Last week I finally reached Prestige in MW2. It felt good to finally get there. My rise through the ranks since then seems to be going much faster than it did the first time. I'd like to think I'm better at the game than I was 11 months ago, but I'm pretty sure the enlisted levels require a lot less XP. We'll see haw fast I can get to Prestige 2.
My wife asked me if I wanted a game for Christmas and I told her I wanted CoD Black Ops. I don't usually think of myself as a primarily FPS player by it's the only new game I'm genuinely excited about. Fallout New Vegas should be a great game, but I still have 2 expansions for Fallout 3 to get through so I won't be playing F:NV anytime soon. I'm going to try really hard not to buy any new games for the rest of the year, partially to save money but mostly because I have a ton of great games I haven't given enough attention to.
Next up: Even more Borderlands. I'm lvl 38 and just started playthrough two. The new DLC bumps the level cap to 70... time to roll up my sleeves.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
If Missiles Opened Doors
What I'm thinking about now:
Going out and buying all three Etrian Odyssey games... and a DS to play them on. Why? Who the fuck knows. I barely knew they existed until an hour ago when I read this. That led to a visit to the games' websites. Which led to me wanting them. I don't necessarily like this kind of long winded, sadistically difficult JRPG, but I like the idea of them. I want to like them. I may have spoken before about my attraction to Atlus games. The two most recent for me were Disgaea and Odin Sphere. They are two phenomenal games but they are deep-fat-fried in the 'ol grind aesthetic and Odin Sphere has that punishing difficulty that is so typical of Atlus. The bottom line is, I just don't have enough days in my life to dedicate to these pursuits. Perhaps if I were sickly and could not leave my bed.
I finished Shadow Complex yesterday in what I think was a five hour stretch. Lack of sleep had me in a fog so memory of the event is blurry, but I have the achievements so I know it happened. If I were to review this game I would use a single word: Metroid. Or if I used two words: Super Metroid. You can tell these guys have played that game before and you can tell it's been on their minds quite a bit since. There are sections of the map that are almost direct translations. As a fan of SM myself Shadow Complex grew on me more every time I was reminded of it. If we had never made 3D games, if sidescrollers were still king and continued to progress graphically this kind of thing would have sold millions. A part of me wants to live in that world.
Lord of the Rings Online is now free to play and that has spurred me to play it just as it did a year ago. There is still money involved to be sure, but it's involved via micro transactions. This idea I really like. While I haven't spent any money on the game yet, I feel I'm much more likely to spend a few dollars for some extra content than I am on a subscription fee. It just never made sense to me to pay over and over again for the same game. When you don't know how much you are going to be able to play in a given time period, you don't really have a clear idea of what you are paying for. But if some super-special armor costs one dollar American then I know exactly what getting and what it's costing me. I really hope this business model works out for Turbine and other developers because it sure works out for the consumer. I also want to point out how cool it is to play in Middle Earth. LOTRO as a game hasn't shown me any real stand-out moments yet, but the ability to explore all the locations from the books is very cool. Game enthusiasts are always talking about immersion. LOTRO doesn't make me float out of my chair or anything, but it makes it easier to imagine myself a traveler in Tolkien's world.
Going out and buying all three Etrian Odyssey games... and a DS to play them on. Why? Who the fuck knows. I barely knew they existed until an hour ago when I read this. That led to a visit to the games' websites. Which led to me wanting them. I don't necessarily like this kind of long winded, sadistically difficult JRPG, but I like the idea of them. I want to like them. I may have spoken before about my attraction to Atlus games. The two most recent for me were Disgaea and Odin Sphere. They are two phenomenal games but they are deep-fat-fried in the 'ol grind aesthetic and Odin Sphere has that punishing difficulty that is so typical of Atlus. The bottom line is, I just don't have enough days in my life to dedicate to these pursuits. Perhaps if I were sickly and could not leave my bed.
I finished Shadow Complex yesterday in what I think was a five hour stretch. Lack of sleep had me in a fog so memory of the event is blurry, but I have the achievements so I know it happened. If I were to review this game I would use a single word: Metroid. Or if I used two words: Super Metroid. You can tell these guys have played that game before and you can tell it's been on their minds quite a bit since. There are sections of the map that are almost direct translations. As a fan of SM myself Shadow Complex grew on me more every time I was reminded of it. If we had never made 3D games, if sidescrollers were still king and continued to progress graphically this kind of thing would have sold millions. A part of me wants to live in that world.
Lord of the Rings Online is now free to play and that has spurred me to play it just as it did a year ago. There is still money involved to be sure, but it's involved via micro transactions. This idea I really like. While I haven't spent any money on the game yet, I feel I'm much more likely to spend a few dollars for some extra content than I am on a subscription fee. It just never made sense to me to pay over and over again for the same game. When you don't know how much you are going to be able to play in a given time period, you don't really have a clear idea of what you are paying for. But if some super-special armor costs one dollar American then I know exactly what getting and what it's costing me. I really hope this business model works out for Turbine and other developers because it sure works out for the consumer. I also want to point out how cool it is to play in Middle Earth. LOTRO as a game hasn't shown me any real stand-out moments yet, but the ability to explore all the locations from the books is very cool. Game enthusiasts are always talking about immersion. LOTRO doesn't make me float out of my chair or anything, but it makes it easier to imagine myself a traveler in Tolkien's world.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Friend Request Pending
Two years ago when I first got my 360 I set to the task of populating my friends list. Two of my friends, being in the military were not able to immediately accept. The worst was my friend Dan who only now has gotten around to getting back online. It's weird not having him at the top of my friends list with "pending" next to his name.
Four of us had been talking for two weeks about a game night. We had to badger Dan into renewing his gold membership. As usual there was a lot of email chatter about what we would end up playing. At some point someone mentioned Doom II on XBLA and somehow that's the idea that got latched onto. So when Dan did get around to renewing, he downloaded Doom II as well. It turned out to be the only game the four of us had in common. So there we were, four dudes on different corners of the Earth, connected trough miles of high-speed fiber optics and networking equipment, with thousands of dollars in state of the art entertainment systems, running a game that was made over a decade ago.
It was fun.
Friday, September 3, 2010
How the Hell is it September Already?
In my last post I wrote how I was listening to two great progressive rock albums by Steely Dan and Supertramp. Continuing in that tradition I’m now listening to Closer to the Edge by Yes. Wikipedia says that this album is considered by many to be the high point of the prog movement. It certainly is out there. The title track is 18 minutes long, and has recordings of birds. It’s not as lame as it sounds though. Maybe by the end of this post I’ll be able to give you a full impression.
Soooooo, lets see, what’s happened since August 19th? Shit. Let me distil this into micro sound bytes:
Devil May Cry, Sins of a Solar Empire, FIFA ’08, Gears of War, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Ghost in the Shell.
Mmmm, that was fun.
The big surprise of the last few weeks has been my quality assurance class. I thought it was going to be pretty easy, and I suppose it is, but our homework has consisted of finding bugs in games. These are existing games, not games in development. This is actually really hard. For the first assignment I was able to find five bugs in Fallout 3. I didn’t find them after the fact, I knew about them before hand. Some of them I had experienced only a couple of times and only knew about only because I had logged well over 200 hours in the game. The second assignment tasked us with finding 10 glitches in a different game. I managed to find only three in Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Regardless of what grade I get at least I was reminded of what a fun game it is. I think I’ll try to beat it this weekend.
The real cool surprise is that my teacher may be getting us “field trips” to play test real games at local game companies. Some of these will be companies you would have heard of, and games you are anxiously waiting to play. When I heard this news I kept it cool of course but inside I squealed like a girl. An excited young girl.
So here we are at the end of the post and I haven’t finished the album because my wife started watching Lost. I didn’t want to interfere with her experience, so I’ll let you know how it is next time.
Soooooo, lets see, what’s happened since August 19th? Shit. Let me distil this into micro sound bytes:
Devil May Cry, Sins of a Solar Empire, FIFA ’08, Gears of War, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Ghost in the Shell.
Mmmm, that was fun.
The big surprise of the last few weeks has been my quality assurance class. I thought it was going to be pretty easy, and I suppose it is, but our homework has consisted of finding bugs in games. These are existing games, not games in development. This is actually really hard. For the first assignment I was able to find five bugs in Fallout 3. I didn’t find them after the fact, I knew about them before hand. Some of them I had experienced only a couple of times and only knew about only because I had logged well over 200 hours in the game. The second assignment tasked us with finding 10 glitches in a different game. I managed to find only three in Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Regardless of what grade I get at least I was reminded of what a fun game it is. I think I’ll try to beat it this weekend.
The real cool surprise is that my teacher may be getting us “field trips” to play test real games at local game companies. Some of these will be companies you would have heard of, and games you are anxiously waiting to play. When I heard this news I kept it cool of course but inside I squealed like a girl. An excited young girl.
So here we are at the end of the post and I haven’t finished the album because my wife started watching Lost. I didn’t want to interfere with her experience, so I’ll let you know how it is next time.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Stowing Away the Time
Maybe it's the fatigue but I've been extra responsive to music tonight. Physically responsive. Goosebumps, hairs on end, shivers, eyelids drooping.
Listening to Supertramp's Breakfast in America, followed by Steely Dan's Can't Buy a Thrill. I got both albums back in February and they have yet to wear out their welcome, in fact they seem to get better every time I listen to them. While I'm not the type of person who likes to hear things over and over within a short period of time, I find that if I give an album about three good listens and then put it a way for a while, when I come back to it the music is much better. Maybe my brain is just set to receive it. I need time to grow the appropriate neuron receptors.
I've been feeling very creative too. I think the stronger my ADD symptoms the more I'm able to find the muse, and lately I've been a scatter-brained mess so the creative juices are certainly flowing. I've been writing lyrics, something I've not felt like doing in over a year. I've dabbled with songs all my life but never felt like I could find my lyrical voice. I think maybe I need to determine what kind of music I'm keyed to writing for. I may have been trying to hard to write for hard rock, when I should have cultivated a move progressive, even pop mindset. Another possibility is that I just haven't worked hard enough at it.
You know, let me better express how awesome Breakfast in America is. I'm giving it an early nomination for my favorite of 2010. It really is an amazing album.
Listening to Supertramp's Breakfast in America, followed by Steely Dan's Can't Buy a Thrill. I got both albums back in February and they have yet to wear out their welcome, in fact they seem to get better every time I listen to them. While I'm not the type of person who likes to hear things over and over within a short period of time, I find that if I give an album about three good listens and then put it a way for a while, when I come back to it the music is much better. Maybe my brain is just set to receive it. I need time to grow the appropriate neuron receptors.
I've been feeling very creative too. I think the stronger my ADD symptoms the more I'm able to find the muse, and lately I've been a scatter-brained mess so the creative juices are certainly flowing. I've been writing lyrics, something I've not felt like doing in over a year. I've dabbled with songs all my life but never felt like I could find my lyrical voice. I think maybe I need to determine what kind of music I'm keyed to writing for. I may have been trying to hard to write for hard rock, when I should have cultivated a move progressive, even pop mindset. Another possibility is that I just haven't worked hard enough at it.
You know, let me better express how awesome Breakfast in America is. I'm giving it an early nomination for my favorite of 2010. It really is an amazing album.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Borderlands
I had two days off this week. In those two days I logged about 16 hours on Borderlands. Christ that game just sucks time like a black hole. I feel like I should pack an over-night and feed the cats before I start playing. Hella good fun though. Will and JT accompanied me for a good part of it. I havn't touched the DLC yet. I can't wait to play it more. I got the shakes baby, daddy's got the shakes baaad!
Planning a ho-down for some time this weekend. If I can get enough people I want to have one last Modern Warfare 2 party before the world forgets about it and gets involved with whatever the holiday lineup has to offer. If I can't get enough people then maybe we can get a fourth for Borderlands. If nobody wants to play with me at all then I'll sulk and read a book or something. Who I am kidding, I've got way to much single player crap to finish up to waste time on books! Silly books. And their pages. Silly.
Planning a ho-down for some time this weekend. If I can get enough people I want to have one last Modern Warfare 2 party before the world forgets about it and gets involved with whatever the holiday lineup has to offer. If I can't get enough people then maybe we can get a fourth for Borderlands. If nobody wants to play with me at all then I'll sulk and read a book or something. Who I am kidding, I've got way to much single player crap to finish up to waste time on books! Silly books. And their pages. Silly.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Compulsion
I bought Blacklight again goddammit.
They got my money. They got my money twice. Curse this affliction of a hobby!
I also bought Preemptive Strike by DJ Shadow. I got it for the song Organ Donor which had been teasing my brain cells since I first heard it on Pandora. I can't stress enough how utterly fucking mind-blowing this song is. It's why we have techno. It's what Willis was talking about. You're listening to it and right away you think, "this is a cool song" and then it stops fucking around and throws 26 layers of incredible on your eardrums and you think... nothing because the part of you that listens to things is busy visiting the holy land.
Reasonably I thought that the rest of the album would be just as stellar. I had heard of DJ Shadow but hadn't really heard him before this song. If that was the kind of quality song I could expect I would gladly pay $9.99 for an album. I'm not going to say the album is bad, or even disappointing, it's just not what I expected. It's sort of a chillout album, very low-key and loungy. Organ Donor is the black sheep here. I imagine if you had not heard it and listened to the album all the way through, that when you got to Organ Donor (the last song) it would have an even greater impact. A sonic-ninja-skullfuck kind of impact. The rest of the album lulls you into a false sense of security before the kung-fu-grip-happy-ending you didn't know the Chinese lady already charged you for.
They got my money. They got my money twice. Curse this affliction of a hobby!
I also bought Preemptive Strike by DJ Shadow. I got it for the song Organ Donor which had been teasing my brain cells since I first heard it on Pandora. I can't stress enough how utterly fucking mind-blowing this song is. It's why we have techno. It's what Willis was talking about. You're listening to it and right away you think, "this is a cool song" and then it stops fucking around and throws 26 layers of incredible on your eardrums and you think... nothing because the part of you that listens to things is busy visiting the holy land.
Reasonably I thought that the rest of the album would be just as stellar. I had heard of DJ Shadow but hadn't really heard him before this song. If that was the kind of quality song I could expect I would gladly pay $9.99 for an album. I'm not going to say the album is bad, or even disappointing, it's just not what I expected. It's sort of a chillout album, very low-key and loungy. Organ Donor is the black sheep here. I imagine if you had not heard it and listened to the album all the way through, that when you got to Organ Donor (the last song) it would have an even greater impact. A sonic-ninja-skullfuck kind of impact. The rest of the album lulls you into a false sense of security before the kung-fu-grip-happy-ending you didn't know the Chinese lady already charged you for.
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