BalekFekete's Blog - 2old2play

Release the floodgates!

I'm not sure if others have had must-have games hit in the recent weeks, but this week marks the start of the end for me. For the next several weeks, there are multiple titles that I've been wanting for a loooong time, and will have to pick and choose between multiple GOTY-contenders-to-be. A few games are no-brainers. For example, Little Big Planet. After playing the beta, it truly is a revolutionary game in its presentation and scope. Most critics point that it is simply just another platformer. However, what they fail to see is just how powerful the world creation tools are in the game - it's SOO much more than just Forge stuck on the ugly ass of Halo3. It is an absolute integral part of the game, and done perfectly. With just a limited set of tools, the community has already made some fabulous levels, and I can't wait to see what else is produced. Oh, and did I mention my kids love it, so with 4 controllers I can put in "Daddy time" and game at the same time? Win-Win in the grandest sense of the word.

Gears of War 2 is another easy choice. I loved the first, am in a great clan build solely around the game, so know there will be people to play it online any given night.

Then it starts getting tricky. This week the choice comes with Dead Space. Not whether or not I'll get the game - it's being touted as Bioshock mixed with System Shock mixed with Aliens. Win all over the board on that equation for me! I loved Bioshock, from the story to the absolutely perfect atmosphere it presented. Do that in space with aliens and I'll need a man-bib for the drool. The question will be which platform to get the game for. There is no multiplayer, which is usually what decides these choices. Right now, there's no denying that XBL is the superior platform to get people together online. All accounts so far is that both versions will be identical in content (no extra levels for PS3, ala Bioshock - tho' they did need to wait a looong time for that extra content). It seems - and please correct me if I'm wrong - the only difference will be a single bit of exclusive DLC available at launch, a special suit you can get to help bolster your initial gameplay.

PS3 on the left, 360 on the right. Honestly, it's not too hard of a choice. The piss-green glow would look a little ... well, off in space. Looks like the PS3 will win on this account.

Either way....lots of great games coming, so whatever your poison is, enjoy!

[3 Comments]

I hate double blogging...

but this deal warrants it! This Sunday, October 12th to Saturday, October 18th Toys R Us is having a 'buy 2, get 1 free' sale. Can you say Dead Space + SOCOM + SR2 FTW?

[1 Comments]

I worry for our jobs...

With the sagging...oh hell, disintegrating... economy, news of layoffs are popping up all over the place. How long until we are all replaced with...

The only downside is the tendancy for the new help to fling their shit at patrons when they're having a bad day.

[3 Comments]

Growing a set of balls...

I need to. Not literally, thankfully. Those jewels worked just fine enough to produce the three rugrats that grace my home every evening that I return from work. No, I'm talking financial balls and how to manage my 401(k). I know a ton of people, the vast vast majority, have been taking a beating over the past many months to year and change now. I, however, when setting up my portfolio upon joining my compnay four and a half years ago, went ultra-conservative. I'm 100% in bonds right now, and while the return sucks pretty hard, it totally insulated me from the raping the market has been taking.

Now that the bailout bill has passed, I'm starting to wonder if it might be the right time to diversify a portion, probably even a majority, into more risky funds that would over time yield a better return. I'm only 36, with a long work career ahead of me, so risk is really minimal over that long of a period of time (at least that's what I think, no?). The question is - how do I know the market really is scrapping bottom and now is the time to move. All the funds over the past 3 month and year trends have lost money. But will they likely be upturning over the next similiar periods.

This is when that all-seeing, all-knowing crystal ball would come in so handy.

[5 Comments]

T M I

So maybe it wasn't pine tar that George Brett was dealing with...

Link of audio in case the youtube video gets pulled down. I feel really bad for that poor rookie that had to listen to that story. Brett - there are somethings you just DON'T need to let people know! Suprise crapping of ones pants is one of those things. I gotta admit it must have been a riot to have been the audio technician responsible for monitoring the mic Brett was wearing. LOL

[5 Comments]

You can't make this stuff up

Seriously, even if I tried, I couldn't come up with something this off-the-wall in my most drunken stupors.

Michele Allen, 32, will spend the next month in jail after admitting to a wild drunken weekend dressed in this silly cow outfit, said Middletown, Ohio, authorities.

She had been hired to wear the outfit to advertise for a local "haunted trail" theme park.

While at work Saturday evening, Allen hit the sauce hard and then stumbled into the streets - blocking traffic and chasing kids, said Police Major Mark Hoffman.

Allen also urinated in a nearby yard during the drunken grazing, cops said.

Despite having two nights to sober up, Allen was in a foul mood Monday, yelling at jailers. "She was challenging people to 'suck her udders,' " Hoffman said. "I'm not joking."

Since I feel obligated to make ammends after posting that picture, I'll give ya'll this to help lessen the mental blow you just took in seeing it. Seeing I just re-watched the Transformers, this fits the bill.

[0 Comments]

Bass Aackwards

This one goes out to CrypticCat, 2o2p's resident pothe...I mean, resident of the Netherlands.

While the Netherlands has kept its liberal policy on the smoking of cannabis in the country's legendary "coffee shops", zero tolerance is now shown to tobacco smokers in Dutch cafes and restaurants after a smoking came ban came into force last July.

An Amsterdam police spokesman admitted that it could be difficult to understand the current Dutch policy of allowing smokers to puff away on pure cannabis while fining tobacco users.

"For logic it is sometimes impossible to explain, even to the Dutch," he said.

The man was caught lighting a hand rolled cannabis joint during a routine police check and fined because officers found tobacco mixed with the soft drug.

"The man was not fined for smoking a cannabis joint but for smoking. You can smoke cannabis but not tobacco in coffee shops."

Full story here. That's right...no harm, no foul for smoking up a fatty of pure weed, but lace it with tobacco and you'll get a fat fine thrown down on you. Feel free to swagger into any one of the red-lighted single rooms of sin that blanket the city of Amsterdam, but break out those Marlboros and the cops will come down on you like vultures.

[8 Comments]

Little Big Planet� - Day One Impressions

To set the stage - like most on this site, I grew up on side-scrolling platfformers. From Super Mario Bros. to Castlevania to Ghouls N Ghosts to Metroid, I played them all into the wee hours of the morning, long after my parents through I was sound asleep. Granted, they were "the" thing back on the consoles of the day, but still were and are a whole lot of fun. In fact, lets trace back to the platformers origin - Pitfall anyone? I think, at least in my too-early-and-not-enough-coffee mental state right now, that might be the first platforming game made. Please correct me if I'm wrong tho', and I'm sure I played whatever came before it.

Anyways, as you're probably aware, through the employment of the "you don't get anything if you don't ask" adage, a developer from Media Molecule hooked me up with a handful of beta keys for the upcoming smash hit - yeah, not going out too far on that limb there really - for the PlayStation 3 Little Big Planet™ (LBP). For those without the evil 2nd or 3rd console, depending on your situtation, LBP is part side-scroller game, part adventure/collection game, and part creator/God game. You play the game as either a Sackboy or Sackgirl who is exactly that, a puppet built from a burlap sack. However, that lasts for all of 2 minutes, as you're immediately given a handful of different ways to customize your character with promises (both of what I've seen in game and on the web) of thousands if not tens of thousands of different combonations to make your character truly unique. You can animate your character on the fly, from facial expressions via the D-pad directions, to arm and body movement through a combonation of the shoulder buttons, dual analog sticks, and the six-axis motion of the controller. All in all, it's very impressive how much you truly are the puppeteer!

The game itself has two distinct modes - story mode and build mode. In the former (which was all I got into last night), you run through either pre-packaged levels or user levels trying to collect as many treasures (in the form of costume pieces, stickers, decorations, etc) through the level, or just racking up the highest score through a combonation of collection and time. The controls are tight, and the physics engine behind the game is really cool. No, actually, the physics engine is really frigging cool! From how blocks move and react as you drag them around or climb over them, to your flight path as you launch yourself willy-nilly off spinning ferris wheels, it feels right. Graphics are very well done as well, with a unique style to them that I don't think we've seen really as strongly since World of Warcraft hit the scene. It feels like you're playing right in the middle of a cartoon, a well scripted, well drawn, and well designed cartoon. Level design, from the three I saw, was diverse and enjoyable even though the levels were made solely as tutorials. It does take a bit of time to comprehend that there is depth in the sidescroller, but after your mind grasps there are three levels in and out of the screen, it adds a whole level of complexity to the game and what a builder can do.

All in all, this beta is really the last thing I needed. I was hyped over the game and its launch on October 21st. Now the time between the 12th, when the beta ends, and that date will just be all the longer. But I'll endure, and will be dreaming up those levels to create and publish for all of 2o2p (or at least 2o2resist) to game on.

[4 Comments]

And there was much rejoicing...

Around 1:30PM yesterday afternoon, I get a call from the Mrs.

Her: "A Sears truck just left the house."
Me: I get that screwed-up WTF look on my face. "Umm...why? We order something?"
Her: "Well yeah...you know."
Me: "I do?"
Her: "Remember...John (my bud in the A/V industry) subcontracts out to Sears with some of his time?"
Me: Stands up out of chair "YEEESSSSSSSSSS!"

The subwoofer was delievered yesterday, after a painful week-long wait. Needless to say, yesterday afternoon was one of the longest afternoons in the office in a long time. As I'm driving home, I get a SMS from my friend letting me know it was dropped off. My reply was that I was 10 minutes away from the house at that point, and will have the liquidification of my internal organs commencing as soon as I get home. He reminds me to calibrate the receiver and new subwoofer first, which I conceed to do (against my will). Well, after about 45 minutes of letting my receiver take test points at 6 different seating locations in the room, I'm finally ready to test it out.

I call my two boys into the room, have them sit down, and toss in The Transformers. Fast forward to the first scene with Blackout. BOOOOOMMMM! My 7-year old turns to me and says "Daddy...I can feel the floor shaking!"

[6 Comments]

Application to procreate

** PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT - RANT INCOMING - READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! **

Every now and then...no, more often than I care for...I get reminded of the idea I have that there should be a mandatory application process in place for an individual to procreate. There simply are too many incompetent, ill-prepared, or simply stupid people having and then trying (and more often than not failing) to raise children in society today. And who suffers? First of course are the kids. Innocent of their parents ineptitude or lack of basic skills and emotions that are inherent to even simplest animals, they get put into positions and situations they don't deserve. Then, long after that, we all suffer because these kids grow into the same type of adults who then repeat history all over again, and worse yet become the society we will rely on as we age. It's really a sad, sad state of affairs when you think of it, and I only take solace in knowing that at least I can do what I can to make sure my kids grow, mature, and live to the best they can, in the best manner they can.

So what spawned his rant, eh? Check this piece of utter stupidity. All states have what are called Safe Haven Laws, put in place to allow mothers who are not fit or capable of caring for a newborn to surrender it at a local hospital or fire station. The child then goes into state care, leading to foster care. Now while I know that system is far less than ideal, I support this type of initiative because its a better option than leaving the child with someone who can't - or won't - care for it. HOWEVER, the brilliant lawmakers of Nebraska passed the law without any stipulation of the age a child can be surrendered at! So now you have teenagers being tossed aside by parents who get to a point, throw up their hands, and say "That's it, fuck it, I'm done". Those asshats need a smack with a 4x4 IMHO. When you decide to have and raise a child, it's a lifelong commitment, and should not be open to negotiation down the road just because it gets hard. How the hell are you going to convince a 15 year old kid that it's not his or her fault that mom and dad, or whomever is their caregiver, just doesn't want to deal with them anymore??? If they didn't have mental/social issues before that, they sure as hell will afterwards.

/me takes a deep breath. Sorry for the rant, but when the level of idoicity gets to a level like this, I just can't help but comment. Agree, disagree...your prerogative. I just can't get my arms around the idea of letting any of my kids go, no matter how bad it were to ever get.

[7 Comments]

Thanks for the memories...

Anytime you lose something that you've known all your life, whether it be a family member at the most severe, or any other foundation to what makes you who you are, it's hard. While not nearly as traumatic as the death of someone in the family, this morning I woke up to mourn the loss of something that I've had from the day I was born. Memories dating back to as early as I can remember. Awesome times with my father and friends. The time I spent at Yankee Stadium. This morning I wake to know that I'll never set foot in the House That Ruth Built again.

The only thing that gives me some solace was said during the telecast last night. Yankee Stadium, while a remarkable and longstanding piece of architecture in the Bronx - hell, the only thing that made going to the Bronx something a sane person would do - it was and continues to be the fans that made it what it was. That doesn't die. That can't and won't be sold off as the building is deconstructed piece by piece. That is what will make the new stadium just as magical and majestic as its predecessor. I regret not making it to the stadium this year with the family, but I will look forward to ushering in the new era next year. I'm just glad beyond words that not only was the last home run hit by someone wearing the pinstripes, but the last game recorded in the stadium was a tick mark in the win column for the boys of New York.

So, Yankee Stadium, thanks for all the good times, for the hot dogs and pretzels out on the street, from the rowdy crowds in the bleachers to the rare times of catching a game along the first base line. You made a good part of my childhood something I will remember forever, and you will be missed.

[4 Comments]

RTFM!

It's Sunday, it's football time. And moreso, we're having some company over for the Eagles game today against Pittsburg. So, in preparation for the event, I hunt up a recipe for Guacamole to go with a 7-layer mexican dip we're going to do. Now, part of the recipe calls for a serrano chili to add some heat to the dip. The write-up even goes so far to include the following warning:

Chili peppers vary individually in their hotness. So, start with a half of one chili pepper and add to the guacamole to your desired degree of hotness. Be careful handling the peppers; wash your hands thoroughly after handling and do not touch your eyes or the area near your eyes with your hands for several hours.

Ok, so I run through the recipe and make what really is a great guacamole. But...a bit after tasting it, I start to feel a little burn beneath my nose. Thinking "cool...nice little afterthought to the dip, perfect." It was even enough to bring a bit of a tear, so I go and rub my right eye. Well, I quickly found out it wasn't the heat of the guacamole that caused the burn beneath the nose, it was the chili reminents still on my hands that didn't get washed enough, obviously! The burn was like a hot poker in the eye. I'm talking about running to the kitchen sink, blinded, and showering myself (and half the kitchen in the process) in cold water.

So, the moral of the story - Read The Fuckin' Manual!

[3 Comments]

REALLY love your car?

If so, then the next in Mercury's lineup might be just for you...

[0 Comments]

Future Darwin Award winners

Insane. That's the only word that fits. Out-of-their-fucking-minds-bounding-around-in-a-padded-room kind of insane. And ultimately, I'd wager one will end up as a red streak on the asphalt someday. Action picks up at about 2:20.

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

[2 Comments]

Governing Bodies

Ok, I'll admit it - I'm not terribly into the whole political scene. Yes, I fully understand that the system only works when everyone is involved. Well, my apathetic side usually kicks in and just hopes that the majority does what is right, at least most of the time. Now, with that said, I'm registered up to vote this November, and probably will. How will I decide? Well, with all the mudslinging, name-calling, and other bullshit that comes with the time, I can only figure one best way to do it: which canidate has the best...*ahem*...support.

Obama is out to a strong lead...but there's pleanty of time between now and November to sway my vote.

And on a lighter note - ladies, please clean your homes. Lord knows how many kids are falling prey to the misplaced crotch rocket!

[2 Comments]