The Limited Hal
By Mexalen 3 Comments
If you haven't seen already, this are some pics from the unlockable Halo-Costume in Fable 2. Unfortunatly you need the Limited Edition for it ...
my Endwar ended earlier then I thought / edited
By Mexalen 3 Comments
I was really excited about getting that Endwar-VIP-Demo-Code.
It has been postponed two times, but yesterday I finally got the codes.
Well, I just can't redeem it. I gave the buddy-code (of course I tried using that one myself first) to Karmum, and it worked for him. The only explanation I have for that is, that Ubi locked it for my region (I am austrian). As far as I know, the demo was delayed because they had a problem with the different XBL-regions, so that would make sense. The only other possibilty is, they hate me, and want to see me suffer ... which they definatly achieved ;)
I've waited for that Code so long, and been so curious about the game ..it's a shame I can't play it now. Unfortunatly there seems to be no contact I could tell about it, and most likely I am the only austrian that got a code, so they wouldn't care about it anyway. My stupid luck...
I created a fake account on XBL, setting the region to US, so I am currently loading the endwar-demo. If anyone wants to visit me ... I am living on Main-Street in New York ;)
Star-WTF-Craft II
By Mexalen 1 Comments
At the moment there are just not enough facts about Blizzards Plans, just some quotes, lots of rants and thousands of gamers crying out loud. Well, I guess for the moment I am joining the ranks of the latter ones.
I am mildly disturbed by the news about Starcraft II being split into 3 games.
3 full-prized games coming a long within severall months? How can Blizz imagine anyone wants that? Sure tons of people are gonna buy the first one, and there will still be a lot of people that are jumping that waggon and go along the ride ... but if the Multiplay is complete with the first game, they will stop then. If Multiplay with all 3 races is not included in "Wings of Liberty", I guess they will loose quite some buyers, and many reviewers will give them harsh ratings.
I am sure Blizz is not doing that for the cash. They just don't need to milk their customers, WoW is filling their coffers with more money then they can spend.
Most likely they really are just convinced that all this content needs to be seperated into different games.
But they will have to do a lot to persuade us gamers, that it's what we want.
I was expecting SC2 to be an awesome game. I was ready to buy a new Mac when the game (or Diablo 3) is being released. But i definatly don't see myself paying about 150 Euros for 3 SC2-Games and spending all that time with it. (I am always more concerned about my time then about money).
My advice (or my appeal rather) to Blizzard: Release all 3 packs at once. Don't make me wait on the Zerg-campaign (which I am most interessted in). Offer a cheap bundle with all 3 games for the die hard-fans. And offer a Download of the extra content of the other packages, if I really want to play it all. And include the full MP-experience in the main-game. Other way you're just hurting your credibilty and user-base. No other company can claim to have such fervent fans, that love just everything you do...
my short Halo history
By Mexalen 3 Comments
I didn't have a console till I bought the Xbox, and I got that one pretty late too. August 03.
My PC died in September 05, so I never had to pick up a shooter on a console till then.
In other words: I never played Halo. (Besides some after-work multiplay-skirmishes with my co-workers (I worked at a videogames-store back then)).
As I hadn't played the first Halo, of course I never started playing the second one. Once I started the co-op campaign at a friends place but we stopped after the second chapter and never picked it up again.
I guess you already know what happened when Halo 3 was released last year. Right, I didn't buy it.
I loved all the ads about it. I knew the lore about Halo, everything that happened in the first two games, just by listening to people that had played it. But it never occured to me, start playing Halo on my own.
Then a friend bought the 360 with Halo included this spring, and swapped the game for "Eternal Sonata" which I had finished anyway. Finally I had a chance to get myself indulged with Halo. And I just loved it. Before that, I thought that entire franchise had to be overrated ..but it's dramatic, varied and makes you really feel like saving the earth, mankind and universe.
The anouncement of Recon makes me rather exhilarated. Finally there is a Halo-game released, and I am immersed with the franchise. Finally a Halo-Game that I can buy!
I like the idea of a more thoughtfull approach. I love the prospect of teaming and bonding with the city-AI. I am pretty sure that it will be intense, have a thrilling story and tons of action. I am just happy that I can appreciate that game, and can ignore all that nay-sayers, that just don't shut up, because it's not what they expected :)
Thank god it's comming late
By Mexalen 1 Comments
I already set my mind on the 360-games I am going to by the coming months:
Fable 2, Farcry 2, C&C Red Alert 3, Left 4 Dead
This list has been finished for weeks now, with me only waiting for them to be released.
And then, today I just got hit hard. Like running into a speeding truck...
I have seen videos about Bionic Commando before, and I kinda knew it would be interessting. But I never saw it like that before...
The graphics and animation is smooth and sweet, the action looks crisp and the swinging ...oh, the swinging.
It's like in that one Spiderman-Game. I just loved that...
You got to know, that if I could choose just one mutant/super ability, it would be something like that. I don't care about flight, strength or x-ray-vision (I am old enough to buy that kind of magazines *g*) ... but swinging around a cityscape. That just got to be awesome.
Gametrailers lists the release date with 31st october, which gave me a jolt. Luckily it's late, and my bionic journey will start next january. Phew... I would have hated to make my list anew ;)
Recap and something about my (gaming) dad!
By Mexalen 2 Comments
Been rather busy lately, especially with the upcoming Viennale, the 'Vienna International Film Festival". It's the very best thing to happen every fall, and I am always looking forward to it for months. I am a movie-enthusiast, quite more then I am into games, so the last 2 weeks in october are going to be AWESOME.
Yesterday started the ticket presales, been standing in line for 3 1/2 hours, but I got all 12 tickets I wanted to.
Of course I managed to save some gaming time in between :)
Besides work, cinema and stuff there wasn't much gaming going on this week. I finally finished "The World ends with you", I had stopped playing shortly before the end back then, and it took me 2 days to beat the final boss fight. I had to plug my DS to the power cable to prevent it from shutting down over night, so I could give it a try the next day again ;)
Unfortunatly, when I finally finished the boss, I was standing in line for my Viennale-tickets a friend started talking to me ... so I have no clue what the f*** was going on :) If anyone would PM me or write it on my wall (you don't have to spoil the experience for everyone else), I'd be obliged.
The bigger news come from yesterday evening, when I visited my dad. He had asked me to bring my X360, to show him, what his Sony Bravia-Screen is capabel of. He is everything but a gamer, I don't think he even enjoys card- and boardgames a lot. When I started playing PC games as a youngster, he would just not get, whats fun about it, he wouldn't even acknowledge that this is a rightous pastime... especially as I spent a lot of time with my games.
So I showed them Burnout Paradise first. Of course they were fascinated by the graphics and the detail. And once they got, that you HAVE to drive dangerously and that nothing bad comes from crashing (I had to point out, that there are no drivers in the cars...), they were fine with that. Him and his wife would both try the game severall times, with her picking up the controlls pretty fast. My Dad of course did not do so well, steering around wildly like drunk ...but at least he tried to!
After that I showed em the Guitar Hero 3-Demo, with my stepmother getting 82% for 'Even Flow' on easy on her first try! That's pretty neat for someone thats not into something like that (and playing it on the x360-Controller instead of a guitar is a hassle). When my dad had his go on it, the game stopped eventually because he missed to many notes and the crowd went wild about it :)
I showed em GeoWars 2 because it's perfect to show off colour brilliance. Hexic, cause I love puzzlers and I wanted them to see, that there are lot's of games that are calm and about thinking (I should have shown Braid...). Sonic because it's a classic platformer and easy to grasp.
Then I started Assassins Creed, which I only brought with me, because I forgot about it in summer, when I was housesitting there.
I was stunned by the graphics ... so were my dad and his wife. I just ran around Damaskus a little bit, shoving people around, climbing up roofs, jumping into haywaggons, pushing a guard of the edge. I totally forgot about the fight controlls already, so when I got into a big fight I was killed eventually. Of course they didn't like the blood splattering about, but I told them about the story and that this was no childs game anyway.
When I left my stepmother joked that she is going to buy an X360 as christmas present for my dad. I wouldn't believe it, if it happened. But it was quite nice to show them something I really like ..and them taking interesst in it.
Give it a try and make someone interessted in gaming, that isn't.
Happy gaming everyone :)
I hunger...
By Mexalen 2 Comments
To save some money for the upcoming months I decided to neither buy "Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise" and "SW: Force Unleashed" last month. I played Too Human to death, after playing all classes to lvl 10 and finishing the game 3 times. I started a 4th run to reach lvl 50, but I just couldn't do it another time...
I picked up some other games again, I didn't finish the first time. But none could hold my attention or draw me in again.
The Endwar-Beta has been pushed for another week, leaving me hungering for something new... something that's available now. Unlike Fable 2, that cruel bitch, which makes me wait another 3 weeks.
Today I read a review for Lock's Quest, a DS game that mixes Tower Defense and RPG-elements with some minigames. Sounds intriguing ...and I am weak at the moment. I just need my fix... ;)
My Room / Pt2
By Mexalen 2 Comments
This friend of mine with a camcorder is fine now, but now ironically his camcorder is broken ;)
The pics I took with my cell the other day are rather poor quality, as I had bad lightning in here. I had to wait for today, when I wasn't at work all day, to get some natural light in the apartement.
It's nice to document it now, as I am going to buy lots of new furniture the coming months.
I present: the living room of my apartement :)
First are some panorama-shots to give you a idea of whats to come.
election
By Mexalen 1 Comments
I know that the upcoming election is a huge thing for you guys.
I am not going to voice my opinion here, I am not entitled to vote for your next president anyway, and most likely it would end with a lot of shouting ;)
But we had an election ourselves today ...and I am shattered by it's outcome.
We have a very different political system then the US and a (I shouldn't use the word) 'better' voting system. It's more direct, every opinion counts 'more'. Usually democrazy means that 51 peoples opinion overrules what 49 think ...and that sucks if you're one of the 49. In the US 51% could vote for either party and still could be overruled by the other 49% ... now that is something I just don't get.
So ...thats all I am going to say about the US-election :)
Back to Austria, where we voted on the parliament and which party is going to designate the next chancelor, which is kind of the highest ranked politiican. Our president is just there to oversee everything is done correct, and to represent.
At todays election the national parties gained a lot of influence, which in my opinion is a very bad thing. But the cause, that I am at a total loss for words about it is, that it is so stupid to vote for these parties. They were in the goverment couple years ago and didn't achieve anything. During the campaining-period they never said what they want to do, that would benefit the county. All they said was "We are against ..." or "The governing parties suck", it was always just nay ,nay, nay, nay...
I know that a lot of people voted for the national parties because the wanted to protest against the governing parties. Which is okay, cause they did a very poor job. But there were enough other possibilities to do so ... parties that proposed ways that would make life better for everyone.
With their new gained influence this parties will make this country a place I don't want to live in ...
the RvB-Box cometh
By Mexalen 1 Comments
After months of thinking about it, I finally decided today to order the Red-vs-Blue-Boxset from Roosterteeth. I am a huge machinima-fan, and just love the RvB-Series. Even with the exchange rate in my favour, I considered the shippingscost as to much. I know that sounds mean, but after the financial crisis last week, the Euro gained a little weight again, and now I got the Box for about 60 Euros.
Some other machinimas I can recommend are The Leet World (I love their Web Zeroes-Pilot, this guys got great humour), and the Forecast-Series is pretty good as well. Oh, and Civil Protection is a must see ..even if there haven't been any updates in months! Actually it feels like everyone and his mother are making machinimas lately... ;)
Oh, and while you're at the Smoothfewfilms-Page ...don't forget their awesome shorts. There is one about gaming-ethics like teabagging...and the Portal-related "Day in the lfe of a turret"...
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