Monday, July 31, 2006
Let's Party!
Sorry for the lack of a recent update. I guess I could have posted this a log time ago but, I finished the main quest and almost all side quests for Oblivion. The side quests that I did finish were all the guild quests and about 75% of all other side quests. So sometime on a rainy day I'll probably come back to it, but for now, I've decided to move on.
I've met a few really nice people that play Prey and started to actually have fun playing it despite its quality as a game. Speaking of Xbox 360 games, a few new good ones should be coming out fairly soon. I'm really looking forward to Dead Rising, Ninety-Nine Nights, and Gears of War. The games that I'm looking forward to coming out for the Playstation 2 are Okami and Final Fantasy XII. Like Gears of War, these games aren't coming out till a few months later, which will give me enough time to build up some money.
As for contemplative purchases, I really considered buying a PSP recently. Why? I saw Valkyrie Profile Lenneth on the shelves at Best Buy and really, really wanted to play it. There are actually a few other games I'd like to play that are only on the PSP, but I was going to wait until I found at least a few more that interested me. But for now, I think I'm going to wait until the price of the PSP comes down before I actually buy one. I'll work on my DS Lite for now.
In personal news, I recently went to my second cousin's wedding over the weekend. I must say it was quite fun to see all my relatives drunk and attempt to dance. The highlight of the night was when my aunt Dorris got up on the table and started dancing. Apparently, it’s a family tradition. Despite the massive hangover the following day and into the next, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat with some thoughtful consideration towards the volume of alcohol I'll consume. Pictures of the party will not be posted to protect the innocent.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
24 Hour Viruses Are NOT Cool:So yeah, I spent all of yesterday in my bed sweating my booty off eventhough my body was shivering. I had four blankets on and not a one of them seemed to help.
It started off as a minor throat annoyance (sort of a dry feeling in the back of your throat) the day before, and then exploded into a demonic virus from hell within the next 12 to 24 hours. I then spent the next 24 hours in bed with 3 trips to visit the kitchen for water and the bathroom. After the uncontrollable shivering stopped, I had a pounding, pulsating headache in the back of my head, along with both eardrums feeling like they were ready to detonate. When I found that slamming my head against my pillow in frustration wasn't helping the cause, I put some ice cubes in a bag and placed it at the back of my neck and decided to lay down for a bit. Although the ice was a nice temporary relief from the hell I was facing, it did not slay my problem completely. I just had to sit in my bed and wait it out until the virus drew its course. I didn't have a thermometer on hand, but I'm sure it would have hit well above the 100 mark. My skin was extremely hot to the touch almost the entire time.
I've had a virus like this once before and I never hoped for it to happen again. The last time I had a virus like this the thermometer topped out at 106 degrees. Don't brain cells start dieing at the 102 mark? All I can do now is hope that the next time I get another virus like this I hope it comes at a later date.
Friday, July 14, 2006
You Got Another Thing Coming!:Well, I finally beat Prey yesterday. I have to say that the end boss was pretty weak, but then again I was playing it on “Normal” difficultly mode. I’ll try it out on “Cherokee” sometime soon. The story of the game seemed rather dry and cliché to me. It had some potential towards the end, but it soon went downhill after that. I played a little bit of the multiplayer for Prey and it was alright. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t great. I had a little fun in the Roadhouse multiplayer level yesterday dancing (crouching up and down while moving around) next to the jukebox. The song playing on repeat was “You Got Another Thing Coming” by Judas Priest. Some other people in the game decided to join in and it was pretty funny. It later got disbanded after someone finally decided to chuck a crawler grenade into the party and we all went our separate ways.
Oh, and by the way, there will be a Prey 2 coming out sometime in the future. Figures. Most of the Xbox 360 games will have a sequel because of the length they are now. So currently, I’m debating whether or not to go back and get all the secrets/achievements in Condemned or finish G.R.A.W.
I also need to get back and show my Playstation 2 some lovin’. I played Sly 2: Band of Thieves till I beat the first boss, and haven’t played it in a couple of days. Well, I guess I can get back to it. If you’ve never played any of the Sly Cooper series, you must at least try one of them out because they are pretty darn fun. The only time I’ve played the third game in the series was when I was at E3 two years ago, and that’s also where I got the demo for the game. You can wear 3D glasses for a few of the levels – which has a really nice effect and is pretty cool. I’ve played all of the first one and that’s what made me want to buy the second. They changed a lot of things for the sequel – some of them better, some of them worse. So I guess that makes it just about even with the first one. I do like that you can take damage more than twice though in the second one, but I also don’t like how you are in the same level/in the same area until you beat the main boss for that area. It was kinda like that in the first one, but even more so in the second. I’ll be buying the third game in the series as soon as it reaches the $20 mark. Until then, I’m sure I can occupy myself with other games until its markdown.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Preyed:This last weekend I went to the local Best Buy here and I decided to buy some Ghost in the Shell - Second Gig DVD's, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, and also bought into the pre-order "trap" for Prey. :-P It cost $5 and came with a pretty cool looking pewter "Mutate" figurine. Seeing as how I'm living in a less populated area of Nebraska than I've previously been living in before (thank God it's only for the summer), I had a feeling that the game wouldn't come in until after the release date - and I was right. I eagerly showed up at Best Buy after work on the 10th, pumped and ready to buy and play the game. But alas, they only had the PC version of the game in, and not the Xbox 360 version. Eventhough I expected something like this to happen, it was still kind of a downer. I left them my business card and told them to call me when they got a limited edition copy in. They didn't expect to get their shipment in for two more days. Wonderful.
I got a call yesterday mid-afternoon while I was at work from Best Buy, and the day seemed to go a lot faster once I heard the news that a copy was set aside for me. I picked up my copy after work and opened the box once I got home. The art book and other pewter figurines inside were pretty cool looking, and the code for the free soundtrack download online was a pretty nice feature too - which I'm almost certain will eventually get code-hacked and file-shared anyway... But as I continued to open the packaging, I was almost shocked to find that the CD for the actual game itself was placed behind everything else on a peg against the bare metal of the limited edition box, with nothing to at least remotely protect it from scratching. To me it seems as if they spent all that time making the game, and got too worried/excited about making the packaging for it that they weren't using their heads right. I'm going to have to buy something to put back there or find a spare CD slip somewhere to put the game in. I just can't stand to see it in the condition that it came in.
As for the game itself, I've almost beaten it. There are four levels left for me to go through out of the 22 levels total. If my parents hadn't called and talked to me for two hours yesterday in the middle of playing, I'm almost certain I would have beaten it by now. I even spent an hour at clan practice in Halo 2 yesterday as well. So basically what I'm getting at is that this game is short. The levels seem extremely short to me, or maybe I'm just that good! :-P As for gameplay and graphics, this game is awesome.
What I'm starting to notice is that almost all the Xbox 360 release games (or games released within a year of it's release) are extremely short, with the exception for Oblivion (which is gi-nourmous!) and probably Quake 4. I haven't played all of G.R.A.W. yet or own Call of Duty 2, so I can't speak for those games, as well as all the worthless sports games which are even more of a waste of money. I noticed this "shortage" problem before, but sort of let it slide due to their release dates. But I must say I was astoundingly shocked when I beat Tomb Raider Legend in 5 hours. I didn't get all the extra secrets, but still - 5 hours? Comon'! Is it even worth making the game if it's going to be that short? I know this game came out for a few other platforms including the PSP. Now I wouldn't have a problem with it if it was only meant to be released for the PSP (due to it's length), but since it wasn't, they have some explaining to do.
I don't know why most of the Xbox 360 games are so short. I have two theories: 1.) All the code, graphics, etc. take up most of the space on the CD. and 2.) They are lazy. If it were the first reason, I would laugh and have the producers and/or developers take a look at Oblivion. I don't even know how they got all that crap onto one CD, but they are awesome for doing it. So because of this, I'm going to have to revert to the second option... All I know is that these games better get longer and more beefed up before I'm going to be happy, eventhough I know that the Xbox 360 is going for community - which is why there are so many FPS's released/going to be released for it. It's hard to make another game genre where you can have so many people playing at once if it's not already an MMO, FPS, or RPG. Sigh...oh well...
The Dego Diva:
Date Of Birth: May 24th, 1984
Location: Wouldn't You Like To Know
Occupation: Student
Masters: Forensic Anthropology
Major: Anthropology
Minors: Art History & Japanese
Primary Hobby/Intrest: Video Gaming
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