Nerd musings by Mez.

Short Note: For ALX (Le Parkour Video Game!)

2008-05-07T14:34:00.006-05:00

EDIT: I realize the formatting of the embedded videos is jacked. Anyone have any idea on how to fix it, beyond using Google Presentations to shrink it (Google Presentations doesn't work on Opera, hence my not using it)? Till I figure out how to fix it, I'll let the post run its course down the page as I post more.

BTW, I dedicate this and my last two posts to ALX, who is off in Honduras helpin the villagers with their water and sanitation needz, and who me and the Little Bitty hope will grow his hair back out in a non-exotic bird fashion.

So without further ado, here is a trailer of Mirror's Edge, which is due late, late 2008, and is confirmed for PC.

(In the tradition of Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Thanks Gametrailers! I'd give you ITB4free!)

ALX, I hope you have access to some flash and high speed internets somewhere. I think this game was maked fuh u.

BTW, for those of you who don't know what Parkour is, peep this vid. Starts a little slow, but stay with it.

Seriously, makes me wanna go workout or summet. BTW, I can do all of that. Yup.

DAT TRU SH*T (I heart my PSTriplz)

2008-05-06T15:21:00.007-05:00

Wee, so this draft has been sitting, waiting to be finished, so before I start, I should apologise for the absence between posts. Somewhere along the line, I got kinda busy with school, since I have a whip cracker behind me pushin me to get A's in my classes (not a bad thing).

SO! What? How did this happen, that I have the most hardcore of gaming consoles in my midst? And why do I love that giant hunk of slick, shiny blackness? Well child, let me tell you a story. It is a story of the ages.

The intitial draw to the machine was my desire to have a high def disc platform to feed to my glorious TV, which had long hungered for either Blu-ray or HD-DVD. I had held out because the two had been fighting it out for a winner ala VHS over Betamax, with no end in sight. That whole fiasco finally ended when a trickle of movie studios who signed up exclusively to put out movies on Blu-ray turned into a deluge. Once it was assured that I was not buying a machine that had a chance of becoming obsolete, there was reason #1 to get one.

There was also the draw of the ROCK BANDS, which I had previously played at Mike's, and is full of pure awesome. I had in the past bought a shoddy, used PS2 just to play Guitar Hero, and I was thinking of following suit with Rock Band. Granted, I had a Wii, and as we are seeing now, Rock Band is coming out for it, but I wanted the benefit of a giant hard drive and a means to download the tracks that the developers promised to release (they now have probably more tracks available online than what came with the game), something the PS3 had.

Lastly, there was an element of impulse buying. At the time when I was mullin over the aforementioned reasons to buy one, Sony was beginning to phase out their 80gb PS3 model, which had the benefit of backwards compatability, that is to say, you could play your old PS2 games on it, which is a feature not present in their vanilla 40gb models. True in fact, while I was waiting on Amazon to deliver the PS3, the 80gb models dried up from stores everywhere. Since there were games that I still wanted to play from the PS2 era (Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, the Fatal Frame series, and others). If I had not ordered the 80gb model, I would have missed out of these titles forever, as I did not plan on replacing the dead PS2 that I have at any point.

It bears mentioning that another 80gb version is in the pipeline that will come with Metal Gear Solid 4, but I do not regret getting my Motorstorm bundle. Don't think I could have waited that long.

Now that I have the PS3, I am finding it a great addition to my entertainment setup. The console has proved to have some pretty decent games, to the point where I own more PS3 games than I do Blu-ray movies. That's not a shot against the films, they look amazing in hi-def. There has been plenty of "wow" moments where the clarity is so apparent that you can't help but to remark on it. The machine also upscales my old, plain DVDs to 1080p, which makes them look even better on my TV. With it, I also have a player that I can send the sound to my reciever via a Toslink optical cable, which means I am for sure now getting that Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, versus the Dolby Pro-Logic simulated surround that I would sometimes get before.

I should mentioned a few things to nip the Xbox360 owners who might want to flame it up. I have no illusions about the PS3. The PSN (the Sony equivalent of Microsoft's Live online component) needs some serious work, as does the Cross Media Bar. It's too bad that I still love my PC and still defer to it for my online gaming needs (I welcome my Valve corporate masters). I do know that these issues have fixes in the pipleline, so I expect these criticisms to be moot at some point in the future. Also, I rather like my house.

In other news, Age of Conan is coming later this month. It could change my gaming habits if it ends up rocking. More on that in the coming weeks.

Review: Clive Barker's Jericho (PS3)

2008-03-26T19:04:00.006-05:00

I'm going to try something new today. I'm going to try my hand at a review of sorts. As I am not a big fan of scoring in game reviews, I'm going to let my writing do the talking. In my opinion, which is one that is shared by many, scores and grades assigned to games take away from the actual editorial. Where you might have found a game that might be perfectly suited to your tastes from actually reading a review, some immediately stop reading upon seeing a score. SO! Here goes. I'll be reviewing the PS3 version of Clive Barker's Jericho.

First off, general info. Jericho is a first person shooter (FPS), that employs squad-based mechanics smililar to the ones employed in Republic Commando. Throughout the game, you will be able to jump between any of the six people in your squad, each with their own unique supernatural power and gun preference, among them; telekentic sniper, fire wielding chaingunner, katana wielding blood magician, the astroprojector, reality hacker, and the very cool guns-akimbo healer-priest. Throughout the game, you'll make use of each of their abilities and gun preferences, often as determined by level design (telekinesis to remove obstacles, or slow time to break through a fortified enemy position).

Speaking of level design, it is one of the game's major failings, if not the biggest. I cannot, however, totally throw it under the bus. I think anyone who is a fan of even a snippet of Clive Barker's work will enjoy the goryness and goop laden level aesthetics. There are some seriously disturbing sights throughout the game, along with some very impressive vistas (the Colosseum and the temple in the last level come to mind). With all the blood and guts, the game goes for creepiness rather than horror. This is further enforced by the monster encounters, which don't contribute much to the game beyond giving you something to shoot at while you progress through the level and further the story. No fancy reveals, no "boo" moments to make you jump. The typical monster encounter consists of artifical barriers that can only be surpassed by killing of waves of monsters. There isn't a whole lot of variation in the monsters from one level to another either. Still, once I got the hang of the game and found my niche, I enjoyed killing the lot of them (I particularly enjoyed using the katana wielding blood magician), except for those super tough suicide bomber monsters. Note to developers, if you are going to add kamikazee enemies, dont make them so effin hard to kill. Most of the bosses were interesting in some form or fashion, be it for their look or the encounter design. However, some where confusing at first and I remember killing at least one of the bosses and not really understanding how I did it.

This was my first 1080p game on the system, and it totally showed. Everything was nice and crisp, and made me very pleased with my glorious probably-payed-too-much HD-TV. I can't speak a whole lot about the controls, because it is actually the first FPS I've played on my PS3. I will say that I would have much preferred to play the game with a mouse and keyboard. I think the lack of precision that I had changed my way of playing. Had I the ability to be more precise, I might have made more use of some of the abilities that I avoided, such as the telekinetic bullet, which gives you the potential of being able to string several headshots with one bullet. On the gamepad, the best I could pull off was one head shot, if that, before the bullet went astray into a wall due to my inability to control it.

Jericho isn't exactly triple A material, but I enjoyed this game the way I might have enjoyed playing Halo, that is to say, turn your brain off for a while and kill some uglies.

(Long)Short Note: Late Night PC Repair.

2008-03-20T04:12:00.003-05:00

This is actually a longer Short Note, and it has to do with PC hardware. Reader beware.

Note to self, don't start motherboard swaps after midnight.

I got to swapping all my shit to the new mobo, and all was going smoothly until I tried pulling off the CPU heatsink. The damn thing wouldnt come off as easily as expected. A gentle tug still did the trick, but when I looked down into the socket, I had a slight 'OMG' moment. The CPU came attached to the heatsink when I yanked it off! (It's what I get for using the pre-stuck thermal paste that came with the retail box I suppose.) The chip seemed like it was cemented onto the sink, so I figured, "Well, dont wanna deal with having to clean off cemented thermal paste, if the chip came off without having to lift the little socket latch, mebbe it'll go in the same." I went forward, installing the 8800, my two gigs of ram, and left it at that to see if I could just get a post. No dice. So, I took my pocket knife and started cutting at the cement, which turned out to not be as cemented as I thought. The chip popped off with some work, and it was a sticky mess. Luckily, it wiped off easy enough, with some scrubbing with a box of cleanex that I had nearby. After wiping it all off, getting it all over my fingers and on some of the CPU pins and subsequently wiping those off as well, I finally had a decent looking heatsink and CPU that I could reapply a new thermal compound to and mount.
At this point I get to the moral of the story. I've always been one to wipe down the CPU die and contact area on the heatsink with some Isopropyl (sp?) alchohol or nail polish remover, to be sure that the old compound isn't in the little pockets in the metal that are too small for the eye to see. So, where do I get said cleaning liquids? Alchohol? Parent's bathroom, which I would probably awaken if I went looking around for it. Nail polish remover? Same place, as well as my sisters bedroom, who I certainly do not want to wake in the wee hours of the morning. So now I'm stuck. I had to clean up a bit to type this stuff up and put the project on hold. I really dislike leaving my box unfinished like that, but I see no way around it. Worse still, I have plans pretty much for the rest of the week. Maybe on Sunday, I'll be back for another post about how I finally got my box working. It'll be a good day.

Banging (and) Zombies

2008-02-28T13:55:00.008-06:00

As I approach a month with a still comatose computer, I find myself seeking other avenues to satiate my need for stimuli that comes from my video game-induced low boredom threshold. I've always been a fan of board games, and have recently taken to attending the boardgaming days at Tim's with more frequency. Previously I had always wanted to attend frequently, but for reasons of laziness on Sunday mornings and being chained to the computer, I hardly ever made it out. Now that I am free of any PC psuedo-obligations, the urge to get out of the house and play me some games has been moving me off of my ass. That and the gaming group are a bunch of crazy mfers.

Here are my two games of the moment, consisting of a zombie board game and a western themed card game.

Last Night On Earth
I'm sure by now you now of my love(loathing) of zombies, which means that I had to play this game by default, and was thoroughly pleased when I found that it wasn't bad at all. Predictably, the premise of the game is survivors versus the hoard of zombies, but the game mixes it up by providing scenarios for you to play, which can vary between the simple "kill zombies" to "keep the zombies from entering the manor". Who plays what varies depending on how many players there are, but there will always be 4 human characters trying to survive up to 14 zombies. Depending on the scenario, it can be very challenging to play as the survivors, but the game is well enough to where it doesn't get boring or discouraging to go against the odds. Each character has their own special attributes, so you can play the game differently each time and try out different strategies. Zombies are slow, cheap, and tough to kill, and it's always fun to see how the wave of zombies shifts around the board depending on what the survivors are doing. The game supports 2 to 6 players, and I find it more fun the lesser number of players there are. It can, however, be just as fun with more, so long as everyone knows what they are doing and keep the game from dragging. In any case, you get to kill zombies. Need I say more?
LNAO @ BGG: for more reviews and photos of the game.

Bang!
I'll start off by saying that this game just rocks. If you take anything from this little write-up, know that I have this game and you need to ask about playing it. The premise of the game is that a player will be assigned 1 of 4 roles, consisting of: The Sheriff, the Deputy(ies), Outlaws, and the Renegade. Each role has a different winning condition. The Sheriff wins if he survives and kills all of the Outlaws, the Outlaws win by killing the Sheriff. The Deputy wins if the Sheriff wins, and the Renegade wins by being the last man standing. That all sounds well in good, but the reason the game is so fun is that all the identities are kept secret throughout the whole game, save for the Sheriff's. Players are prohibited to say outloud or gesture what role they are to each other, and can only hint by the way they play their cards, so at the beginning of the game, its a real question of who to shoot, because you could potentially be shooting an ally. The actual game itself consists of turns where the player will play their hand, shooting other players, drinking beer, and trying to figure out who is who. Character cards, each with unique attributes, spice of the game and affect strategery. The game plays fairly quickly, even with a lot of players, there isn't too much downtime. It is a great game, and you must play it. Do this now. Let me bang you.
Bang! @ BBG: For more reviews and photos.

In case you are interested, we usually play them on Sundays at the shop (linked above). U can b nerd 2.

Short Note: The sauce is lazy.

2008-02-23T02:25:00.000-06:00

Just a quick update at 2 in the A.M. to let everyone know that I've not forgotten my blog, I've only been busy enough that when I do have time, I'm too lazy to flex the old writing muscle. I do have plenty to blog about; amongst the subjects: the first cleaning and firing of my Mosin-Nagant, the status of my PC, new board games, and PS3! That's right, PS3. I r traitorous dog. Or steenky. Toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe. Stay tuned!

Re: Romney - WTG America

2008-02-07T15:52:00.000-06:00

Way to go red! And here I was afraid that you guys weren't thinking all the way straight. The guy who once called himself a gay and abortion rights advocate, then ran on an "I'm the most conservative platform" and tried to get in with the gun totin' good ol' boys, announced that he is suspending his campaign today.

Be it for his "flip-flopping" on issues, or perhaps that the Republican base saw him for what he was, a suit, I'm still proud of them. Honestly, the guy lost me at "the drug companies are not bad guys and are helping people". The argument of free market trade justifying the high cost of pharmaceuticals is usually trotted out here, but let my naivety shine here for a second, aren't there many people out there not getting the drugs because they cannot afford healthcare altogether? I am not an economist by any stretch, but expanding your customer base, via a more affordable (or even free single payer) system, and perhaps lower cost of medicine. It sounds like the industry as a whole is engaging in profiteering, and Romney being a peer of such people worried me a great deal.

Side note: I may have mentioned that I am a fan of the idea of a single payer system. Opponents of such a system usually start calling foul by accusing you of being a socialist (which I wouldn't find at all offensive). I read this over at Onegoodmove.org, who found it on OurFuture.org

To that end, here's the first of a two-part series aimed at busting the common myths Americans routinely tell each other about Canadian health care. When the right-wing hysterics drag out these hoary old bogeymen, this time, we need to be armed and ready to blast them into straw. Because, mostly, straw is all they're made of.

1. Canada's health care system is "socialized medicine."
False. In socialized medical systems, the doctors work directly for the state. In Canada (and many other countries with universal care), doctors run their own private practices, just like they do in the US. The only difference is that every doctor deals with one insurer, instead of 150. And that insurer is the provincial government, which is accountable to the legislature and the voters if the quality of coverage is allowed to slide.

The proper term for this is "single-payer insurance." In talking to Americans about it, the better phrase is "Medicare for all."
Source

Back on topic, now we are left with McCain, Huckabee, and Ron Paul. I'll save my thoughts on the three for later, but as it is, I suppose you might say I am pleased with how the GOP race is going.

EDIT: I totally forgot to mention. On his way out, he said:

And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror...

Nice. Equating the election of a Democrat to office with surrendering to terrorists. Typical.

I'm being taken back to the past, to play the awesome games that kick ass.

2008-02-05T13:19:00.000-06:00

In case you missed the reference.
I was browsing through the Wii Virtual Console store the other day, clearly not fixing my computer as I should have been (it's still in a coma). I have to admit, they have put up a very decent selection of the old school games that I played on their original platforms. I got the urge to play some F-Zero X (for N64) while browsing, and was just about to buy it when I realised, "Hey, I own this game already, why buy it a second time?" Thus began my quest to find my old consoles and get them in working order again. Turns out, my SNES and N64 were in boxes around the house, both sans their AC adaptors. Boo-urns. A quick browse through Ebay proved fruitful, and both the adaptors arrived in the mail in a few days time. The SNES seems to be in good shape, playing games with the occasional old school NES cartridge blow or cartridge wiggle. The N64 unfortunately powers on but puts out no image or audio signal, so I'm in the market for a cheap used control deck.

I have to mention the moment when I opened the boxes with the games. I must say, I had a decent taste in games in my youth. I'm not going to list them all, but it was more like Christmas morning than the actual gifts under the tree business. There is also something very cool about playing my old pixellated 16bit favourites on my glorious HDTV.

I started playing through Final Fantasy III (or Final Fantasy IV for you nerd purists). I always regretted not beating it, so we'll see if it maintains my interest long enough to do it this time around. I wonder if that depends on whether or not I fix my computer. Mebbe Lonk will browbeat me enough for me to do it this week. Do this now thx.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I was crazy sick this weekend. Missed a day of work and my Monday class as a result. It seemed to be some sort of stomach bug, with nausea and fever as the main symptoms. I think I can say that at the moment, my stomach is probably as empty as it'll ever be. I can haz cheezburger?

Short Note: I boned my PC.

2008-01-31T14:41:00.000-06:00

You may have read on my last post, I think I scrambled my BIOS to the point of it not booting fully, leaving me unable to get into the OS. You would think that I had the hardware skills to install a SATA drive, having built several computers and all. Alas, I am still a nub deep inside. During the process of trying to get XP to recognize the drive properly, I decided to try to flash my BIOS via a Windows based utility, on account of my not thinking I'd ever need an floppy drive again. Somewhere between the start and the finish occured an error, which resulted in what I assume is an imcomplete BIOS program and a comatose computer. Thanks to Lonk for trying, but after several attempts to revive it, it seems that my last resort is to perform a little bit of surgery on the motherboard. My board comes with a Dual BIOS setup, that is to say, it has a main BIOS and a backup BIOS in case something happens to the main. Unfortunately, the backup is not coming forward and taking over, so the plan is to physically remove the chips from the motherboard and swap their positions on the board, thereby allowing me to boot from the backup, and letting me reflash the main to a working condition thereafter. And I'll be able to get back to watching quality films and killing jerks.

I haven't had the time to do it this week on account of homework. I would have to pull out the motherboard from the case to have room to pry the chips out, and if you have ever built a computer, you know how much of a pain in the ass and time consuming that is. Luckily my laptop is still somewhat of a (relative) beast. It'll still run the Source engine at a decent clip with about medium settings, and since Valve games currently reign on the PC, it buys me some time to buy a replacement motherboard in the event that the surgery is unsuccessful.

Non-nerds may now resume reading.
Buy me a PS3. Thx.

I'm sorry John Edwards.

2008-01-30T18:58:00.000-06:00

What he said.

It is a sad day. It's proposterous to say that I, personally, had not done enough, but it does carry a sting that announcements of Edwards suspending his candidacy appear the day after I post my own endorsement. I am now left to take a harder look at Obama, see what Hillary does next, and hope that Huckabee and Romney don't win their own tickets.

Good news is that Giuliani has dropped and supports McCain. As much as I'd like for a bad candidate to be setup to take the fall against Clinton or Obama, the chimp in office has me hoping for someone with some qualification, just in case.

Now we'll see what Edwards does next. He's still legally allowed to accept campaing contributions, and he has delegates that he has won in the previous primaries that could go to Obama or Clinton. There is also the possibility of him endorsing or even joining Clinton or Obama's ticket, though I'm not sure how I would feel about that.

In other news, it is an all around crap day. The girlfriend is mad at me (my fault), and I may have boned my BIOS, two days before a LAN party. Let's hope for better fortune in trying to fix those problems.

Tell Your Mom and Your Friends to Vote For Edwards

2008-01-06T03:36:00.000-06:00

I've been putting off this post on account of it being some pretty serious subject material, and I'd prefer to have some research behind me on the subject before I put any thoughts in writing. That and I'm a lazy bastard, but you all knew that. But in the interst of giving my readership something to read, I'm going to put down what, admittedly little, I know. For these primaries, it's best for you to sponge everything, no matter how insignificant.

I've become a bit of a die hard John Edwards supporter. As a lefty, of course I'm going to get behind the most populist candidate, and in this race, it's Edwards, bar none. More on that shortly.

One "critiscm" of Edwards, if you can call it that, is the perception that he's already lost. Alright, I'll concede that he hasn't had much success in the first few states, and certainly the media coverage has all but ignored him. In a way, I believe the media is to blame for that false perception. The media thrives on conflict and drama, so when you have stable and steady Edwards on the one hand, they shift all attention to the bickering between Obama and Clinton. To me, I imagine it as a cycle. Give Edwards more coverage, allow him to get his message out, and he'll find more success. I realize that as usual, that is naive of me to hope for, but I truly believe that if people were to look beyond the drama, the glamour, and the tendency to turn these things into two person horse races, that everyone with any kind of populist leanings would be amazed that they hadn't seen it sooner.

I'm not going to go much into specifics about his views on the various issues, mainly because I don't remember specifics. The specifics that I've heard I liked, however, all I need to know is that Edwards has more mandate to call himself a candidate of the people than Obama or Clinton. The fact that he is funding his campaign through Public Campaign Financing is a loud enough gesture alone to tell me that he is anti-corporate and anti-special interest. If elected, the only ones he'll owe favours to is to the public who spent their money to support him. Sure, a cynic might call it a gimick, or suggest that he's taken soft money, but the disadvantage that he has put himself at in an effort to send a message speaks volumes.

Other reasons, he's been good at putting out specific plans out first out of the three, which indicates some balls if you ask me. His policies ere on wresting the power away from the corporations and special interset groups and putting it back in the hands of the people.

What about Obama you ask? Amazing speaker, sounds very sincere, certainly the most charismatic of the three, but I'm still not sure that he speaks to the lefty. He seems to be targetting independents, which makes me wonder about him being a champion of the left. With all the talk of bitaristanship though, that will probably be what gets him elected if he gets on the ticket. He still has to get through that whole Rezko business that I'm sure the media will jump all over in due time. And you guys already know of my thoughs on Hillary, with that shameful tear (shameful in it's insincerity), and seemingly calculated nature. I will admit tho, I have less ire towards her than before.

In conclusion, please, read up on Edwards. Check out his site. He has everything up there, from his stances on the issues to how you can help the campaign, and believe me, now is the time to lend him a hand (I've givin him some cash myself, something I have never done, hell, not even the local PBS station has gotten money from me yet). I wanted to get this out before Super Tuesday (Feb. 5), with the hope that you might find it within you to act. If you know anyone living in one of the Super Tuesday states, or you yourself live in one, spread the word and get out to vote. It is a critical time for Edwards, and we cannot let him die out.

If you haven't registered to vote yet, you are officially a nub.

I Can't Sleep (Call the Wahhhhmbulance)

2007-12-10T13:45:00.001-06:00

I'm tired and crabby. For the past couple of weeks, I've been unable to sleep before three in the morning. This wouldn't be so bad if it were after the semester, but as I type this, I still have one major exam left and a paper to finish writing. Good times, great memories. I should try reading the Bible as a sleep aid again. I'm sure it would work better than my current method; around one or two in the morning, I've been popping in my House MD DVDs and getting under the covers, thereby disengaging myself from the computer, which can keep my brain enganged, and thus awake, for hours. I'll end up getting through two episodes by the time I feel the least bit sleepy.

Speaking of House, what a great find! I had never actually seen an episode of the show, but I was intrigued by the one to two minute clips on Norms excellent site, Onegoodmove. On Black Friday, the House DVDs were put on sale on various websites for around 12 bucks. They normally retail for around 40 bucks, so in a total impulse buy, I ordered seasons one and two. I have to say, I am very pleased with my purchase. Sure, the episodes are extremely formulaic (mysterious illness, House and his team mess with the whiteboard, House has an epiphany, phat healz), but the House character is so entertaining. A genius doctor who doesn't like patients. Reminds me of letting people die in Warcraft raids for being idiots. Despite being one who normally shuns television programming, I still have to wholly recommend House to anyone slightly interested. Then again, you probably already are numb from your CSI, ER, and whatever the kids are watching these days (can I get through a post without being pretentious?).

I guess I should be hunting down my Bible. Hopefully it hasn't burst into flames since I left the flock of sheep.

Short Note: It can be vacation time now pls?

2007-11-30T00:18:00.001-06:00

Alright, school sort of kicked into overdrive all of a sudden, so I feel like I have a lot on my plate at the moment. I'd like to think that I'm doing relatively well, compared to my previous study habits. At the moment I am taking a break from writing one of the papers that I have due in the next two weeks (this one is actually due this Saturday, but hey, its technically not last minute), leaving tomorrow to finish the online assignments for the same class. After that I have to write my reflection of the classroom observation hours, due the 11th of December, along with having to compile my notes for the same class into some sort of journal that the instructor can make some sense of, also due on the 11th. Also for that class I have to make a Powerpoint presentation about some court case involving the Mexican chilluns. Luckily I'm not alone on that assigment, its a group project. I volunteered to do the Powerpoint, so I'm hoping they produce the content. I'm not going to think about the education assigments until I knock out the stuff for this Saturday class.

I guess it's a good thing that I am not beholden to any games at the moment. Its nice to have my distractions be limited to movies that I could watch, which are much easier to avoid than life sucking MMORPGs.

Oh, I also registered for next semester, and have deduced that after this semester, I'll need about fifteen credit hours to go after this Spring. That's full time semester. I have my doubts that I will finish in time; class availabilty will probably force me to take a part time semester or two, but that is some home stretch right there. I can't wait.

N E WAYZ, wish me luck, two more weeks to go till I'm granted a temporary respite.

Short Note: Thanksgiving Weekend

2007-11-26T00:03:00.000-06:00

I think I'll start doing a 'feature' I will call "Short Note" as a sort of filler when I don't have time to do a full-on article as I have been recently. My intent is to populate this thing enough to give what few returning readers I have something to read more often. That said, here is the first.

This string of Thanksgiving days off was pleasant, despite the lack of a lazy day amongst them. During these days I spent some much needed time with Little Bitty. We've been having some issues that seem to be exacerbated by time spent apart, so we got through this weekend in good spirits.

Mike got the ROCK BANDS, which indeed does rock. I had a good time during its inaugural run with him and Carlette. It has a vocal component, akin to karaoke that, suprisingly, I've enjoyed quite a bit. Getting to pretend to be M1K0P4TN was very fun, especially when you add some Monopoly Vodka into the mix. Drumming is hard, makes my leg hurt, and its pretty fun. Rock Band is supposed to hit the Wii at some point, and I hope to pick it up to get my drum on in private. Perhaps I can get enough practice in to be able to coordinate my legs and arms to the point of doing some real drumming. You may laugh at the notion of a video game's ability to do such thing, but I challenge you to try drumming on Rock Band without using some inherent drumming skills. You would fail, I assure you.

I picked up a Wii Zapper and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles this week with my Toys R Us gift card, with the hopes of getting Little Bitty to play through it with me. We didn't get a chance this weekend to get into it, but I did manage to pop a few caps in some zombie asses, to my delight. I so do love the facilitation of zombie perforation. In the face. Facially.

Looking at the week's game release schedule, it looks like the game industry has 'blown it's load' in terms of releases, so to speak. Which is a good thing, because the wallets of gamers accross the country were wrecked for a good while there while the gaming industry worked at padding their fiscal year reports by releasing their cream of the crop in the span of a month or so this fall. I have one more release that is a must have (Call of Duty 4) and then I'm calling it quits for the year. My bank account will thank me.

N E WAYZ, that was my Thanksgiving. Lots of Little Bitty and some Rock Band. I cant think of a better way to spend a holiday weekend (except having Little Bitty heal a 40-man raid group (kidding).

Until next time, bbl ttyl kthxbi.

Rant: Games for Windows: Live

2007-11-21T15:20:00.000-06:00

I am going to indulge myself and rant about some more nerd things. You will read it and begin a revolution on my behalf. Thanks.

I recently purchased Kane & Lynch: Dead Men for the PC on account of its very intriguing plot and characters. The game was panned for being rather generic as far as how it plays, but I am very pleased to say that it has delivered in spades on mood, story, and the characters are indeed very cool and well written. Kotaku summed it up by describing it as "like a buddy movie with killing." I wouldn't call them buddies exactly, as they trust each other about as far as they can throw them, but therein is part of the appeal of the story. It's one of those games that I can see myself watching someone play.

Back to the actual subject of the post, the game was released under the Games for Windows brand, which is all well and good. Bioshock was released under the same brand, and aside from some lame copy-protection DRM BS, it delivered the goods as any triple A PC title would. Where the shit hits the fan is when you add multiplayer into the mix.

Console players have been recently availed the goodness of online gaming in the recent years, for Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live service. It's a pay service essentially, they have to fork over more cash for full functionality in addition to what they are paying for their internet connection. Yes you can play for free using a Silver membership, but it's hardly worth it.

In PC land, we've been burning up bandwith for years now, killing each other over the internets at no cost beyond the price of the game and your internet connection. Full online functionality comes out of the box, requiring no third party beyond voice programs, and even that is becoming increasingly unnecessary due to developers adding voice function in-game. So everything is happy land, until Microsoft comes along and gets greedy.

As soon as you start the game, K&L requires you to sign into or create an account with the Games for Windows: Live service. Since its all tied to the MSN network, I went ahead and set one up fairly easily. I have to wonder, what would happen if I tried playing the game without an internet connection? Would the game not work at all? Worrisome. If you thought having to sign up for some unwarranted third party service just to get to the game menu was bad, it gets worse. Much worse. Worser, worsest even.

Kane & Lynch comes with a pretty interesting online component. It's a hybrid of a co-op and a deathmatch game, where you work together with your "buddies" to pull off heists and split the earnings, with the option of betraying them to keep the loot that you've picked up in a given round. An fairly original and interesting dynamic, and one that I WAS looking forward to trying out.

Alas, with my lowly, free Silver Live membership, I do not have access to the K&L ranking system. I am limited to "List Play", which are stripped down unranked, player hosted games. PC multiplayer games usually run on dedicated servers, which are servers that anyone can run or rent, whose job is specifically to run games that people can jump in and out of. From what I can tell, the Live service does not allow for that. So not only do you not have dedicated servers, you have limited game availability. And it's not just K&L that suffers from such ailments. The much awaited PC port of Gears of War doesn't even let you ping servers unless you have a Gold Membership, meaning you have to join a game and hope that you get a good connection. Unfun. Dissapointing. Worrisome.

I hope this mess doesn't take off. It seems to me that Games for Windows is a step towards the need to obtain a certification to make a PC game, which is something that goes against the grain of the PC's open format. I can't imagine what would happen to the indie games scene (yes there is such a thing) if they were required to check with Microsoft for permission to make their game. And making me pay for my killing simulators? No way. Here's hoping for the failure of this mess. I don't care if it offers PC gamers the ability to headshot console gamers all day. I'm not buying Gears of War for that reason, and it is unfortunate that I they packed into Kane and Lynch, a game that I was very much looking forward to. (Thankfully, the single player game is rocking my ass and is very much worth the price of admission to me.)

Let this be a warning then. If you see Games for Windows Live anywhere on the box, do yourself a favor and do your research. If you are planning to buy it for the multiplayer, you might just be better off getting your kicks elsewhere.

Why I Don't Like Halo

2007-11-04T16:01:00.000-06:00

Anyone who has ever talked video games with me at any length has probably picked up my PC vs. Console snobbery fairly easily. As petty and unhelpful as it is to gamingkind as a whole, I still can be a real dick about my gaming preference. I will elaborate more on that subject on a later date, but for now I'm going to touch on a facet of video game land that is affected by my views about your nubass, dumbed down POS console (I am a very nice person).

Alrighty, the topic of the day is Halo. Word is that the kids think its "all the way live, B". The game isn't popular with just the kids though. Seems every beer swillin frat guy with an Xbox thinks it is a game of epic proportions, a triumph in story telling and in game design. Apparently Halo has become the percieved standard in what it does, a new Doom if you will. The term "Halo clone" makes me just shake my head, as if its some new epic standard to strive for.

Well, if Halo and it's fans have a couch, I'm sure you can guess what malady I wish for to befall it. Here are my beefs, which I may have spent all of two minutes of consideration on.

OMG THE STORY IS EPIC: Halo has a story? Alright, so the amount of hype the game has gotten would hint at some truly epic Lord of the Rings proportioned plot, but, having attempted to play through some of the games, I found myself reaching for the skip button to get through the cutscenes. For lack of a better term, the story is generic sci-fi. That isn't to say that generic sci-fi is necessarily a bad thing. Proper execution can compensate in almost any medium. This is another spot where I fall out of step with the masses.

OMG HALO IS THE BEST: Is it now? That's great. I should preface this by pointing out that this particular point is heavily influenced by my PC gaming preferences. Allow me to elaborate. Halo is a first-person shooter (FPS). The FPS genre was one that was born and for the most part perfected on the PC (with the exception of Goldeneye on N64). Most of the praises that were sung about the first Halo had already been in place by the time the first of the series came along and PA called it like they saw it. OMG VEHICULAR COMBAT you say? Tribes had been doing it for a few years already, and while Halo might have improved on it, Battlefield 1942 followed it and blew it out of the water.

MULTPLAYER RULZ!: This is the one area where I will make a concession. Multiplayer Co-op is like the woah-money-bling-bling-word-pimps-up-hoes-down type of gaming on the planet, so any game that brings it deserves some praise. Regarding the other multiplayer modes, I can be a crusty old bastard again. Been there, done it better. Sure, Halo benefits from a conviniently packaged Xbox Live service, but a PC gamer has all those tools available FOR FREE and can be easily set up provided you aren't a complete idiot, which I would hope a gamer wouldn't be. Judging from what I've heard of the Halo community, however, I think my hope is in vain.

Srsly now, I'm sure Halo is fun, if anything a shooter you can turn off your brain for a while to play. There certainly is a value in those types of titles, and I'm willing to bet that I've played and enjoyed worse games. My last beef is truly the reason that I can't stand the game, and it is possibly twofold. I've already aluded to the'Halo Community' and sung their praises. The same praises that extends to the console community, totally rub my PC gaming sensibilities the wrong way. I've read and heard about the idiots who roam the Xbox Live landscapes, and they are precisely the type of people who give gamers this image of being immature dickheads. And perish the thought, if Halo's sales are any indication, what if gamers actually ARE immature dickheads. It's sales have garnered the attention of mass media, and it disturbs me that the Halo community is what has ended up representing gaming kind as of late. Rest assured non-gamers, on an intellectual level, there is a world of games out there that are beyond trite sci-fi space alien shooting, and it's a shame that they do not get that same level of attention.

As a side note, speaking of mass media attention, the aformentioned beer swilling frat guys also tend to be happy with their cash, resulting in the ridiculous Halo 3 mania that produced many a rolled eyes amongst the cleverer gamer nerds. Read this article to see the sort of garbage journalism that the game series has invoked, as well as product tie-ins that made as much sense as the Hello Kitty Massager.

So there you have it. I am a shallow jerk who puts a value to what kind of box you play your video games on. That and I'm smarter than you. Feel free to call me out in the comments.

I r derilict.

2007-10-30T01:25:00.001-05:00

Snap, looks like I fell into that old habit of neglecting my online journals. Well, for those of you who still pop in here periodically, I do have a couple of articles in mind that I have every intention of writing. They do require a bit of planning, which is probably the reason I've yet to put it down on paper. Not to mention there has been an eff ton of games that I ravenously consumed. It was rather quick however, and I believe I am again hungry for more entertainment.

In other news, those fuckers at Viore finally came through and fulfilled their warranty for my boned TV almost four months later. It was a great relief to finally rid myself of that thousand dollar paperweight.
Couple of days later I went and picked up my new, glorious piece of equipment, to Little Bitty's delight (I secretly know that she only loves me for my giant and powerful television). I was a bit leary of going LCD, despite them being in the middle of the pretty, yet nub, plasmas and the gigantic expensive DLPs, but that all melted away to some love at first sight action. Seriously, if my TV was a wallet, it would say "Bad Motherfucker".

By the way, for us Blu-ray and HD-DVD challenged folks, if you want a nice litmus test of how badass your TV is, pop in this Bowie DVD. I'm not much of a technophile when it comes to film, but something about the way they filmed that DVD makes it look amazing even on your cheapass supermarket DVD players or TVs. Not only that, it rocks balls. Like switcheroo. Switcheroo rocks balls.

I am fighting the urge to buy an effin Wii. Toys'R'Us had a buy 2 get 1 free sale on all games in the store, and my nub ass went and bought some. I picked up Warioware: Smooth Moves, the new Zelda, and Mario Party 8. I gave the Zelda game to my bro for his birthday, but that Smooth Moves calls me from the closet to bring it home a nice Wii to penetrate. It calls me Tyrone.

NEwAYz! A brutals blog guitar tv specials pay per view should be around the corner, hopefully. Stay tuned in any case, because u luvs me ITB.

Why I Don't Like Hillary

2007-10-08T15:40:00.000-05:00

If you have taken the time to talk politics with me recently, you will find out that I have some weird ire against poor Hillary. I really haven't sat down and thought about why, but since some people have asked, I'll try to put it down in writing.

Let's talk issues. But let me put out a disclaimer of sorts. I am an optimist, and idealist, and I'm pretty sure that I am naive to a large degree. That said, let's continue.

First thing that comes to my mind is health care. Okay, we've all seen the Michael Moore movie, but all that did was add some potent fuel to the fire of the debate. As Lonk will tellya, I'm a commie pinko lefty, and what Sicko pointed out to me was that you can entrust certain spheres of society to a socialist type system. Moore used the example of our education system as evidence of this notion. Granted, we aren't doing too hot on that front as a country, but I attribute that to bad policy based on little or no research. WTG high stakes testing. I could go on about education, but the subject would become a post in itself. I am in favour of some state run healthcare, so naturally I would get behind a candidate that is looking to toss our current 3rd party healthcare system. Sadly, out of my favourite candidates, only Kucinich seems to be all about removing them from the equation. By the way, I do like how the fear mongers are equating the word "universal" with "socialist". They are not necessarily one in the same. All that "universal" implies is that everyone gets healthcare, no matter what the system. Anyway, Hillary, Hillary, Hillary. From her site:

Unlike the current health system where insurance premiums send people into bankruptcy, the plan provides tax credits for working families to help them cover their costs. The tax credits will ensure that working families never have to pay more than a limited percentage of their income for health care.

WTF. Nothing is said about fixing our current problems with insurance companies. Such a plan would pretty much let a 3rd party, a profit driven enterprise, continue to have a say in YOUR healthcare. And this is from the former champion of healthcare reform. Ugh.

The Iraq such as and. I really can't say much about it. As far as this issue goes, what's done is done, and while I'd like nothing more than to get our boys out of there, I realize that this is a case of "we've made our bed, now lay in it". By the way, and this may be misinformed naivety talking again, but it seems to me that the place is heading towards a partition. Anyway, I agree that talk about immediate pull out is not only a bad idea, it is unjust. I've heard of Iraqis prefering a US presence over a pull out on account of them holding back sectarian violence against them. At least she is not making unrealistic promises. Note, she voted for the Iraq War Resolution. Of the top 3 candidates, only Obama voted against it. Minus 10 points for putting politics before common sense, because, c'mon, she's a smart lady, she had to have seen the forest for the trees.

I could carry on about the issues, but really, it comes down to one thing. While talking to ALX, I saw the source of my negativity. What it comes down to, is that I am so utterly DISAPPOINTED at Hillary's "selling out". Sometime between her days as First Lady, where she caved to the insurance companies, and now, she became a corporate Democrat. And as a commie pinko, you can imagine how much I LOVE corporations. She sat in the Senate Armed Services Committee, lot of good she did there. In ALX's words, she thinks inside the box.

Little Bitty was disappointed about my ire for Hillary, and you know what, I'm disappointed too. She could have been such an awesome progressive candidate, and it makes me angry that such potential has been squandered. Does that make sense?

Sort of off topic.
WHY IS EDWARDS 3RD!? Fix it thx.

Metal + Wii = Fun

2007-10-08T01:27:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty good weekend, the lady and I. Thanks to Mike for having us and ALX over for some Wii and Metalocalypse.

Our visit is pushing me further towards a decision to buy a Wii. Lack of room be damned, playing even a stale game like Wii Sports has been fun everytime. That Wii remote is just too cool. Again, anything that gets Little Bitty (as I have taken to calling her recently) playing video games is bomb diggety, son.

After playing a good round of Wii sports, Mike hooked up yeh old PS2 for some THUNDA....HORSE, as it has been stuck in my head for days. We blew ass before a few warmups, but we got through it taking turns on lead, ending up on the green both times. Metal.

I have a little rant about the PS3. If not a rant, at least a comment. Now, no matter what Lonk says about how evil and shitty the PS3 is, I still maintain that the at-the-moment paperweight has some awesome potential. I hesitate to lobby any criticism, so as to cause Mike some undue buyer's remorse, but those motherfuckers at Sony have done PS3 owners wrong by not sending out the system with some games that are worth playing (I don't entirely disagree with Lonk). I'm SURE it is something that they could have helped. In the whole night, we only touched the box to play Metalocalypse. Pretty jacked if you ask me.
Granted, one could argue similarly against the Wii, but no, that's not gonna stick. The games are fun, at worst a little kitschy, and they appeal to a wider audience, negating the vitriol from the hardcore gamer. Cooking Mama is fun, dammet. GEWD JUBB!

So yeah, as you might have been able to tell from my little jukebox button up there, Dethklok has been ruling my brainwaves for a good week now (I like the contrast of my Pink page and its metal soundtrack). I was initially turned on to Thunderhorse by playing it on Guitar Hero 2. In my book, it's one of the top 5, maybe 3, tracks in the game, for the fact that it's one of those shredder tracks that just make you feel badass for pulling off. Turns out Dethklok is a fictional band from a show on Adult Swim, Metalocalypse, as I have previously mentioned. Mike picked up the DVD of the first season, and after we had burned some serius Wii calories, we sat down and watched some episodes. Granted, by this time I was on Corona # 6 or 7, but the show was pretty good. The songs are enjoyable in the context of the show, and it's bizzare to the point of being funny. I went home with the theme song in my head, which I will upload to the Stuck in My Head box shortly.
It also spawned a new "Your Face" joke: Your face looks like Murderface.

The only damper on the evening was Little Bitty being a jerk. I didn't hold it against her too much though, as everyone is entitled to some jerk time. ASS. In any case, she made up for it today. We had some good ass WANGS and watched a bad movie (Truth About Charlie), which in our relationship, is heavenly. Good times.

I have some skinny exam lootz this week, but I have some posts brewing in my head (why I hate Halo, why I don't like Hillary), so stay tuned on the off chance that I am not a lazy, Bioshock-playing bastard.

EDIT: Regarding my PS3 comments, I wake up the morning after and find this article on Kotaku.

DOODILY TIKKTOK TIKKTOK

WTB New Game PST

2007-10-04T14:08:00.000-05:00

In the recent months, me and lady have discovered something about me that was previously hidden while in the grips of the various lifesucking video games that I have tended to drift towards. It seems that when I am bored, my mood shifts from my usual cheery, perma-grin demeanor, to one more anxious and surly. You might call it "a case of the blahs". I become a sheer joy to converse with, as I'm sure she will attest to. Previously, there was usually some game that had me in its grips, be it Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, or whatever flavor of the month FPS that was out at the time, ultimately leading to a situation where I would absolutely never be bored.

These days I am in a sort of gaming limbo. Most recently, my crack was World of Warcraft, but a stale game coupled with conflicts between friends turned me off entirely from the game, and since then I have been game hopping, looking for a place for either me or my group of friends to land comfortably.

A recent big title (no, not Halo), was Bioshock, which I ended up picking up based on a very positive critical reception and recommendation from friends. Fortunately, the praise was merited. While it is not a particularly spectacular shooter in terms of how the game plays, the story is brilliant. The story is a sort of "what if" where the game takes place in a dystopian city where individualism is wholly embraced and free market capitalism in pure form is the rule. Heavy stuff that I hope raises the bar for future games and makes me feel good about video games as a medium. HOWEVER, I still haven't beaten it weeks later, as I cannot bring myself to play it for more than a few hours in a week, and thus, it is not the answer to my boredome problem. By all means though, pick up the game if you havent (on PC and the 360). It is a must have.

I also tried out City of Heroes/Villains, and managed to bring my friends over with me. As I'm sure you guys have read before, the game was such a breath of casual fresh air after WoW, and those first couple of weeks with everyone there were great. Unfortunately, interest has waned, and at best we'll have 2 people from the group on at a time, often making it a single player experience. From MMORPG genre I have developed a taste for companionship and comradery in my games, especially in games that fall into said genre, and thus, I think CoV is on it's way out.

So where does that leave me? Well, there are games in the horizon. Crysis, Left4Dead, the Orange Box (Portal!). Tabula Rasa was a dud after trying it, but Age of Conan is still a possibility. I have noticed one thing. I've recently become very jaded about upcoming releases. Where I would usually don rose coloured glasses and have high hopes for games, these days I have a cynical attitude about them. I suppose it might be a good thing, as setting a low bar means you'll be dissapointed less often. I think Lonk is rubbing off on me.

Until those games are out already, what to do?

Tentative to-do list: Clean my dirty old Mostin-Nagant already. Go out. Not be a nerd. Read a book. Do homework. Join a gang and deal drugs (I am from the streets after all). If I had a working TV and some disposable cash, I'd consider getting a Wii.
Or I could just click my time away reading new sites and video game news sites. Good times.