Something went wrong. Try again later

TonicBH

This user has not updated recently.

348 115 31 19
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

Bunch of new stuff.

By TonicBH 1 Comments

Back on 12/29, I finished a video review of Left 4 Dead:

  

I originally released it on Christmas Day, but had to pull it when people couldn't hear my narration. Then I had to re-record footage I lost due to stupidly putting the videos in the recycle bin.

I also bought some more 360 games, two of which I wanted since I saw them announced: Dead Rising and Crackdown. As well as Call of Duty 3 (wanted to see why everybody calls this the "Black sheep of the franchise") and a $20 Microsoft Points card.

Oh, and I bought these things, but they're not game-related.
1 Comments

Thanks, Valve!

By TonicBH 1 Comments

Peggle for $5? Ultimate Doom, Doom II/Master Levels and Bejeweled for $1 each? Hell yeah.

Now I get to experience a game I haven't played in its entirety for ten+ years, and own about 3-4 console ports of.

(Also, for those who were wondering about my last blog post: Gamertag is TonicBH, as it is here.)

1 Comments

Christmas Haul

By TonicBH 1 Comments

I opened these at 3AM. Here's a picture.

  • A wireless mouse made for notebook computers (Dad bought this to replace my Microsoft mouse, and while it works on my PC, it becomes problematic while game-playing, so I gave it to him)
  • A pair of Reebok black Velcro-strap shoes, to replace an old, worn out, paint and glue encrusted pair
  • Far Cry 2 (PC)
  • Dead Space (PS3)
  • Quantum of Solace: The Official Game of the hit James Bond movie (Okay, not the exact title but somewhere close, PS3)
  • Halo 3 (360)
  • An Xbox 360 controller
  • An Xbox 360 Play-and-Charge Kit

Not pictured: Some sweatpants and T-shirts of various colors.

But wait... why would I have Halo 3, a 360 controller and a Play-and-Charge kit when I don't have a 360? Well... I also got a 360 Pro. Hooray? Still need to get a points card and a few choice 360 titles...
An Xbox 360!
An Xbox 360!
1 Comments

Cheap-ass Gaming, Volume 3

By TonicBH 4 Comments

Quick question, GB users. Isn't this game kinda rare? Bought it at a Goodwill for $5, I wanna hear your input.

Final Fantasy Tactics for the PS1, Greatest Hits edition.
Final Fantasy Tactics for the PS1, Greatest Hits edition.




























Not big on the whole Japan RPG thing. Less so of Tactical JRPGs. But I was standing there thinking "Isn't this game kinda rare?" and snagged it not caring if I was gonna play it. What do you think, sirs?
4 Comments

Dancing in a Home space while waiting to play an arcade game.

By TonicBH 1 Comments

Hi! How's everybody doing? Man, for how long it takes me to write a blog, it takes longer for me to think of subjects to write about. Although, there are people who are even worse at this than I am, so I should be grateful.

I'm gonna start enforcing a self-policy where I start taking every first impression I make with a grain of salt. Remember when I was a dick and bashed Home? Well, after making myself look like a tool, I decided to recant and drop the argument, as well as periodically pop back into Home.

Especially when Open Beta launched today. Y'know, I kinda miss the old Central Plaza. Maybe there should've been two separate plazas for players to traverse, each with their own little quirks. Thank goodness I bought some of the Home clothes, furniture and spaces before Open Beta went live, because the prices are a pinch ludicrous. $.49 for the Chuck Taylor-like Hi-tops? $5 for the Summer House? Eh, it's chump change really, and with a lot of PSN items ending in 9, maybe those spare pennies can go towards a Home store item. :P

I got to go see the other spaces, and they're pretty good. Plus it was nice to bump into some GAP members while there (Hi Julia!). Although I do have issues with some of the games, as well as a few things I'd like to suggest to makes things more smoothly. Where the heck do you post that, the Home forums? Because I could probably conjure up a half-decent list of improvements I'd like to suggest.

But yeah, Home may not be the greatest thing out there, but at least it's working and useable. Now the big thing I gotta ask is this: "Will it be a hit with the PS3 owners and third parties?" Time will tell. Let's hope it works, the last thing Sony wants is Home to be on those "Top 100 gaming blunders of all time" lists.

-----

I gotta stop buying games. Well, gotta stop GETTING games, anyway. I gotta finish Stranglehold, I gotta continue Pixeljunk Eden (which is one of the few games where I'm going "Oh damn it! Nononononono NOT THERE! ARGH! Back at the bottom!" while playing.), I gotta play SWAT 4...

And I pick up a free game since a neighbor was selling a PS2: The Thing. It was some 2001-02 video game based on the John Carpenter movie of the same name. I had only heard of it thanks to Noah Antwiler and The Spoony Experiment, where he ripped the game a new one. Check out the review here, it's one of his best. I mean, the review's YAHTZEE-approved, for god's sake!

But anyway. I had got The Thing because I wanted to see if Spoony was right, and it seems almost down to the T. In fact, since I'm a big fan of The Spoony Experiment, lines from his review kept replaying in my head while I was playing it. It's not that unusual, Yahtzee was repeating the Heavenly Sword demo review while I was playing it, so...

But yeah, so far it's just an average shooter/survival horror hybrid. With a wonky save system and no sense of aiming whatsoever.

-----

I'll probably have a review for Left 4 Dead up by Friday or Saturday. Everything's in place. Now to edit the 27 minute rough cut into an acceptable 5-10 minute review with commentary, and we're set.

-----

I am done for now. I'll leave you with this thought in my head for a while:

Is it weird for a guy like me to desire a pair of sheepskin boots? And how come Home doesn't have any?!

1 Comments

More profit, PlayStation Home, and James Bond

By TonicBH 1 Comments

Well, I did the Hollywood Video "buy $4 last-gen games and take them to GameStop for maximum profit" trick. This time with only four games: GTA: San Andreas, Juiced 2, Spider-Man Friend or Foe and Madden 08. Kept a copy of Spider-Man 2 for the GC this time.

And what luck! While there I find Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations (like hell am I typing the full title) for $18 used. I had been wanting to find the third chapter since I enjoyed the first two, and so I could eventually lead to getting the most recent, Apollo Justice, and the inevitable release of the Miles Edgeworth spinoff adventure title.

That, and so my DS can stop sitting on my shelf crying to be used. Sorry, man, I'm tapped out of games to play with you. Outside of Phoenix Wright and maybe stuff like Planet Puzzle League or something, I have nothing else to play. Although, the only reason my PSP gets used often is firmware updates and it makes a decent MP3 player.

------

So anyway, PlayStation Home. I'm not too keen on it. Then again, when it comes to social networking, I'm well against it. Only because I believe meeting complete strangers could result in awkward situations. Like what if this hot chick is a 30-something dude with man-boobs? That sort of thing.

Yeah, I have a Myspace. And a Facebook. I fleetingly check both. Otherwise, not for me. If it takes off, good for it, but I'm looking at similar items like Second Life and Sims Online, and seeing neither one making large splashes on the mass market. But hey. Benefit of the doubt and all.

------

I saw the new James Bond flick, Quantum of Solace a few days ago. Decent flick. Except there's one thing that aggravates me about modern action cinema:


Just because the Bourne movies could pull off the shaky cam crap, DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD TRY TO DO THE SAME. Half the time I couldn't tell just what the fuck was going on in the fight scenes because it looked like it was filmed while the cameraman was drunk and edited with some ADHD-riddled kid. Knock that shit off and make the action scenes WATCHABLE.


I swear, in one fight scene I could barely see what was going on. I think I saw the villain's gun, a broken window, and Daniel Craig's torso in one shot, but like hell could I understand what else was going on.

Also, the new Bond song, "Another Way to Die" is a decent pop track, but doesn't work as a Bond song. It's better than Die Another Day's abomination.

But yeah, decent flick, could've been better. Needs to bring back the Bond fundamentals like Q, Moneypenny, the semi-quirky gadgets and the FUCKING JAMES BOND THEME. Where the hell is it??? I could understand Casino Royale because it was a series reboot, but the ending of that film had the Bond theme in its thematic flair. Did it appear in Quantum of Solace? Yes, at the end, with a tacked-on Gunbarrel sequence. Feh. First David Arnold abuses the theme, now he rarely uses it. Pick a happy medium, damn it.

Yeah, decent flick, needs more Bond elements, 8/10.

------

Yeah, I'm done for now. Eventually I'll get a review of Left 4 Dead made. People should get to know about it. And I haven't made a review in video form in about six months. It's long overdue.

Oh yeah, a friend of mine decided to invite me to his fancy podcast again. Check it out, I guess.

Episode 24 - Fight to the Death (11/23)

1 Comments

Bunch of PC games and 10 years of Half-Life

By TonicBH 1 Comments

Damn it. Why is it so hard to post images on here? But, anyway. Brief version, then:

Got Left 4 Dead. It's good. Fuck the haters. When's cs_office coming to L4D?

Found some old-ass PC games: Road Rash, Nascar Road Racing, Sports Car GT (these with some F1 Racing game and Need for Speed II were part of an EA racing game pack), Tom Landry Strategy Football, D/Generation, Ultimate Domain, Metal Marines, Jetfighter II, Crystal Caliburn, and an old-ass version of Microsoft Golf. What floors me is that every single game I mentioned has a Giant Bomb page for it. Damn, I thought this was obscure shit! I guess not. Should fire up DOSBox and see if they're any good.

Old ass PC games
Old ass PC games
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead









One more thing: I've made a playlist of great Half-Life singleplayer mods that came out over the years to commemorate Half-Life's tenth anniversary (today). Also, Valve made HL (the original) cost 98 CENTS on Steam. Seriously! You better be buying that for a dollar!
1 Comments

How I made $24 in profit (and possibly got sick)

By TonicBH 1 Comments

Alright, so right now Hollywood Video stores are selling all their PS2, Xbox and Gamecube games for $4 each. These only apply to Hollywood Video stores, and not ones with a Game Crazy next to it.

So I grabbed 9 games:

  • Call of Duty: Finest Hour (Xbox)
  • Manhunt 2 (PS2)
  • NBA Live 08 (PS2)
  • Lego Batman (PS2)
  • Driver: Parallel Lines (PS2)
  • Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (Xbox)
  • Spiderman 3 (PS2)
  • NBA 2K9 (PS2)
  • Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (PS2)

Now, I paid $35.91 for that whole bundle. I take all but Brothers in Arms to GameStop. I end up making $59.78 in credit. Most of the games were $2-6, the cheapest being Fantastic Four ($1.50) and the most expensive being Lego  Batman ($13). Now, GameStop also had a deal where you'd get 10% extra for trading 3 games, 20% for 4 games, and 30% for 5 games or more.

But overall, I made $24 in profit. I basically grabbed any game that was in the HWV, and I might try it again in another store in the future. I have enough to buy a new game and only have to give the clerk a quarter to buy it. Unless it's not a 360/PS3 game. Then I'd have credit left over.

I recommend doing this. For a guy like me who doesn't like paying the full kaboodle for new games these days, it's worth a shot. Although I should've found a guide and looked what trade-in values were for some of the games, then I could maximize profits. Hell, I've heard of stories where people got like, $100 or more for the games they grabbed at Hollywood. I usually don't do things like this often, but hey, to "hax0r" the system is fine by me.

Also, I was in the rain. A lot. More than I should've. And I was not wearing my heavy brown jacket, instead my lighter green jacket with no hood. I probably caught some sickness. Hopefully not pneumonia.
1 Comments

Robert Bowling: Careful what you say...

By TonicBH 2 Comments

At times, words can speak louder than actions. And what you say to a company that owns you can get you in trouble. As shown with fourzerotwo's somewhat unprofessional behavior in a recent blog of his:


Can you guys please stop interviewing this guy, talk to someone who actually works on the Dev Team at Treyarch and knows what the fuck they’re talking about. Not Senior Super Douche Noah Heller from Activision - who apparently has never played the game and doesn’t even work at the developer.


I understand that you don't like the guy. That's fine. I didn't like it when Heller decided to slam Ubisoft and Gearbox's Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway earlier this year say it was "inferior" to World at War. But dude, he works for the company that owns YOUR company, and saying stuff like that could get you FIRED. Or get you into the "public apology" mode to save your ass. This is like saying how fat and ugly your boss is while in the break room and he just waltzes in. Do you expect him to be chortling with you? No, usually they fire people that do that.


See, there's nothing wrong with saying this to a friend or something, but for a public blog? Not really the smartest of moves.


I hope you got that apology post prepared, or expect to get noticed on Kotaku as "former Infinity Ward community manager fired by Activision for remarks against employee" and looking for another CM job. Which there's probably not that many.

2 Comments