- SteveTwo
- Level: 33 (76%)
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- Member since: Jul 23, 2003
- Last online: 12/15/09 6:18 am PT
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The Laughing Blog
What happened to diaries? They turned into Blogs. And became public. What a world we live in!
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27Aug 09
After a nice paycheck I was able to get the new monitor. LG 22" 2ms response, 1680x1050 true 16:10 some crazy level of dynamic contrast (already turned that off though). It's a sweet looking monitor before you even turn it on, and the colors and response are super-crisp. Not a hint of ghosting, and it's the perfect size for how far I sit from my monitor. Very nice, very very nice.
The new computer now feels REALLY new!
Edit: Got the monitor at BestBuy since I wasn't sure if it was exactly what I wanted. Ended up being a price change before the 14 days were up, and got a LG 23" true HD 16:9 1920x1080 w/ extra HDMI input for $2 more. Even the guy at the customer service desk thought it was a nice find on the upgrade. I wish these monitors had better black level, but I think I just need to wait for LED monitors to get thier response time down to 2ms. Looking forward to that!
- Posted Aug 27, 2009 3:43 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 0 Comments
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27Aug 09
The parts from NewEgg took less than 24 hours to show up. All the assembly and tweaking took about 48 hours. Since then this thing has been rocking non-stop.
The realtime overclocking on the P6T was not overhyped. My research really paid off, this rig is sweet, and hasn't hardlocked even once. Plus, I have the Windows7 upgrade coupon, so come October, I'll get a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate for the cost of shipping.
Easily the best thing about this little godling is that it's at the base of its performance. More memory, better cooling, second video card, upgraded processor, all these things can be done later to make significant gains.
Bring on the games!
- Posted Aug 27, 2009 3:38 pm PT
- Category: Computers
- 0 Comments
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12Aug 09
I'm finally getting a new computer. It can't be said I didn't max out what you can do with the P4 era computer. Radeon x850 XT Plat, I think I will miss you most of all. You were truly the best of your era! (or on par with the best, even nvidia peeps give respect to the x850XtPlat)
NewEgg has the order, confirmation recieved, shipping out tomorrow, be here Friday morning.
Processor is a i7-920 with plans to overclock to 3+ghz. 6gig Corsair Dominator 1600 mem.
Mobo is Asus P6T SE. A great mobo with layout that allows for two double-size video cards in sli/crossfire and still have space for a pci-e *and* a pci card. (Creative X-Fi, you are coming with me!) Great for overclocking, well reviewed.
Cougar 1000 AMD certified powersupply. Not to be compared with the lower power models, this is a completely different psu internally and is very good for gaming if it's not DOA. Always go NewEgg just in case.
XFX Radeon 4890 1gig version. At my current resolution the 2gig model is overkill, this will last till I can crossfire one on the cheap, or upgrade when the 5000 series comes out. I'm sticking with Radeon for now, the product line has been really good to me.
And Vista Ultimate 64bit. Because it comes with a coupon from Microsoft for a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate when it comes out. And Vista Ultimate costs ALOT less than 7 Ultimate, even though the other versions of 7 are cheaper than thier Vista counterparts. Moral of the story, even if you already have Vista Ultimate, it would be cheaper to buy another copy and get the free full upgrade coupon for 7 Ultimate, than to buy 7 Ultimate when it comes out. I think NewEgg also packs in a copy of Windows7RC soI can get started right away!
I already have a 1tb sata drive I got a month or so ago, and a Antec 900 to put it all in. New monitor and another 6gig of memory in a couple months. :-D Oh yeah!
- Posted Aug 12, 2009 6:04 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 2 Comments
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26Aug 08
Back when Persona 3 first came out I grabbed a copy. But as fate would have it, it turned out to be one of only two games I've ever purchased and then never played. Like, never ever played. Just decided one day to give some money to the game developer kinda crazy stuff. So it's been sitting there for quite some time. (The other title was Battlion Wars on the Wii, btw.)
My attention returned to Persona again when I read a snippet about the new trend to take PS2 JRPGs, edit them to the fans tastes, then re-release the title through the internet. The first one of these 'enhanced' JRPGs I came across was 'Persona 3 FES UNDUB/REMIX v1.01'. Even though I only owned the original version I figured it was close enough and downloaded the iso, transfered it to the PS2 HD and I was good to go.
What the editor of the title did was take the US release version, that being the latest release with what would concievably be the newest version of the internal code. Using some homebrew tools they are able to seperate out the media resources, and replace them as they see fit. What they did for Persona 3 was to replace all the US voice acting with the original high quality japanese voice acting taken from the jp version of the title. They then extracted the movies from the jp version and had a pro subbing group do some high quality hardsubs on the videos, then re-encoded them and fed that into the edited version. Then, just for fun, they took a bunch of the original music tracks and replaced them with remixed versions of the music from a remix soundtrack and put those in. What you end up with is what most JRPG players have always been wanting. It's a great experience playing this version. I tossed in the original Persona 3 and really cringed at the US voice work. The remixed music tracks actually do alot to give the game a more modern feel and great atmosphere. And as luck would have it, the game's graphics are pretty good, and some fooling with my TVs settings even manage to get a respectable aspect ration when stretched just so on a widescreen TV.
Looking at what other UNDUBs were out there I also came across XenosagaIII, complete with un-edited FMVs that were in the original release but cut for the US. Since I never finished XenoIII, and the saves are compatible, I thought I would check that one out next and finally finish that trilogy.
The PS2 is still fun to play with. It's an impressive console for all it has done over the years.
- Posted Aug 26, 2008 3:41 pm PT
- Category: Technology
- 1 Comment
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14Aug 08
I'm playing the new Bionic Commando remake and loving it. It's hard, just like the original, but once you get the hang of it. You know, get into the swing of things. It's a great experience!
And I noticed my current GS rank is 'Bionic Commando' as well, which just seems appropriate!
- Posted Aug 14, 2008 2:00 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 0 Comments
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30Jul 08
The following is satire, I think it's satire atleast. No, I don't pirate.
From some random rant aimed at a random admited pirate, I saw this on GS today: "are you happy now that you taking food from someones table"
I would have said:
Yes! I am soooo happy! As a matter of fact, that's the only way I can get off anymore. I spend all day pirating software knowing it is actually removing food from forks en-route to mouths and when the day is done I am able to have sexual relations with my many wives. It is like candy to me, sweet sweet candy.
Once upon a time PC games came on floppy disks and games were expensive. Then CDs came along and the game developers said "Yay!" for there would be no more pirating and they could lower the cost of thier games. But the day did come when most all games came on cd and yet the prices stayed the same!
Later on, as people started to pirate cds, the game companies were all worried because the profits that had been increasing since the media switch were now showing the same pattern as before. But they couldn't raise the prices again, atleast not too much, so what they did was enact the Omega Gaming Sattelite Network.
The OGSN replaces all media by using lasers instead to send games to your home. By simply burning a hole in the roof of your domicile these OGSN lasers use incredible amouts of power to etch the binary code directly onto your eyeball! This, of course, blinds you. Plus, it just started raining and your laser pocked roof is leaking.
The end result is that games become so cheap, we actually give them away to other countries we don't like.- Posted Jul 30, 2008 1:30 am PT
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1Jan 08
Wow, what a year for gaming. I ended up having a crazy schedule this year, I didn't get to go out much or do much with friends because of my work schedule, but every night from midnight until around 4am or 5am I had all to myself for gaming goodness. (And not too much else to do!)
And there was alot of goodness! My prediction that this year would be a good one was spot on. And when the year came to a close, when I was looking at some leftover holiday money and wondering what to do with it, I found I had pretty much all the greatness I could have gotten! I'm still holding off on a PS3 until much later this year, so I don't have any games from that platform represented, but the Wii/PS2/360/DS camp covered the majority of the excellence this year anyhows. I also completed a record number of games I started, some of them even getting multiple full playthroughs like Mass Effect.
This year should be another very interesting one. Not the gold standard year we just had, but it should be good. The world economy has really woken up to video games, and the massive success of games like Halo 3, WoW and Mario Galaxies means that there are more people playing than ever. There is bound to be some real stinkers this year as games are pushed out to cash in or just don't meet the expectations of thier developers, which is normal for any year but this year I think there will be alot more of it. More people playing means more people making and there is an evolution to these things. With a year like 2007 behind us, 2008 is bound to be alot more hit and miss, but what games end up really shinning through will be something trully special.
2008 holds a new job and a new schedule for me. I should be able to catch most of the Gamespot live shows before they end, so it's nice to see a few familiar people in the chat rooms from a year ago. I still have time to game, but this year I'll be sharing this time with other normal-evening type activities. I won't be able to play super-obsessively for 4+ hours every night, but I'll still be playing every day and I'm sure I'll still get a ton of gaming in before I fall asleep at night. Plus, weekends actually have a meaning for me this year, so those are opportunities to really dive into titles like MassEffect and other games that seems to be better when you can devote large chunks of time to them.
This looks like a good year coming up all around. Wishing everyone the best for 2008!
- Posted Jan 1, 2008 11:50 am PT
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2Jan 07Happy New Year Eveyone!
I think this is going to be a good year for gaming. Especially if you have a 360. And if you don't have a 360, they are supposed to get cheaper this year, so you can get yer'self one! It's a good system, and makes an excellent stand for my PS2. Getcha a black faceplate for the 360 and they just blend together. :-D
Happy New Year!- Posted Jan 2, 2007 6:51 pm PT
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- 1 Comment
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3Dec 06The last week was spent sick, lousy stinkin' germs. But luckily I had Viva Pinata, which it turns out is pretty awsome medicine. I wasn't quite able to keep up with Gears of War or Guitar Hero 2's hard mode in my medicated condition, but wouldn't you know that the pacing of Viva Pinata was just PERFECT!
I played the game for a few days straight and unlocked all but the last achievement, which you get for playing 50 hours of in-game time. I was alittle suprised I didn't get that one, but 50 hours is fairly lengthy. Other than that, I did it all. Once I figured out the depth and width of the game, so to speak, I started leveling up and getting chocolate coins like crazy. At one point I remember going up about 15 levels in just a couple minutes! Catalyzing plants is definately the way to go. And what's up with that trader's brand of 'special' fertilizer. He says there's a funny story behind it that he'll tell me later. I'm not sure this is a story I want to hear! Or one he should be repeating!
Now that I'm feeling better I was drawn back to Gears of War like a Mothdrop to a flame. I mean a moth. I said moth! Anyways, the time away did me some good and jumped back in with both boots covered with blood and locust gray-matter. I finished up the single player mode on Hardcore (without having played Casual) and it was a really nice satisfying run. After the credits I kept up the pace and hosted a multiplayer game, by 4am we had some great action going with 2 full teams and I was starting to learn my way around the levels. The multiplayer on this game is really incredible. I could have been playing a lan game for all I knew, and the silky-smooth conditions were share by the other players. For my first real multiplayer experience with Gears it couldn't have gone better. Another run through the different maps and I'll be ready to get my ass handed to me in the ranked matches for sure.
Guitar Hero continues as always, probably being the #1 thing played on the PS2. After almost completing GH2 on Hard mode (Psychobilly Freakout and Carry Me Home will not let me even get past their start!) I went back to GH1 since I had never actually played Hard mode on that one. Wow. Talk about easy! The Hard mode in GH1 is like the medium mode in GH1 or GH2, a combination of the main, rythm and bass guitars are used to created a good stream of music to play. The hard mode in GH2 is only the lead guitar with a note-by-note reproduction. The difference in difficulty is rather astounding. After getting pretty much all 3 stars on GH2 Hard, with a smattering of 4s and some 5s in the bonus tunes, I returned to GH1 Hard and started getting 4s and 5s on pretty much every song. So my new plan is to take a short break from grinding GH2, play all the GH1 songs on hard, and hopefully my hands will have limbered and learned enough to get me past the 7th set in GH2!
I still have multiple people who want to teach me real guitar, I still haven't taken any of them up on it. I really should do that, some of these folks actually get paid to teach normally so it's pretty nice of them to offer lessons for free. Hmmm...
Other than that; .hack//GU:Rebirth, Final Fantasy XII, Godfather... what else? Quite a few games are currently in 'orphan' status, waiting patiently for me to pick them up and finish completing them. Thankfully the season for new game releases has mostly passed until probably around March of next year, so I should have plenty of time to finish up. Guitar Hero may also soon be ready for a 6 month or so hibernation, last time I did it for GH1 it resulted in my increased ability when I returned, so maybe after this one I'll be ready for Expert mode? Who can say! The 360's upcoming version of GH with downloadble songs might prolong the expereince, whenever it actually arrives.
And on the hardware front:
PS3, didn't get one. Tried a bunch!
- Our Costco had 8 on launch day, but then they had to send them back since they were only to be sold through the website. Scratch that opportunity with a friend who worked there.
- We had a Circuit City open the day before launch day, they said they had 20 units to the people lined up outside. When morning came, they 'mysteriously' had 8. :-P
- Lastly, Costco.com was not ready for the web traffic it seemed! Even though I was one of the first people to get the PS3 in my online shopping cart, I was never able to complete my order due to thier server's repeated crashing. I tried for quite a few hours until the item expired in my cart.
Wii, also didn't get one. But I didn't try that hard. Sorta worn from the PS3 ordeal I just decided to wait till I could get my hands on one through my local game shop. It's looking like I should have it early this week. Excellent!
One last thing, I'm gonna say it's hardware related. I managed to land a un-opened FireBat action figure from the StarCraft series off eBay for $2.99! This thing is even more awsome than it looked back when I didn't buy one from Blizzard's website! It's big, it's heavy, it's been hand painted (atleast the highlights) and just oozes quality. It's got tons of articulation, and seems likely it would break anything it was thrown at rather than the reverse. This is the type of heavy toy that I miss from being a kid and I've been fooling with it non-stop, talk about happy!
And with that I'm off. Till next time, or next chat!- Posted Dec 3, 2006 4:59 pm PT
- Category: General
- 1 Comment
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24Sep 06There have been a bunch of new games lately! After picking up a copy of Xenosaga3, obtaining the correct save files so I could finish Xenosaga2 and getting a copy of LegoStarWarsII/360, I figured I had more gaming than I could chew for the moment. And then another copy of TC:GRAW showed up through GameFly... Hrmm...
Why did I get a game through GameFly when I just got a couple new ones? I'm not actually that stupid, this game showed up a week late because the first copy got lost in the mail. Then a week after that, the original lost copy they sent out showed up on my doorstep, unopened! So, being the decent sort, I emailed GameFly, told them it showed up and mailed it back. I guess GameFly thought I was cool or something because they sent me the next game in my list, without even telling me! And it was Enchanted Arms! Yay. Crap, I didn't even remember putting that on my list, and I had pretty much decided I was going to pass on that one.
But hey! Free game right! How can you not put in a free game.
So I played it, and didn't like it. I thought it was trying to be a dumbed down version of something like FF:Tactics and that was really ticking me off, because I really dislike games that take the industry backwards. But after finding the option to use the FAR superior japanese voice track I decided to stick with the game alittle more, if only for the sake of my gamerscore and the 1000point deficit that occured as soon as it touched my 360. (MS, you bastards, like we didn't notice.)
After pushing through the admitted shallow start that most all JRPGs share I started to realize that the meat of the game wasn't quite the dumbed down tactics game I saw at first. Rather, they took the standard my-side, your-side, turn-taking JRPG standard battle system and added positioning and attack ranges and things of that nature. Basically they took the standard FFVII type combat and added some levels to it with the grid system. Suddenly the game went from annoying to fairly interesting! After that I discovered the 'auto' battle option, which lets a really good AI control your teams battle, along with a 'fast forward' option to increase the speed. This turned the excessive random encounters into brief combat cutscenes that happen to get me money and exp. Something interesting or difficult pops up and I can take the reigns, but the tedium is pretty much gone. Even leveling up to meet specific goals or needs of money and materials is streamlined by this and it rewards investing in the skills for the main characters.
I think when I am done I'll try writing another review, this time for Enchanted Arms. If it ends up not being completely pedestrian I'll be sure to put it up.- Posted Sep 24, 2006 5:33 pm PT
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17Aug 06
Yesterday I spent a good chunk of time on my Dead Rising review while interspersing that with some PGR3 action. The review came out okay, but it seemed way too generic. Once upon I time I did so much writing I even had a few short stories published, but it's been a whole bunch of years in the real-world since then and my skills are definately not-sharp! It needs some rewording, some editing, alittle something special. I'll hold off on posting it for another day or so, we'll see if the full-time grind has dulled my edge or not.
Having mentioned PGR3 I'd like to say it's a new aquisition, recently purchased when the price plummeted at GameStop. This is the way I like to pick up 'old' 360 games, really cheap. It seems that BestBuy is now engaging in some price slashing of its own with a bunch of titles dropping to $30 price tag. I think I'll grab TombRaider:Legend for some good fluff until the next big thing comes along, probably Saint's Row or Xenosaga3. Of course, Xenosaga3 would really mean I should finish Xenosaga2, which means re-playing the game due to memory card death... Probably not gonna happen right now.
- Posted Aug 17, 2006 7:42 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 0 Comments
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15Aug 06
Yesterday was a day off from gaming. As rare in my life as a pegasus, it does happen from time to time. Dead Rising is the culprit in the best possible way.
After a day long gaming session with Dead Rising I completed it. At least I thought I did, getting a good ending means there is more game to go, quite a bit more. Dopey from lack of sleep and totally hooked on the game I pushed through to completion, received the True Ending, and peered behind the curtains to discover it had gotten light out. Not just a little glow on the horizon, morning had come as Frank fought his way out of the Mall From Hell and it just felt right. What a great experience!
So as I said, yesterday I took a day off from gaming. My gaming itch had been scratched so satisfyingly that I thought I'd do other things (like this blog) and just enjoy the glow. Dead Rising isn't perfect, but it has a quality to it that is something special. Not just the killing of tons of zombies, something else, an aspect that the old video games had that would hook you in even if the characters on the screen were only made up of a handful of pixels and the sounds were mostly beeps and boops.
Dead Rising is a great game, I'm writing my first review on it now. I can already say it scored a 8.7, unless I change something. The way they figure out the ratings for reviewers here on GameSpot it pretty cool. I'll probably have to go back at some point and lower some of my one-shot score reviews by a half-point here or a point there to keep them in scale with the written.
- Posted Aug 15, 2006 4:21 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 0 Comments
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14Aug 06
It's been awhile since I've added more of my backcatalog to the games section here on GameSpot, but I've been pretty good about adding new games as I get them. After spending a good deal of time with World of Warcraft, (and by a good deal of time I mean the Friends and Family Alpha, the closed and open Beta and the first year of Retail) I was ready to stop eating the same crackers over and over and spread my interests a bit. With the expected delay of the PS3 becoming official, I decided to get a XBox360 in April of this year.
What has ensued is a summer of more hardcore than usual gaming by far as I enjoyed some of the best new games to come out (I purchased Oblivion to go with my 360), while discovering some older XBox titles for the first time thanks to the BackwardsCompatibility program. Why for the first time? I didn't like the original XBox, I wasn't a fanboy of Nintendo or Sony, and I wasn't a real Microsoft hater, I just didn't like the console. So I never got to experience Splinter Cell or Ninja Gaiden or other great games that I played on the PS2 or GameCube but had better graphics on the XBox. The 360 has changed all that. I truly think it's a great console, a worthy competitor for the crown.
While I still plan on getting a PS3 at some point and a Wii as well, the 360 has given me a great summer of games new and old and I'd like to recognize that by doing some reviews. I haven't had a chance or reason to write anything in a really long time, it'll be good for the brain.
- Posted Aug 14, 2006 10:20 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 4 Comments
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