• 31Dec 07

  My year in review

  So another 12 months have gone by and Ive found I'm left asking myself what Ive achieved this year.

  Well on one front a few weeks back now my long campaign to complete saints row finally finished (at least it felt long with the amount of time I had to put into video games depleting this year). I got 720G out of it (above what most most people get I assure you as getting that racketlord achievement worth 160G can be both time consuming to a point but mostly frustrating) and one of them was a mulitplayer achievement but I by no means went out of my way to get it (I had enough money from matches to buy the amount of clothes required for the achievement so I did it) and I'm going to leave it at that. When I got back to doing the main single player missions I had alot more fun then I had with the activities or multiplayer and as the achievements left are nearly all multiplayer achievements, frustrating and once again time consuming I though it was time to leave it.

  Also I broke the 3000G mark and since I broke the 2000G mark this year as well were not doing to bad I'll make an aim of 5000-6000G for next year I know guys its just a number, I don't make a big deal out of the number. Single achievements and the general level you complete your games at impress me but there are a few exceptions. Like if you completed dead rising 1000G and all Im impressed because the time limit in that game can make it particulay frustrating from what Ive seen and there by it has some of the most awkward achievements I've seen. Also a high amount of achievements out of Final fantasy XI is extremely impressive, that game has by far the most impressive achievements I've ever seen just on the basis of the time and effort it takes to get them (it would take years to 1000G it) overall it even beats that inzain achievement out of graw (you had to be number on the worldwide universal leaderboards so probably 3 or 5 people have that at best). So it just goes to show its not the number but the achievements behind the number we should be looking at

  Also I finally rounded up super mario galaxy, I got 99% of the stars with little trouble it was just a matter of finishing after I had got bored the first time round. Despite it getting game of the year here and many raving about what a great game it is hear me out when I say: If you view your self as decently experienced in the platformer genre this one may not be for you. I found it was fun for a while but when you just keep clearing through the game like a hot knife through butter the majority of the time I found my self evidently getting bored from the lack of challenge. But for the new or inexperienced player (which is primarily nintendo's new audience after all) there is much fun to be had. There is no denying the games general visuals and atmospheric music comes together quite nicely and the innovative gravity system (which is surprisingly well done, with very good controls especially for a wii game) certainly makes the puzzles more interesting and enjoyable (though once again this wont be fully enjoyed by more experienced players due to their general lack of challenge).

  *SPOILER* Also I don't plan to go through it again with luigi not only would that be mind numbingly boring but it was just a easy way to extend the game (perhaps if there was a hard mode I would have done it but essentially luigi's different movements wont make the game much harder then it is) *END SPOILER*

  Well now Ive found myself back playing perfect dark zero which I don't plan on doing so much longer (I should get gears of war soon if all goes well and call of duty 4 after Ive sorted out that HDTV I was going on about before) and its funnily enough an achievement I got on that recently which has become my proudest gaming achievement this year. I completed the game on solo secret agent that may not sound like much but I'm generally not that good at fps's and I ended up using skills I didn't even know I had I even got a considerably high place on the leaderboards (for the difficulty I was doing it on as your score gets multiplied depending on what difficulty your doing it on) for one particularly hard level (it was the jungle one) I was like 3367 or something in the 3300 area.

  Oh and I'll just add one more gaming achievement this year: Warioland 1 and 2 completed 100% and no faq used at any point oh and I also got a time of about 5minutes 2seconds on the final level on warioland 2 which I was pretty proud of (Just some proof of my own platforming skills there to justify the stuff I said about SMG) I did that while I was on holiday in lesvos if anyone can remember that blog

  Also I finally finished this anime I watching: Welcome to the nhk and its certainly one of the better animes that Ive watched. Its about a hikikomori (someone who doesn't go outside unless they have to) neet (someone who isn't employed or in further education) who is kinda paranoid and soon becomes convinced all the pain in his life is caused by a company called the nhk who are conspiring against him (well thats the main theme anyway). Your gonna be in for a bumpy ride, never expect the characters to do what you would expect them to do or what you would want them too do half the time (though that can be the fun part) its about 24 episodes long and I would definetly reccomend it especially to someone who has recently gone through a series of dry or typical animes. The best thing to do is watch the few episodes and if you do find it funny/entertaining or you can relate to the main character the chances are you'll enjoy the rest of it. Well can anyone reccomend me an anime?

  So on a more personal basis Ive cleaned up my act a fair this year. Before I was on the edge on some subjects by now I'm clawing my way back to where I should be and things are looking a bit brighter for next year because now I know how to organise my work load (that might be my new years resolution ). I think it may have something to do with my direction being a bit clearer. At the beginning of this year I was still split between wheather to pursue a career in computing or psychology and somewhere along the line after some deep contemplation I decided what I wanted to do, ambitouse as it is. I aim to become a psychiatrist with a specialism in media psychology (focusing in video games ) and on top of all that I want to move to Japan so yeah, I don't know if you think thats ambitious or just so unlikely its stupid but we'll see hey. Its the work I put into my future that will decide it for the most part I guess. I might go in to my reasoning of why thats what I want to do and why I want to move to Japan in another blog because I think this blog is long enough.

  On a lighter note to finish up on I decided on that HDTV, its likely going to be a plasma 42" samsung. I decided despite the screen burning I can just turn the tv off when I pause a game and walk out of the room, it seems a mild inconvenience when it has 15,000 to 1 contrast and your average LCD of the same price has 8000 to 1 contrast. I'd also like to thank redhawk for helping me decide on what tv to get, I was a little lost atone point but he pushed me in the right direction so thanks man.

  Oh and sorry I didn't do a christmas blog there just wasn't that much worth mentioning

  Well if you've read all that well done and I wish you all a happy and healthy game filled new year

  • Posted Dec 31, 2007 12:57 pm PT
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• 1Dec 07

  The Jeff effect

  Microsoft securing exclusive gtaIV content $50million, edios pulling advertising campaign from gamespot $100,000, seeing every aware gamer unite against CNET and gamespot priceless.

  Ive never seen such a outcry from a group of gamers since manhunt 2 got band. We've got your back Jeff and just look how you've brought out the best in people. After the unjustified firing off Jeff gerstman gamespots senior editor its a sad day to be a games reviewer but due to the outcry from the community its a proud day to be a gamer. We united and took a stand for jeff and if you are'nt in the know check out subrosians blog as for the rest Viva la Jeff!

  • Posted Dec 1, 2007 1:53 pm PT
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• 17Nov 07

  Fat italian plumbers in space

  So as you may of guessed from the blog title I got super mario galaxy (thats one game of my wish list ).

  It basically goes: Mario is lured to a small shadow by some stray pasta on a hook, the hook then gets reeled up into the clouds by a lakitu and mario sheepishly grabs on to it. Not noticing he's a mile high mario takes the pasta of the hook and just as he's about to eat it the lakitu shakes the hook to get his attention, getting aggravated due to mario ignoring his evil geniouse speech he's been saying for the last few minutes which he mentions he stayed up all night coming up with. The shake knocks the pasta out of marios hand and like the bright spark he is he lets go of the line to chase after the air born pasta. Were then treated to a nice over view shot of where you really can see what marios made off. Then as you would expect "Ha Ha you payed money for this" comes up on the screen and thats the game.

  Just kidding so far its been good and if it was a little more challenging Id say awesome but I guess Ive only just cleared the first galaxy so we'll see whats to come hey , I'll keep you posted on how that goes and I'll be nice and vague so dont worry I wont spoil anything . Oh yeah believe it or not I am actually still playing saints row, I have'nt been able to game much lately so with my limited time I really hesitated on buying SMG but I caved so when I clear that Ill try and once and for all suck the last of the single player g out of saints row, after playing the multiplayer I can tell you that no amount of g is worth that torture. The onlines terrible and the getting online achievements are pretty hard because of how hard it is to get a good match. For example the pipe bomb glitch makes the protect tha pimp mode practically unplayable in 2 out of 3 levels when its used. People chuck infinite amounts of pipe bombs up the only stair case and your practically screwed unless the flow is to stop for any reason and even when you get down there unless your with a good team you'll be by your self and will be raped by the whole of the other team waitng for you at the bottom of the staircase. Ive heard the only way to get past the many issues in the multiplayer is to be in a good gang and play with them so if I ever change my mind about the multiplayer achievements (which I dont think I will) I guess thats what I'll have to do. The glitches ah so widly used its pretty bad of the developer to not have patched this up by now. Also has anyone ever actualy got banned for being reported for glitching or anything? Some how I doubt it, unless it was an extreme case.

  Anyways yeah thats pretty much it, Im gonna go play the unreal tournament 3 demo now, it looks like goldeneye (N64) on my nvidia 7800 LE graphics card (I gotta upgrade sometime) and yet it still manages to be one of the funnest and best shooters hell, best game Ive played in along time. My handle is ShadomRain (but to the untrained eye it looks like Shadow so that worked ) if anyone wants to add me oh and on that note if anyone wants to add me to their wii friends list pm me your friend code, and I'll add you and PM you mine back. Though when I get a HDTV in my room at the begining of next year I'll be on xbox live alot more, Ill let you know how that turns out. I may look into getting a PS3, I played ridge racer 7 on a PS3 running on a HDTV in pc world and it just looked beautiful and it played really good to which is strange since I did'nt like ridge racer the last time I played it but I guess tastes change. Then I played halo 3 running on a hdtv and the loading screen with the halo forming, so beautiful it once again sold it I never actualy played it due to time running thin but Im confident of its game play. I did'nt want to be a shallow gamer but if a game is good looking normally (e.g. the halo forming) and it plays great theres something about seeing that in hd that just blows me away. I mean if it had been killzone 2 Im sure the gameplay would have got me but certainly not the visuals running in hd or not. Anyways Im really gonna go play the UT3 demo this time so bye.

  • Posted Nov 17, 2007 12:30 pm PT
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