think it can be a little tricky for a player on another console.

The game can be played on PS3 and computer as well so no harm done.

The music is very mellow and made me feel like I was in a fantasyworld and I really liked it.

The story is also great!

Blood, betrayal and love is a really good concept in roleplaying game even though its used by many games.

Its a really good game so I give it 4 out of 6

Well thats about it what I can tell you about "Dragonage Origins"

I hope you liked my review and I see you later.

Regards,

Pata