stuff

• 2Nov 09

  Played you like a violin and cut your strings

  Hey peoples. Been a while since I last updated. My twenty first birthday happened a couple weeks ago. Weird how that number just keeps getting bigger. To celebrate I did the most original thing. Drink some alcoholic beverages. I know, crazy, right?

  Tried some whisky, some vodka and some beer. Thought it all tasted god awful. Tried mixing it with soda and orange juice. Still tasted pretty terrible. I hear wine's pretty good though. May try that next time.

  Aside from drinking myself into a stupor I got presents. Those are always fun. I got videogames and monies. Lets see, I got...

  Fable 2

  

  Star Ocean: The Last Hope

  

  And Tales of Vesperia

  

  Yeah, I've been wanting me some good rpgs. So far I've beat the living crap out of Fable 2. I've even earned most of the achievements(not counting those ones for the DLC). It was surprsingle short, or at least the main quest and theres not even a final boss. Still the conclusion is pretty cool.
  
  The morality system is kinda iffy on that game just because morality is pretty subjective and the graphics are barely a step above the original Fable(which I'm actually going to try to give another chance since I enjoyed Fable 2 so much). Otherwise though Fable 2 is a pretty good game.

  With Tales of Vesperia I'm pretty far into it, but I Have no clue how close I am to the conclusion. The last Tales game I played took me roughly sixty hours so I could very well be a ways off from finishing the game. So far I can sayI Like it more than Tales of Symphonia. The characters are more interesting the the plot is less predictable. As for Star Ocean, I decided to leave that for when I finish Tales of Vesperia.

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  I got a Microsoft points card recently(birthday and all) and so I decided to finally purchase that Battledield 1943 I've been eyeing for the past few months.

  

  Unfortunatly it seems now that not too many of my friends are playing it. The guy I've playing it with these past couple weeks just got the red ring of death. One of the people I thought had it actualy just went to a friend's house to play it. And my other friends who have it are too busy playing Call of Duty 4 hyping up Modern Warfare 2.

  Aside from the battlefield I just rented Batman Arkham Asylum. It's pretty good. If you dig Metal Gear Solid you'll deffintely enjoy this. I haven;t beat it yet but the plot is surpringly weak. Not that thats a terrible thing I guess, it is a videogame. If nothing else there are alot of collectibles and stuff that expose more of the batman universe or what ever. The trippy scenes with the scarecrow are pretty cool.

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  I Just recently got the new update for x-box live. The one thats coming Thursday. I'm not sure why Microsoft waitied till last Saturday to give it to me(I signed up for the preview program.

  So you know how the dashboard is now, right? Yeah, imagine that but exactly the same. I know, impressive, right? The difference now is they have a few new non game related applications you can download.

  Lets see, I'll start with facebook. It's kinda like facebook but worse. The facebook application doesnlt allow you to start of chats, you can't look through your current friend requests let alone accept any, you can't even look at your own wall, you can't update your personal information despite being able to look at it. All you can do is update your status, comment on your friends' statuses, look through your firneds list and look at photos.

  Nexts, twitter. Oh wait, twitter is a hunk of pointless garbage, why would I download that?

  Next, last.FM. It's like pandora on your xbox. I never used last.fm before so I have no idea if it works any different on your computer which brings me to my question - Why can't microsoft provide us with a web browser on the xbox 360? I mean if they want us to check out these pages we could at least view them with out missing features using a web browser. The Wii has a web browser, why can't the 360 have one.

  It's really not too important. I use my 360 gaming. But if your going to have features like face book and twitter around I don't understand the point of hyping these incomplete apps when they could just give us a web browser. Oh well, I'll at least enjoy Last.fm.

  Moving on from all that crap lets talk about the only impressive feature of the update; Halo Waypoint. It's a massive crazy database of awesomely awesome Halo stuff. This puppy has info on just about anything you want to to know about Halo. Plot summaries for each of the Halo games, novels and comics. Theres some odd stuff here and there missing but there will be weekly updates. You can also borwse alot of the Halo videas that have been hosted on live such as content put on the market place like vidocs and even the inside x-box features. All the videos are streamed so it never takes a toll on your hard drive.

  On Halo Waypoint you can also browse all Halo related market place content. Halo Waypoint even shows you how many of your friends are currently playing Halo games on x-box live(except for Halo 2). Whats also cool is that Halo Waypoint scans and keeps track of your progress on the Halo achievements(except the PC version of Halo 2). Currently I've got almost every achievements in all the Halo and so I'm a level fourty, the highest rank. You can also earn medals by earning particular achievements.

  THe career stat tracking impressive but also a little disapointing. I thought it was going to be like Bungie.net and track your games and kills and stuff as well. Unfortunatly this isn't the case. It's limited to just your achievements. Still, Waypoint will continue to get updates on a regular basis so hopefully the career stack tracking can be improves.

  Another cool thing about the stat tracking though is that earning certain achievements in the Halo games will net you some nice avatar awards in Halo Waypoint. I got all the ones currently available. You get a monitor as an avatar prop(a monitor like Guilty Spark), you can get ODST armor(comes with the helmet, can't were the armor without the helmet), ODST helmet, Recon Helmet and a jacket with a really cool shirt with a heart on it and a ODST and Recon helmet on it.

  

  The avatar awards were probably the best surprise of waypoint. I'm completely surprised, I figured Microsoft would just sell this stuff for ridiculous prices on the avatar market place. Frank O'Connor's influnece must be stronger than I thought

  I forgot to mention, Waypoint is just as involved in the Halo community Bungie to my delight. On the front page right now theres an interview with the creator of Halo.bungie.org and you can also find a section in Halo waypoints showing off a gallery of cosplayer and another of player created screenshots of worthogs in Halo 3.
  
  Halo Waypoint is pretty awesome. But it's something thats only going to get Halo fans excited, obviously. Pretty much the rest of the update is going to leave alot of people unimpressed except for those nuts who live and breathe facebook and twitter.

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  Other random stuff:

  - I saw Land of the Lost(the new movie, not the old show or the even older show). It's awesome, I demand you watch it nao

  -The tracks that plays in the start menu for Halo: Waypoint is from Halo Wars

  -Last week I spent an hour looking for a video rental place that I've gone regularly. They go under a different name in the phone book than the sign on the fron of their *ucking building so I thought I was looking for a place I had never been to.

  -love hurts

  • Posted Nov 2, 2009 11:11 am GMT
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• 8Oct 09

  I know what the aliens like

  So yeah, guess what I got like two weeks ago?

  

  Big surprise, right? I originally intended on making a blog dedicated to my thoughts on the game but between my computer screwing up on me and Gamespot eating previous efforts at a blog I've given up.

  I'll just try and express what I think about the game with much less detail for maximum time saving powers! In short, I thought it was good but not fatastic. It was pretty what I expected. A good but short campaign. Fire FIght is a nice diversion although the lack of matchmaking is disapointing and the games ending just because player leaves is a but frustrating.

  The music is fantastic though. Seriously considering purchasing the soundtrack. The story is interesting but you learn next to nothing about the color cast of characters, especially Dutch and Mickey.

  Again, just to be brief, the gameplay is pretty much a throw back to Halo: Combat Evolved. Although with the return of health packs it's arguably a step backward. While being reduced to all this may feel a bit lame at times it also is a breathe of fresh air to feel less than invincable for once.

  Regardless Halo has now been around for nearly a decade and I think ODST takes the core gameplay Halo has thrived on to it's limits. It's fun but I think Reach should take the series in a new direction in terms of gameplay. I've been a fan of this series for about six years and I'm still having fun. Hopefully unlike Pokemon and Call of Duty Halo can evolve and keep me coming back.

  Anyway, I'll probably get around to reviewing this some time. It'll probably be scoring in the 8 to 8.5. Good game but it's not for everyone. For a few reason.

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  Speaking of Halo I got Helljumpers part 2

  

  Hopefully this series dives a bit deeper into ODST's cast. Anyway in this issue not much happens. The main characters find some covenant and fight em'. Ends in a cliff hanger. It feels like the heading towards something with these cool sneaky covenant guys but yeah... I'm kinda hating how cominc books contain little story at all. You have to collect a crap ton before you get much of anything. I think in this respect I prefer manga. They generally come with much more.

  I was looking through the dates for future issues and the finalpart of this is part story isn't suppose to come out till Novermber. Sheesh, ridiculous. The series has been going since like June and it doesnt end till November. A six part series and each issue is only something like eighty to one hundred pages. Yeah, after this I'm either done with Halo comic books or I'm waiting till series is fully released before digging into it.

  Well, at least this isn;t as bad as Uprising. Hopefully.

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  I won an HD TV from a Section 8 contest held by Machinima back in late August. I intended to blog it but yeah, I never got around to it until now. It was pretty cool, you could see my gamertag up on the machinima facebook page and everything. It's down now though. Funny thing is I stil haven't got it. You'd be surprised how paper work you have ti fill out for free stuff. Oh well.

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  I rented a few games these past couple weeks. Just for kicks. FIrst I rented Spider-Man Web of shadows and Ninja Gaiden 2.

  Spider-Man Web of Shadows is pretty fun. THe combat system is pretty impressive and you can upgrade you combat abilities for both your red and black suits.

  The game has a whole choice system thingy based on good n' evil. I've typically had mix feeling about games that do this. For example, in web of shadows I went through the entire game doing all the hero choices. Once I finished the game I wnet back to my last save to see how the game would play out if I made the evil choice at the end. Not to spoil any thing but Spider-man did a really mean thing yet I still got the good guy ending.

  Web of Shadows chooses the ending based on how many good choices I made. What I choose and why really didn;t matter. The plot doesnt really try to make sense of what I do. It just happens and the game goes with it. And so like with my example you can make choices that completly contradict what you'd been doing the entire time through the game and the game really makes no effort to acknowledge that.

  Also, your choices made in the game really don;t effect what you do. I checked through the game's achievements and there were no major boss character I didn;t fight on my first run. So you fight all the same major enemies through out the entire game regardless of how the story unravels. After beating it as a hero I went about half way through wmaking evil choices and everything was about the same except the cut scenes and who was giving me (the same exact)mission in a small segment of the game.

  All that aside, like I said it's still a fun game excluding some really annonying protection/escort missions. And I must admit the game has more of them than pretty much any other game I've ever played.

  May or may not review. If so It'll probably be a 7.5/10

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  Ninja Gaiden 2. Yes, I rented that too. Not much else I can say. It was frustrating, not fun so I quit after I got to like the third boss.

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  After Ninja Gaiden 2 and Spider-man: Web of Shadows I rented GHost Busters the videogame. You maybe surprised to learn it's alot like Gears of War it's only missing the cover mechanic. Which isn;t such a bad thing considering the contect. You're exactly fighting heavily arming monster popping up from the ground.

  Actually, it's sorta like Pokemon too, what with all the capturing of ghosts. And like Metroid with constant ghost scanning. And a little bit of Super Mario Sunshine with the sludge cleaning. We have a hybrid on our hands.

  Still I kinda wanna categorize it as a shooter what with the main gameplay focus being on shooting ghost with a laser.

  As fun as it all is though it's pretty short. About four hours. I was pretty disapointed to learn there was no co-op for campaign. There is however a collection of co-op games to play. It's all based on "campaigns". Each of these campaign don;t tell a story. Their actually just a collection of assorted objective on three maps per campaign. Theres like four or five campaigns.

  It's pretty fun, but good luck finding players. For the few days I played Ghost Busters I was only able to play one game with a full team. The multiplayer is 4-player co-op so it;s kinda sad I had so much trouble finding a full game or games at all.

  While Ghost busters is a fun game considering how short the campaign is and how difficult it is to play a multiplayer match I really wouldnt reccomend it purchasing it or at least not for mor than twenty bucks. It's a perfect rental though. And if this were a review I'd probably give it a 7.5/10

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  Other random stuff:

  -I rented X-men Origins: Wolverine. It was surprisingly good movie. I reccomend checking it out.

  -I've been trying to rent Batman: Arkham Asylum but someone else seems to always beat me to the punch

  -I'm getting sick of competetive multiplayer gaming.

  -I've been having a frustrating time earning the "Vidmaster: Endure" achievements in Halo 3: ODST

  -I noticed that out of the seventy games I've played on the 360 only about fifteen of them were shooters. Really surprised me

  -I purchased the Last Remant. Not much else I can say. Haven;t got very far

  • Posted Oct 8, 2009 2:48 pm GMT
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• 6Sep 09

  Hedgehog Day

  So I've been playin my Sonic the Hedgehog games on my 360 in anticipation of Sonic and Knuckles and in these past couple of weeks I managed to earn all the achievements in Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2 and 3. Finally. The ones that I earned in Sonic the Hedgehog were the ones for beating the game in less than fourty minutes, for beating it without dying, completing Marble Zone Act 1 in less than a minute and twenty second and collecting all the chaos emeralds.

  

  For Sonic the Hedgehog 2 I got the achievements for completing the game in less than an hour, collecting all the chaos emeralds, going super Sonic and the one for remaining Super Sonic for an entire minute.

  

  And for Sonic 3 I finally got all the chaos emeralds. Yeah, I had already collected most of the achievements in that game a few months ago. Easier than Sonic 1 and 2.

  

  Before you go on telling me all about how Vash has all the mad skills, keep in mind that the 360 version of these games allow you to save at any moment of the game so much frustration, time and skill is saved.

  Still, it was pretty cool turning into Super Sonic for the first time in Sonic 2 and 3. Talk about making the old feel new. It's intersting to see the difference in Super Sonic's appearance. In Sonic 2 Super Sonic's eyes remain black. In Sonic 3 Sonic's eyes turn green(what Sonic's current day base form's eye color is). However in current day Sonic games Super Sonic's eyes are red.

  Anyway, I'm totally ready for Sonic and Knuckles later this week. It'll be nice to finally play it again after like twelve years.

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  In non Sonic related gaming, I finally got this here achievement for Uno ---->For bluffing on a Wild Draw four twice in one match. Can't tell you how difficult it is to get that. Have to be lucky enough to get two Wild Draw fours in one round and, let alone be able to play them both when you don't need to without being challegned. So after two years I finally got all the achievements for Uno. That makes six completed games so far.

  In Gears of War 2 this weekend theres finally a new double EXP weekend. This weekend for Labor day there are extra Sire and every tenth wave is made up of nothing but Sires. For those who don't know or remember what they are, Sires are the big monster thingies in Gears 2 that are unarmed and just run at you like retards. Makes for the easiest tenth wave ever and easy experience.

  

  Yeah.... They aren't winning any beauty contests. The common tactic in killing them is chainsawing them. It takes way too much time to shoot them up and since they don't shoot back it's a waste of ammo. In wave ten though theres so many that everyone is chainsawing which commonly causes the frame rate to dip a little what will all the blood, guts and monster flesh being produced and laying around everywhere on the ground. It's pretty funny, actually.

  They did assist in eaning this cool achievement rite hur --->

  For completing fourty waves of horde on the Memorial map as well as achieving level fourty in rank. Yes, the Vashanator loves the little pics and numbers.

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  I got Halo: Helljumper #1

  

  It's alright. Deffinitely seems better than Uprising already. Likable characters, great art work, fairly good wwriting. The main complaint I have for it though is all the ads. Eight of the thirty two pages are ads. Thats one ad per four pages. What ever. I've ordered the next part and it should be coming in any day now so I'll likely be talking about it in the next blog along with Sonic and Knuckles.

  Speaking of Halo, you guys should check out the live action Halo 3 ODST trailer, if thats something that interests you.

  Trailer

  Personally I thought it was pretty cool although I thought the Brute looked a little goofy. Still, pretty awesome. As a testament to my ultra Halo fandom I noticed a couple things that seemed... A bit off.

  Early in the trailer you see the main character seemingly training to become an ODST. However, you can't exactly enlist to become an ODST in the same way you would a marine or anything. You have to be an experienced veteran in combat. You can't just enlist right off the bat. So theres no such thing as a green ODST.

  Secondly, toward the end of the trailer you see ODSTs being dropped in the thick of combat - in open combat. But you see them all carrying sound suppressed SMGs. As I recall these models of the SMG are generally used for more secret stealthy operations. They aren't exactly standard issue. A sound supressor isn't going to do you much good in the more open warfare setting seen in the trailer. The MAFC assault rifle however is more standard issue and would have made more sense to have equiped...

  Just saying. It still doesnt detract the from the entertainment from the trailer and I'm pretty sure the trailer isn't really canon anyway. Who cares, right?

  • Posted Sep 6, 2009 9:24 pm GMT
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