Monthly Archive for December, 2008

2008’s Best Brought to you by the Industry’s Leading Site Dedicated to Giving you my Opinion

So, the year 2008 comes to a close. And there were many good games this year, and a few pieces of shit too. Not to mention plenty of games which I ignored. In fact, I don’t know what it is but I did not get through many games this year. Wonder what it was that happened.

Anyway, here’s what I thought of 2008 in games. Continue reading ‘2008’s Best Brought to you by the Industry’s Leading Site Dedicated to Giving you my Opinion’

It’s beginning to feel a lot like…

Man, it got kinda cold.

The weather changes really hit fast and my cardboard box doesn’t like the idea of trapping in the sun’s energy. Normally I don’t turn on the heat all that often, but as I spent last year doing nothing for New Year’s because of a cold, I think this year I’m taking it easy up until tomorrow night so I can actually do more than ring in the new year with a bottle of pills and a box of tissues.

These are the Weeks of Our Games – 12/28/2008

My header image is starting to get fucking packed!

Continue reading ‘These are the Weeks of Our Games – 12/28/2008′

These are the Weeks of Our Game – 12/21/2008

I’ve been regularly updating on Mondays yet keep posting Sunday’s date. Huh. (And then I get stupid busy and sick and don’t post until Wednesday, whoops!)

Anyway, ’tis the season for too many games.

Continue reading ‘These are the Weeks of Our Game – 12/21/2008′

Tis the Season

Been fighting off a cold for the past week and it just hit me now.

Feel like shit.

But I feel like less shit than I did this morning, at least.

I was going to write up a nice long post concerning Dissidia and my finally good progress on The Last Remnant. Sadly, that will have to wait until tomorrow.

As for now, wish me luck in getting better before my Winter Break goes on too long. Don’t want to spend it entirely bedridden, although that might be good for my backlog, haha.

Now to install The Last Remnant Disc 2!

Dissidia Makes Me Squeal

Okay, Dissidia is making me giddy.

That’s all I can really say right now. Watching Zidane use his tail to wrap around Tidus’s leg to fling himself back into the battle? Watching Squall and Sephiroth fighting as they run up a mountain? The intro video is insane for any Final Fantasy fanboy.

The game itself is crazy too. I was playing as Squall, grinding on the goddamned Lifestream while Zidane chased after me. Crazy. There are so many moves and customizations, it seems.

Seems.

I suck at the game hard. I played the quick battle mode a couple times with each of the 10 currently available characters and died nearly every single goddamned time. I am missing something to the combat. I think I am starting to get the hang of the whole system, which still feels kinda bizarre.

Instead of damaging directly, you first do basic attacks that damage your opponents Brave stat and bring points to yours. Then you can attack your enemy with another attack that uses your Brave value to damage their HP. If you manage to bring your opponent’s Brave to zero, you get a shitload of Brave to do massive damage.

There also seems to be other special attacks and fuck, it’s crazy. I am doing bad at it right now but having fun, so I’m looking forward to digging deeper.

Just bummed that as I have a 20GB PS3 without WiFi, I will be unable to play this online. Such bullshit that the cheaper PS3 model has so many things stripped out of it.

Gettin’ Juiced

If there is one thing I don’t like about the Wii, it’s the requirement of AA batteries for the controller. While I’m not fond of the PS3 controller having an unchangeable battery, at least I can charge it. And the 360 is similar to the Wiimote as it can take batteries, but you can also buy an official battery pack for it.

I have two different, unofficial, charge stations for my Wiimotes and they both suck.

The one pictured above is made by a company called Linx, and it produces a weird clicking sound from time to time. I cannot be sure I can trust that. Not to mention that the batteries don’t seem to last that long on them.

The other one has no markings on the product and I forget who made it. It is without an odd clicking noise, and for this I am grateful. Alas, it seems that the slightest fart of an ant will cause this one to not sit properly and not charge.

Nintendo tends to make amazing accessories and the fact that there is no official charge stand and battery pack for the Wii slightly irritates me. Rechargeable batteries are an option, but come on, having a charge stand is just that much fucking cooler. And lord knows I need to have my gaming setup look snazzy.

If anyone knows a good solution to this, let me know. Although, I think rechargables are in the forseeable future, as I doubt there would ever be a charge stand for the Balance Board.

Oh, my pear…

I was given a pear last week as a gift.

This was a humongous pear. I weighed it and it definitely moved the scale. Said it was slightly under a kilogram. I don’t know if my scale is fucked, but this pear was larger than both my fists.

So, I had it for a snack today.

I don’t know the powers of pears, but what this massive amount of fruit did do my bowels is unholy. Not only was an hour of my day wasted on the toilet, I have felt something more than just brewing in my stomach. Something is alive in there and it wants out badly. And I am honestly scared of it coming out.

These Are the Weeks of Our Games – 12/14/2008

So, I am still playing Chrono Trigger and Last Remnant. Did get some Brawl and Halo 3 in with some buddies the other night, though.

Continue reading ‘These Are the Weeks of Our Games – 12/14/2008′

We don’t need your Home, Sony

It seems that the word is out on Home and the word is not good.

I guess most people don’t realize that when a company gives you something that is free, it’s because they want this to lure you into spending money on something else they provide.

I was never thinking positively about Home, and with good reason. This is kind of a sad thing to get excited about when it comes to gaming.

Sony is floundering with the PS3. To say there are games available on the system is not a lie. To say that there are enough to make my purchase feel justified after a year past makes me feel silly. I own one game.

Now, some of this is due to personal taste, but the fact remains that Sony spends any time on a system which is nothing more than a way to try to sell me virtual clothes at a premium is an insult.

Now, it’s no lie that games like Second Life, The Sims and even Animal Crossing to a limited extent thrive on the idea of the simplicity of normal life as a game. But these are games. Home isn’t anything, really. It tries to be a menu while trying to be a social experience. It actually even puts a waiting time for you to play virtual games. Why would I ever want to do that?

Some defend it because it is beta. That has become codeword for protecting a company’s ass, though. Gmail is still beta for chrissakes.

Some defend it because it is free. Then again, a set of virtual clothes can cause $5, and do you think it won’t be without advertising? Even if Sony said there wouldn’t be, I wouldn’t believe that. It’s been said by enough people, but seriously, just because something is free does not excuse criticism. I firmly believe in doing a good job on something no matter what it is. And if they can’t put out an enticing free product to lure me in, why should I not be wary of what I actually have to pay for?

Another thing is that I haven’t used it. This is true. Then again it takes 3 gigabytes of a download to try. Chrissakes, I know hard drives are cheap these days but that is still ridiculous for something that is getting panned by everyone. 

I guess in a world where all there is for me is a PS3, and with infinite time, I may try out Home. Right now, I’m just laughing at the audacity.