Welcome to the world of pure madness and evil! Muahahahahahaha!!

Ah... if only that were true...

• 21Jan 07

  Video Game Woes

  I've now plunged into the hell that is video game withdrawal.
  
  My Xbox 360 is out for the count, as I've mentioned in previous blog posts. That's not new. But now the unspeakable happened: My desktop computer is on the fritz too! I built it myself, so I know what's wrong with it. I think the lightning storm that we had in Southern California, which claimed my 360, also knocked out either the power supply unit or the motherboard (I took it to a repair shop anyway just to make sure). It was running ok for a week after the 360 died, but now it won't run either. When I turn it on, the fans are running but the POST screen doesn't show up.
  
  All nerdery aside, what this means is that both next gen gaming (360) and ridiculously in the future gaming (my PC [hey, it's a sweet rig]) is well out of my reach. Sure, I have my PS2. I have Okami and FFXII, but I want to play Saints Row and Company of Heroes every once in a while too. I'm being denied!
  
  The worst thing of all, I'm resorting to playing World of Warcraft again because it's the only decent game that I own for my Macbook. I never got addicted to WoW (because I was addicted to Star Wars Galaxies ), but I like to resub to it when I'm bored and I want to check out what's new. But every time I do that, I dread the day when the game sucks me in completely and I don't want that to happen.
  
  Nah, it'll never happen, I think the game sucks. Look, just because 8 million people are playing it doesn't mean that I have to like it. I will admit that it's a nice distraction.
  
  Back on topic, PS2 games and my Macbook (with the sweet iLife software) have been keeping me busy for the most part, but that itch to play ESIV: Oblivion and Gears of War is getting to me. And I seriously want to check out Lost Planet.
  
  Just a little while longer...
  
  
  
  • Posted Jan 21, 2007 11:11 am GMT
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• 20Jan 07

  A little piece of fandom.

  I was walking to class when I saw this in the parking lot:
  
  
  
  Gotta appreciate someone's love for a game.
  
  • Posted Jan 20, 2007 7:09 pm GMT
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• 8Jan 07

  Yet another casualty of life... (again), and more on my 360!

  While I work 40 hours a week (that’s a full work week in the US for people who don’t know), I think I’ve gotten used to it enough to where I don’t think it hinders the things I enjoy in life.  In fact, I now consider it a necessity for my fun.  Hell, how else am I going to pay for my $1400 HDTV, $400 Xbox 360, $700 worth of games, and this $2000 Macbook (initially $1300 with student discount, but the price of software adds up) that I’m using to write to you today?
  
  But there’s another aspect of my schedule that starts at about an hour from now, and it’s college.  I’ve taken up three, nine-unit classes this semester: a survey of children’s literature class, a nutrition class, and the obligatory short fiction writing class (my major is in English [emphasis in creative writing].  Two of those classes are there just to kill time while I wait for my transfer applications to pull through.  The other one, the nutrition class, I need for my associate’s degree.  Why get one?  Well, I’ve been in jr college for the passed five freaking years, I should get something out of it!
  
  I can talk about my university hopes in more detail later. I’m more interested in talking about gaming right now, especially since my busted 360 is about the biggest news I could think of in my gaming life.  Let me tell you this, I’ve never had a system die out on me.  Never.  All my past systems (including my PC) have been subjected to a modest amount of punishment, whether it were the occasional kick from my inconsiderate cousins or the power surge from the rare thunderstorm.  This, I consider to be, part of the normal wear and tear that game systems live by.  Who wouldn’t expect their system to be bumped into?  They market these console system to families, and families mean clumsy children (and even adults [mostly the drunk, uncle type of adults]!).  That’s why they ship these things in pretty plastic housings instead of selling them in their naked form, with all their  circuit boards exposed.
  
  My 360 (I emphasize the “My”) fails the real world test.  It dies on me within 6 months of purchase, without being subjected to the abuse that I’ve mentioned earlier.  I assure you that I’ve taken good care of it.  I was aware of the overheating issues and therefore kept the system a good distance away from other objects, making sure that it has plenty of ventilation.  I also made sure that it’s plugged to a surge protector, because you never know when lightning will fry a system you paid hundreds of dollars for.  Despite all those precautions, it’s toast.  
  
  My only speculation is that my surge protector failed to protect the 360 on Friday night.  Then again my TV, sound system, VCR, and three-year-old PS2 were also plugged into the same power strip and they’re all fine.  It’s a fallacy to automatically assume that one follows the other, so I won’t pursue it any further.  Besides, Microsoft said they would fix my system free of charge, so I won’t rag on the system much more than I have now.
  
  Of course, now that my Xbox 360 is down, this has given me the opportunity to work on games from other platforms.  I’ll talk about it in detail another day, but I will say that I’ve finished Kirby Squeak Squad over the weekend.  Oh, and I’m going to pop in Katamari Damacy and give it a spin tonight after class.
  
  • Posted Jan 8, 2007 6:14 pm GMT
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