Mediaman's Blog - 2old2play

November Gaming

So last night was a gaming moment in the household. I watched my wife finish the main quest in Fallout 3. It was pretty awesome. The good news is that now I am not in a rush to do that main story line. I want to really explore the world and see what i out and about in the area.

I have been playing motorstorm pretty religiously. I am about 75% thru the game. I don't know if I have what it takes to beat this game tho. The races have gone from enjoyable to painful. It can take me up to an hour of trying to win a race.

I have had a lot of "pain" in gaming lately. I have been playing monster hunter 2 every sunday with friends this entire year. I can't play that game by myself anymore. It is too HARD! I want to just relax when I play games. MH2 has turned into a second job for me! It is still awesome fun when I play with my friends, but the single player game is just too taxing for me too enjoy it anymore.

My psp group has decided to skip MH2 2nd G b/c we do not want to start over. We are going to take up phantasy star for psp in march tho. I wish their were some other good co-op games for psp besides monster hunter.

Lastly, I have been playing one of the most Amazing games of 2009. Killzone 2 is for every pc gamer turned console gamer on this site. It reminds me so much of counterstrike, but with amazing console graphics. Kills and patience are king in this game. The thing that turns me off of 99% of all FPS games is the lack of importance you have in a round. KZ2 takes care of that issue for me. In KZ2 you are rewarded for taking your time and setting up the perfect shot. You are rewarded for using strategy and tatics in a fight. You set up firelanes, you flank, you work together, or you die. There are going to be a lot of timmies who really freak-out when they play this game online. They won't understand why they need to be nice to each other in order to advance in the online arena.

So thats it for now. I will play the snot of out KZ2 today, just b/c the beta ends tonight. For Christmas I am asking for Mirrors Edge, Star Ocean 1, and maybe midnight club LA for psp. Anyone have any other suggestions?

[0 Comments]

GOTY

Seeing how the end of the year is coming up, I suspect there are a lot of Game Of The Year posts on 2o2p. I am going to do mine:

Motor Storm 2!

That game is amazing. When I put it in the machine 10 days ago and ran that first race I just had a huge grin on my face. It was the most fun I have ever had on the ps3 yet. Even after playing this game for the last two weeks straight, I am still finding new paths, and new ways to use vehicles. If they would put motorstorm 2 in an arcade cabinet they would make a fortune! I can't remember the last time I had so much fun with any video game. I am an adult, and I still apparently love arcade racers!

I grew tired of burnout after a month or so, but I will be playing motorstorm 2 for a long time. I really liked the first game, but the second game is crazy amazing. The tracks are something you could only come up with in your dreams, and then there you are, being wide awake, racing cars in a dream world.

There is is this one track named Calerda. It is INSANE! You take off from the start, go around a curve, and the track drops almost straight down like a roller coaster. Your vehicale is almost falling the entire time, and if anyone even bumps you, there is going to be a huge massive pileup!

Anyway, if you have access to a ps3, don't play the lame demo, play the real game. Its the benchmark and standard that all games must now beat in terms of graphics, gameplay, and emotion.

[0 Comments]

1 week in apocalyptic USA

So I have had Fallout 3 for about a week now. I pretty much liked it. I think my wife likes it much more then I do tho. I think its ok. I have had a few really neat encounters, but there is so much nothing in-between the cool things. I don't know how long I will hang on. I am pumped to see the cool aircraft carrier city, and to wear power armor. I will stick it out a bit yet.

I will say that my favorite thing I played this last week was Mirrored Edge. The artwork, the music, the setting...everything just seemed to click for me. At first I heard that the demo was almost 10 percent of the total game and that really bothered me. Then I heard the game described as a race track. Yeah the story was only 4-6 hours long, but you will want to play the levels over and over again like a racing game.

That so appeals to me. With my busy work schedule, I don't have time to invest 100's of hours into a video game, but I could sink 5-20 hours into a rewarding game like Mirrors Edge. I hope this game acts as a wake up call to the industry. They need to get out and create new IP's....

[4 Comments]

GameStop Offically is worst retailor of the year!

I can't believe that a company that is so poorly run and managed can continue to exist. I have pretty much given up on buying locally from gamestop/eb and I now know I cannot ever trust their website as well. The short story: I mistyped in a credit card experation date. Ordered put on hold. Log in on website, correct date, order stays on verifying for 2 weeks and now I do not have a collectors edition of Fallout 3 anymore. I didn't even know until today that something was wrong because after I corrected the info they sent me an email saying that everything was good to go.

I am pretty furious right now. When I called customer service, not only where they totally non-careing, they made no effort to make anything right. They are one of the worst companies I have ever worked with.

I was so looking forward to getting that lunchbox, bobblehead and art book. It makes me sad they treated me this way. For Christmas I will not be asking for anything from that store and I will be sure to inform the 100's of people that talk to me about videogames to not deal with that store either.

Thats thing about not treating your customers right. With how social networks go, an unhappy customer doesn't just tell 10-20 friends anymore...with the power of the internet, I can tell lots and lots of friends. Plus they have no idea that I work in a position where people ask me advice on electronics/games all the time.

man, this sucks....hopefully over my lunchbreak I can find some of this stuff at bestbuy or someplace. I only ordered from gamestop b/c I wanted the cool comic book manual thing. It was a little booklet that showed how to survive in a post-apocolypse world and it was exclusive to gamestop. I also wanted the cool cd that looked like an old 45 record. All of that is down the toliet now.

How depressing. This was supposed to be the one thing I was getting to be a treat for me and my wife.....

UPDATE: I went to Best Buy over my lunch break and got a CE version of Fallout 3. I am a bit bummed b/c I wanted that extra cd and book, but after the kid goes to bed tonight I am going to start exploring post-apocolypitc America!

[2 Comments]

firmware adds much needed feature

So the new ps3 firmware is up. Why is that so exciting? Because HULU.com is working! I am streaming Fringe onto my old junky analog tv right now. The catch is, hulu is only playing like 12-24 frames a second. It can get a bit jumpy. I assume that is b/c the ps3 has some of the slowest harddrives ever created on the inside. I am just excited that I can have fullscreen video on my tv and I can have my laptop 100% dedicated to surfing.

I will say that I am a big fan of the wackiness of Fringe. In todays episode, they imprinted a mans electronic brain signiture onto some pidgeons, and had the homing pidgeons fly around New York until they found the suspect. WHAT? Thats the awesome craziness that comes with the show.

I also figured I am going to holdoff on Little Big Planet. I can't think about how that game can be fun in the long run. Do you know why? Because you can't shoot! How can you have a great platformer without shooting? Time will tell, but just jumping can't be that awesome.

I am excited about Fallout 3. If my wallet wasn't on the otherside of the house I would pre-order it right now. With McCain being as out of touch with people as he is, and Obama seeming like a smug criminal pawn, it won't be too long when we will all have to know how to live in the desert wasteland.

[0 Comments]

Failure to evolve

I just don't understand why developers do not look at their games as platforms rather then individual products. Take Motorstorm. It was a great game, but somewhat limited. So they come out with version 2. Why don't they fix version 2 to input all the data from version 1? Why are they two seperate products? I should be able to play motorstorm 2 online and drive the grasshopper track!

With a Harddrive in every ps3 it just bothers me that more games do not tie together. I hope that Sony eventually opens up HOME so that my home avatar can drive or be in my game, or a game character that I really like can show up in the HOME universe.

Game buying plan for the Fall: Fallout is a for shure. I don't know about Little Big Planet. I love it, but it appears as tho it might get really boring. That game needs weapons and monsters. I do love the concept of the game tho, so I am really torn as to if I am buying it.

Kid Game of the Month: Burnout. My 7 year-old played it and loved it for a month, but then got sick of it. He LOVES the motorcycles tho. He plays it for his alloted game time every week.

[2 Comments]

the future....of my wallet

Things I am looking forward to purchasing:

Fallout 3: both my wife and I want to play it. We also both want the collectors edition with the bobble head and the lunch box. I better hurry up and reserve this. In order to prove her undying love to me, my wife played fallout 1 and 2 while we where engaged....and she won. I failed miserably at both. About 15 hours into F1 I became addicted to drugs and died, and about 10 hours into F2 i realized my character was poorly designed (he was only a talker, not a fighter) and I couldn't find enough smart npcs to help me. I have high hopes for F3 tho....I loved the first 2, but I didn't have the heart to start over.
Little Big Planet: The game that my 7 year old and my wife can play with me. I look forward to making levels as well.
Driving Seat: I am designing a driving seat for Gran Turismo. My father-in-law said he would build it for me. I want it to fold up, so I am thinking of all the elements i want included in the construction.
Resistence 2: Probably a Christmas purchase....it looks amazing. I loved the first one.
Motor Storm 2: I played the first one for like 3 months...it was the only thing i played...it was so much fun. It was the perfect mix of fun/destruction/online/arcade action.
PSP-3000(aka-TheBrite): I think I found some people willing to buy my psp phat. When I play Monster Hunter 2 every week, their slim's load much faster then my phat.
THIS RUMOR: looks amazing .... the whole online thing would be the best!
Midnight Club LA: never played the series, but it looks really fun!

I have no idea how I plan on paying for all of this, but hey....a great hobby always gives you the opportunity to spend more then you should

Remember Honey: I need these games because you cancelled cable tv!

[2 Comments]

Stop Amazon from ripping you with todays ps3 deals

I used this site for the first time today: Slickfillers

What the site does is find things worth $1 to $5 for you to use to get free shipping. Todays First steal of the day on Amazon was GT5. I have always wanted it, and at 22.99 it is a steal. The problem is, free shipping doesn't hit until $25 dollars. I used SlickFillers, found 2 packs of AAA batteries for .99 cents and I just cranked it up to 25.99. Now I will get the game and 6 batteries for no shipping!

NICE!

For those that don't know: all of todays Amazon deal of the day/lighting deals are going to be Ps3 specials.....

[5 Comments]

Posting up

Here is my thought on current games:

Thought 1:

Why are their sequels to games on the "next" gen systems? Why are people talking about the next gen already? With games taking 2-5 years for production, a console almost needs to have the 10 year life cycle.

When FFXIII comes out, it should be a fully functional RPG...a huge world, tons of npc's, and a long epic rpg. Then every 6-12 months, square should just start releaseing add on packs. Give me FFIX on the ps4. Don't keep starting over at ground zero. Let me just buy new adventures to keep playing in the world I love.

also: Where are the awesome co-op games I thought I would be playing this generation? Is RE5 going to be the first one, and I have to wait until spring to play it?

Thought 2:

I am now about 120 hours into Monster Hunter 2. I started a group that meets at my house once a week. After my family is in bed, my friends come over and we play from like 9pm till 1am. I just solo'd a tigrex. It was pretty cool. I am working on getting Kai working so I can play more then once a week. Why doesn't Monster Hunter have infastructure? So crazy. Capcom probably has lost a lot of sales in America because of that.

Thought 3:

Their are far too many great games coming out that I want to play. Little Big Planet, Fallout 3, Motorstorm 2 (there ya go...patch in the new engine, and sell me new events), Resistance 2 (grrr)....so many games. I won't have the budget for all of them. I still can't get enough scratch together for an HDTV, let alone all those games, let alone have the time to play them.

Thought 4:

I considered just getting an HDTV...just going out and getting it. The problem is, we are starting the adoption process again. We want more kiddies in the house, and we still owe like 25k on our last kid. If I wasn't working 50+ hours a week, I would get another job.

All in all tho, games are still the best form of entertainment on the market when you talk about money.

Thought 5:

I got rid of all my blogs except for this one, and I started a blog on blogger.com. I also finally made a myspace/facebook page. I decided it would make me a better media person to understand social networks better. Now when you google my name, the info I want to see comes up to the top of the search.

I like my 2old2play blog tho. I really like this community. I almost shut down this blog. I find it annoying that you are not allowed to post mulitple blog posts in a row. Granted I havn't done that in forever, but I still remember the admin handing out notes one night after I posted 3 blogs in a row.

I also like posting here now b/c I am on a mac, and firefox 3 is much better then firefox 2. Firefox 2 was sooo sloooowwww.

Well that is enough ranting here for now. I will try to get over here more. I try to not post about games on my other blog so I force myself to blog here more often

[7 Comments]

hippies wrong again

So my wife and I have been watching a show called "It's not Easy being Green"

This British show is about some couples who buy a farm house and try to live off grid. This concept has really appealed to me all my life. The thing is, as I watched this show, I have developed a new environmental theory.

That theory says the whole idea of off grid living is totally selfish and not environmental at all. The concept of everyone taking care of their own crap, growing their own food, and making their own power is counter productive. Imagine if everyone in your city dropped a line into the cities water table. It would be disastorous for both farmers and people to fight over well water. How much better off as a society are we for sharing water from lakes, and having sewers?

I think that most environmental activists need to really think about stopping the pushing of indepedance. I think socially it would be a nightmare if we didn't pull together as a society and all help each other out.

Don't think I am against environmental improvements. I like the thought of using the sun to heat water, harnessing winds and tides to generate power, etc. I just don't think that it is a good idea for people to think that living off grid is what the goal should be. I think the goal should be to use what we have wisely.

[1 Comments]

MMO style

So being a new parent has put a serious crimp in my gaming. We had to take a lot of parenting classes and the one thing they never told us...little kids get up with the sun...and you can never sleep in again...EVER!

So with a new kid how do I find time to play an mmo? Actually it's not an MMO...its more like a SMN (small multi-player lan). I have been playing Monster Hunter 2 on the psp. I found out that someone at my church who works with me on a volunteer basis got the game at Christmas. So after arts practice on Thursdays he stops by my house and we stay up until midnight killing monsters. It works great because we get their around 9 and my wife and kid are already in bed so we sit back in the living room and just talk and kill things. A mission takes about 20 min and we just do as many as we feel like.

I like monster hunter because:

1. it's way easier then monster hunter 1. I gave up really early on with MH1...MH2 is a lot more fun
2. having a lan is great. It's almost like 3d diablo...
3. the loot system is a lot of fun
4. I like that missions take 15-30 min. I also like that it has a lot of strategy.
5. I love my weapon..the gun lance. It is awesome!
6. My friend has over 100 hours on the game clock and I have 15, yet we can still do missions together

#6 is the best feature. The monsters are a real challange. I just really like the fact that I can make a difference in the fight as a lowbie I am sort of falling out of love with the single player part, but I still love the multiplayer bits.

I think the psp needs more games like this one....if it had online multiplayer this game would have been perfect.

[2 Comments]

COD4 tour 1 complete

I just finished COD4...it was amazing. Every game right in production now...look at COD4's production values...if you don't come close, just pack it up right now.....

I thought uncharted was amazing (it still is), but COD4 just blew me away with every new level. I have tons of images in my head...using the gattling gun on the crashed helicopter..saving a bogged down tank, making a super long sniper shot, the president's funeral drive, and my favorite...shooting the enemy from the airplane with the big mortar at night

COD4 even had amazing credits...the airplane sweep was great!

My only gripe about COD4 is that with it's script based cinema detail, it is often hard to know what the designers wanted you to do..many times i noticed that you had unlimited enemy soldiers and you had to just keep moving...yet other times you had to stay and clear out the troops. It was very hard. Also if you got a bit separated from your squad it was easy to not know where the computer wanted you to go and do next.

I like that the game is 6 hours and non-repeating. The airplane level would have not been as cool if I did it 6 or 7 times in the game.

The other brilliant thing they did was not make you the squad leader. I have played so many games where you are on a squad with AI characters and it is great fun...then they make you a squad leader....that means your fps turns into a RTS game....and I can't stand RTS games!

A suggestion is to make COD4.1....this version will let you do co-op style missions online .... they could use all the same maps and graphics, just make new cool missions that you can play with your friends.

COD4 and Uncharted have been great games....i think that the developers have not a great job marketing the COD4 game tho....if most middle class american men actually saw what the game was, they would be buying ps3's and 360's to play this game....every video I ever saw for it was multiplayer or cinematic...all they needed to do was show your character running up a street with bullets whizzing everywhere for 20 secs, and then slap on a font that said that was realtime, then slap up the COD4 logo and call it quits.....

Anyway this game was great, and it will probably end up being the first FPS I have ever beat and played again, because I am sure later on in the year I will play it thru again. ....

[1 Comments]

Answering the Call

So at everyone's suggestion I quit playing AC and started playing COD4....

WOW

That game is crazy! I so hope that games in the future start following this games design choice....have an intense story that it action packed and fun the entire way thru, and then have a 2ndary feature that allows you spend more time if you want to. I love the fact that after a 4 hour sit down I made it 2/3rds thru the game. I love the fact that not one minute of it was boring and repetitive.

I told my wife that when kids think warfare is glorious we should make them study this game....I am sure war is much more horrible then this game shows, but it does a good job showing the grit of warfare. I love the fact that bullets can go thru walls...I think they did a great job of you being a hero and just a grunt.

I hope that people who don't even like first person shooters give this one a try...it is truly an art piece that can only be experience on the media known as video games....

[2 Comments]

What to do with old games

So after you win a game what do you do with it? I used to keep them, but @ $60 a copy I don't know if it's worth it any more. Last year I traded back Resistance. I don't miss it. I don't have time to play it again......

I just beat Uncharted a few weeks ago...now it just sits there. It could be 1/2 my purchase towards the new Burnout game. Its not like they are going to have DLC for Uncharted.

It seems wrong tho....that game is a piece of art....what if I want to admire it again? Play thru the awesome jeep level again? The thing is...at the end of the year Killzone 2, Little Big Planet, and Gran Turismo all will totally own Uncharted.

That is what's great about video games I guess...they are evolving. In my lifetime we will hopefully never say "That is good enough...All game artwork and progress stops here."

Well that answers my question I guess...Uncharted goes off to gamestop or ebay for Burnout.....If you want me to keep the games, you better have some affordable DLC that keeps the game alive or it will go back.....

>the only 2 games coming out that will probably be kept that I know of are Gran Turismo (that will never be finished) and Little Big Planet....

[2 Comments]

2old2play/notime2play

So I realized something today...I value short play games as a father. I used to not think much about games under 20 hours, but I just played uncharted, and it took me about 4 evenings of 2 hour sessions to beat it. I figure I played it total of 10 hours max.

As a dad with not much game time it was great! I got to see all the best parts of the game, I got the I did it sensation of playing, and I didn't feel like I got ripped on my purchases because when I finished the game on easy, I got a satisfying ending. I loved the shorter chapters so I didn't have to keep starting the level over...it was just a great experience.

If Sony is going to have a $400+ console they will do great to have games with experiences. Once you find people willing to pay $60/game they usually don't have a lot of time for gaming anymore.

Another new ps3 feature I started using, was the media center part of it. I bought ( for my wife ) some software called called eye connect. It lets us stream iphoto & itunes & movies to our ps3 in the living room. It's pretty nice to view pictures this way, and its great for podcasts. Since we have so much wi-fi stuff + the microwave in our house it loses its connection fairly often. In order to fix this I am planning on hooking the ps3 & mac server up to the router with cat cable so the connection stays more stable.

I didn't know how much I would like this feature, but I really do like it a lot.

Anyway on the home front we have had our kid for 3 weeks now. I can't believe how much english he can speak already. I also can't believe how much russian I can understand. Crazy times....

[0 Comments]