• 17Dec 09

  3 weeks? more like a eternity...

  No I Haven't died or abandoned GS to destructoid.(actually I haven't posted in that site in awhile) I have been busy with school and I was sick of seeing MS word. Now I am back and with horrible news. In case you haven't heard my 360 elite got the E74 error a couple of days before thanksgiving. The E74 error is literally just like the RROD but you get only 1 red ring. The good news it's covered by Microsoft even if your 360 is out of warranty. The bad news is you have to deal with Microsoft's BS.

  

  "I hate you so much!!!"

  Now I did the right thing I shipped my 360 right to the 360 repair center the friday after thanksgiving. It was prepaid except it was shipped in ground fare so it took the xbox a week to reach the center. It took them 2 weeks to "fix" the console. Let me tell you something 3 weeks without your default console (using it for mostly for multiplatform games) is a horrible experience. Sure I have a PS3 but I only have a limited amount of games that I have beaten on it. I just recently bought dynasty warriors 6 for the PS3 and I never met a game like it. I literally have a love hate relationship with the game seriously. I have a Wii…but I hate it. You would think I would give it a second chance since I have nothing else to do in my spare time. Yet I have found myself hating that white box more and more even amazing games like "little king's story" seem to bog down because of the Wii's controls and limitations. Yet what has saved what little sanity I have left was my PC and Team fortress 2 and the current war.

  Now let me go off topic for one minute I promise. What Valve did was one of the most fun and original ideas I have seen in a long time. They took two cIasses from TF2 and made them sworn enemies. It was the demo man VS the solider. If you played as one of them you would hear different announcements from the female announcer (like "he's a traitor kill him.") Now it was fun because you had a counter on the left side of your screen how many demo men or soldiers you killed. It was a great time from the arguments that were made from teammates on who should win. Also the up to the date stats on whose winning "the war" was pretty cool. Oh I forgot the best part whoever won got a special item and the loser gets nothing. The solider would get a sniper rocket launcher type thing. The demo man would get a Scottish sword and shield. The victor was announced today the solider cIass won only by a mere 50,000 frags. (they both had over 6 million each) so congrats solider I can't wait to play woot!!

  

  "If god wanted you to live he wouldn't have created me"
  

  Anyway so I got my "new" 360 today. Well actually is a refurbished one and I was so excited my friends actually had left 4 dead 2 waiting for me. I turned it on did the whole set up thing but..wait..wtf the controller won't synch argg! WTF!! My controller synchs to the console when I am 2 inches next to it. Yet when I go to sit on my couch it completely un-synchs.(the 360 controllers and console synch together by hitting 2 little buttons one on the console one on the controller) It literally has a limited range of 1 ft. After I leave that 1ft boundary the controller and console can't find each other. The 360 boasts over 30 feet connectivity I went to my basement with my controller once with my old 360 and it stayed connected. Now I can't make it to my couch..hell my floor. I tried everything from new batteries moving the 360 to different controllers to a guitar hero guitar. Nothing works. I tried customer service but they are no help and my frustrated mother basically called me a hmm.. well it rhymes with russy(ok not really but you can just read it in her mind). Yes it seems trying to be nice to a complete idiot on the phone is not in my mother's train of thought. I will be honest the customer service people are complete and total air heads and will not take you seriously until you get angry at them. They must have asked me 1000 times if I got the E74 error. I said no this is a synch issue and NO I WILL NOT TRY TO RESYNCH IT FOR THE 100 TIME AND YES THE BATTERIES ARE NEW!! Long story short she called them back and got a manager (because nothing screams mommy's boy more than having dear old mummy help you when you're in a situation. Actually I think it was more rage than parental concern that made her do it..ya most likely it was rage). I think her exact words were something "you guys are the worst you send back a broken console because your incompetent our family (my family mostly plays the 360 and no other console) has to suffer so close to xmas time" and my favorite " You can apologize all you want but this doesn't change the fact we have nothing for xmas, you ruined our xmas and a simple sorry won't fix it." Ahh nothing like a little guilt before the holidays mothers usually are wonderful at that.

  

  "I literally looked like this at one point in the conversation"

  Long story short after heated arguments and me at the end of my rope in sheer frustration we have to send the console back and get it in 3 weeks again. So basically my 360 will not be here in time for xmas and I have 6 weeks of just looking at that newish copy of L4D2. What I find to be the most unfair is I did what they asked me to do 3-4 weeks ago. Now I have to suffer again because they can't ship a fixed console. No matter what deals we tried to strike up with Microsoft (we tried to tell them we will pay for 1 night shipping for both consoles all they have to do is ship it and they still said no) So I have to wait another 3 weeks until I get another refurbished 360.

  I don't get it I really don't. How does a console from a repair station come shipped broken? It makes no sense in the least. I know accidents happen but this is just horrible. It like you go into a hospital to treat a rash you walk out with pneumonia. Overall I am frustrated this would usually make me go screw it I will become a PS3 fanboy F you Microsoft. Sadly I can't do that since 1.) all my friends have live 2.) left 4 dead 2 3.) I have too many games and money invested in the 360 over the years….sighh they have me over a barrel..I refuse to buy another 360…sorry if this was a bit boring and ranty. I am going to go hit my head into the wall over and over and over again why? Well it's better than the Wii that's why!!!!...thanks for reading.

  *EDIT*

  This is about the team fortress war/update. I might have been wrong on the servers I played the demo man has the sword and shield. The solider also has the new rocket launcher and a new melee weapon. I think both cIasses just got an update there are more weapons but I have no idea what they are. I only saw one player using a cool demoman weapon but I have no idea what it is called. All I know is there is new achievements and weapons for both the demoman and solider.Also the sword and shield for the demoman is part of the update and so is the rocket launcher. After some research they were fighting for a extra unique item (updates usually give 3 new weapons the winner would get one more). The solider won a pair of special boots that drastically reduce the damage from rocket jumps.

  • Posted Dec 17, 2009 9:33 pm PT
  • Category: Rant
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• 18Nov 09

  Left 4 Dead 2 My first impressions

  I have to say the day I got the game was a pretty good day. I got the game on Monday night at 10 PM with a GameStop preorder bat and midnight release questionnaire (I guess you call it that) that could make me win 2,000 dollars. The best part of it is that I didn't preorder the game and got it two hours early. For some reason my local GameStop was giving out the game early my friend worked there contacted me and said "COME DOWN NOW!! L4D2 SELLING NOW!!" Even though I hate GameStop with a passion (past problems) I had to swallow my pride and get the epic game. Ok I should really shut up and give you guys the impression and I will.

  

  To be completely honest there is nothing revolutionary with the game. If you didn't like the first game there really isn't anything else to say other than try it out maybe this time you will like it. But that doesn't mean the game is horrible and a cut and paste of the original and just added a "2" on the cover because the game is far away from that. There are subtle tweaks in the engine and new weapons and objectives the game feels fresh and exciting as the first game when it came out 1 year ago. They changed some things around so that even hardcore vets of the first game will still be thrown a surprise here and there.

  In the final chapters in L4D there was always a hold the ground until rescue arrives moment. Those were the finales of a campaign to hold out against waves of zombies, 2 tanks the rescue vehicles arrive you rush over to it while a whole horde of zombies (a tank too) are chasing you. In this game not all finales are like that. The first campaign ends with a race car sitting in a lobby. The problem is there is no gas for it. You need to find 13 gas cans fill it up and get out of there. The problem is the gas cans are easy to reach but hard to get to. There are just waves and waves of zombies, special infected, and "spitter goo" (makes gas cans explode that are on the floor) that makes collecting gas harder than it should be. The finale is just frantic it's all based on you and your actions. There is no waiting for a rescue vehicle you have to move and get gas. Another finale is you need to start a rock concert up with lights, fireworks, and a stage show. The problem is the music is so loud you have no idea where the special infected is or even the tank until it's too late.

  Another aspect that changed are the special infected. Now you have the same special infected in the last game (hunter, boomer, smoker, witch, and tank) but they are smarter and will even throw vets into a surprise. But there are new ones too (spitter, charger, and jockey) and I will be honest they are a very welcomed addition to the game. Every special infected work well together. You can have the cIassic duo smoker and boomer while the smoker has you the boomer will vomit all over you and attract the horde to you. Or you can have the charger come run all 4 of you down on the ground while you are getting up(and your friend is getting killed by the charger) a boomer will vomit on you or a hunter and jockey combo will knock two players out at once. Long story short the new infected do not feel tacked on they will make you play the game differently and keep you on your toes.

  

  "Yes this is a picture from L4D1 I am sorry"

  Valve also promised more story into the game. Well sadly there are very little cutscenes and even then they aren't really cutscenes. The story element they promised is more the survivors talking to each other during scripted events. For example the first level of the fist campaign everyone is on a elevator. During this segment they all talk and introduce themselves and what is their overall plan to escape this mess. I mean even though it's not much it's still more than the first game. Now speaking of the characters I have to say they do grow on you a bit. When I played the demo I did not like them one bit. Yet the more I played the game and the more dialogue I hear from them the more I grew attached to my character and liked them. (Coach FTW)

  The game also has a ton of modes from single player to local and online co-op, survival, versus, scavenge, and realism. Now these modes are all fun. I did not play both realism (way to hard for me yet) and survival (I am dying by myself in co-op a little too much). But from what I am hearing and reading they are fun. I can't imagine how hard realism mode is me and my veteran L4D friends can barely beat a campaign on advanced. Now scavenge mode is pretty fun when I first saw it I thought I would only play it for achievements but no I will play this mode for a long time. Now this mode is simple there are gas cans scattered all over the place, something that needs gas in the center and a time limit. There are two teams human and infected. The humans have to collect the gas cans and fill up whatever it is and gain time for it. The infected need to stop them. The humans win if they get all 16 cans into whatever it is that needs gas. Yet if they fail the infected team gets to play as humans and need to get 1 more gas can than the other team to win. For example the human team only got 5 gas cans and either died or ran out of time. The previous infected team now humans need 6 cans to win the round (1 round is both teams playing as infected and human.) Now this mode is very fun and competitive and will last for quite some time. Also the versus mode is basically the same but you play as the new and old infected and there are little meters and notifications telling both the survivors and infected how much longer the survivors have to travel to get to the safe house.

  

  "Why won't the gas go into the car faster!! arggg!!"

  Finally the game just has subtle tweaks here and there to make it awesome. The levels feel more claustrophobic. You can revive a dead teammate with a defibrillator unit. The special infected without a doubt in my mind got a A.I. tweak. The new melee weapons and normal weapons feel great and are powerful. The game does have other humans in it and they do help you (but you don't see them). The campaigns are much longer and have different finales and are bigger and require more exploration. The new explosive or incendiary ammo is fun for the short while it lasts. Also having the game both at night and daylight is awesome because some zombies act differently and makes it either harder or easier. Also they really tweaked the difficulty me and my friends barely beat a campaign on advanced. We usually have to cry to ourselves and change the difficulty. It takes us at least 2 hours to beat a campaign while in L4D 1 it took us 30 minutes even less. You really need to fix up your strategies from the previous game or like us you will die a lot.

  Yet there are some problems with the game. The main problem is the special infected A.I. got a tweak but the survivor A.I. got downgraded. I don't know what happened but they are just awful you will not rely on them in the least. They will either die a lot or just do horribly stupid things. For example during a finale we were waiting at the rescue vehicle we were right there. Rochelle decided not to run towards the car but into a horde of zombies. She survived me and my friend got killed by a angry tank. Another example was at another finale involving a helicopter we all got on but the A.I. Nick didn't. We sat on the helicopter for a good minute and Nick had no problem fighting the endless waves of zombies like there is no tomorrow. My friend decided to kill him with a nice sniper round in his head and we won. I don't understand it I really don't the previous survivor A.I. wasn't that bad they were competent not that reliable but competent. Another problem with the game is the dialogue is VERY repetitive. I have heard the same 3 lines of dialogue in the safe rooms to the point of annoyance. This depresses me because L4D 1 was full of amazing dialogue that could last for hours..hell even days. Also finally there are a few bugs and glitches like you are healing yourself and the character doesn't do the animation but he does heal himself.

  Overall I am really liking this game. Already on our 2nd day of having the game we are having great unforgettable moments. The game really isn't a sloppy cut and paste its fun, frantic, hard, and at times funny. I would not pass this great game up especially if you loved the first one…thanks for reading.

  PS. The gnome from Half life 2 episode 2 is in the game and it requires you to win it from a carnival game and take him all the way to the finale for a achievement. It's harder than you think.

  

  • Posted Nov 18, 2009 2:40 pm PT
  • Category: Opinion
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• 16Nov 09

  1 more day

  So here I am at work almost 10 AM and all I can think about is Left 4 Dead 2 I can't wait for it to come out. I mean I sunk so many hours into the original Left 4 dead (both single player and multi). I can't help but wonder how many more will I sink into this title? will it live up to its hype?will my friends be home when I get it too? argg so much suspense!!Also I had a psych test today and all I could think about was left 4 dead 2. it was like

  Question 1 What is the participant variable in this experiment?

  Answer: pills here!!!!

  all I have to do is survive a Bio quiz tommorow and no work ( I cleverly took off) and go home and play.

  so ya excitment and bordom made me write this all at work idk hopefully I will have mroe to say towards the end of the week on the game.

  • Posted Nov 16, 2009 7:04 am PT
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