I’d like to take this opporutnity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and hope that everyone is having a joyous holiday. I’m stuck home alone with no gifts to speak of, but things are definitely very merry thanks to my Xbox 360 and lots of free time that will allow me to play some Mercenaries 2, Star Wars The Force Unleashed and Fallout 3. I may even put a little Left For Dead in the box, as well. And as a special gift to all of you, I will be posting a new Babe of the Week at some point before this day is through. Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
My achievement whoring has gotten me to play some pretty awful games, with Lost Via Domus being the latest such title. The only difference between this and something like, let’s say, Meet the Robinsons, is that I had a tad bit of interest in playing Lost because I’m a huge fan of the show. The fandom didn’t do much to make it an enjoyable experience, though. The controls were just too clunky and there just wasn’t that much to the game. I thought some of the characters actually looked quite good, but the gameplay was just lacking. I would say it needed more content, but that wouldn’t have helped because for most of the game I was hoping it would just end. Thankfully it did indeed end and it ended with me getting a full 1000/1000 achievement points. Sadly, I’ll probably never be able to say the same for the three games I’m playing right now for “fun” — Devil May Cry 4, GTA IV and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.
I’ve been busy both at work and at home, so the updates have been thin of late. Here’s a quick re-cap of what’s been going on. I’m honestly shocked that Atlanta was able to even up the series at 2-2 with my Boston Celtics. I knew coming in that they had some phenomenal young players, but I figured my boys would be able to turn it on in the playoffs after being in 2nd gear for the past two months and just roll them in four. While I’m still confident we can win this series, it looks like it’ll be a fight to get out of it and a mighty struggle to get out of the supposedly weak East.
The Philadelphia Flyers have been a welcome surprise, though I don’t want to get too confident because a 2-1 series lead doesn’t mean it’s a lock, particularly after they almost blew the 3-1 lead against the Caps. Still, it’s been awesome cheering them on and I’m hoping they can continue to play great and make it to the Eastern Conference Finals against Malkin, Crosby & the Pens (assuming they continue to dominate their series).
On a more personal note, I’ve been experienced what I’ve self-diagnosed as kidney pains. It might just my back muscles, but the signs and symptoms point more to the kidneys. I have a doctor’s appointment today, so I’ll find out more later this afternoon. Shit hurts, though, and really makes it hard to concentrate.
Luckily, amid the kidney pains that started Saturday afternoon after downing 12 diet Pepsi’s in 10 minutes and the struggles of the C’s and the stress of watching the Flyers get big leads, blow the leads, then either win or lose at the end, it was really nice to be able to release some stress killing random people in GTA IV. God, I love this game and this series.
I’ve only played a couple of hours of the single player (going through some really boring parts) and had a lot of fun playing with other 2K guys online multiplayer, but I can see why it’s gotten all the 10s. There’s just so much good too it. So much that you can forgive all the flaws such as the horrid animations, sloppy camera angles, god-awful AI, fucked up targeting issues, etc, etc. It is easily the most-flawed “best. game. ever” that I’ve yet played. I could probably write an IGN-esque 25,000 word review just bitching about the game. Then again, I could write as many praising the hell out of it. In the end, I’m sure the good will mightily outweigh the bad and I’ll love this as much as the previous games in the series and quite possibly more.
It’s just about 4AM and I just got done with a marathon gaming session with Rainbow Six Vegas 2 that started after work at around 7PM last night. After finishing up the single player story — albeit just on casual so far — I did some terrorist hunt missions before joining up with my boys Abe & Tim to do the shit co-op. I had so much fun, despite the fact that the re-spawn points are laughably atrocious and the cheating AI that often will be able to take several up close shotgun blasts to the head makes you wanna find and castrate the developers. Now, I must get a few hours of sleep in before it’s time to work.
I haven’t even played it online yet, where it’s supposed to be even better, but I’m already kindergarten in love with Rainbow Six Vegas 2. I know I’m a little late since it was in the first RSV, but I can’t get over just how bomb the cover system is in the game. I’m god awful at this point and that’s what has scared me from getting online with it since I’ve been dying a plenty on the casual difficulty level. I’ll eventually get online at some point this week and will undoubtedly take a beating. At least it’ll be fun doing so and I will continue to level up my character in the process. It just sucks that I only could get an hour in before I had to head in to work…maybe I can just do my hour lunch at some so I can try and finish the Nevada Desert level. Anyway, it’s a great game that you all should pick up. And if you already have it, send me friend request on Live and kill me some online (or help me kill some terrorists).
Lost Odyssey’s Treasure Trove achievement will now live in infamy much like Call of Duty 4’s Mile High Club. Even my OCD that’s the root of my achievement whoreness won’t keep me going back to try and find every single treasure in Lost Odyssey, at least for now. I’ve gone through every single nook and cranny in every single town, dungeon and underwater areas twice over the past two days and nothing to show for it. I may try again at some point, just as a might give Mile High Club another shot on CoD4, but for now the discs are going back to GameFly. It’s an awesome game, though.
My boy Abe showed me this at work last week and it just floored me. I suggest you watch it and then check out the rest of the series. This shit is pro.
Take away my college and pro football and my weekends tend to turn into gaming marathons. Not only did I finish getting the 1000/1000 for Mass Effect yesterday, but I also finished off both Clive Barker’s Jericho and Bioshock today. For Bioshock it was only the last three that I wasn’t able to get during my first play through — the weapons, Cohen’s room and all the diaries. I had written about it previously, but I came very close to getting all my first play through without using a guide.
I just missed 1 diary, 1 weapon upgrade and the achievement for getting into Cohen’s room (I killed him too early and the jack ass didn’t have his key on him even though he somehow got into the locked room later….not to mention I had enough weaponry on me to knock down his wooden door) . What sucked was that the diary was in Ryan’s office that I couldn’t go back to and the weapon upgrade was in Cohen’s room, so I pretty much had to play the entire game over again and find every single diary and weapon upgrade for a second time. Pain the the ass, it was, but I finally finished it off. Sorry for the Yoda speak, I’m not sure why I phrased it like that.
The Clive Barker game was obviously much simpler than both. I was able to get the majority of it in my first play through on the hard difficulty level and then finished off the weapon achievements with the level select. The game itself wasn’t all that bad, either. I thought the story was interesting and I also liked the character & weapon variety. The big problem with it is that it’s just way too linear and over too quickly. It is a PERFECT rental and I enjoyed my two days with it, but if I would’ve forked over full price, I would’ve been sorely disappointed.
It took me 60+ hours, but I’ve FINALLY gotten 1000/1000 Xbox Live achievement points in Mass Effect. I’ve played a ton of stinkers for quick 1000s, but this one was most definitely earned and makes up for many of the easy ones. And while I have many issues with the game, it’s definitely one of my top two or three games on the system. Bioshock and Call of Duty 4 are right up there with it, but the 2nd half of Bioshock was a letdown for me and the fact that I wasn’t able to complete Mile High Club on Veteran in CoD4 really left a bad taste in my mouth. Because of that, Mass Effect might just be my current fave for the system despite the many flaws (weak boss battles, loading……etc.).
I gave the infamous “towel trick” a try to see if I could get the 360 to last me the weekend, but it failed miserably. It did technically work, but it only made it a very insignificant three minutes before the Xbox 360 crapped out on me again and gave me the RRoD. I’m trying it one more time, but methinks the system be fucked like a child molester in prison.
I knew it was just a matter of time, but why did it have to happen very early Saturday morning when I was ready to get the final 145 GS from Mass Effect on Xbox 360? What happened, you ask? Well, the dreaded Red Ring of Death. Now I’m facing a full weekend without college football, NFL football and Xbox 360. It appears that my only option is to finish off my bottle of Jameson and maybe play some Wii. Damn you Microsoft!
The fact that you can get a lesbian love triangle going in Mass Effect is without a doubt one of the coolest Easter Eggs you can find in any video game. It’s as if the developers had me in mind when they figured they’d allow this to happen in their game. I’m kind of shocked that there hasn’t been some retarded backlash against this. Anyway, I’m at 780/1000 with this game and will have to beat it at least two more times to get the full 1000. I feel the need to complete this just to make up for all the cupcake 1000s I’ve gotten over the past six months.
Speaking of retarded, I thought it was stupid that the old chick on Big Brother 9 last week that was flipping out over the crazy dude for his politically incorrectness in referring to kids with autism as retards. I completely agree that it was in poor taste, as I’d rather use the word to describe people that do stupid things rather than to describe someone with a mental handicap, but at least this guy spends his life helping these kids with special needs.
What’s more important, that he avoids the use of the word “retard” or the fact that he’s spending each and every day of his life helping these children out (at least when he’s not on BB9)? I think actions speak louder than words and unless this woman is also spending her life helping out these kids, which she doesn’t, then she should have no say in the matter. His helping these kids are doing way more good than her defending them against his ignorant speech.
I’m not even exaggerating one bit, but the feeling of euphoria I felt when I dropped off the Gamefly envelope with X-Men: The Official Game in it was not on the same level as when the Patriots fell to 18-1 but it was damn close. Trying to get the 1000/1000 has been excruciatingly painful and has taken me two months to do despite playing maybe 6-8 actual hours of playing the game. I hate it more than any other game I’ve played in my life and it was awfully difficult to stop myself from ritualistically burning the CD after I finally completed it. If it wasn’t a Gamefly rental and something I actually owned, you’d surely be watching a Youtube video of my lighting that pile on fire. I’m beyond thrilled that I’m finally finished with it!
Avatar: TLA: TBE is without a doubt the best achievement whore game that’s ever been created. I just got 5 out of 5 achievements and 1000 gamer points in just a couple of minutes. I adore this game like no other. My happiness has been short-lived, however, as after getting the 1000 in Avatar, I plopped in X-Men, beat one Wolverine level, then died a few times deep in some Ice dude level that kept making me start from the very beginning and gave up after seven minutes. I hate that damn X-Men game more than I hate Bin Laden.
I rented X-Men: The Official Game from Gamefly.com because I’m a complete achievement whore and it was supposed to be an “easy 1000″. The decision to rent and play this game has been one of the biggest fuck ups in my entire life. I’m not even joking. While my life has been paved with mistakes, such as my felony conviction and every time I shove food down my throat like a pig, none have made me regret my actions even half as much as I feel for renting this game.
It’s god awful. A big steaming pile of shit. It’s one of the worst games I’ve played. Ever. And this is coming from someone who reviewed more than 400 games for the PS & PS2 while at IGN.com and has been playing games on pretty much every platform since the Atari 2600. Trying to force my way through this game to get the 1000 achievement points is the most excruciating challenge I’ve yet faced. Taking a hammer to my testicles while someone’s shoving a German pick axe up my ass while my head is submerged in bear feces would be a significantly more enjoyable experience than playing this piece of crap.
I went to Best Buy yesterday looking to get a new TV stand that better fits my 42″ LCD HDTV. However, when we got there, the annoying guy at the front who typically says his hello after you’ve already walked past him mentioned that they just got a big shipment of Wii’s in stock, so I decided to pick up one of those instead.
It’s such a cute little system. I really wish the 360 and PS3 were this compact. Sadly, all I have so far is the Wii Sports that came with it because I didn’t have enough available funds. That will be changing shortly, however, as I got a $100 gift card from work for Amazon.com and I used it to order Super Mario Galaxy, HD cables, another Wii-mote with the Wii Play games. Come December the 27th, I’ll be able to enjoy the jizz-inducing splendor that is Super Mario Galaxy. I can’t wait!
I never shared this before, but noticed it in some random folder and thought it’d be cool to post. It’s a screen grab of me from my most recently released title, All Pro Football 2K8 for Xbox 360 & PS3.
I just have to find out if that includes guys who play the drums in Rock Band. Either way, I just can’t get enough of it. I just had a protein shake for lunch so instead of just wandering around the mall on my break, I opted to head home and get in some drumming action in Rock Band.
I’m still kind of shitty — average 70% to 80% on Easy — but am noticing some improvement in areas, such as the use of the foot pedal and certain drum combinations. I still have problems with really quick changes and fast ares, but when there’s a part where I really “feel” the beat and get in a groove, it’s dick-tingling awesome. I had this 76 note streak on a song that made me feel like I was playing the drums for real and it got me so worked up I was ready to go down on myself.
I wanted to buy myself a Wii or Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360) for Christmas, but since neither of those were in stock anywhere I went ahead and picked up Rock Band. It’s awesome. Such an amazing game to play with friends. I just wish that the guitar, drums and microphone were all wireless because it’s such a clunky mess hooking everything up or putting it away. The game’s interface is also a bit of a pain in the ass and poorly-designed. But you’ll get over it and might not even notice unless you’re an anal game designer like myself.
