Selling My Wii, For Reals
July 24, 2008

I know that I've talked about it before, but I'm finally getting around to doing it. I'll be distributing fliers at work advertising that my Wii is for sale. I figure, the sheer fact that I haven't unpacked it since moving has to say something about my love of the system. My recent PS3 purchase has ground the idea of keeping the Wii into the ground - I just plain don't like the Wii's line-up. I do admit that there's a few good games out there that I haven't picked up, but I feel like they don't really warrant keeping the system.

It also doesn't help that I can't hook it up to my monitor, and it requires a TV since it only has analog output. Unfortunate indeed, but the Wii is also something that I couldn't play from my office chair.

So, the Wii is going up for sale whether it likes it or not. I'll be selling it off for $250 to friends or coworkers, or putting it up on eBay to try to get more money out of the little guy. I figure that it'll put a nice dent into the PS3's price that I've just paid and finally get it to stop collecting dust in my house.

Goodbye Wii!

My 360 Demos, They Don't Exist
April 04, 2008

Just to show that I'm an equal opportunity bitcher I wanted to bring up the fact that the 360 hasn't had any demos released for it in a long time. I actually went back to see if Two Worlds was as bad as I remembered the demo to be, and found out that I was right. I've even contemplated purchasing a few of the Xbox Originals just for some new downloadable content. Alas, I am cheap and won't fork over my money that easily.

Imagine my surprise when I checked Xbox Live last night before going to bed. There it was, a shiny new jewel of a demo. To make matters better, it was a demo for a game that I was actually interested in - Army of Two. Damn right, I started downloading that mofo faster than Babbles sits in James' chair.

I got home today eager to try it out to see if it was as cool as the footage would lead me to believe. I was left with two take-away points; A) EA wants you to create an account and B) it's unfortunately a multiplayer only demo. I was completely baffled by point A since I already have a Live GOLD account and really don't want to sign up for yet another service to play on top of the service that's supposed to let me play play games over it. Point B was simply irritating, because I want my first experience with a game to be at my own pace enjoying and savoring things.

Oh well. There's a busy weekend ahead, what with Code Camp happening on Caturday.

Omega Five
January 11, 2008

In between Live's invariable bouts of unhappiness last night I was able to jump on to my beloved marketplace. The gaming world is abuzz about Rez being re-released sometime soon, but alas last night was not the night. Instead, what did I find but this glittering gem of Shmuppiness known as Omega Five? I fired it up this morning with great trepidation and found something quite delicious.

I was halfway through the first mission when it prompted me with the tell-tale "Hit the Blue X to buy this game now!". I did as it commanded and continued onward through the first level enjoying every minute of it. It was that good, that it prompted me to fork over the last of my Microsoft Dollars that I'd been holding onto for months (Sonic, I'm sorry... you'll have to wait my good sir). Oh, I am pleased with my little purchase.

The gameplay is simple enough. Gorgeous visuals, giant lasers and a pumping soundtrack all combine with giant robots and an awesome feel to make a very nice little shmup. Combine that with the way that the firing mechanism mimics Geometry Wars - use the right stick to control fire direction and arc - and you're golden. Absolutely golden.

It's a shame that Andy doesn't have a 360 yet. Oh well; someday soon right Twigz221?

World of Warcrack - Sauce'rific
January 08, 2008

Penny Arcade's recent World of Warcraft arc combined with Control-Alt-Delete's recent Everquest arc (Mind you, I hate Everquest and never got past the first level) reminded me of something. My World of Warcraft account has had a 10 day trial for the new'ish Burning Crusade add-on for quite some time. This weekend I decided to finally activate that trial and finally give it a shot.

My first intention was to get it running on my shiny new MacBook, but alas - the MacBook really is just for work related things and World of Warcraft was just too much for it. I got the Burning Crusade installer downloaded OK only to realize that it required the original World of Warcraft installed to continue. No matter, as I realized that my World of Warcraft discs were Windows and OSX compatible. In they go and they begin the hour or so install process for the delicious sauce.

Alas, my joy was short lived. On top of being really warm while installing, my precious World of Warcraft installer decided to crap out midaway through the process. It was a tad bit... aggravating when faced with the shear volume of the install.

No matter, though. I have a beefy PC around and what do PCs do moderately to poorly? That's right - play video games! In the install discs went, and I lovingly fed my machine it's scintillating input for an hour or so before it finally graced me with a login prompt. It happily prompted me for my username and password all while the dark portal raged in the background reminding me of my mis-spent youth defending and conversely attacking Azeroth and Stormwind Keep by building walls out of farms.

Nay, my friends, it does not indeed end there. For the tale would be incomplete without being replete with patching and glee! Almost eight hours later the updater had finished downloading and installing all of the patches (why Blizzard hasn't made a single massive patch is a bit beyond me, downloading and installing (again) Burning Crusade and it was finally ready to go.

I logged in and breathed the fresh air as a decidedly effeminate blood elf mage. I reminisced for a bit about the good old days of simple graphics and blocky characters before turning all of the features up. Way up. In the end, however, my poor World of Warcraft still looked like hairy bare man ass. Oh well. After about an hour of play I realized that it really didn't matter, because I was having fun. Fun.

The precocious little realm of Azeroth was very much the same as I had left it. Run here, get this, fetch that, oh you're close to leveling you'd better do some more to get there and so forth. I'm looking forward to my yearly venture into this world and exploring what new things Blizzard has to offer me. If anyone wants to endure the ardor of installing World of Warcraft to find me, my new character's name is Otani and I'm chillin' over on Dark Iron. Of course, it's Tuesday Update Day so I'm typing this post and your screenshot is not of the game - but the login screen promising access to the game. *sigh* Some things never change.

Weekend Update: The Diablo II Edition
November 25, 2007

Mike ended up having to work yesterday so there was no Dungeons and Dragons this weekend - instead I was apparently supposed to go up to Miniature Tonka Ville and hang out with James and Andy. Alas, I slept late and totally didn't realize our plans - but all was not lost! For you see, we are connected by a series of interconnecting tubes through which data and kittens flow!

When we made the giant Draz head a few weekends back, James introduced me to Skype. It looked like an interesting program so I decided to give it a shot to establish some voice chats with James. Skype lets you essentially use VOIP for Internet to Internet calls for free which seemed like quite an offer. With the recent discovery that my 360 headset worked with my PC, I was quite excited to give voice chats a go.

Anyway; A few hours later and James and I were off playing through Diablo II (circa 2000 baby!) complete with voice chat. Good fun was had rescuing [C|K]ane from the evil clutches of Diablo's minions. Somewhere around 2100 we decided to call the quits so that I could get other work around the house done, but all told we probably spent at least three hours with some delicious click-festive action. Om noms!

So this weekend has been happily split amongst Mario Galaxy, DDO (download the trial client already James!) and Diablo II. What have you guys been playing this weekend?

Wii picture referenced because Diablo II on the Wii would rock my socks until they became locks.

Is 2007 One of the Best Years in Gaming?
November 20, 2007

I've been mentioning my massive queue quite a bit, and even OnyxRaven's mentioned just how many crazy good games are backing up just waiting to be played. Talking with Andy the other day I realized something - this is one of the best years in recent gaming history! I mean, think about how many gigantic and wonderful games have been released within this last year.

BioShock and Portal definitely take the cake (Get it? Cake? Haha. Haha. Oh boy.) for two games that will be embedded into our culture for a long time to come. The first because of it's fantastic story twists and amazing atmosphere and the second for it's totally awesome humor and fresh gameplay that doesn't involve giant guns. You can't forget that there's also Halo 3 and Guitar Hero III (I personally don't understand the obsession, but market sales and Andy would indicate it as giant) for gigantically wonderful releases. Mass Effect is even poised to be the massive epic space opera RPG that makes every space-loving nerd put away their ST:TNG DVDs for a few moments.

You also cannot forget that this is the year that Mario has seen his entrance to the Wii, both through Super Paper Mario and Mario Galaxy (which is totally win btw) which are both excellent games within their own right. Although not receiving the amazing fanfare and Internet fame that Mario Galaxy got, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is easily one of the greatest games released for the DS and certainly a better return to the roots of Zelda involving free exploration and carrot waving.

Where would we be if we hadn't followed Alex and Gordon on their treck throughout White Forest? Half-Life 2: Episode Two marks one of the most well fleshed out and wonderfully emotional releases in the shining Half-Life (I know that link isn't to the video-game - enjoy your fascinated clicking!) series and only leaves us wanting for utter revenge thanks to... no spoilers here.

Not to leave out PC exclusives, you can't forget the amazingly complicated Supreme Commander which brought us utterly epic RTS maps and Dual Monitor support - never before have I quite felt like I was in a super command center. Who can forget Hello Kitty Island Adventures? I mean, Kitties, Hello, Island and Adventures... how could you ask for more? World in Conflict gave us an amazing RTS with a gripping storyline and a driving plot that successfully pulled you into the world where Russia invaded America during hte cold war. Damn you Bannon...

So I wonder; Have we ever been hit with this many utterly awesome games?

Halo 3: Finished
November 19, 2007

As I stood teetering at the entrance to the flood infected High Charity (I think) my 360 pinged at me and a little blurb appeared at the bottom of the screen; "Ryoseth has invited you to play". So began my task of finally completing Halo 3. We ransacked the flood infected ship, rescued our captive AI and went on to save the world from the forty thousandth halo ring in existence. Hooray!

I have to say that it was quite an enjoyable ride. The storyline in Halo 3 was quite impressive, with a number of unexpected twists and turns which kept everything fresh and interesting. The levels themselves were quite diverse and lent themselves well to the gameplay and definitely the interesting encounters. By far the most interesting of which was fighting two Scarabs simultaneously. It'll definitely be interesting to revisit that one with Ryoseth at some point.

I've also been dipping my feet into the multiplayer waters lately too, even having Mike and James over this weekend for some funs. I've been deriving some serious enjoyment from this portion of the game. Xbox Live's "matchmaking" system is really pretty nice for keeping players on even and balanced playing fields. No more "Phantomdata has died" before I even spawn. :)

With all the multiplayer that I have yet to uncover, there's still a lot more interest to glean from this little disc of joy. Even though I've eaten most of the meat from the single player campaign, I still forsee Halo 3 gracing the 360's tray quite often - thanks both to the multiplayer that I've yet to uncover and the desire to replay particular parts.

In all, Halo 3 was a spectacular ride with wonderful storytelling and great gameplay. The replay-ability and multiplayer only sweeten the deal, making it an almost automatic purchase - and definitely worth the $60 it costs.

Gaming Gods, Why Do You Hate Me?
November 16, 2007

Mario Galaxy and Assassin's Creed... both released in the same week. Oh, do I dust off my neglected Wii and engage in my lifelong hobby of controlling Mario or shall I fire up my 360 to assassinate things? There's the price difference too... Mario Galaxy happens to be $10 cheaper than Assassin's Creed but on that note I still have yet to pick up the $40 Beautiful Katamari whose demo I keep playing over and over. Of course there's my shiny new monitor wanting beautifully rendered medieval cities displayed upon it leaving my standard definition TV and it's Wii crying in the corner... oh the choices. This will be a tough next couple months of standing in Gamestop looking sadly at all the delicious games that I want to bring home.

Update

Hah! It seems that I'm not the only one with this issue!

Update 2

Well, today I broke down. I stopped at the local Gamestop today and picked myself up a shiny new copy of the delicious... Mario Galaxy! I spent two hours and twenty minutes of my precious time on it tonight, so that should be testament enough to how much win was found within the package.

Incoming Toy!
November 06, 2007

After a long week or so of debating with myself, I've finally decided to buy myself a nice new BenQ FP222WH widescreen monitor. What finally kicked me in the nuts and made me do it? Well, part of what was holding me back is my current dual monitor setup. With another monitor added to the party, that means that I would have to get rid of one of my existing LCDs and nobody I know has a need for one. Then I was talking with my Dad when I happened to mention that I was looking to let one go. Surprisingly, he was more than happy to take it from me. Couple that with my still unspent birthday money (really, besides these sorts of things the only 'fun' things I buy are video games and God I have so many queued up).

My humble Newegg has kindly informed me that my new treasure will be arriving on Thursday, so if I disappear for the next few days you can begin praying that my Xbox doesn't get Red Ringed and my computer doesn't melt into a ball of silicon and toxic chemicals.

Picture courtesy of Newegg. Of course.

Soliciting Suggestions, How to Play My Xbox
November 01, 2007

I'm sure by now that many of you have noticed that I rather like my shiny new Xbox 360. I love the selection of games, the ability to easily download demos and I am really having a good time with it. The problem is that we only have one good television in our house - the one in the living room. As you can tell by my attempt to get a shot of my beloved 360, the television is typically in use for things other than video games...

In the interest of getting the most out of my shiny new toy, I'm looking around for alternative output means. I'm really not into buying a second TV, since I never use it for anything but an output device anyway, so I'm looking around at computer monitor solutions. I'm thinking of trying to pickup a nice new widescreen display for my main system possibly with two DVI inputs or building a DVI switch. From what I have heard on the Internets it's fairly simple to convert the HDMI signal from my Xbox into DVI for a computer monitor. I can save oddles of money, and avoid having to have yet another piece of equipment hanging around my house.

Right now I'm eyeballing an Acer 22" Widescreen with a single DVI input. Everything with dual DVI inputs (or *Gasp* HDMI) just seems to incredibly expensive. Are there any suggestions from the gallery of legumes?

Update

James has mentioned that his spifftastic monitor is a larger cousin of this attractive thing. I do believe that with it's om nomie HDMI input ports it would make a much more useful buy than the cheaper Acer monitor. I may have a new toy to eyeball for awhile...

In other news, one of my professors said "a hwile" yesterday. I can just picture James at his desk right now... oh the joy I bring to people.

Halo 3: Seriously Enjoying It
October 23, 2007

As some of you may know, I recently broke down and bought an Xbox 360. It's been the bane of Emily's existence since I got it, but it is oh so much fun nonetheless. In her infinite kindness and selfless sacrifice during my annual revolution around the sun, she bought for me teh delicious Halos Tres. In all seriousness, it's turning out to be a total blast being and has made me quite happy with the shiny new Xbox.

As a relatively old and grizzled gameplaying veteran, I find myself frequently at my own personal odds about this. The Halo series is so ubiquitous and popular that there is absolutely no shortage of 12 year olds ready to go on about how it "has lots of graphics". While I certainly won't argue with the "lots of graphics" that Halo 3 has - I think that there's a critical factor that trumps it all. The game is just plain fun.

There's no super realistic physics, checkpoints are frequent and the drive to keep going is strong with every new encounter actually being different than the last. You start the game running through the jungle, defend a base and then go tearing down a highway to prevent activation of the Ion Cannon from Command and Conquer (No, you're not really trying to stop the Ion Cannon). It's all fresh, entertaining and simple fun.

Mix in a great storyline with this installment possibly having the most engrossing of the series, and you've certainly got something worth the $60 you'll have to drop for it. Even withstanding the current glut of wonderful games (BioShock, Portal, Phantom Hourglass - I'm lookin' at you ) Halo 3 should definitely be in your play queue. Now, if you'll excuse me I have to go get pwned by some 12 year old from Georgia who hasn't learnt him the alphabets yet.

Portal, So Addictive
October 18, 2007

While the gameplay itself is quite interesting and entertaining - the voice-acting for the game really shines. I'm pretty sure that the most addictive thing from the entire game is simply the ending credit song. It is on permanent repeat in every one of my playlists.

A Week with the 360
October 11, 2007

Very much like like a week or so with the Wii, I'm still really enjoying my new 360. So much so that Emily's began hating my purchase, since she is frequently forced off of the television so that I can play some Geometry Wars or Gears of War. Anyway... what are the points?

Plus

• The 360 controller is the greatest controller known to me. Everything works flawlessly, and it just feels right in my hands. The sensitivity is a perfect balance between spinning around aimlessly and moving like molasses. Additionally, the fact that the controller is wireless is quite a nice change - allowing me to actually sit in my couch to play games.
• The games, oh the games. Unlike the Wii, which sports a mere two serious titles (Zelda and Metroid Prime), the 360 has a complete library that will keep me busy for far longer than Babbles and Emily would like. Right now I've got about 15 games queued up in my "do want" list.
• XBLA is freaking awesome. Unlike Nintendo's Virtual Console, there's real, new, and meaty content available through this platform. Geometry Wars and Boom Boom Rocket are two of my most interesting titles at the moment. Couple that with the retro availabilities of games like Doom and Street Fighter (all redone and fixed up, of course - unlike Virtual Console) and you've got a recipe for money spending. Falling better than Virtual Console though, $25 will get you about three good games (Geometry Wars, Boom Boom and Doom here).
• Xbox Live itself is pretty nifty. It's been forever since I've played videogames on the great Internets and it definitely shows. I took Doom online with a trial Gold account and was getting schooled by 12 year olds in no time. Of course, unlike Chris' experiences with Halo, I actually managed to have a good time with someone who was willing to go easy and actually "play" the game. The voice-chat is definitely a nice way to communicate in game, letting you converse while playing the game instead of having to stop to type.
• XBL lets you download demos. I know that I shouldn't be impressed, but I am. It's freaking awesome to see that there's a new Conan game coming out and be able to tell my 360 "fetch me that demo" and then come back a few hours later to play said demo. Awesome possum.
• It's a media center. It doesn't just play games or DVDs, it lets you stream music and videos from your PC. You'll have to setup media sharing and convert video files to WMV but it's completely worth it to be able to watch Zetsubou Sensei without having to hook my laptop up to the TV. A very nice bonus.

Minus

• It's loud. When you're playing a 360 DVD-based game it sounds like a freaking airplane. Seriously. As far as I've seen, with Gears of War the DVD spins the entire time that the game is running - so get used to it. It's a constant noise, though so it drowns out.
• The games are expensive. A new game can set you back as much as $60. However, given inflation and the production values of modern games I really don't have that much of a problem with paying that much for good content.
• Emily gets to watch less TV as I'm always playing the 360.
• Media sharing was a major pain in the ass to setup. Seriously, from an IT professional this was one of the most terrible and painful setups that I've ever gone through. It took me almost an hour of googling to realize that Media Sharing won't share media across a network - for instance. I'll setup Sun Solaris over this in an instant.

Summary

So, as of now I'm incredibly thrilled with this awesome purchase. There's tons of stuff to do with it, there's tons of great games for it and it's just plain a lot of fun. I'll stand the noise and I'm already past getting the media sharing setup, so until I get a Red Ring it looks like this will end up being a much better purchase than the Wii with its two games. Double plus points!

Holy Busy Batman!
October 09, 2007

These last few days have been incredibly impossibly busy for me. In between the new 360, school and this last weekend's D&D session which got me home around 01:30A on a Sunday - I'm totally beat. Hopefully I'll make some new postings this evening, but even that's suspect since I've disassembled my office and am using my poor neglected laptop to type this up. Oi.

Oh, I did get the 360 to talk to Windows Media Player too. 'Tis quite nice to finally have decent music access in the living room.

Waaay Too Much Geometry Wars
October 02, 2007

I purchased my first Xbox Live Golden Coins last night. It was quite an ordeal telling Microsoft about my credit card which ended up bringing me out to a totally different looking 1999-era Microsoft site for setting it up. Once all was said and done I was able to add 2,000 MS Bucks to my account for around $25. Not too bad since it'll buy me at least three XBLA games. I've already purchased Geometry Wars which I played obsessively last night. I hit 193,000 points but alas, Citescape was down by the time I did so that never got recorded. Bummer. Hopefully they'll be up tonight so that I can get some new XBLA games or demos.

I'll probably be settling down for some Doom tonight, since it's got a nice campaign, and then deciding between Boom Boom Rocket or maybe Sonic. Everybody loves Sonic, right? I tried getting ahold of Chris via the service last night, but he was engrossed in Halo 3. I have a feeling that in order to ever see him I will have to get ahold of a copy. I just wonder how newb-rific I will appear on teh great Halowebs.

All-in-all I'm loving the fact that the 360 actually uses the Internets to communicate with people. There's no convoluted codes to exchange with people, all of the games seem to interact in at least some way, and XBLA just plain rocks. Oh yes... the wireless 360 controller is oh so nice. Om noms.

Oh, hello there 360.
October 01, 2007

Who's that keeping the Wii company while Emily watches Desperate Housewives? Why, it looks like a 360. I wonder... could it be that Jordan was playing Gears of War just hours ago? Maybe somebody was recently tearing through packaging with glee witnessing the unveiling of his new console? Or maybe it's all an illusion...

OnyxRaven,James - Any suggestions on getting this wired device onto my wireless network short of purchasing the $100 thing-a-majig from MS?

Seriously Considering a 360
September 29, 2007

Much to Emily's dismay, I am now seriously considering picking myself up a tasty little Xbox 360 sometime soon. I managed to snag another contract job which has definitely padded out my "happy Jordan fun-time" savings to the point where I can aaaaalmost afford to get one without using any un-budgeted resources. I'm still a little on the fence though, as I am with any big purchase.

I mean, the $350 for a Pro system is quite a few tasty burgers from Val's. Though on the other hand, being able to bypass all the PC gaming ass-hattery that's going on lately is quite a nice bonus. Coupled with actual online functionality within games and the presence of many great looking titles I'm really tempted. I'm definitely wanting for some Gears of War, Eternal Sonata, Geometry Wars, Halo 3, Mass Effect, Forza and Doom action. Not to mention when Hellgate finally comes out (if it comes out) for the 360.

Of course, I would take Draz's advice and buy it from Best Buy. Why? When the sales-droid begins "Would you like to buy the $20 extended warran"-yes. Why yes, I would like to buy your extended warranty. Although, I am sure that the droids are instructed NOT to offer the warranty for 360s now-a-days.

Then comes the next question... when to buy? I mean, Kotaku has info on a new bundle that might be coming and including the updated-not-sucky SKUs. But, do I really want to wait until around Christmas? I think not. I want to get some Gears of War and Geometry Wars action going now dammit.

So, summary... maybe. I still needs some convincin'.

Update: Looks like I won't be getting any Halo 3 action for awhile.

Halo Revisited and How I'm Starting to like Console FPSs
September 21, 2007

To placate Chris and his insatiable Halo love, I have began replaying Halo with my newly acquired 360 controller. On top of playing BioShock through with my new 360 controller I've also been giving Lost Planet and Overlord a try with my new-fangled device... and I have to say that I'm loving it. I think that it boils down to having the ability to control my walking speed with an analog system in addition to having more intuitive "movement" controls. Aiming still gets a bit hairy, but I've only been playing with the controller for a month or so now. Yes Andy, I can do more than spin around in a circle now.

Now, on to the topic that has probably caused Ryoseth to start poking pins into a voodoo-me - Halo. At this point I'm a little bit further in the game then when I had originally played it, and I have to say that the 360 controller makes a huge amount of difference. Without it the game feels sluggish and slow, but when using the controller everything feels fluid and the gameplay is actually fairly fun. One might even say... it's action packed.

With today's brash of thoughtful shooters and no-holds barred controller-throwing fests it's nice to revisit a world where you can charge into a fight without thought or real planning. Everything plays out perfectly and each "section" of the map ends up being an interesting and dynamic battle that's sure to entertain. My favorite parts are charging into a room to find some inattentive guards who suddenly have a sticky-grenade pinned to their backs. Brilliant, I say, that's flavor and excitement.

I'm hesitant to talk about Halo's storyline at this point. I'm only as far as the Silent Cartographer, so I really don't have much to say there... but the storyline thus far isn't that interesting. Basically, ship blows up, you blow shit up, you rescue some doodz, you try to find picture to lead you to more shit to blow up. That's what I've gotten so far. Perhaps there is more to come, and I will keep going since the action is quite a bit more entertaining.

I'll say that the 360 controller definitely brings the PC port up above the suck-fest that it was with the mouse and keyboard. Thus far there's a pretty mediocre storyline, but the actual gameplay is pretty awesome w/ the 360 controller. Contrast that with BioShock's awesome story and mediocre gameplay... hmm... maybe some day we'll get a combination of the two. So, to recap... I'm finding the gameplay to be a lot of fun and the storyline sort of "meh". Chris tells me that this picks up soon, which I'm excited for - but the gameplay w/ the 360 controller is enough to carry the game for me.

Anyway, at this point I'm almost capping my "emergency savings" point and am starting to save for more... interesting purchases. With my newfound love of the 360 controller itself, I'm beginning to get more and more interested in some of the other games that the 360 has to offer. Gears of War definitely ranks up there as well as Crackdown. Trusty Bell has me intrigued from an RPG standpoint and I am a sucker for Geometry Wars. Heck, even Ikaruga and Rez are coming for XBLA soon.

Oh, and multiplayer gaming is something that I haven't tasted outside of a LAN party in... well, we'll just say that it's been too long. Xbox Live definitely presents me with some interest and I'm sure that Chris and Tony would love to bring me to an educational distillery of the Halo variety. Something tells me that Emily would be a hard-sell though...

Weekend Fun
September 21, 2007

This stands to be yet another super-busy weekend. Sunday is my mother's birthday, so I've got to go out in search of presents before we go out to dinner on Saturday night. We'll be going to Jack and Jim's o'er in good ole Palmer Township. Oddly enough, they have quite delicious om noms and their prime rib is the best in the St. Cloud area.

Sunday will be spent playing Dungeons and Dragons as usual. Draz might not finish up his campaign this week, which will make me sad. However, we might start Andy's campaign which will be fun - though I haven't rolled up a character yet and I'm unsure as to when I'll get time.

I'll probably relax tonight with some delicious God of War 2 or maybe a little Halo. That's right, Halo. Per Chris' suggestion I'm going back and playing Halo through w/ the Xbox 360 controller and I really have to say that it makes a huge difference.

Final Fantasy VII: Voices of a Lifestream
September 20, 2007

You may or may not have heard of it - but ocremix has released a most excellent rendition of the FFVII sound track. I've been listening to it for a few days, and I am most in love with it. Cid's Theme is probably one of the coolest songs that I've heard in a long time. I've had the hook part stuck in my head all week.

Almost enough to make me want to hook up my Playstation and actually play Final Fantasy VII - even though I've barely scratched the surface of Final Fantasy X. Something about X just isn't very compelling for me. The story's there, for sure... I want to see what happens when Tidus finally faces Jecht... but the linearity of the game is heartbreaking especially since it's a JRPG grind-fest for the most part.

Anyway, go grab the torrent from the project's homepage and get your groove on to some awesome covers. you may also feel free to chastise me in the comments section for my failure to complete Final Fantasy games.

BioShock, Further Reflections
September 17, 2007

After having finished BioShock last night, I'm ready to go out on a distant limb... one that traverses into some of my deepest sanctities and inner truisms... BioShock the pirated edition* may very well be one of the best video games of all time. Technically, the game is a modern marvel with lovely and luscious environments... but that's nothing new or even interesting. What makes BioShock such a stellar title worthy of all the praise that it's getting? It's the incredibly well thought out, morally compelling and thought provoking storyline.

Throughout the game you are posed with moral dilemmas and you, as the player, are forced through a set of hoops that leave you wondering... did I, as a character, do the right thing? More than a few times you'll find yourself thinking, what have I done? The culmination of your expedition to Ryan will be one of the gaming moments that stands out in my mind as a perfectly written turn of events that left me jaw-dropped, heart broken and betrayed. Now, would you kindly continue reading?

Once you've freed yourself of the shackles of Rapture (however you've freed yourself)... you're left actually contemplating what you left behind. You won't just put the controller down and say "Ah, another game beaten.". Instead, you wish that you could go back and change things to have made it out better than you did... but you can't. You're as much a part of the world of Rapture as those still living in it and you can't just go back guns blazing from your last save-point to fix things. Your character learned who he was down there, and that can't be changed.

In the end, BioShock was a mediocre shooter. There was nothing terribly novel or interesting about the gameplay mechanics. What's really shined through was the storyline, the characters and Rapture itself. Irrational so masterfully crafted an exquisite plotline that you will end up wondering what would have happened if you could have resisted those three words?

* Why, oh why 2k did you have to kill your game so completely? You can never hope to achieve any long-term glory if the game is rendered obsolete upon installation by your overly draconian copy protection. If only pirates can play your game a few months from now, how will your game achieve anything but utter technical failure? For the record, I purchased my copy and cracked the seal before realizing what evil you had visited upon your customers.

I Finished BioShock!
September 17, 2007

Some of you may be shocked, but I actually drove a game to completion this evening. It was none other than the venerable BioShock which has haunted me for the last few weeks. This is probably the most compelled to complete a game that I've been in a long time. Let me tell you, it was worth it. I frankly can't remember a narrative so well executed, with so many interesting twists. Even the ending was good. Not great, but it tidied everything up nicely and added an extra little "gotcha" to the villain's end. Great stuff.

Quake Wars Demo Released
September 11, 2007

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars had its demo released yesterday. I grabbed the torrent of it and spent a little bit of time with it. I have to say, it's very much like BattleField 2 with more interesting objectives. Really, that's about all I have to say. Additionally, it doesn't support the 360 controller. Well, it does... sort of. You can move forward/backward, strafe and inverted-look around. That's it. I have to say that, while not superior in terms of skill, playing with the controller feels good. The ability to control your walking pace precisely is... nice.

Well, I'm playing it a bit more when I get home from class/work today - so maybe there will be more on it. Maybe there won't. BioShock and Metroid still have their holds on me.

You can download via BitTorrent from the ID torrent. ID truly gets online distribution, so much that they've only recently shutdown their FTP server. Bravo.

BioShock: Freaking Fantastic
September 07, 2007

As some of you may know, I've sort of disappeared completely from the face of the Internet lately. Why's that? Well, there's two games currently dominating all of my free time... utterly. Between the coolness that is Prime 3 and the epic win of BioShock I have no free time for anything else, at all.

I made my way to Hephaestus last night to engage Mr. Ryan in a kindly conversation. I'm completely pulled into the game in ways that I haven't felt in a long time. I cannot remember a game in recent history that has gripped me so well and made me yearn to play it at all times.

I think that there's three major points making this game so incredibly awesome.

Firstly, there's the immersion. You're not just playing a game... you're a part of a vivid fully fleshed out world. To me, at least, what makes this first point work even better for the game is that you actually end up caring about the world. The storyline is deep and very real. It's not a game about "Orcs invading a dungeon" - it's a very serious, realistic and most of all human story. Combined with the way it is interweaved with the world makes you really feel like you're a caring part of it... and you want so strongly to help make it better.

The second point is the gameplay itself. What good is a wonderfully made world if there's nothing to do in it? O little moth, there is plenty to do in this world. Your missions and the drawing of the storyline are far more than "go here, good. now go further. kill this guy in your way. keep going!". You end up encountering serial killers, drugged out doctors and a myriad of men in sea-suits while working your way to Atlas' family and trying to get yourself out of Rapture. What's most interesting about the gameplay interactions though is that you're not just there to kill these people - you actually end up getting sub-missions of interest from them, and some of them will tug at your ethical heart-strings.

You'll also find that the game harps heavily on exploration of the environments. In a move that's very different from most First Person Shooters is that the environments are incredibly open ended and well laid out. This wonderful level design also adds immensely to the immersion factor that I had mentioned before. It allows for something that you don't ordinarily get in other shooters of modern times... a feeling that this is a real place - not just a series of corridors populated with enemeies who all want to kill you. In order to entice your desire to explore these added areas and find all the little clues piecing together Rapture's fall, there are generally around 3 Little Sisters for you to rescue per level which (I think) randomly spawn and generally require you to explore extra areas that you might not ordinarily visit.

The raw shooter gameplay itself is quite awesome in it's own right. When it comes to the action sequences it's a visceral shooter that feels perfect. The speed, the fluidity and ooooh the weapon combinations. The Plasmids that have caused the fall of rapture end up beign one of the most fun and interesting aspect of the gameplay itself. With powers ranging from shooting a swarming hive of bees to laying tornado traps it ends p being an interesting romp indeed.

The third point that adds to teh epic win that is BioShock is the amazing quality of the artwork demonstrated. You get a feel that while 2k has a bevy of highly skilled devs, poorly skilled business people - they also have a horde of amazing artists. The audio visual quality of BioShock is fantastic. As soon as your plane crashes into the ocean and you're faced with Ryan's tower in the middle of the ocean, you will begin to appreciate just how much work ended up going into this game. It goes so far as to have gotten me banned from playing it on the TV.

So, is this an epic game for the ages? If you're on the PC SecuROM will prevent that, for sure. It will not hold up to the test of time, simply by virtue of the copy protection precluding playing it more than a few times. However, is this an epic game for right now or for the 360 that you'll be sorry that you didn't play if you don't? Most definitely. An awesome storyline, an incredibly well rendered world, amazing artwork and fantastic gameplay make this a grade-A classic. Look forward to the end of your free time for at least a week.

My Verdict: Definitely Obtain

Note: I am playing the PC version w/ a 360 controller. It's-a-ver-ay-nice. Also, the image was taken from destructoid. I really need to get some attribution stuff coded in to the picture backend...

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
September 03, 2007

The coming months are definitely going to be a terror for my both my poor wallet and my utter lack of time. Why's that? Well, there are so many stupendous looking games coming out that I simply won't have time for them all! This week's distraction is brought to you by the letter "M".

Nintendo carries with them a little bit of our childhood. The collective gamer psyche, if you will, has ingrained within it Mario, Zelda and Metroid. These three series provide the major cash-cow that keeps Nintendo Corp. afloat amongst it's 20+ fan-base. If you can tell me that there is not one game in those three that you are not utterly-scarily-guy-in-a-fox-suit in love with - then you are not a gamer - or you're David who missed out on the 8bit and 16bit era.

Super Metroid is quite possibly my favorite video game of all time. It had all the elements that I loved as a kid. There was side-scrolling shootie action, suit upgrades, slight RPG elements and tons of exploration of a gorgeously detailed amazing environment. Everything was beautifully memorable for me - the first time the surveilance eye shone on my new Morph Ball self, the giant lumbering robots in The Wrecked Ship and bursting through the pipe in Maridia... there were so many kick-ass elements that you never wanted to stop.

Fast forward to the era of the GameCube and witness with me Metroid Prime. This, a Metroid game was not. It was interesting, sure. It had character building elements, sure. However, there was absolutely nothing memorable to me. Perhaps I didn't truly "appreciate" the game, but I ended up just playing until I could get to the next save point and getting bored with it. To me, the Metroid series had died at the hands of lulz3dgraphics.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was much the same. There was an interesting story, which to this day I wish I had the energy to advance through, but the gameplay was boring. Hugely boring involving lots of fiddly jumping bits with me praying for a save point.

Last week, however, Retro Studios finally released a game that doesn't utterly abuse the Metroid license. While MP3 is not a true Metroid game, only being set in the Metroid universe, it is an astoundingly great game worthy of high praises.

The game opens as you fiddle around inside your ship, with the Wiimote of course, and dock with a giant starship to find a new bounty. Sure enough, big things happen and shit blows up sending you scrambling back to your ship fighting Space Pirates all the way. It isn't until you reach a planet's surface and finally begin exploring that you realize how much of a treat you're in for. Your first mission has you actually teaming up with other bounty hunters in order to accomplish your goal - and after your first Ridley battle (bastard... I killed you five games ago!) you appreciate the help.

Throughout the game you will be constantly reminded of the reason that you purchased the Wii - the beautiful Wiimote. I've never liked the motion sensing on the Wiimote, but the pointer action is definitely where it's at. The feeling of actually moving your arm and watching Samus' waggle around is... surreally awesome. It just feels right. You at least owe it to yourself to play the game, just to see that a First Person Shooter can really be done well on the Wii.

The game itself looks gorgeous and the artwork is beautiful. When you first touch down on Byyron and see the defense golems, you'll be reminded of why the Metroid universe keeps us coming back for more. The architecture is wonderfully designed and the creatures are definitely a treat to engage in battle. Even the user interface looks delicious, right down to Samus staring back at you from the inside of her helmet while you use your scanners. MP3 really does leave you wondering why none of the other Wii games look this good.

While I mentioned before that this is merely a game set in the Metroid universe, I can't help but say that this is a game worthy of being named in Metroid's honor. Good controls, good gameplay and a kick-ass story make this a game to definitely add to your library. What's better? It's your Wii library! That's right kids, there's actually something worth buying for the Wii!

My Verdict: Definitely Buy

Bioshock, Short Review
August 29, 2007

BioShock, a wonderful game put out by a terrible publisher. Mired by one of the most draconian DRM schemes ever put into place, BioShock will only allow itself to be installed on your PC twice. This is most ludicrous and I would certainly recommend against giving this publisher any money as a result, I will troop on and pretend that it doesn't exist... because this game is fantastic enough to allow it.

You play as the (presumably) lone survivor of a spectacular 1950's plane crash stranded in an underwater paradise gone bad. You begin your descent into this mad underworld from a foreboding tower in a tiny little steel bubble. Upon arrival, you're introduced to the game's primary enemy - the Splicer. As it uh... splices through one of your would-be rescuers.

You progress through the game much as you did System Shock 2. Slowly unveiling the story and upgrading your weapons along the way. The "vending machines" along the way provide an interesting way to keep your character stocked and healthy throughout. I've personally been playing the game through on an Xbox 360 controller and have to say that it's utterly flawless. Everything is precise, smooth and well thought out. Wonderful.

The graphics are simply nothing short of stunning. The art is so well done, in fact, that I am now banned from playing it on our widescreen TV as it gives my wife nightmares. Oh yes, this isn't a kids game. Right from the get-go the gibs start flying and the freaky masqueraded splicers start pouring out of the woodwork. Everything just looks perfect.

Another point where the game shines is its audio. It's really an infrequent occurence that a game's audio should be applauded, but BioShock is definitely an exception. Every last drop of audio adds wonderfully to the atmosphere completely rendering the player into the world without a thought. The splicers in particular are quite well done.

Then there's the story. Oh lawdy, then there's the story. It is simply nothing short of amazing. Everything is designed to pull you into it. There are tons of side-stories and interesting plot wrinkles that'll keep you playing until the wee hours of the night. The best part about the story work in BioShock is how well timed it is. You never feel like you're being strung along, and you never feel like everything's happening to fast. It's all just right.

So, my verdict? A double-plus super good must buy for the game itself. I have to say though, the DRM that 2K has decided to institute does not bode well for PC gaming as a whole. I think I may just have to start saving my money up for an Xbox 360. That is, when MS releases a non-shitty version of it...

BioShock, Ok I Bought It
August 22, 2007

While out for lunch today we had to make a pit-stop at Best Buy to pick up some new kit for the office. We swung by on our way back from food and my manager mentioned having to pick something up for a friend too. Not to give up a chance, I went over to the PC Games section and idly browsed to the "Action / Adventure" sign. What did I see there? A single lonely copy of BioShock. I know, 2kGames screwed up the licensing hardcore. I just couldn't help myself...

BioShock Demo Impressions and Copy Protection
August 22, 2007

I finally managed to finish up the BioShock demo download from Steam last night. Man, oh man am I impressed by this game.

From the outset you can tell that it's going to be an intriguing romp with your character smoking a cigarette bearing a package from his parents that (I believe) reads, "Don't come back until you've...". Your character looks at a photo of him and his parents narrating, "They always said I'd do great things...". Of course your plane crash lands into the ocean for some unknown reason and you're left gasping for air clawing your way to the surface. Once you breach the surface you're greeted by some of the best graphics that I've witnessed this side of 2007. The wreckage is ablaze all around you and the flames are spreading. You can see a tower a bit away so you make your way towards it...

You then descend into a dreaded "rails" intro. An introduction that you're forced to watch and can't skip - no matter how many times you've seen it. It's wonderful the first time, but after you've seen it - you don't want to see it again. The intro itself is an interesting 50's style narrative-reel detailing what caused the benefactor Ryan to found Rapture beneath the sea. Very high quality production.

At this point, you must have beta nVidia drivers to continue. At least on my box, without them your screen goes out of sync range and never comes back. Ouch. No matter, it's totally worth it and the drivers do increase your performance in general quite a bit (I eeked a few new details out of Supreme Commander!).

Then the real game begins...

Your Balysphere pops up into a docking chamber where someone is waiting for you, presumably to help you... but his intentions are cut short when a Splicer appears to uh... well, Splice minus the p. The impressive effects and physics start becoming highly apparent as the Splicer hops atop your Balysphere to try to cut it open. For reasons that I still can't figure out, the Splicer leaves and runs off to a darkened corner to await you o rwhatever else might kill it.

The demo comes off without a hitch and totally pulls you into the Rapture universe. From the first time you "splice up" to the first encounter with a Big Daddy and his Little Sister, everything is executed beautifully. The narration and storyline are quite something to behold, given the brievity of the demo. There was clearly a lot of thought that went into this game, and it shines brilliantly.

So, what have we got here? Immersion? Check. Great storyline and universe? Check. Great gameplay? Check. Great graphics for Halo fanboiz? Check. Everything's in place for an amazing shooter and I'm totally excited to get my hands on a copy.

Babbles gives it a double plus thumbs up!

Update

Whoops, looks like 2K fucked up the anti-piracy measures hardcore. You get two installs of the game before you're toast. Looks like I won't be buying this one. -> 2kgames Forums

BioShock PC Demo Hits and More Salivating
August 20, 2007

Oh hai, someone released us up the demo. So the first wave of new video games is storming down upon me. Tomorrow marks the release date of the much anticipated BioShock. I'm salivating over the release of this, but will have to wait for the demo to get down my tiny little pipes before I can accept that my rig will play it happily. I don't have much doubt, but I would hate to plunk down the cash.

Anyway, for those of you imbued with working Internets you can find good (read: not sucky) mirrors over @ Internode, Bit-Tech's comments or a quick google search for Bioshockpcdemo. Sadly, the torrents that are out there suck. There are so many leeches that it's not even worth trying for.

What else am I looking forward to playing? Well... let's take a little look into my Video Games backpack page...

• Released - God of War 2
• Released - Lost Planet
• Released - Elite Beat Agents
• Released - Metroid: Fusion
• Released - Resident Evil 4
• Released - Luminous Arc
• August 21st - Bioshock
• August 27th - Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
• September 3rd - Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
• October 1st - Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
• October 31st - HellGate: London

Update - 2007/08/20

It's up on Steam now. Thank you to the lovely community over at Kotaku.

Also... I'm claiming a Technorati Profile

Supreme Commander Supreme Sleepy
August 19, 2007

Much to James' chagrin, this evening marks yet another game purchase. This time it was found after much searching. A visit to Gamestop yielded a sour memory as I pushed past toddlers and an odd 45 year old overweight man breathing through his mouth to try to find something entertaining. Alas, nothing was found. I toyed with the idea of God of War 2 but gave up after noting that I would rather not support Gamestop if I could help it.

So, Emily and I continued browsing the wares at various stores until we reached our lovely Target. I eyeballed God of War 2 there as well, but was thwarted by a clear force-field of some sort. There was a button that promised to summon keepers, but I could clearly see that they were busy. I decided to wait around for awhile and browse the PC games instead... there I saw that Supreme Commander as only around $30 and decided to give it a try.

Damn, I'm glad I did. I finished everything up around the house around 10:00P and started playing my newfound RTS. I fired it up and instantly remembered dual monitor support. Yes. Dual monitor support. It was an entirely new experience to have two totally usable viewports in an RTS. Simply put, holy hell I crapped my pants with awesomeness.

Anyway. I started around 10:00P and it is now around 01:42A. I only finished the first mission. Freaking. Awesome.

White Knight Story
July 24, 2007

DO WANT

This Weekend's LAN Party and a Grill
July 16, 2007

This weekend's LAN party turned out quite well. I got up early to make sure that the cooler was filled with salted ice-water (incidentally there was still ice in it 24h later) I went down to St. Cloud to meet up with Andy and pickup our requisite foodstuffs. We made a quick pit-stop over at the Target to pickup ourselves a nice little charcoal grill so that we could have tasty grilled hamburgers. Indeed, the grill output quite tasty hamburgers at the hands of Mr. Andy. James showed up around 03:30P and setup began.

The requisite file sharing (I buy sausage) commenced and much anime and flash animations flowed over my network. We then quickly began sharing our latest network findings, Vista tweaks and other goodies. Then, it became time for our stomachs to begin grumbling as we were all quite hungry.

We exited my dark and imposing office to assemble my newest possession and then proceeded to build fire. It took several tries before we determined the correct amount of lighter fluid but we eventually got it and flames erupted nicely. Burgers and brats were grilled and tastiness was had by all.

After filling our bellies with tasty fire-cooked meat we proceeded to get to the gaming. We started off with a few rounds of Halo 2 where Andy turned off all weapons but the pistol (some of you may have heard of this common arrangement for Quake3 tournaments) and I was quickly bored. Halo's movements are entirely too unresponsive for me, having grown up on ID Software's twitchy shooters I'm used to being able to flip around and back in a nanosecond - so my constant need to watch my back always ended up netting me a pistol in the face.

The fun didn't start until we setup a nice Warthog fun-time. Overshields, max health and a whole lot'a Warthog carnage commenced. We had great fun over the course of three maps, but then we were pooped out.

We then moved on to NeverWinter Nights which was met with much sadness. You see, our favorite LAN game of old has become too long in the tooth to work anymore. We had immense issues getting the networking to work and I had a weird issue where my character could jump all the way across the map in a split second. We gave up, defeated.

We played through a fair amount of Quake 2 before finally settling on our game of choice for the night... We settled on one of the best games evar. For all of the thousands of dollars of super-up-to-date computing monstrosities we ended up playing an old classic from circa 1993. What was it? None other than Doom.

We fought our way through the UAC's Mars research facility and into the very jaws of hell before becoming fatigued. We finished up our final file transfers (I buy sausage) and then called it a night.

Great fun was had by all. Thank you Andy and James for coming down for such a good time.

Weekend LAN'ing
July 13, 2007

This weekend will be a very special and fun-filled weekend indeed. Why is that? Saturday marks the first LAN party to be held in our new place! James is coming down from ze Maple Grove area and Andy's hauling his compie out to my place to put some nice testing into the house's wiring systems. Let's hope everything goes as planned!

We're planning on playing some Halo 2, Neverwinter Nights, Co-Op Doom or Quake, Cossacks and possibly rocking it with a little Command and Conquer 3. I'll be making up some tasty hamburgers and much fun will be had.

Draz, sorry. Much like Guantanamo on the Bush News Network, Apple won't be showing you this in its ads. You see, John Hodgman's alter-ego is really Hulk Hogan. Hogan smash. Hogan SMAAAAASH frail little Mac boy. Then Hogan drink beer and smaaaash more. Then Hogan get sleepy. Then Hogan think you girl. Hogan tell you sweater look nice. Hogan offer buy you soda. Bring you cup bring you ice. Then hogan smaaAAaash. Then Hogan go to Korea and play Starcraft while jamming on his air guitar of coolness+1.

My Top Ten Favorite Computer Games
July 12, 2007

Roger Johansson over at 456 Berea Street recently put up a list of his top ten favorite computer games. Since this is a subject very near and dear to my heart, I decided that I would participate as well only to realize just how difficult it is to whittle down to your favorite ten video games. I've cheated a bit, and counted sequels and originals as one entry for the sheer fact that sequels are so frequently a continuation of the original game. Without further ado, here it be!

• Diablo I & II
• Doom 1
• Super Metroid (only here because of emulation!)
• Half-Life 1 & 2 & Episode 1

• Commander Keen
• Quake 1 & 2
• Cossacks 1 (Cossacks 2 was a buggy piece of crap)
• Homeworld
• Dawn of War + Its Expansions
• Warcraft II

This was quite a difficult list to make. Honorable mentions include the Command & Conquer series, Oblivion, Quake 3, Quake 4, Doom 3, Counter-Strike, Rage of Mages, Super Cat Petter 2000, Warcraft I, Deus Ex, Big Red Racing, Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem and Defender for ye olde Apple IIe. Many fond memories are brought forth by all of these games and I'm very excited to be playing a few of them this weekend with James and Andy!

So guys, what's your top ten list look like? Remember, these are computer games not console games. I fudged with emulation because Super Metroid happens to be my second favorite game of all time. Andy and Draz - you guys have a blag, so put it up there and I'll give you guys a linkback to your wobsite!

Update

Draz responded to the call for great video games! He's posted his own top ten computer games over at Baddisk. Go read it now! Oregon Trail definitely deserves mention. "You have killed 1,000,000lbs of food but can only carry 5lbs.".

2nd Update

Andy responded to the call for great video games! Alas, he was not blessed with one of these twiddly complicated things that we know of as computers during his youth. Thus, he has posted his Top Ten Console Games. I am slightly perturbed by the fact that Andy owned a NES and a SNES but never any Zelda games.

Halo 2 PC Multiplayer Sucks
June 29, 2007

I'm sorry, but I have to say... for all the coolness that is the Halo 2 PC Single Player campaign - the multiplayer absolutely sucks. Do not, I repeat DO NOT purchase this game expecting to play online. Since you have to pay over $100 to be able to host a server with this game, there are absolutely no servers. Ok, not absolutely... there are currently six available servers with greater than or equal to 3 players. six. System wide. Anyway, I am sad to say that I had hoped for a nice multiplayer experience with this game. I guess that I should have known better.

Oh well, back to the Q4 demo where there are actually servers...

Quake 4 Multiplayer Demo Released
June 27, 2007

Well, the good folks at ID Software have released a dandy Quake 4 multiplayer demo. I'd never gotten to taste the sweet nectar of Quake 4's multiplayer goodness, but it is sweet indeed. They've managed to maintain the wonderful speed of Quake 3 while bringing it into the Quake 4 world of more modern-day seeming weapons and gritty feel. Lag does seem to be an issue, but it could could be the great Charter's fault, as a great many things are.

Anyway, the demo can be grabbed from idsoftware's FTP server. God bless you ID for having the longest running FTP server in existence. I remember grabbing the Quake 1 demo and various mods from your server. Lovely. Thank you for not forcing us to brave the depths of Fileplanet or the like.

Geometry Wars Rocks the Socks
June 22, 2007

Steam was the most vile thing on the planet when it first came out. I'm still on the fence about it as a content-delivery platform... but without it I would have been empty handed in getting Geometry Wars, Half-Life 2: Episode One and the Lost Planet demo.

I ponied up my $2.50 or so for Geometry Wars a few nights ago and was pleasantly surprised when I popped it open. A lush, flowing environment containing... an old school shooter! Oh, how joyous it was to mash on my keyboard for almost two hours before I noticed how much time had passed. I plugged up my old PS1 Dual Shock Controller (Yay for importing illegal converters!) the other night just to see what I was missing and the game became even better.

So, for $2.50 I got a gorgeous, great controlling and incredibly interesting shooter. Thank you Steam.

Halo 2 PC, Ok, It Doesn't Look That Bad
June 14, 2007

Ok, some of you may have noticed my rant a few days ago about the ugliness that is Halo 2. I realized that it was a bit too ranty for my tastes, and decided to delete it before anyone commented on it (I'll never delete a post after a comment has been made). Anyway, I made some correlations between Halo 2 and Quake 2... after a recent discovery, I have to take these back.

After being over at Andy's yesterday, helping him with some Vista printing issues, he showed me a quite nice looking run through of Halo 2 on his PC. I noticed something, it didn't look like ass. So, when I got home I sat down intending to do something about it! Ok, well - I did some packing and cleaning first - to be truthful.

I fired up the game and jumped right into battle thinking that I had maybe been looking at it wrong. No, it still looked like ass. I went into the Video settings and upped the anti-aliasing to 4x thinking that maybe it made a giant difference. Nope, still no difference. Well, now what? Andy's looked so good... so I decided to go ahead and register for a Live account and see if there were some updates. Man, that was a good half hour of my life I'd like back. Their server even responded with a TOTALLY blank page after successfully registering. Still no avail...

Then, before loading the game I decided to double check my anti-aliasing settings. Loe! There was a new setting available "Level of Detail". I pushed that puppy up to high and was greeted by a decent looking game when I loaded up my last checkpoint.

The LOD setting was deemed, too difficult to code to be dynamically set in game. Fair enough, a few other console ports are that way - your Indians aren't star programmers. I get it. However, what Microsoft decided to do instead was to simply drop the option from the in-game menu. The usual state of affairs is to dim or otherwise note that it is not able to be set during gameplay. Oh well.

So, Halo 2 actually looks halfway decent. It's got a kick-ass plot-line and the controls feel a lot better than Halo's did. They're not quite PC shooter quality, but they're standable now. I consider my money well spent.

Also, this FireFox add-on kicks major ass and this robot song will be stuck in your head until next Tuesday.

Student Removed From School for Creating Video Game Map
May 03, 2007

More murder simulation goodness. in Fort Bend for creating a map of his school for Counter-Strike. You know, that amazingly real murder simulator where you learn to aim and kill and stuff. David knows the one, where you jump all the time while shooting in order to go faster.

I seriously find it amazing that they've removed a kid for something like this. I mean, any serious gamer who has ever dabbled in mapping has made a map of A) Their House B) Their Mall and C) Their School. Personally, I did my parents' basement in Half-Life - my school in Doom - and someone in California made a map of our mall in Duke3d. Last I checked, creating artistic reproductions of things wasn't a crime.

There are terrorists and psychopaths at every corner. Some kid making computer game maps, probably isn't one of them. Let Jack Thompson make up some statistics on how many "school shooters" made maps of their schools and then "trained" in them. Let's see how far he gets.

As an aside, I saw in the WSJ that we lost somewhere close to 120 troops this last month. 120 dead. That seems like a whole lotta lives are being thrown at this problem with no resolution in site.

Anyway, back to management.

Jack Thompson on VA Tech Shootings
April 17, 2007

So, I'm sure that you guys are probably familiar with the recent VA Tech Shootings. Apparently everyone's favorite attorney and "expert on school shootings" Jack Thompson has decided to make a go at this one. More than likely, he says, this shooting was caused by the kids playing Doom. A violent "murder simulation" that is causing the downfall of humanity.

Andy? We were training to be murderers a few weeks ago. How does that make you feel? What new tactics did we learn? Let's see... run up to demons... click mouse... pickup health kit... find key... run up to demons... click mouse... find key... walk across acid... die... respawn... run up to demons... click mouse... drink some coke... click mouse... open door... find key... go to the bathroom... run up to demon... click mouse... sounds like we're well trained killers now.

Video @ Destructoid - it really scares me that Fox News is referring to him as an "expert" considering that he's been teetering on being disbarred for quite awhile. I mean, you told me that glorious Mother America won the war against the infidels in Iraq a few years back - but really Fox.

Also, Jack talks about schools having bars on the windows and people going through metal detectors as a function of Columbine. I distinctly remember being required to have a clear backpack and go through metal detectors when I lived in Texas. We even had police patrols that roved the halls. This was circa 1993. Thank you Jack.

Warioparty Tonight!
February 23, 2007

So, Andy's hosting a Warioparty tonight! Sadly, David's already canceled - so it looks like it'll just be Me, Andy and his Room-mates. Oh well. It will still be fun. Our traditional weekend dinner will be followed up by a necessary Cub run. What fun is a get together without Pocky? We will then probably retire to Andy's peaceful living room for some joyous Warioware entertainment. First Floor Ap't == Ability to Jump Around Alot. I can't wait to try the jumping game while actually being able to jump.

Let's just hope that I don't suck at it as much this time around. :)

Warioware: Smooth Moves
February 18, 2007

So, I was over at Andy's today and something miraculous happened. Andy bought Warioware: Smooth Moves. I'm sure that you've heard of it; if you're David, Andy or James. It's basically a combination of lots of different microgames ranging from cleaning a cow's ass to maintaining the vertical nature of a broom. It sounds kind of offbeat and Japanese. It is. But it's amazing. Draz was over, and we all sat down and beat the game within a few hours. But then we moved on to the minigames... and the unlocked levels... and higher scores... and more unlocked levels... and I was hooked.

I left Andy's around 08:15P in order to get to Gamestop before it closed. I arrived home bearing a small package wrapped in tell-tale plastic - and my wife knew what it contained. Only the greatest form of entertainment known to me, a VIDEO GAME. I plugged it in and became totally lost. It was too much for Emily to handle, but I couldn't stop playing. I got halfway through the main game when I finally let her have the TV back - and I can't wait to go farther.

This is a great party game. It's not for those who get angry at losing, because you'll suck at first - but after you open up it becomes an amazing act of learning new things and trying to solve the /puzzle/ of how you're trying to play the game.

If you remember old Atari games... imagine 200 Atari games each played in under 5 seconds and with updated graphics. You've got it. FANTASTMORGASMIC! If you thought that Wii sports got you worked up, you haven't seen anything yet. My legs actually hurt from some of the minigames and I'm fit. Wonderous. You'll even get to dance!

Ok. Enough talk. Go buy it. If you own a Wii. Which the gaming readers of my blog do. So go buy it. Now.

Weekend Project: Reclaim the DS
January 15, 2007

Well, the Wii seems to have done i