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Snipzor

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D'OH! (Final Xbox Repair Update)

By Snipzor 4 Comments

Puralator stopped by to drop off the console, because it had been repaired, finally... except I was asleep and the only person who could have picked it up was out power walking.


So by 6:00, I ought to be back in action, or rather 7:00. Until then folks, until then.
4 Comments

GLAAD panel on video game homophobia, finally released.

By Snipzor 24 Comments

About time, I've been waiting for this panel to be release for quite a while, anyways I suggest everyone here to watch it. The topic du jour is based on the theme of internet anonimity, a good topic to talk about because of how little coverage there is of it (Unless there have been massive conversations about it, then why is it that nobody has informed me of this?!). The people in the panel are representatives of companies and groups, Microsoft and Maxis being the most notable. If you want to watch it and start a discussion, link is below, if you don't want to watch it (It's about two hours long), then you don't have to. 


24 Comments

Games that shaped me to what I am (Part 6)

By Snipzor 2 Comments

"Look at you hacker, a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect immortal machine..."

*SPOILERS OF BASIC STORY BELOW*
*SPOILERS OF BASIC STORY BELOW*
Unless you've lived a completely oblivious gaming life for the last few years, you might not have heard of System Shock 2. Back when people played Bioshock, there were large complaints about how it was "exactly like System Shock 2", and I say bullocks to that notion. Bioshock is nothing like System Shock, and in case you are wondering, yes this will have spoilers. Not that it matters anyways, because playing it on computers now is nearly impossible. But my memory of this piece of brilliance is very much alive.

The best thing about System Shock is the story. It must be understood that most of the backstory is well hidden through chatlogs, ghostly visits, and even how certain rooms are set up (Positions of dead bodies, even the positions of items). Very much like how Valve used imagery to convey certain messages, but this blog has nothing to do with that.

Anyways, the story begins with you, a bright eyed rosy cheeked recruit who must chose what class he must join. You have three choices, basic stuff actually, weapons based skills, tech based skills, and psi skills. Later you wake up from a coma to preform your duty, on an deserted (but not quite empty) space vessel. The enemies are are combination of creatures, some hybrids, others tech based, and giant spiders. Just like any environment, you get variation (No swamp levels, thank the makers), all of them blended in with a nightmarish cyberpunk setting.

After your character wakes up, he is immediately in danger. The first weapon you start off with is a wrench, but if you go with psi training, you will get the orb of knowing (Not the actual name, but the great thing about system shock is that it has a touch of fantasy setting). Your only friend is a woman trapped in the administrative setting of the ship. The beginning of the game revolves around you trying to reach her, and fixing a couple of problems along the way. That easy? Don't be foolish, these types of games are never easy. Which reminds me, this game is bloody hard, even on the "EASY" difficulty. Your only social link friend in reality is dead, and for the last 10 hours of gameplay (Ahem, my first ten hours), she wasn't the one talking to you. Rather it was the A.I. construct, Shodan. Like in Bioshock, except the scene was more "Shit your pants" resolution rather than the insightful whoops we experienced. So for the rest of the game, you are her/his/its pawn.

  


By that point, it is a confusing fetch game. FIrst time I played, I had no clue on where to go because it was extremely confusing. So now for gameplay mechanics, because there is a ton of take into account. There are guns, a ton of guns. Some of which you can never actually use because you need to improve your stats. System Shock 2 is an RPG, and a tough one. Anyways, you can get guns, and the will break. A lot actually, and you will need to repair them. Which in itself is a task. If your gun can be used, you need to stock up on ammo, but oh no, ammo is extremely scarce. Plus you can only hold so much stuff, some of which is research material you can use to do more damage to enemies. To actually do research, you need chemicals, which are placed all over the freaking ship. Now you can think that a bit of backtracking is fine, but the research is also a stat. The choice is tough, because unlike Deus Ex, you do need to know how to use weapons, as well as repair.

Anyways, all this to say, this game is damn good.
2 Comments

Thoughts on The Conduit (Part Two)

By Snipzor 2 Comments

This one will be significantly shorter, but will address multiplayer and the aesthetical presentation.


I played the multiplayer for about 5 minutes. I waited 1 to get a group to play with, 3 for the round to start (Despite it saying 23 minutes) and 1 more in game. Looks like the game was haxzord, so already there is no reason to play sub-standard deathmatch.

Now for the graphics. It is very disapointing that we in the gaming culture still deal with enemies that aren't exactly well designed or even varied. Honestly, I was quite bored with the dozens of same characters I was gunning down in the third hour of playtime, and by the fourth, I could not care about this game. I suffered terminal boredness (So bored, I make up words). I simply didn't care about very slowly gunning down the same people over and over. Don't even get me started about the story and characters, because I've been going on for the last two hours.

The story is simply garbage, nobody expects the game to have godlike story or even a story. But the story they gave was terrible, even insulting. For one, all characters are complete idiots. Unlike other conspiracy stories, the character doesn't just join the "good" guys which become bad guys with rosey cheeked optimism. Even the bloody stupid characters of any recent Final Fantasy game would probably question the motives of a secret group that contacts them (Except for Squall, he's absolutely batshit retarded). But no, your secret service guy who was likely fitted with rose coloured shades, thinks "Okay!" and then works for the bad guys.

Then there is the cover, my god.
What were they thinking?!
What were they thinking?!
This honestly looks like a 1990's cheap comic cover. I'm done with the game, I'm not talking about it. Hell, the only reason I'm talking about it is because I had to talk about at least one game, and it can't be any other because my other game hubs are broken.  I regret playing it. It could have been good or exiting, but it isn't. Remember when I said it played like an N64 Rare shooter? Well I was wrong. It's like those games, except without all of the Rare goodness.

2 Comments

Thoughts on summer movies.

By Snipzor 3 Comments

It is currently 10:36 and I just saw a painfully stupid trailer for Disney's "G-Force", another animated mess of jokes starring a bunch of anthropomorphic gerbils or whatever they are, as spies and all that. I've always thought that the guinea pigs were the animal du jour for the 1990's, we've moved on away from these types of movies. Spy movies starring characters that aren't fit for any work in modern society (Unless you are China, get to work Spy Kids), I'm tired of these movies. Hey, don't you breathe a word about Pixar doing this, that doesn't count. When they introduce talking animals or kids doing impossible things, they do it tastefully and make it scientific instead of inexplicable magic.


Anyways, I have no understanding of why most summer movies suck. I get it, movies that take only a bit of time to make in order to appeal to the lowest common denominator (Children and frat boys), make a ton of money (No need for the ???? step, the plan is simple). This is no hyperbole, I have never in a million years used hyperbole, just look at the top ten box office. Before I take a look, I'm going to guess only two of those movies are somewhat decent.

  • G-FORCE
  • Harry Potter...
  • The Ugly Truth
  • Orphan
  • Ice Age
  • Transmorphers (I know what I did)
  • The Hangover
  • The Proposal
  • Public Enemies
  • Brüno

Only three are decent, I was close. But you get the point. Summer movies are supposedly the time to enjoy crap, for some reason. They think "It's summer, people don't want to think while watching a movie", but this is untrue. I'm sure if I asked around, people would rather be mentally challenged while watching a movie during a time when brains are running on stupid (We need our brains to be active), instead of mentally raped with crap like Transformers. This is why I see Pixar movies when they come out, to work my brain to think about the visual symbolism in movies. That's why I pulled out my copy of "There Will Be Blood" last week, my brain was leeking.

Anyways, that's what I think. If I barely spoke about it, then I'll speed this up. I hate summer movies, they make up the downfall of our society (That and Fox). On to the next issue, nobody cares about Lance Armstrong. He lost, let us get over it.

Until Next Time, 'till next time.

Final Notice: If anybody wants to be mentally stimulated now, watch the series "Moral Orel" and "Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe". Good television.
3 Comments

Opinions on "The Conduit"

By Snipzor 3 Comments

Well I rented the conduit about two hours ago, and what can I say. I'm bored by it, it's just boring. Generally boring is a bad thing, right? Well yes, it is a bad thing, and in this case it completely ruined it for me.


***DISCLAIMER***This will be a pseudo-review of The Conduit, afterall I've just played for two hours.***END DISCLAIMER***

Anyways. Let's start. The game begins with you waking up sometime later in the game, you've got all the good guns and whatnot. Here is where you familiarize yourself with the controls, and immediately something is wrong. It is very customizable, really it is, you can fix the sensitivity of the sensitivity and in the end nothing feels right. I've actually spent more time trying to fix the controls than trying to play the game. I thought I had the right controls, but after a minute it was all wrong. For example, there is the turning speed, which starts at 30 (out of 100) and 30 is far too much. But at the same time, it is a good setting, if that makes any sense. Then there is the sensitivity for the wiimote, which is just silly because the lowest setting registers very slowly, but the default is very stammery. Nothing controls right, even the movement is wrong, you turn as if your head shakes because it is so sensitive, which makes aiming a pain. But turning and running speed doesn't actually match very well. In PC gaming, even the first time players will quickyly learn to lean into corners (Unless you are playing SWAT, then you will learn slowly) because you can control the turning very well. That is why PC gaming is the best when it comes to the first person view. But in The Conduit you'll try to lean in, but you find that you haven't yet reached the corner yet, if that makes any sense (I hope it does). Then there are the button layouts, which I know can be fixed for your enjoyment, but again nothing feels quite right. Especially the melee attacks, which I often screw up because I swing both  the nunchuck and the wiimote at the same time and that throws the grenades (The grenades have priority over the melee by the way, which should be the other way around).

Now that was all based on controls, and the reason it is so important is because controls will make or break a game on the wii. Especially an FPS, but also this game in particular because it was advertised as a Wii FPS with perfect controls. If it had been fixed early in production, this game might not be as boring. But another problem this game suffers from, is the gameplay. You don't have that much health, and the AI is garbage. Allow me to put this in perspective, they don't actually try to use any tactics. They shoot, and go into cover, and if there is no cover, they either don't move from their position or run towards you trying to melee you. This would be fine if the action was at least spread out properly. But this game either has no breaks, or long breaks in between combat, and I mean massive breaks. This is where the whole game breaks down, with combat. The weapons aren't exiting, or very useful, I mean a pistol can do more damage than your submachine gun (which runs out of ammo far too quickly, and reloads far too slow). While for some reason enemies shoot their weapons in Goldeneye/Perfect Dark script fashion. We've moved past that point, dynamic AI exists, and it should be implemented in EVERY GAME (except puzzles, then we'll talk). Don't get me wrong, I love Perfect Dark, it's one of my favorite games. Even the sequel I enjoyed, a lot, especially in co-op. Hell, my entire friends list was made up of people I played Perfect Dark Zero with. But I don't play an FPS just so I could memorize the script of characters to be able to get through each level without being shot, that's why I still play Perfect Dark. I'm just bored with this style of game, when it is poorly designed.

Should you try "The Conduit"? Maybe, I don't know, do you have Halo? COD? Deus Ex? Perfect Dark? Goldeneye? Rainbow Six Vegas? Bioshock? System Shock? Left4Dead? Half-Life? Fallout 3? Farcry 2? Team Fortress 2? If you have any FPS in your home, then play them. Don't play "The Conduit", it is bland and tedious. This coming from someone who thinks Killer7 is brilliant and exiting. I might change my mind about this game, but it seems as if after a few waves of enemies that all look the same, I won't change my tune.

Until next time folks, 'till next time.
3 Comments

Xbox repair update (#Rasum Frasum Rissem Friggun...)

By Snipzor 4 Comments

Had to redo the order because for some reason, it takes two weeks to mail a label. Yeah, thanks Microsoft, I suggest rehiring some new farking supervisors, because the ones I spoke to twice were absolutely incompetant. Oh, and if you are the one I spoke with the first time, you suck at what you do and you should perhaps take lessons from the ones who watch over....*Ironic statement in 3,2,1*... prick.


At least I got my Cafepress shirts in, which makes me happy. Now all I have to do is call UPS and tell them their incompetance is glaring. Until next time, until next time.
4 Comments

HP sucks, why you should never buy anything with the HP logo.

By Snipzor 2 Comments

That is it, I have fucking had it with HP. Literally have had it up to here, and I'm 6'5'', so it takes a while to break me. But apparently it doesn't take anything to actually break any HP product. They are garbage, I can literally count down every single problem I've had with this company and their products right this second.


-Battery loses zero point
-Battery Neglects to charge
-Keyboard neglects to work
-Keyboard loses track of where the specific letters are (Thanks HP update, you suck for that)
-Keyboard freezes up (After fixing the problem above)
-Costs too god damn much for something that has 2000 stock hardware.
-Stock hardware reserved for "Build Your Own Computers"
-Hardware doesn't work properly because the fan is garbage (Yes, the fan sucks harder than the hardware)
-Cooling system doesn't work
-Fan breaks, really fast
-Fan disconnects, smashing the inside of the laptop
-Customer Service is hard to find
-Customer Service is really annoying
-The laptop is not to be customized, ever
-HP doesn't fix laptops or improve them, regardless of what you tell them to do or how much you pay them
-Disregards warranties

You know how long I've had this laptop? 3 years? No, 1 and a half. My Xbox has not had this many problems than this piece of garbage, and in case you are wonder I am not the only one who has these problems. I am lucky, because the power saver mode can delay the effects of the broken fan, for about an hour. Too late, it's starting. Below is footage of what HP deserves. I'm buying Alienware first chance I get.

  

2 Comments

HP laptop fan broke, again.

By Snipzor 3 Comments

I don't want to be angry, it's just that this is the third time I've sent in one laptop within a few years. A few years. This time it lasted 6 months, so I'm quite upset. I won't ask for the laptop back, or reparation because I won't know how to keep it alive for longer that 6 months considering the fact. I'll just ask for my hard drive and promptly relay them this message.


  


Now the only reason I truly mention Charlie Brooker is because of his awesome show you should all check out. It is all available on youtube, if you go to the channel "xthemusic" and then playlists, you'll be able to watch every episode. It's a great show about television, except very damn good and insightful. If you are wondering, I do like to advertise.

Anyways, the show is called "Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe" as well as his spinoff series "Newswipe". Until next time, until next time.
3 Comments

Where do they get these people?

By Snipzor 4 Comments

Naturally I was going about the internet, like the little troll I am, and I've come to question something about the state of people. Where do social conservatives all get their token friends? No really, where do they get them. Everytime I hear something that seems partially bigoted against one group of people, I will always come across this statement.


"I have many *** friends and family members".

Where do they get these token friends? Fun fact, it seems as if homophobic dicks have more gay friends than I do and I go to college. Does this make any sense? Do you ever see these people? NO! But they're all over the fucking world (As are the gideons, cookies for those who get the reference). Ask yourself, does making up the existence of a friend of family member really make you look better when you take potshots at them? No, in fact it makes you look worse because you have to cover for your own ass to justify being an asshole. I mean, real bigots don't have to worry about this. Pat Buchanan, bless his old racist idiotic heart, doesn't hide the fact that he's a racist. He doesn't make the kneejerk excuse of "I have many black and latino friends", no he's honest and brutal about everything he says. He's like the Joe Biden of racists. But these tokens, where do they come from.

I ask you a simple question, do you buy the "I have many *** friends" excuse? Do some of them actually have real token friends? Is it annoying when every single person makes that excuse?

Don't answer the last one, I ask myself that to try to maintain my sanity.

Catch y'all next time when I actually continue my GSM series. Until next time, until next time (Sorry Kiko).

Also, Ultima VII is damn good.
4 Comments