Aonon's Blog - 2old2play

scratch Master 360

My 360 has decided it does not like discs. It demonstrates this by scratching the hell out of them. It chewed through COD4 and Mass Effect. I was able to buff COD4 back to life, but it was too late for Mass Effect. Fortunately it was still covered under the 30 day warranty at Futureshop and I was able to do a disc exchange. So now I am out a 360 until it gets repaired. Well I can play all the XBLA games I want or download some Xbox Classics, but I am not putting anything in the DVD tray. This will be 360 number two since 2005. I guess I should consider myself lucky this one lasted as long as it did.

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Mountains and Courts

What am I doing today? Firstly I am going to go to court and be a witness in an assault case. Actually I am the victim also. I was attacked at a train station in Calgary about seven months ago. Two guys jumped me, there was no provocation. I wasn�t hurt to badly, seven stitches and a nasty bruise on my leg. I gave as good as I got though. The police caught the guys shortly after the attack. Partly due the trail of blood they left as they fled the scene. So it�s off to court for me. I have no idea what to expect. The good thing about today is I have a day off, and after the court appearance Jennifer and I are off to the mountains to spend two days relaxing at a hotel. Her company puts on a Christmas party there, all expenses paid. It should be a delightful -25c/-13f up there tonight. I had better bring my gloves.

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FPS burnout.

Finished Halo 3 and COD4, by finished I mean got through the solo campaigns. I am not too concerned about achievements or online ranks. Both took about a week of regular playing on there hardest difficulties. I miss games that took longer than a week to finish. Are games getting easier? shorter? or both? After 20years of gaming can I safely say I have seen it all?

Next week Mass Effect comes out. This makes me very happy. Last night after playing a little COD4 and feeling like I had seen it all, and looking at all my games and wondering why I am not excited about games right now*. I remembered that Mass Effect is less than a week away. That brought a smile to my face. I need a game with some depth.

* Please note that me not being excited about games is like an axe murderer not being excited about a car full of co-eds lost on a lonely country road.

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COD4 is not Halo3..?

So I picked up COD4 last night and played it a fair amount. Enough to get the gist of it and it is a great game, but I am sad to report it is just not Halo3. For starters Halo3 is set in space. It is an epic battle between a cyborg space marine dude with armour, and shields and futuristic weapons. COD4 you are a spec ops dude fighting in a somewhat realistic conflict right out of next years headlines. You have basic guns and some Kevlar body armour, but that’s it. Halo3 is a game that uses a bright colourful palate; COD4 uses a darker muddier one with lots of greens and browns. Halo3 you fight funky space aliens called the Covenant. In COD4 you are fighting the boogiemen du jour; Arabs and Russians. Hey Ivan long time, no see. Ok so they are both FPS’s and they both have fun, albeit short single player modes. But they make up for that with deep multiplayer modes. I guess you could say that COD4 is striving for realism and Halo3 isn’t. I guess you could say that they are different games with different styles of stories to tell and different features to set themselves apart.

You know actually, COD4 is a great game, but it is not Halo3. Halo3 is a different game. Its funny but I see so many people comparing Halo3 and COD4. I thought somehow they were related beyond being FPS’s, video games, and that they came out this year. But wow, so different.

What am I trying to say here, who the hell knows? I suppose I wish there was some sort of magical criteria upon which all discussion about games could be based on, without having to sit through the inevitable comparisons between this weeks and last weeks in thing. Is it possible to judge a game on its own merits? Do we do a game justice by judging it against another game? Is that other game qualified to be the barometer upon which we judge other games? Is there a game out there that is the quintessential single player or multiplayer experience? I am speaking here outside of personal opinion. Of course we have our own personal likes and dislikes. But is it possible to judge or critique a game solely on its own merits.

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Wants and Needs

Maybe I am getting fickle in my old age. It’s hard to sort through what you want and what you need sometimes. In my head is a list of my needs game wise. And a list of my wants game wise. Right now what I want is a good (read Great) RPG. Thanks Mass Effect, you will most certainly fit the bill. But somewhere below that is this constant fight between Assassins Creed and COD4. Maybe I will wait until tomorrow and see what happens. Right now though there is a song in my head I just can’t get rid of.

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It�s good to vent.

I like the idea of clans. I like talking about games. I like the bond that comes from a shared interest. And to the people who responded to my previous blog. Yeah I was just venting. I won’t go into the gory details about why I left my previous clan. And yes it does usually boil down to a difference of opinion with one person. I don’t actually have a lot of principles, but the ones I do have I stick to. J

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Clans can Suck It.

Leaving a great clan that is focused on one game that you felt you wouldn't be playing for a long time because you had picked up "The New" Game in town.

You join a clan focused on "The New" game in town only to leave because you didn't like the way it was run.

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8 years.

Today Jennifer and I are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary. Eight years doesn’t seem like a long time. But I feel like we have been together forever. We are one of those couples that make people uncomfortable because we are so damn happy together. We both often get surprised responses when people find out we are married. I guess there is a way married couples are supposed to act. It’s not always sunshine and roses. We have our ups and downs. But we work through the problems together. If there is a secret to a successful marriage, I would say its how you face life together. Remember shit happens, but are you funky enough to deal with it. I am looking forward to another eight years.

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So many games, so little time.

November has three big games coming out, Assassins Creed, Mass Effect and COD4. But I am only really interested in two of them. I am experiencing a certain amount of game burnout. So many quality games in such a few short months. I haven’t played a good RPG since Oblivion. I love immersive open ended games, with a strong emphasis on the single player element. And, I also like FPS. But I am not that interested in online games right now. Not enough to support two titles. I was psyched initially for COD 4, but slowly it has slid off my radar. It seems that COD4 is targeted at the multi-player crowed. Halo 3 fills my need for a good multi-player game. COD4’s single player game is apparently short, too short. Half-Life 2 is going to fill my single player needs for a while. So sadly COD4 has joined my list of second string games. But really it’s not like I am gonna really notice its absence with Mass Effect and Assassins Creed to occupy my time.

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Yeah�. Friday Blog Part II

So there where these brothers they ruled the London cime scene in the 60’s, nasty they were, ruled through fear. But they cultivated this appearance of being gentlemen and being untouchable. They where known as the Krays or by their first names Reggie and Ronnie.

Morrissey - Last of the Famous International Playboys

Embedded YouTube Video --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvqejATUgaE

Blur - Charmless Man

Embedded YouTube Video --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMAUJomMl9E

Renegade Soundwave - Biting My Nails

Embedded YouTube Video --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAcgwXkIOHM

Yes the last video is kind of a stretch. But bonus points to anyone who can make the connection.

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IMOM

Do you ever secretly wish that you had an alternative identity? I do, I wish sometimes that I had an alter ego. Maybe as a quiet middle aged guy, with a boring sedentary nine to five, and an obsession with video games. Instead I am an International Man of Mystery. Yeah it’s true, and I am damn good at it too. I am so mysterious and international that I appear to all around me as a boring middle aged guy with a sedentary nine to five. Its not all fun and games being an IMOM. Mostly its traveling around, you know being international and being mysterious. The mysterious part is pretty easy. You eat alone a lot in fancy restaurants, stand around in airports and train stations watching people, and occasionally crash high society gatherings by falling the roof, or racing across lawns of stately manors in you Aston Martin. You know those cars are so small. Like too small. Anyway, I have to go. I have a date in Paris with a blonde with some micro film and a CIA operative with a speech impediment.

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Portal

Quick Orange Box blog.

1) I would like to nominate Portal as my game as art nomination for 2007. I hum that song all the time at work.

2) I love the Zero Punctuation reviews. Here is the link to the review of Episode 2 and the rest of Orange Box.*

www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2541-Zero-Punctuation-The-Orange-Box

*Anyone know how to embed this type of movie..?

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Why Do You Buy?

Do we buy games because the bulk of internet and print coverage tells us to do so?

Do people pick games based on personal taste?

I have noticed a trend towards people being unhappy with, or generally negative about games they have purchased. And I wonder why they bought it in the first place. Are people buying games outside of their usual tastes because they feel that it is the new in game, or do they hope that with all the positive coverage how could they go wrong. Is the quality of games declining? Are there more people playing games and accordingly the number of people who end up purchasing a game they didn’t like increasing. Or are we losing our ability to judge on our own what is and isn’t the right game for us? Are games being sold to us as more of a lifestyle choice, and some people buying into the image associated with a game, then find it doesn’t fit?

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La Boite Orange

Games, games, games.

Call me contrary but I have always felt that Halo’s strongest point was its solo campaign. I am not one of those it’s gotta have multiplayer or I am not interested guys. Co-op is a desirable trait, but online multiplayer not so much. I do like to go online and get some deathmatch in now and then but it’s not the driving force in my daily gaming addiction. That’s why with the La Boite Orange the TF2 part I may never see. Truth be told, I am only interested in Portal and Episode 2. Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 are nice additions to the package but TF2 is not the driving force in my purchase of the La Boite Orange.

Bioware has been purchased by EA. Hmmm I am not a fan of EA as a company. I like some of there games though. So does this mean that I will have to listen to some crappy obnoxious EA Trax style music with DJ commentary while I play Mass Effect?

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Jello Kittens

Let’s start with JELL-O

The main ingredient in jello is gelatin. Gelatin is made from cow and pig bones and connective tissue. You grind up the parts and then dissolve them in acid. You than boil the goo and skim the top layer off. This is dried and used to make jello and marshmallows and other gooey treats.

Hmm hmmm….

While at the farm on the weekend, we got to see the three day old kittens new to the family. Three day old kittens’ posses a kind of helpless cuteness that can only be measured in mega-cute-ons.

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