- TonicBH
- Level: 35 (33%)
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- Member since: Nov 14, 2004
- Last online: 12/09/09 5:30 pm PT
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Tonic's Gaming Journal
One of the four other places I write game-related stuff at. I once had a website but it has since been taken down. So read my reviews and ramblings here and in two other places: Giant Bomb, and GameTrailers.
Hope you enjoy the ramblings. Leave comments! Constructive criticism welcome.
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11Sep 09
I went to PAX this year. It was pretty sweet. I babble on for 40 minutes about it. Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four are all available on YouTube.
Hope you guys enjoy it.
- Posted Sep 11, 2009 6:25 am PT
- Category: Games
- 0 Comments
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16Apr 09
I'm sorry, GS users who read my stuff. I noticed that I haven't really written much here. Again, I'm sorry. Would you take these flowers? How about these cookies?
Anyway, I've been playing games as usual. I beat Far Cry 2, which had a somewhat disappointing ending. Hell, the whole ending portion was drastically different than the two parts prior, where it's all linear-based except how you get there is up to you (a dedication to the first game, perhaps?). Really the problem I had with it was that while it had some really good atmosphere in its environment and locale, the gameplay wrapped around that location is repetitive and boring. Go here and kill this guy/destroy this object/steal this item. There are a few twist missions where you must threaten somebody to do something, but it only happens 2-3 times in the course of the game.
Oh, and I finally welcome my new guitar hero overlords:
I got this at $10. The Guitar Controller was free with purchase (GH:A was one of the few games that was under that offer). I just beat the game on Easy. I almost got 100% in Dream Police on Medium. But then I got fumbled in a middle segment.
I'm kinda disappointed at the Aerosmith track selection. Where's Dude Looks Like a Lady? Where's Jaded? Where's Janie's Got a Gun? Where's I Don't Want to Miss a Thing, arguably one of their most popular songs? Ah well, it's got Dream On and Rag Doll, so it's not a total loss.
Now I should invest in GH2 or RB or one of those other games so I can be fully assimilated into the music rhythm genre.
- Posted Apr 16, 2009 3:41 pm PT
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7Feb 09
So recently I completed Crackdown. I felt a little underwhelmed when I finished. It was the same as the first two parts when I killed the last remaining gang members. I got a "You saved this portion of the city" message, then the big spoiler comes up (The Agency pretty much created the gangs in question to give Pacific City some degree of chaos, and it's all the equivalent of some training exercise). Not even a cut to the credits, or something real special. Just... ends like that. At least in other free-roaming action games like GTA it gives a satisfying conclusion and a credit roll. Crackdown just ends with a pop and a whimper.
The biggest problem I have is that it's very, very repetitious. Basically you had to knock down every leader of a gang, then head straight to the head honcho, and repeat for the next two areas. There are no variant missions outside of the rooftop and road races that permeate the world, and the hidden/agility orb hunt, which is like GTA's hidden packages but amplified a pinch. But it's the same way from when you start, to when you finish. There's not even a chance to friend certain factions and do missions for them, a la Mercenaries.
The upgrade mechanic is a nice touch, even though you'll upgrade your agility faster than everything else, making driving something you only do to keep your stats consistent. I like how as I progressed, my character was slow, very inaccurate with weapons, and had to make a few roundhouse kicks before they could kill someone. By the end, my only problem was swarms of gangs and the gang member with larger HP than the others. Oh, and having to climb my ass all the way up through Wang's tower, only to die and have to re-climb the area three times. Thankfully that was only a Time Trial. But either way.
I know people will hound me for saying this, but this needed a more broader story than "There's gangs polluting the city, go kill them." It needed reason, explanation for my actions, further consequences outside of just sending me uberpowerful grunts if I killed enough of a certain faction.
I will say that doing crazy flips and acrobatic stunts were the greatest thing about Crackdown. Had those not been in there, the game would've been excessively dull and I never would've finished it. I'm done with the game, but I could always go back and try to do a few things like catch all 500 Agility Orbs (about 420 and counting), or finish all rooftop and road races I didn't go through the first time round. Or maybe get into some co-op action. I don't want to put the game down just yet. I feel that there's unfinished things to take care of.
Also, lower the damn "Gettin Busy content pack" price already. Two years later, it's still $10. You want me to pay about 80% of what I paid for the game for this content, of which half I can't use because you need to be in co-op to do it? No, Microsoft, I will not accept your offer.
- Posted Feb 7, 2009 3:36 pm PT
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7Jan 09After hearing the semi-painful news that Ziff Davis sold off 1UP.com to UGO and fired 30 people as a result, I felt kinda bummed. Not really saddened, I had grown accustomed to staff departures from game sites I loved. It was a way for me to think, "Hey, I could now get into this business." Sadly, after hearing this news and all the issues gaming editorial sites have (GameSpot recently fired a few of its staff members due to the economy, one of which had been with the site for a good 8 or so years), I decided not to pursue that career fully. Seems too flash-in-the-pan and already is a crowded market.
But anyway. People are grieving more towards Electronic Gaming Monthly's unexpected demise, but I cannot share those same feelings. The only issues of EGM I owned were from 2006-07, back when they thought it was cool to insult their audience. My friend Ryan (BlazeHedgehog) summed this up a few years back, and it applied to the T back when Dan "Shoe" Hsu was Editor-in-Chief. I heard that was toned down considerably when James "Milkman" Mielke became EIC, but I got sick of EGM after the February 2007 issue that I didn't even bother coming back. I know that I'm gonna stop by a nearby store and snag the unofficial "final issue" and see what I missed out on.
I associated more with the podcasts that 1UP.com had. I remember two years ago when I was a frequent listener to 1UP Yours. Back when it had the simple crew of Garnett Lee, Shane Bettenhausen, John Davison, and Luke Smith. Then Luke left to work at Bungie, and Mark MacDonald replaced him. Then HE left, and then the fourth chair was pretty much a revolving door of various 1UP editors like Shawn Elliott and Nick Suttner.
I also used to listen to GFW Radio, the podcast for the since-defunct magazine. As opposed to the somewhat bitter, near immature nature of 1UP Yours (which I liked, mind you), GFW Radio was more matured and yet, at the same time could be just as immature as its sister show. I didn't listen as often since I wasn't a PC games guy much anymore, but I still enjoyed it. It was interesting hearing Jeff Green and Darren Gladstone have interesting conversations with Sean Molloy and Shawn Elliott interjecting now and then, with an occasional peep (or 10 minute monologue) from Ryan Scott. Shawn ended up becoming my favorite games writer outside of the former GameSpot crew. On one podcast, he could be waxing philosophical about review scores, game design decisions, and other things. While later in that same podcast he could pretend to be "Whiskey Nerd" and talk about silly forum posts about marrying Sonic characters at some Sonic fan message board. It's a Jekyll-and-Hyde situation, except you loved the Hyde side as much as the Jekyll side. Now that he works at 2K Boston, I say if Shawn doesn't become prominent in the industry within five years, I'll be floored.
Sadly I never got into 1UP FM (or its predecessor EGM Live) or Retronauts. Retronauts put me off after their almost Japan-centric nature on some of their video episodes. As well as their unjust hatred for Donkey Kong Country. I don't care what you say, the second DKC was the best frigging game on the SNES, and one of the best 2D platformers I've played.
After hearing that one of the few staffers that successfully made the transition, Garnett Lee, wishes to continue "1UP Yours" despite Bettenhausen's departure and Andrew "Skip" Pfister's layoff, I feel a little hollow inside. If you wish to resume the podcast thing, sure, but don't call it "1UP Yours." You'll get too many unfavorable comparisons to the Yours of old. It's like listening to GameSpot's podcast "The HotSpot." Listen to a recent podcast, then go back and listen to one from 2006 or so when you still had Rich Gallup, Jeff Gerstmann, Alex Navarro and others on. It's so drastically different it's not funny. And you fired virtually everybody from GameVideos, pretty much canceling The 1UP Show. Again, making a new "1UP Show" will not at all have the same impact. Everybody that made that show great was given pink slips. You can't just hire a bunch of guys and try to remake the same magic, it's like replacing virtually all the cast of a TV show after you changed networks or something.
And I put the blame originally on UGO, thinking this was their doing, but after reading the NeoGAF thread about the transition (NOTE: 60+ page thread, either skip to the last ten pages or whip up a bowl of popcorn and endure the whole thing) that Ziff-Davis pretty much orchestrated the firings, the cancellation of EGM, among other things. That shows that ZD are real a****les for doing that.
I hope all the people who got laid off find new jobs soon. Even if it has to be them pulling a Giant Bomb and making a small site staffed by former 1UP and EGM staffers, I'd visit it.
To put a spin on something Garnett used to say: Weekend destroyed. And they are ghost.- Posted Jan 7, 2009 6:34 pm PT
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4Jan 09
Back on 12/29, I finished a video review of Left 4 Dead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCIWmocDYAA
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.- Posted Jan 4, 2009 7:05 am PT
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27Dec 08
I'll make this quick:
- Quantum of Solace (PS3)
- Dead Space (PS3)
- An Xbox 360 Pro Holiday pack with:
- The Kung Fu Panda/Lego Indiana Jones combo disc
- Pac-Man Championship Edition
- Catan
- Poker Smash
- A 360 Play and Charge kit
- An extra 360 controller (this, the charge kit and system came together, yay Costco?)
And some post-holiday snags off Steam:
- Ultimate Doom, Doom II and Master Levels for $1 each (Doom II and Master Levels were only available in a bundle). I never played the original Doom in the platform it originated on, only the ports on the SNES, Genesis 32X and GBA. So this is a great snag.
- Bejeweled Deluxe for $1 (Eh, it was $1, why the hell not?)
- Peggle Deluxe for $5 (Loved Extreme, wanted more of it. It's freaking Peggle, and it's addictive as hell.)
Happy belated holidays. Now to finish off the twenty-some games off my backlog! Whee!
- Posted Dec 27, 2008 2:16 am PT
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12Dec 08
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.
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?!Also, GameSpot bonus closing: Best of luck in your future endeavors, Don Francis, Aaron Thomas and Bethany Massamilla. You'll get jobs elsewhere, trust me. Just don't forget about the gamers who loved your work.
- Posted Dec 12, 2008 5:02 am PT
- Category: Games
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26Nov 08
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 **** 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 **** 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 ****ING 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! almost forgot!
A friend of mine decided to have me on his podcast of sorts. Twice. Well, three times but the last time was six months ago. Go listen to me stutter and talk games for a good hour plus.
Episode 23 - Goku has a Stick (11/16)
Episode 24 - Fight to the Death (11/23)- Posted Nov 26, 2008 2:00 am PT
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13Nov 08
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.- Posted Nov 13, 2008 8:06 am PT
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8Nov 08
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 **** 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.
- Posted Nov 8, 2008 1:31 pm PT
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28Oct 08
I understand it's coming out and it's being hyped to all hell. That's as much as I know of it.
I never played the first two Fallout games, and outside of Good Old Games there is no easy way to purchase the older titles. Although I did see a "Fallout collection" with the first two and Tactics. And it was in a Fry's Electronics. At $20. And I didn't buy it. Stupid stupid stupid.
Either way, I don't care for it because I've never played the first two, and it seems like Oblivion with guns. The Elder Scrolls series disinterested me because it looked so drawn out and boring after a while, and Fallout 3 doesn't seem to buck said trend.
So yeah, wait for the collection to never come out and get it at $40 in two years. Sounds about right.
- Posted Oct 28, 2008 9:43 am PT
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23Oct 08I'm now downloading the third game beta I've participated in: Resistance 2. I was first given a free code for SOCOM: Confrontation's beta. Solid, but not worth $60 in my opinion. Then I was invited to LittleBigPlanet's beta. Loved it except for the jumping physics. And now this.
And what timing, too: I'm currently playing through the first Resistance. We'll see how much has changed multiplayer-wise.- Posted Oct 23, 2008 5:10 pm PT
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11Oct 08
"Because of your commitment to our community, you've been selected to participate in the Call of Duty: World at War Xbox 360™ Multiplayer Beta*!"
Here's a problem: I don't have a 360 yet. Good job. Maybe that's my cue to get one. But I got GTA: San Andreas and Ratchet to finish! and 14 other games! Gyaaaaaargh, I hate the holiday season.
That and I was thinking of getting a GeForce 8800GT video card instead... But video cards dropped in price recently and it might hit $100 by 2009. 360s don't drop that fast.
What say you, internet? New 360 or GeForce 8800GT? Factor in my wishlist.
- Posted Oct 11, 2008 4:26 pm PT
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2Oct 08
I promise that this will try to avoid too much negativity. When I went to bed around 11PM (when the Japanese conference was pretty much fresh), and when I was awake around 7AM (when the US conference was about to start), I took everything Nintendo announced with salt grains. Even once saying to myself "Not paying $250 for this crap, I'll put that towards a 360 or new PC video card, thanks." So any negativity I post in these might be unwarranted. Now, Let'sdothis.
- Nintendo DSi
I already have a DS Lite that's collecting dust, thanks. And a PSP that does most of the media functions outside of the camera, and I got a camera phone that probably has better picture resolution. At least it taps into the media market the PSP was slowly dominating.
- SD Storage card solution, to prevent space issues
Okay. Hard drive (or similar) would have been a smarter move, but I guess it's a step in the right direction.
- Punch-Out!! for the Wii
I never finished Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, and this was a franchise I couldn't care less about. Good for those who are fans of the NES game or the SNES Super Punch-Out!!, I guess.
- The Conduit coming early next year
This game's becoming a sleeper hit. And it seems solid enough, all I ask is a solid game experience. Trying to rival 360/PS3 graphics is unneeded.
- Mad World's coming in March
Okay. Don't know much about the game except the art style and stylish kills.
- Sin & Punishment 2 announced
All I know about the first S&P was that it was a Treasure-made previously-Japan-only game for the N64 that came to the Wii VC sometime last year. And that people loved it. Again, those who were fans are probably pleased, but I'm not as enthused.
- Wii Music
Laughingstock. Can't believe this came from the mind of SHIGERU MIYAMOTO. Starting to think he's going a bit senile. If this gets any good reviews from anywhere that isn't a place like WhatTheyPlay, I'll be utterly floored. I'll also be floored if it sells well at all.
- Bunch of DS trainers, including a DS pedometer
Well... I paid $20 for a cheap pedometer that held me during the time I was in High School, I don't know why somebody would buy a peripheral for their DS to do the same thing...
- Club Nintendo
Cool, I guess? I have a MyNintendo account, this better be retroactive.
Yeah, feeling kinda... underwhelmed here. Perhaps if I played some of the games people at places like NeoGAF are going ga-ga for, I'd be screaming "MEGATON" as well. But I left this thinking the same way I came into it: "This is not affirming a purchase of the Wii for me." In fact, some of this makes me not want to touch the Wii unless I find it for $99 and no more.
Perhaps I'm wrong about all this.
- Posted Oct 2, 2008 2:13 pm PT
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9Sep 08
Medal of Honor Airborne for $10 and Ratchet: Going Commando to continue the series for $15. Awesome.
But I already have 19 games to finish, so I gotta get cracking. Eventually I will beat you senseless, Hitman: Blood Money!And having a way to use my PS3 controller on a PC will make playing the Tomb Raider games easier. Woo.
- Posted Sep 9, 2008 6:40 am PT
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5Sep 08So I realized something that I thought would've been abundantly clear when I played Warhawk last Saturday. That playing games with friends... 5 bazillion times better than soloing it with utter jackasses.
Case in point, I missed tonight's (technically last night as it's 1:30AM as I write this) ranked Warhawk match that my friends were doing. It was 9:30, I thought they were still playing, and I found out that everybody bolted. Had to check the clan page (and finally got my "join a clan" trophy) found out I was the only one online. Alright, whatever.
So I get into a Fallen Star server playing one of the c-lassic maps with Collection mode. My team full of Chernovians were utter dumbasses! Half of them were camping the base, and still don't get that multiple cores by one person equals multiple points for the team. Although I did what I thought was tough and nailed all four cores in one go (which netted me another trophy). We still lost, 100 to 30-something.
Then we go to a CTF match. Once again, team full of idiot Chernovians. Enemy team kept stealing our flag, we'd sit around like dummies as the opposing teams kept going all MGS on us and stealing the flag while we weren't looking.
The worst part is that I'd hop into a jeep, honk the horn as a cue to get any teammates to jump in and assist. Only for none of them to do so! There'd be dummies grabbing jeeps nearby me, grabbing Warhawks, standing around like utter idiots... Ugh.
This is what bothers me about console players. At least in games like TF2 you see some semblance of teamwork, in games like Warhawk, it's sometimes hard to see that aspect when almost everybody on your team is going lone wolf. I enjoy the game... with friends. With random players it's really hit or miss.
So in the PlayStation Store, there's a trailer for one of the most surprising releases coming out of the PSN.
Jeopardy!. They're making Jeopardy! for the PS3. I used to be a big game show nut (well, until everybody thought it'd be nice to spoil game elements as well as make flashy "Who wants to be a millionaire?" knockoff sets), so this was a surprise. Although I'm disappointed that there's no digital Alex Trebek. WTF, SOE? How hard is it to get him in a recording studio and speak several amounts of questions and responses?
Although personally I'm waiting for a Wheel of Fortune one. Although I expect not to see Pat Sajak. Again.
Speaking of Pat Sajak, why hasn't he peddled his game show casual games on other platforms? While PC is the king of quick flashy games, I bet Lucky Letters could work on PSN, XBLA or Wii. Wouldn't hurt them!
I have reached a stopping point. I have nearly 20 games to start and/or finish. I haven't touched any of them outside of Hitman: Blood Money. Plus with the upcoming 360 Price drop, and there being a good chunk of 360 games I want to play there... arghhh!
Hitman: Blood Money is undeniably the best Hitman game I've played yet. There's no major issues with spotty A.I. now! No occurrences of having enemies shooting at you for even taking a quick run or just sneezing on them! Plus it looks damn good on PC. Seriously, screw looking into the trilogy, you'll do just fine with Blood Money! You may not understand some things in the plot, but hey, like it matters!
Instead of a list, here's a convenient Giant Bomb list. I might need to crack open one of the games that I was gonna save for later due to its possible length (Tales, Fable, GTA:SA).
I think I need to start speeding up my process of getting myself into this games journalism business. There are people dropping out like flies (like 1UP Editor and former EIC for GFW Magazine Jeff Green going to EA), and there's gonna be people looking for new talent and fresh faces to keep it relevant.
But if that job ever flops for me and doesn't work out, I always got 2-3 backup plans. But none of them are "developing a game." Hell, half the people that leave game sites to go work at companies just work as community managers (Luke Smith, Bryan Intihar). The closest I've seen in terms of "breaking into the industry by journalism" is Greg Kasavin and Ryan Payton.
And if I ever was given an offer to join a game company, it better be more than going to their official forums to level complaints about lag and stupid things like "omgwtf juggernoob and martyrnoob ruin COD WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU INFINITY WARD".
Man, I feel sorry for fourzerotwo sometimes.
That's all I got. I need to go buy some more PS2 games! Because I feel the urge for more Ratchet and Jak. (But not the two together. Daxter and Clank? Now we're talking!)- Posted Sep 5, 2008 2:04 am PT
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2Sep 08
Why the hell is it that every time I add something to my games, you automatically start tracking it? I had to delete ones for three SNES games a while back, and when adding BC:R and Super Stardust HD to the wishlist, you tacked them on there.
I checked my settings and I have them not adding to ANYTHING unless I said so. So, wtf GameSpot?
- Posted Sep 2, 2008 6:15 am PT
- Category: Rant
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20Aug 08
I was, at one point, a member of Community Contributors. I just looked and realized I am no longer a member, despite I never left it. Or maybe I did, my memory is terrible these days.
I can understand, though. I did write a review about a week or two back, but didn't post it here. They must've thought I wasn't gonna contribute to GS anymore, and nixed me. Well, fine! I'll make my own community contribution union! With BLACKJACK! AND HOOKERS!
...actually, just give me the blackjack and hookers. I'm still on the "Not really wanting to support a corporate shill of a site that unjustly fired one of its long-time employees" side of the fence, but it's also because all the cool people that made GS interesting are gone. Just gone. All you have left are people that seem to be very unenthused at their job, and seem confused on what to do.
That's just me, though. I expect to see a little entertainment on this site, and it's the equivalent of coming back to your office after a long weekend only to find out everybody's been replaced. It's a cold, dark place. That's why I left for Giant Bomb, to see if I could rekindle some vague semblence of the GameSpot of old. But that's a bit far away.
It would also help if I had more than four people on my friends list there. And finding out who the fish is "Packfan104L4" and why he wants to be my friend.
- Posted Aug 20, 2008 10:17 am PT
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22Jul 08
So Jeff Gerstmann and Crew finally launched GiantBomb.com, a video game site that seems to mix things like Wikipedia, Mobygames and game sites like these all into one. It's like a Twix bar: Chocolate, caramel and cookie all into one. Although I loved the Cookies 'n' Cream kind more.
Anyway, what does that mean? I'm not using this, or 1UP, or GameTrailers as a place to post interesting stuff anymore. It's all going to Giant Bomb. Reviews, rants, everything. I might still post rants on the aforementioned sites if they only pertain to that group, such as 1UP still not understanding the concept of "community features", GT not having a WYSIWYG editor and being rife with retarded fanboys, or just GameSpot in general. Yes, I still don't trust GS for really anything but screenshots and video. And pre-Gerstmann fiasco reviews. Watching E308 videos felt kind of sickening still, over 8-9 months later.
So yeah. I'm over at "the Bomb" at TonicBH, as usual. Send me a friend request if you haven't already, and state who you are beforehand if you don't use the same account names from site to site.Until then, see you later.
- Posted Jul 22, 2008 2:05 am PT
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17Jul 08
The PS3 games were part of a GameStop "Two used PS3 games 25% off" deal. Uncharted was $37, Warhawk was about $22. The Saturn and DC games were picked up as part of a garage sale.
Yes, I bought an old sports game. Sue me. There wasn't much else there that I wanted (most of them were games like Crazy Taxi, the original UT, few more sports games, Sega Superstars collection, RE: Code Veronica and Blue Stinger). And I believe that Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter 2 and Daytona USA are the full retail versions bundled with the system or something. Plus I always wanted to play NiGHTS.
- Posted Jul 17, 2008 9:37 pm PT
- Category: N/A
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