I just want to say that I am truly amazed at how easily some people keep their blog updated with fresh content all the time. Sometimes they're hit and miss obviously, but for the most part I really am baffled to see so many people able to continously come up with interesting things for people to read about. And I can't help but wonder at times how you all just keep coming up with all that stuff. Take Dalai's latest blog entry for instance: a simple--yet very well written and detailed--post about exactly why he's grateful that his family didn't buy him any games for christmas this year. Or what about the one Virago wrote a week ago? A short but true message that we should learn to be more thankful about the things we have. Also, Stealthoneill's game of the year pick totally took me by surprise!
Personaly I have a very hard time keeping my blog updated because everything I think of to write about just sounds lame in my head. Maybe that's just me being too insecure (which I know I am . Maybe I just don't have that creative spark anymore like I used to. Which would explain why I haven't really attempted to write a new story in, well, a couple of years now. It's not that I never have any ideas to write about, but they never end up being written down. So maybe some of you could give me some good advice on how to deal with my insecurities about my own blog ideas. I doubt there's a magic cure out there, but maybe, just maybe, someone has some advice that I could help me become a better blogger.
So I made this incredibly ha-ha funny blog post about wanting to post about my experience with Fable 2, but wasn't gonna do it now because something else awesome distracted me. And man was it ever so funny. It was the funniest most hilarious post ever made. I swear, if you had read my awesome jokes that appeals to everyone of all ages and genders, you would love so hard that you'd end up soiling yourself.
And there is no way any of you can prove that it actually wasn't that funny at all! HA! Victory is mine!
But euh, check out this awesome video which originally made me forget everything I was gonna write about Fable 2. (I don't know whether to thank or hate my friend for it .
Ok so I have many things I want to write about but no idea where to begin. I really should blog more frequently so my head doesn't get cluttered up with all kinds of... thoughts. After all when I have too many of those thoughts in my head they leave no room for any freaky sexual thoughts, and those are a must. I mean me without freakishly sexual thoughts is like Gigastormz without his love for all things Transformers or Virago's love for strange quotes except mine (I'm still silently weeping over that). So it's time for me to finally get a couple of those things crowding out my perverted mind out of the way.
First of which is the achievement whoring, which finally seems to have gotten a hold of me. For all this time I have managed to resist any urge to get the full 1000 points in any game, up to the point that I could swear I was immune to that strange addiction that seemed to befall one after another. But no longer! Microsoft's silly little gamerscore system has finally found a chink in my armor. I feel strangely dirty and satisfied at the same time, like I've just done something incredibly naughty in a place where I shouldn't have done it, yet it felt so gooood. Right now I'm playing through Assassin's Creed again, trying to get the full thousand points. Then again, I don't think I can call myself an achievement whore quite yet. At least not until I've gotten the full thousand points in at least more than one game. Hell it wouldn't surprise me if I go F this after I get the full one thousand for Assassin's Creed.
Although in all honesty, I kinda blame Fallout 3 for my sudden desire to get more and more achievements. Getting the achievements in that game just gave me such a good tingly feeling inside, like I really acomplished something. I haven't finished it yet though--I'm kinda burnt out on it at the moment. But I have to say that I really like it alot more than I expected I would. You see, I just never liked Oblivion no matter how much I tried to. So when I kept hearing how Fallout 3 was like Oblivion with guns I was expecting to be dissapointed. But man am I ever glad that I gave that game a try. It's been a long time since a game kept me so thoroughly entertained that I was able to spend 40+ hours in a row in it without ever getting bored. Unfortunately after the 40 hours I did get kinda bored with it so that's why I'm now playing Assassin's Creed again. But still, I blame Fallout 3 for my sudden addiction to achievements and as soon as I get all of them in Assassin's Creed I plan on going back to it and not only finishing it but also getting all the achievements I can get (provided it doesn't require me to play as an evil character since I suck at that).
So now of course you are wondering why this is almost my longest blog post ever when it's not even really that long. Right? You're wondering that right? Well even if you're not, I'm still gonna tell you! It's because if I had written down all of the things I wanted to write about in this one blog entry, it would be the longest one I've ever written. But it isn't, so therefore it's almost the longest blog post I've ever written. Are my joke clever or what!
.....Stop laughing at me!
P.S. If anyone wants to help me populate my still sadly small friends list on XBL either add me (Kazonaa) or gimme your gamertag. I wants friends! I wants popularity!
If they ever had a midnight launch here and it was a game I really wanted, then I definitely would be at one. Provided I didn't have to work the next day of course.
Yep. I finished Saints Row 2, and now appearantly I can do whatever the fuck I want. I have to say, I like doing whatever I want. But then why do the cops still try to arrest me when I shoot someone? That just ain't fair...
On a serious note, the game was awesome. The story in the first one was better, but the cut scenes in this one were just so frickin' awesome! I mean, seriously, they are some of the most "fuck yea!" cut scenes I've ever seen in game. But of course the game is more than just watching cool little scenes like that. What matters is the gameplay itself, and to be honest, if you're going for a pure fun factor, then this game is probably more enjoyable than GTA IV. Sure it's got plenty of flaws, but despite that I had an absolute blast with it. Fire fights, for instance, always felt kinda drawn out in GTA IV with the need to go from cover to cover. In Saints Row 2, however, it's plain ol' blasting fools. Who needs cover when facing off against 8+ guys at once? Just run up to them and shoot them in the face with your shotgun. Niko may be a millitary dude, but in terms of toughness he ain't got nothing on this dude from Stillwater. Except for when it comes to jumping off things... Cuz appearantly 20 bullets aren't deadly, but falling from 10 feet high instantly kills you. Logical.
By now everyone should know that the game is a direct sequel to the first game and your goal is getting back the city of Stillwater. And everyone also probably knows there's a ton of activities which are completely over the top crazy. Yes there really is an activity where you have to cover everything in shit. And as funny and awesome as that sounds, it was kind of a letdown. Other activities like playing a psycho cop were awesome though. But of course chainsaws are standard issue with the stillwater police departement! A domestic disturbance? I think that calls for a flamethrower! So yea, some of the activities are totally funny and hilarious and others which I thought were going to be funny were kinda meh.
As for the driving. Well it plays just fine. Driving and stuff feels more like the GTA of old, except more over the top. You actually earn respect and stars for driving as a maniac, but without crashing. First you get 3 bronze stars, then 3 silver, and finally 3 gold. I haven't really delved into it much but I think you get rewards for it too. Well I'm pretty sure of it actually since I got a unique custom car as a reward for getting 3 gold stars driving against traffic. I didn't seem to get anything for power sliding, though, so perhaps only some things will reward you. But as cool as driving is in this game (more enjoyable than GTA IV), the motor cycles totally suck. As do most choppers. The controls for those things feel far too sensetive and loose, so I often avoid using the bikes in the game, and only used a chopper if I had a large distance to cover. The customization for the cars is awesome though. Seriously. It's awesome.
Anyway I had a great time with this game. I'll probably write a review for it fairly soon and post that up on the site, so look out for that if you're interested. Oh and before I forget, the story is not bad by any means. It's not awesome, and the first one was better, but there was never a moment that I didn't enjoy the story of the game, as ridiculous as it may be.
Yep. I finished Saints Row 2, and now appearantly I can do whatever the fuck I want. I have to say, I like doing whatever I want. But then why do the cops still try to arrest me when I shoot someone? That just ain't fair...
On a serious note, the game was awesome. The story in the first one was better, but the cut scenes in this one were just so frickin' awesome! I mean, seriously, they are some of the most "fuck yea!" cut scenes I've ever seen in game. But of course the game is more than just watching cool little scenes like that. What matters is the gameplay itself, and to be honest, if you're going for a pure fun factor, then this game is probably more enjoyable than GTA IV. Sure it's got plenty of flaws, but despite that I had an absolute blast with it. Fire fights, for instance, always felt kinda drawn out in GTA IV with the need to go from cover to cover. In Saints Row 2, however, it's plain ol' blasting fools. Who needs cover when facing off against 8+ guys at once? Just run up to them and shoot them in the face with your shotgun. Niko may be a millitary dude, but in terms of toughness he ain't got nothing on this dude from Stillwater. Except for when it comes to jumping off things... Cuz appearantly 20 bullets aren't deadly, but falling from 10 feet high instantly kills you. Logical.
By now everyone should know that the game is a direct sequel to the first game and your goal is getting back the city of Stillwater. And everyone also probably knows there's a ton of activities which are completely over the top crazy. Yes there really is an activity where you have to cover everything in shit. And as funny and awesome as that sounds, it was kind of a letdown. Other activities like playing a psycho cop were awesome though. But of course chainsaws are standard issue with the stillwater police departement! A domestic disturbance? I think that calls for a flamethrower! So yea, some of the activities are totally funny and hilarious and others which I thought were going to be funny were kinda meh.
As for the driving. Well it plays just fine. Driving and stuff feels more like the GTA of old, except more over the top. You actually earn respect and stars for driving as a maniac, but without crashing. First you get 3 bronze stars, then 3 silver, and finally 3 gold. I haven't really delved into it much but I think you get rewards for it too. Well I'm pretty sure of it actually since I got a unique custom car as a reward for getting 3 gold stars driving against traffic. I didn't seem to get anything for power sliding, though, so perhaps only some things will reward you. But as cool as driving is in this game (more enjoyable than GTA IV), the motor cycles totally suck. As do most choppers. The controls for those things feel far too sensetive and loose, so I often avoid using the bikes in the game, and only used a chopper if I had a large distance to cover. The customization for the cars is awesome though. Seriously. It's awesome.
Anyway I had a great time with this game. I'll probably write a review for it fairly soon and post that up on the site, so look out for that if you're interested. Oh and before I forget, the story is not bad by any means. It's not awesome, and the first one was better, but there was never a moment that I didn't enjoy the story of the game, as ridiculous as it may be.
Been debating with myself over this for quite a while now and I still don't have an answer. On one hand I think I should keep all my gaming/pc related stuff on here and everything else on a seperate blog. But on the other hand I'm thinking, why bother, I'll probably have more luck getting readers if I just post everything on here. On the ooother hand, however, maybe if I actually added the link to my blog to my profile or something, people would go check it out... Then again, I have some serious doubts if anything I write is even remotely interesting enough for anyone to even wanna read.
So yea.. Not sure what to do. Heh. Any advice would be helpful.
Believe it or not, but in November 2007 I bought my current PC, and ever since I have been busy overclocking it, trying to push it just that much further every time. I got a Intel Quad Core 2.4Ghz processor and I've been slowly but surely upping the ante. And I can tell you, it can be pretty nerve wrecking to do so. But hey, it's totally worth it because right now it seems to be running stable at 3.4Ghz, with temperatures well below the maximum safe treshold. Well I shouldn't say that because right now I'm hitting 64 degrees celcius using Prime95, and 65 is considered to to be the maximum safe temperature for this processor. So yea, I'm pushing this baby lol. But I am only using air cooling, so I think these are pretty impressive results so far.
Of course if you ever dabbled in overclocking you'll know that right along with your processor the speed of your memory will go up as well. I'm not gonna go into technical details, but dealing with the memory is definitely the most frustrating part of overclocking in my experience. It's far more sensetive to being pushed too far than the processor, so I've already blown through one set of corsair dominators. Thankfully it was still well within my warranty period and no one asked me any questions when I went to exchange them. So I got me a new set, and so far these seem to be holding up far better than the previous ones even though it's the same brand, speed, etc. Then again, since breaking the previous set I've done some more research and I'm more careful now about how I deal with the memory.
So yea, I got a pretty nice overlock going right now, but I think I might try to push it even further. I've seen systems that got overclocked to 5Ghz from a standard 2.6Ghz! That is just... DAYUM! Of course they were using watercooling and whatnot, but shit, that is alot of power to be pumping out of your pc. If you're ever curious, you should check out people's 3dmark scores. Man those people really know how to push their rigs to the max. But I'm not aiming for the sky just yet. Maybe my next pc I'll look into water cooling and all, but right now I'll be satisfied if I can hit 3.6 on my processor. I've already hit the max on my videocard (gpu) it seems, but I think I can squeeze a bit more out of the processor and memory. So the quest for power continues!
In a fairly recent podcast, the GFW crew spent some time talking about the high barrier of entry that comes with jumping into multiplayer games, specifically ones that have been out for a while already. Listening to them talk about it, I started thinking about my own multiplayer experiences, which pretty much coincide with everything they said, and it's a strong reason why I mostly stick to single player, with only the occasional dabble in multiplayer. Now before you think I have an outright dislike for it, I have played quite a few games online with CoD 4. In fact, I bought it as soon as it came out, and immediately after finishing the main campaign, I jumped online and spent a large chunk of my time competing against other players. And I gotta say, I faired pretty well--I often claimed a spot in the top 3 and after a while frequently found myself in the number one spot, which definitely gave me a good feeling.
But then I stopped playing for a while, mostly because there were other games to play, but also because I was simply growing bored of it and I needed a break. Turns out now that taking that break was a pretty bad idea, as I am seriously lagging behind other players in terms of skill. Where first I was more than capable of offering some serious resitance, this time I found myself with almost as little chance as a blind man in a mine field. And as much as I tried to stick with it, hoping it was simply a matter of being 'rusty' I eventually came to the conclusion that I was quite simply outclassed. The people that I was playing against now knew tricks that I hadn't even thought of when I first started playing. The knew every nook and cranny of every map, and they always seemed to know exactly where people would be coming from. With every match played it became more painfully clear that my relatively short break from the game had given those who stuck with it more than enough time to hone their skills to the point of being able to utterly humiliate me. And I'm not going to lie about it: it sucked big time, and frustrated me to no end.
Now to keep this entry from being so lengthy that no one really wants to read it, I'll just say that I've had a similar experience with the original UT--a game where I even had my own clan and competed on a relative serious level. As soon as I took a break from it, I was pretty much screwing myself over. Of course it's even worse when I try getting into games that have been around for a while, without ever having played it before. But in such cases it never really bothers me as much because I already expect beforehand to be ending up at the bottom of the match lists for quite some time. But when you have played something for a while, then take a break, only to find yourself getting owned in every way possible when you get back, it really can be a frustrating and infuriating experience.
So I'm really wondering: why aren't there more skill-based matches like you see in Halo 3, except better? Halo's idea to matching up people with the same skill is nice, but as far as I remember, it only adds to your skill level as you progress. Should you ever call it quits for a while, your level will still be the exact same as it was before, while in reality you're nowhere near as competent anymore as you were before your break. And due to people learning new tricks and whatnot, even those with a lower skill level are often able to give you a good whoopin. Which, again, results in a situation similar to CoD 4.
So why even bother to get into the multiplayer side of a game unless you know you are going to stick with it? Or rather, once you've taken a break, why bother coming back to it again later? Seems to me that it is sheer foolishness to do so. And I'm really hoping that someone out there will realize--sooner rather than later--that people do take breaks from playing a game online, and that they will need a proper way of having their skill measured so they'll be able to compete in a fun way when they get back to it later. Until someone comes up with a viable system, if I ever do take a break from a particular game, I'll probably just stay on that break because I enjoy a good challenge, but continously getting my ass handed to me no matter how hard I try because of that break, that just ain't my idea of fun.
My advice to everyone then is: if you're planning on seriously competing against other players in a game, stick with it. If you feel that you need a break from it all, don't toss the game into a corner altogether. Play at least a couple of matches a week, preferably one or two a day to keep from falling too far behind on the competition. Because I can pretty much guarantee you, if you don't do that, and get back into it at a later time, you'll be in for alot of aggrevation. At least, that's my experience.
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