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Man... How long has it been since my last post? I can't tell.
Time has been a blur lately. My life has been changing a lot and it's not the end of it either. In fact as I write this I wonder why I should keep on maintaining a blog on games.
Not that I've ditched them entirely, but they have taken a back seat compared to the day where I thought this was a worthwhile project. I guess I needed some serious escape in those days. It's kind of over now.
My PHP is not too shabby but I'm I think I could incorporate a custom reader to my actual life blog. Frugus.net should be put to a much better use so when I'll have enough spare time I'll work on a serious overhaul.
I did not neglect this site, on the contrary. It's been the test bed for many PHP projects of late (though I admit I've started to slack on those as well). The Holidays where a mix of wonderful moments and hard times, all of this has to do with the context of my somewhat recent split.
There has been a good deal of reajustments in terms of how much time I spend in front of my respective monitors (and to what end) but there was still some wonderful gaming to be had. I'll be talking about it soon in the coming week so stay tuned.
I had a pleasant soirée with a couple of old friends of mine. The restaurant table was zoned in two parts, one for the guys who all played wow save for me, the other for the girls who talked about their daily girl stuff and so on. At one point I figured it would be safer for me to stick with the girls. They kept making Warcraft sound more and more alluring and I did not want to fall back in my old bad habits. In fact I'll go as far as to say this, I sometimes felt like an ex drug addict mixing it up with some junkies. Not that my friends are bad people mind you :P I just can't play these games like a normal person should.
Then again, I heard a nice quote earlier this week from a forum buddy of mine that went along these lines : “If you still have a social life when you are playing WoW then you are not getting your 15$ a month's worth.”
We also talked about GH3 and company, which led us to one of their houses where we played GH3 almost through and through. I developed a strong love for the game again and was crushed to see that my guitar controller had bit the dust. Still, it was a very nice evening, I can't wait for it to happen again. Right now though I'm looking for a used 360 guitar controller.
Later on that weekend I got to get my hands on the Orange Box, I barely touched the rest of the content and dove right into Portal. I have to agree with everything I've heard. It's a genius piece of game, too bad it's so short. In fact I was up to the last level already before I figured I had enough gaming in my blood for the evening. This game is so different from anything I've ever played before that there are very little gaming skills that could help me play this game at first. Most of the people I've shown the game where immediately curious about it and wanted to play more once they managed to understand the weird functionalities of re-arranging your spacial enviornment.
After that I went back to Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I finally beat this game after owning it for so long, and I'm quite sad to see that I barely touched this marvelous piece of a game while it was laying on my desk for so many months (almost a year even). Each character is so unique and has so much development to offer that the replay value should span over many dozens of hours, if not beyond the 100 hour mark. We tried to play some live coop with other Arcadians but it turned out to be a very difficult endeavor. The net code is made of mud and glue. On that note, Cyclops can be incredibly entertaining to watch while fighting. He also has some very unique laser controls where you can choose how to focus your beams.
I'm desperate for Rock Band but I have no money what so ever for the near future. No matter, I should be content with what I have right now. So many games, so little time.
One final thought. I have all the pieces I need to try and rebuild my old macihne, I just don't have the space to do it here.
I really miss my old gaming box. Not that I don't like this laptop but it's not really convenient for certain things. At the very least, I miss having a little dose of PC gaming here and there.
Many good games are out there but I'm focusing on getting my hands on Rock band. GH3 has really started to piss me off with the higher difficulty settings making little sense. As some people found out, there are notes thrown in there just for the sake of having more notes. The essence of the gameplay has been lost somewhere. Other games I'd love to get are Mass Effect and Call of Duty 4.
I geek news, started reading The Difference Machine. Don't like it at all so far but I should give it some more love. I just started it after all.
Here's a big change, most of the games I've wanted just landed on my lap. I got some family love grabbed GH3 sans guitar which was the sensible economic choice anyway, plus I was already quite happy with the X-ploder that I had. I've also heard that the new Gibson wireless guitar that came with the bundle is shoddy so that just makes me happier.
On top of that, went to one of my buddies who works over at EA and he started talking about how Orange Box, especially Portal, was just incredible. Told him I badly wanted it but had no fun budget right now for anything because of the split, and then he tells me that EA is the company that distributes the hard copies for Steam. "What?" So I'm getting it at the discount employee price of HAHA.lol$. Speaking of friends at EA, my other buddy just got an insane promotion, making him both rich and fulfilled. Being a lead designer was one of his life aspirations. I'm quite happy for him. Makes me wonder if I could actually join those guys over there, even if it's for a low level type of job it would surely beat working here in so many ways I can't really count.
On GH3: I have a beef with how the hammers and pulls are handled. It's not as liberal as it used to be with the preceding title and it does irk me to no end for some songs. Thankfully the track list is much better.
Gaming has been quite limited lately. Either I don't have that much time for it or it's me that simple does not want to sit for extended hours in front of my machine. Puzzle quest is usually the game I'll play but it's starting to grow a bit old on me. It's a real shame though, I have tons of games around, most of them I never even came close to finishing while those that I have finished I would gladly play some more. I guess I'm just bothered by all the other cool titles that have already gone out or that will be coming in soon.
Thing is, I'm dead broke from splitting up with my Significant Other. I can't afford fucking shit. I'm not crying over spilled beans or anything, gaming is a luxury and I have tons of it available, but that's the way I've always been about games. I feel good buying them from time to time. For instance I've been drooling for weeks over The Orange Box but that was out of the question. Now GH3 is out and anyone knows how much of a fan I am of the series, but I could not think about getting that either. Now Mass Effect is almost upon us... I've been putting my money on the side for Rock band, I hope it's the better choice of the two.
But money is only money. I have a good family that could support me if things went even worse. That's why instead of buying myself a game, I took the little I had left and put in on a X-men DVD triology. Not for me, but for them. I hope a bunch of kids make the best out of it while they are undergoing chemo or something.
I've recently come to understand that I play too
much video games. I'm not quiting, I'm just going to try and change
my personal habits and up to now things are doing well. Think of
it as an extension from when I managed to quit wow. The effects
feel the same on a grander scale.
I've recently started coding in PHP. It's something I should have
done a long time ago and now I feel somewhat competent again when
it comes to computers. I admit that I've been slacking on the learning
for the past few days but it's not for a lack of will. Most of my
learnings are going on at work (sanctioned so no worries) but there
are things that will pull me away from the needed concentration
and I just end up screwing around more than anything. Still I have
a very good grasp of the language now and I intend to do many interesting
things with it.
This being said the only game that really retains my attention
right now is Puzzle Quest. I try not to play too much of it else
it will cause heavy RI on my brother's screen. Last weekend I had
a very good NHL 08 game over at Noize's with a third player who
was much more knowledgeable and showed us many new tricks. I really
wish I could get my hands on The Orange Box for the 360 (mostly
for Portal). it's something I originally wanted for the PC but my
old machine died and I could not really set it up over here anyway.
Speaking of dead machines, my father was very nice to give me a
very extended loan on a new laptop. I only got it last night and
the initial installation phase took forever as it built the restoration
partition. I think once you choose what language you want for your
OS it will destroy everything else. I could never make the wireless
network connect but it was this morning that I noticed that ALL
my keys where not well written down. I had barely enough time to
download Open Office, Firefox and Thunderbird. Tonight I'll drop
buy a store to get a wireless mouse, maybe Orange Box (though I
REALLY should not) and get it on with a good night of installing
geekery.
Funny thing... to own a computer that no one else will or should
touch. There are possibilities. But yeah, gaming is taking a back
seat. For instance I would have been all over that new GH3 demo
over live but I only downloaded it late in the evening and never
cared to fire it up, heck I'm not even sure if I'll do that this
evening either. Three weeks ago I would have stayed up loate to
be there as soon as it would have been available for download.
I guess a lot of people are getting tired of hearing about Halo
3, I understand their pain. Unfortunately for them I won't stop
talking about it myself because I'm
having way too much fun with it. Coop is a bliss and it's obvious
to many now that Legendary, although seemingly impossible to do
when played alone, is really done to be tackled on with friends,
four of them if you can manage that.
What may surprise casual players is the new connectivity features
that, as far as I am concerned, is pretty new for a console. All
the games can be watched over through the theater mode and then
shared through your File Sharing system. People can watch movies
in a group, slow down the time, change camera angles, take screenshots,
you name it. The forge system is equally quite open ended as well
where a group of friends and you can play in a map and edit everything.
Add or retract stuff, change the laws of physics, add new rules,
etc. The game's single player mode is very well scripted and lasts
for about 8 hours, but it's obvious that the whole hubub is about
the multiplayer. There are various ways to unlock tweaks and armor
pieces to change your look which is also handled very well. The
various styles will help define your character over time, as of
now I'm a huge fan of the E.V.A. suit which seems to be the more
robust astronaut version of the Spartan armor.
It truly feels like WoW has lost all grips upon
me. Still I don't like to refer to those months as an addiction,
after all I've always seen addiction as a
life destroying process, but sure enough my quality of life
was diminished by the amounts of hours played to satisfy my personal
desired goals. I say this in such a way because I recognize the
possibility of still enjoying the game on a lesser level, but that's
now what I was looking for.
An old guildy reached me last weeek, asked if I would consider
coming back because they where in need of players. The guild has
indeed felt a similar burn due to the many hours that felt forced
upon us by the leaders, and so most people had gone on to different
things, both in wow and like me, out of the game. I said I would
not go back and started talking about my recent re-evaluation of
the MMO gendra, which eventually led us to a nervous talk about
what defined an addiction. We barely used that word but the feeling
was in our respective minds I'm sure. I wanted to tell him to quit
everything and just leave while things where down and out for everyone.
It would be easier this way, no strings attached and no obligations
due. I don't think he will.
In other news, I'm looking forward to both Rock Band and Guitar
Hero 3. I've laid off a bit on Guitar Hero 2 mostly because I've
played so much of it that I can barley stand to hear those songs
anymore. Then I picked up GTA:SA for the sake of having something
to hold me down until number four, meaning that I'm now up to a
third time buying this game. I've always hated it but kept wondering
(and trying to understand) why so many people loved it so much.
Even years after release it will appear on a regular basis as part
of the top 10 most played games of the week on Gamespot.
I think I finally put the finger on it. This whole thug life crap
crosses over the line the previous games had drawn where you used
to only do stuff that even most criminals would ever do, both because
of the nature of your situation and because it was a caricaturization.
After all, the Mafia world and the Cuban Cartels are above and beyond
most of us. On the other hand, capping home boys because they did
not want to sell you weed is like making a game where you get points
for spreading AIDS. There is a flavor of irresponsibleness to GTA
that I cannot stomach, especially as a parent. I despise how the
media has put a positive spin on this kind of shit, glorying it
to a point where a guy like Fifty Cent gets more street cred because
he got shot more times than most other rappers.
I keep being told that if I manage to leave that part of the game
that everything will go back to normal. Truth is, I've seen it,
it's just not as good in my opinion either. I miss the old GTA games
terribly. I can only hope that the next one will go back to it's
roots but I doubt that will happen. Also, I should note right here
that I'm surprised and very puzzled to hear that many of the songs
found in GH2 are present in the game.
I gave all my
gold away in the game yesterday. I hoped it would be a pleasant
experience, bringing joy to the noobs and what not. Unfortunately
some of the attitudes I came up against where rather disappointing.
After I declared my plan
to give away 3000 gold pieces to people in Stormwind, I was
told by that I should mail them some instead, others wanted me to
meet up with them in the far reaches of BFE because they where too
busy to come to me, etc. People could not read my simple macro that
said you needed to open a trade with me if you wanted something.
I was pelted with whispers, team invites, suggestions on how I should
give it away, complaints
that some people needed more. You name it.
If I ever needed motivation to never come back, I could not ask
for more. Then again, people in masses are generally like that.
Now that the Plasma display is pretty well broken in it's safe
to play some extended sessions of Guitar Hero II. I've taken a fancy
at the game but I'm completely stuck at Psychobilly Freakout on
hard. Getting tired (frustrated) with Forza 2. Crackdown is a letdown
right now. I tried out World in Conflict which was a pleasant.
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