Evolution of the RPG on 360.

The Role-Playing Game (RPG) genre on the Xbox 360 has been weak since the release of the console. Over the last year or so, however, there have been some releases to help out this genre and, hopefully, give it new life.

One I just recently finished is Magna Carta 2. Now this is not the most advanced of RPGs, but it can have it’s place. It’s developed around the Unreal engine, but you can definitely tell this is a translation of a Japanese game. The thing that bothered me most is the dialog screens. The characters appear on each side of the screen (depending on who is talking), move their arm up and down or bow their head and the mouth moves. Not much for a cut scene. The game did have a few full-motion video (FMV) sequences, however; and the story eventually progresses enough to keep you entertained. Overall, I wasn’t disappointed. I just realized I can’t put that much time into RPGs any more.

One major disappointment has been Final Fantasy XIII. I never got very far with XII on the PS2, but I loved the game. It was leaps and bounds past its siblings. For XIII, I can understand that Square Enix was trying to put a new spin on their fortune flagship franchise, but I’m gonna have to say they “facepalmed” with this one. I’m not even sure I would classify it as an RPG as much as I would an adventure with a LOT of frikin movie sequences. You play for 15 minutes, then you have to go through a 5-10 min movie. To be honest, I felt the only things that classified it as a RPG are the character upgrade enhancements and their battle system, of which you control one of the 3 characters in your party (and you don’t get to choose who you want as your party leader until disc 3). Now Square Enix lived up to their reputation of awe-gaping graphics and sensually melodious soundtrack. I’ll give them that part. No one else has ever managed to rival them in those departments, so far. I still haven’t finished the game (I am on disc 3), and probably won’t for a while. I’ll get back to it eventually.

There are some other decent titles out there for the 360 in this arena if you’ve got the time for them: Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins, Infinite Undiscovery. You just have to be careful when picking from this genre these days. You don’t get the development put into these like before. Players scream for online multiplayer venues like Halo and Gears. Most of the time, these RPGs just end up with as a translate from the East. And nothing personal against the Japanese, but there are some weirdasses over there producing games. There are just certain things about that culture I will never understand.

 

I’m sticking to shooters for a while. l8rz.

Google random funniness (via The Chive)

Being a computer geek, I felt this was worth a repost:

 

l8rz.

Looking forward

Since we are only a couple of weeks out from E3, let’s go over some of the few new releases coming up that have already been announced.

I’ve been griping about not having any games just jump out at me and totally enthrall my senses since the beginning of the year. Final Fantasy XIII has turned out to be a bit of flop (more on that in another post), and I’ve been bored out of my mind trying to find a game that just really hits home as a full out winner. Of course, I still haven’t played anything more than the demo for Dante’s Inferno, either. ;) I was piddling around on the Xbox Dashboard last night and found a couple of release trailers that made my fanboy giddy with oodles of excitement.

Crackdown 2. I wasn’t a huge fan of the first game. Like many, the only reason I bought it was to have my in to the Halo 3 Beta testing (*facepalm*: “Sucker!”). I don’t know if they are basing the game’s popularity on sales (uh, duh. Halo 3 Beta was included) or actual documented playing. Now, I will admit that I eventually got in and played for a little while, but it wasn’t something I would call a headliner as far as most awesome games are concerned. But, apparently, a new Aussie company has given this release a work over with a new story, better graphics, even more stuff to just destroy and blow up, and a hugomongus multiplayer experience. Sheer curiosity will have me adding this one to my rental queue in just over a month (July 6). Eh, who knows. I may even pull my old copy back off the shelf and play it a little more.

Laura Croft and the Guardian of Light. As I mentioned Tuesday, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix (Eidos’ new parent) are bringing Laura back for some XBLA action. No release date yet, but keep an eye on Xbox Live Arcade this Summer.

Halo Reach. After Monday’s post, you already know my feelings for Halo (probably more than you care to know). The release date has been announced. Get ready to drop September 14. I’ll be in line at midnight waiting on my copy. Work will just have to get over the fact that I won’t be in that day. ;)

Call of Duty Black Ops. I had no idea a new game was even in the works. Well, if this was a real analytical blog, I would be doing more reading keeping up with the gaming world. ;) Based on the trailer (uncut version available on their website), which is mostly FMV sequences, this one has received a huge overhaul in the graphics department. I’m wowed… impressed… no, flabbergasted! This looks awesome!! The Call of Duty series has pretty much controlled the World War era and set the standard for the historical (mostly fictional) FPS. I think I might actually be ordering this one without doubt. I’ve always waited on these, but as I’ve played through the series (and am in love with each one), I’ve slowly added them to my collection. I’m still working my way to the Modern Warfare series (don’t kill me). November 9th. Keep your eye on this one! ;D

Castlevania Lords of Shadow. The Belmonts are back! The Castlevania series has to be one of the longest running storylines in gaming rivaling even Mario’s plethora of adventures. I’d even be willing to bet that it’s cultish fan base even rivals the Browncoats (Joss Whedon’s Firefly/Serenity TV/Movie for all you non Sci-Fi-nerds). On the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) in the 80s, Simon Belmont first appeared with his trusty whip to battle the menace you all know so well, Dracula. Yes, THE Dracula. Ever since then, the Belmont name has been cursed throughout time to ever be haunted by the vampiric pain in the butt. Castlevania has been one of Konami’s major cash cows ever since. Stories have split, moved forward and backward in time, and taken on alternate timelines. This will be the first entry into “next-gen” graphics. And from what I saw in the trailer (yes, they did show gameplay!), this is going to blow your mind! Konami’s not releasing a whole lot of info on the the promo site, so I can’t tell you too much about the game other than the Belmont this time is Gabriel. Just go watch the trailer and mark your calendars for this November 13 release. If you need some catching up, check out the Shopping Channel on your Wii for WiiWare and NES Castlevania classics.

Now of course, Cliffy B’s announcement of Gears of War 3 on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last month had me checking my pants for puddles, but it’s another year away. Watch next April for that one.

Although E3 is not the presentation spectacular it used to be, tune in to G4TV June 15-17 for updates from the Expo floor and get ready for a wild ride.

 

l8rz!

Zombies… phttt….

Nothing provides as good of an enemy as a Zombie. Well, maybe a Nazi Zombie, but Zombies nonetheless. The Left 4 Dead series has earned a happy place of instantaneous love in my heart. But, it annoys the hell out of me.

“Dude, you’re in your 30’s. Why do you still play video games?” For this one reason: stress relief. Pure, unadulterated, bloodsplatteringly, and fantastically violent stress relief. And, yes. Be glad I don’t work for the post office. ;) Left 4 Dead 2 is my most recent pixilated enjoyment that’s become extremely difficult to put down. As Valve’s credit is due, they have created a masterpiece of a game… assuming you have friends to play it with. It presents a masterful play control and amazing ability to track your teammates. If you get lost, you can easily find and catch up with them again. OK, so what about those of us who don’t want to stay up all night playing games with twelve-year olds? The game’s single player mode isn’t so forgiving. Your CPU teammates never (and I mean, NEVER) take the lead. They’ll cover your butt and rescue you all day long, but trying to get the three of them through a campaign is like dragging along a 500 lb sledge hammer. Hello?! The zombie AI shouldn’t be smarter than they are. I’d like to be able to use the sniper rifle occasionally. And, it’d be nice if one of you jokers would throw a pipe bomb every once and a while, too. ;)

The character development, environments, graphics, soundtrack… it’s all astounding. Grab some buddies and at least go rent this game for nothing else if just to listen to Ellis’ redneck twang and quips:

”Did I teell yew abat dis time my kusin Keith drown’d in the Tunnel of Luuve?”

Hilarious!

Well, Excuse me for now. I have an undead clown that requires my assistance with a chainsaw…

 

l8rz!

Laura’s Back!

Oh, hell. More money for me to spend…

Red vs. Blue

It’s been almost a week since the end of the Halo Reach Multiplayer Beta. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a whole lot of time to play with it. I did spend long enough to acclimate myself with the new “loadouts” and weapons, though, so here’s my take:

1. Multiplayers are not for me. I don’t spend hours upon hours on Xbox Live looking for my next human sacrifice. I want story. But we know this already.

2. The grenades have become waaaaay too powerful. Now I get that Master Chief (Spartan 117 – John Smith) was the last of the Mark III Spartans. I get that Reach takes place before those upgrades with the Spartan II series. But what the hell? The Spartan’s are still supposed to be a bunch of bad-asses that make the ODST human soldiers look like child’s play. A well placed grenade in a tunnel or room still shouldn’t KIA you instantly. From what I understand, this was a well known complaint around the Beta.

3. Armor Abilities and Loadouts.

Ok, this is the newest feature that seems to delve further into the Halo universe and what the Spartans were truly capable of. Of the 4, I thought the Sprint was the most tacky ability, but it did provide all those run-and-gunners the ability to move in for some quick kills. And I mean quick. I had my butt handed to me several times by one of these. Cloaking is back. This time the Elites aren’t the only ones hiding in the shadows. This is extremely useful for sneak and slash with the energy sword. Jet packs are… well… jet packs. You get the idea. Burst jumps, limited flight, etc. IMO, they just leave you a really good slow target for snipers. The last was my favorite. Armor Lock. I am the king of getting myself in over my head in battle scenarios. This is why I won’t last a zombie invasion very long. Well, now, when you see that sticky grenade headed for your face, engage the shield, and you may have just saved your hide long enough to prevent a respawn. :) Note, that each of these abilities are limited, as Bungie explains it. They require a “cooling off period” after you use them. Being the non-manual reader, I had to figure that one out the hard way. My own personal speculation and interpretation of the Reach storyline is saying similar to ODST. Your 4/5 advertised Spartans are each going to be specialized with their own favorite weapons (remember, Romeo likes sniping and Dutch likes heavy weapons?). This is where the Loadouts will probably come into play. Your standards are back with a new look: assault rifles, pistols, sniper rifles, etc. The new Elite weapons are always my faves. Pink Mist of Death has been my all-time favorite achievement in the series (i.e., Halo 3 - the Needler). To see the new Needle Rifle… 

oh, it’s on now! Also, there are two new grenade launchers with the Covenant version popping out 4 stickies that will track your butt down and launch you into Reach’s stratosphere. Beware this handful instant death. Even the Armor Lock can’t save you. Especially if Bungie doesn’t do something about that grenade power issue.

So until this Fall (or Bungie’s next round of press releases), we’re left with a taste of the new gooeyness that is Halo. We can only wonder, “who is the ‘Lone Wolf’?”

 

On another note, I finally downloaded the Grifball maps! Anyone up for a game? ;)

 

l8s!

(images courtesy of Bungie.net)

The direction of gaming?

This speech from DICE 2010 hit the interweb about a month ago and stirred up a bit of a buzz among some of my gaming kinsfolk. Now, with ever-growing advent of online browser games like Facebook offers, more and more people are getting into gaming in general. Ads across webpages like Google’s AdSense are becoming more acceptable. Combine these two aspects and, yes, I could see life and “gaming” going the direction the speaker suggests. However, my outlook on gaming still centers around entertainment and, mostly, console gaming. I either own or have owned in my time the following consoles (do the math as I’m about to disclose my age generation, here): Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Nintendo Gameboy, Playstation, Sega Dreamcast, Playstation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, and Wii. Now, I’ve played on a whole lot more consoles than I’ve owned like the Neo Geo, Atari Jaguar, Sega Super System, Sega CD, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Game Cube, Playstation 3 and the list could go on. Keep in mind, my writings just refer to console gaming. I don’t get into PC gaming like I used to (including the new browser-based generation), which is much older.

As I’m writing these reviews more frequently, I’m noticing more and more of a pattern in console game development these days. Originality doesn’t exist quite like it did in the earlier days of the “third generation” consoles (Xbox 360 / Playstation 3 / Wii). Also, the genres have bled together even more. It’s all about TPS (third person shooter) massive environments, or FPS (first person shooter) run-and-gun, or RPG (roll playing game) and TBS (turn-based strategy) thought-provokers. I think the only genres that haven’t changed are MMO (massive multiplayer online), Sports, Fighting (like Street Fighter) and Racing. The old days of Adventure vs Shooter vs Action vs Challenge is slowly dying. The Strategy genre is something that derived from the early days of Command and Conquer and Warcraft (not to be confused with the MMO World of Warcraft). Over time, this genre has lead way to the release of modern wonders like Halo Wars and Battlestations Midway or the re-release or continuation of Command and Conquer and Tropico. MMO and Strategy are still new in the overall age of gaming, so they tend to be more “cult-driven” genres, so to speak.

Now, keep in mind, this is only my perception of the evolution of gaming as I’ve experienced it over the last 25 or so years. I’d love to hear any of your comments on this and where you think gaming has been and will go.

l8rz

Erin go Braugh(less)!

Happy St Paddy’s Day, all. This is the day in which we lift a pint of Guinness (or Harp, if you so choose) in honor of the Irish. As part of what a dear friend says before each round of shots, “Sláinte!” (I can’t ever remember the second half.)

Cheers!

Test drive the Prototype.

Yes, being the fanboy I am, I did buy Final Fantasy XIII, however, being this is the first 3-disc game I’ve played since VII on the PS2, it’s going to be a while before I get into the write-up on it. So, instead, I give you Prototype.

Within an hour, I immediately felt like I was playing Crackdown, again. Now Crackdown I would have never purchased had it not been for the Halo 3 beta invitation that was included with it. I’ve hardly even played the game. Prototype is basically Crackdown on crack. Leaping and gliding from rooftop to rooftop, running up the sides of buildings, jumping and running at superhuman capabilities. The added bonus, your body is a weapon. You have the ability to absorb your enemies and morph into them. Your hands and arms turn into blades and boulders for massive hand-to-hand damage against militia, tanks, and even buildings. The blood, gore, and language are prolific. Yes, this game is rated M for Mature. The graphics are done fairly well however, I haven’t noticed much of a soundtrack. In defense, I haven’t been able to turn the volume up very loud, either. In all, not a bad rent. I’ve actually played it more than one day. And, now that you can find a used copy for around $30, not a bad buy, either. With all the side quests alongside the story, there’s plenty of game play. Although the landscape is the city of Manhattan, it’s still expansive enough to give you plenty of room to roam. And you can go from north side to south side to east side to west side with no lagging load times. Awesome! If nothing else, give it a rent to quell the need of some serious bloodshed and destruction.

l8rz

Rocking out, again.

In all the political turmoil, I have to do something to keep my already stressed mind off the latest governmental issues. So, I’m still renting and playing games.

This week, Guitar Hero 5 for the 360. I’m not so impressed this go ‘round. I’m guessing Activision wanted to get in on the younger generation with their latest in this extremely drawn out series. It’s not really geared around a single player experience. The new features in this one differing from World Tour is the ability to customize your own band with characters of your choosing from the Rockstar Creator (from World Tour), and you can play with your Xbox Live Avatar. The scoring system has also been improved to add additional challenges. Depending on the song, you are required to try a different instrument to get the extra 3 stars. Oh, and you can now get 6 stars if you complete a song without missing a note. Since it’s focused more on the younger gamers, the screen real estate is mostly occupied by the instrument “highway”. This makes it even more difficult to see the actual characters performing in the background. Overall, if you just really love the Guitar Hero series, and have to have every one, then, by all means, add it to your collection. Me? I’m going to leave it at a rental until I either have kids or can get my GF more interested in playing for the score and achievements… neither of which I foresee in my immediate future. :)

Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Wii is next on the list. I’m a huge Metroid fan from the Nintendo era, but skipped over the Gamecube. I’m looking forward into getting into this latest release (and remastering) in the Metroid line. I’ll let you know next week (or later this week if it sux).

 

l8rz.

Ramblings from the barstool.

I’m back again this week from my favorite wing joint, Taco Mac Metropolis. I’m still getting the hang of my fairly new Windows 7 Starter Edition Netbook. There’s a few quirks to still work out, but it’s getting there. This week’s game reviews are BioShock 2 and Borderlands.

BioShock. I’m not really sure why the original FPS bagged my attention. Maybe it was the graphics. Maybe it was the environmentally haunting musical score. Maybe it was the idea that a modern-day Atlantis could have been constructed in the 1940/1950s. BioShock 2 picks up 10 years after the original with a whole new story where you play as one of the complexly unknown Big Daddy characters designated as “Delta”. The way 2K Games constructed this edition of the series was very intuitive. By slyly mentioning events and characters from the original, you don’t miss anything if you didn’t play the first, but you can’t help but snicker with laughter every time you run across a reminder if you did. Continuing with the use of the Unreal engine (Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, etc.), the graphical detail and response speed are as awesome as with the first. The new multiplayer feature seems to have real potential, but I haven’t really tried it out (I’m the story player, remember?). I completed the game on the middle difficulty in about 4 days with a good collection of the achievements. I’ll need another go ‘round to get more of the achievements, but it’s definitely worth the play. I’m happy with spending the full $60 on this one.

Borderlands is the most addictive game I have played in quite a while. The graphics and game mechanics play out like a comic book, which I’ve always found to be a really cool way of presenting a game. The world is massive. Unfortunately, like Red Faction, the quests get a bit monotonous; however, they are much more challenging and varied. From first inserting the disc into the tray to finally looking at the time before bed, I had spent the better part of 8 hours behind the controller. Woah. I haven’t had a game trap me in that hard in a while. But, I’ve gotten my fill as I don’t have that sort of time to devote to games these days, with having a GF and a house and all. ;) If you do, go for it!

Well, I’m out till next round. Besides, I’m completely fascinated with Olympic Curling at the moment, and I don’t know why…

 

l8rz!

Returning to the depths of Rapture…

Yay! Bioshock 2 is in the mail on its way! I’ve been in full anticipation for its release ever since the first announcement 2 E3s ago (that’s Electronic Entertainment Expo for the uninformed). I hope to have some extended time with it this weekend, but V-Day has already been claimed by my GF. I seriously doubt I’ll finish it in 2 days, but I should at least have a write-up next week for ya.

Guitar Hero World Tour. Yes, I’m finally at the 4th release in this really long series. Having played II, III, and Aerosmith, it was time I finally delved into the band aspect of Guitar Hero. My response? I SO WANT THE DRUMKIT!! I’ve only had time to work my way through the “life as a guitarist” story, but this will be another game I’ll be adding to my library soon… as soon as I spend next month’s game budget on Final Fantasy XIII. ;) I will have to say, nothing is quite as entertainingly screwed up as watching a digital recreation of Ozzy Osborn singing “La Bamba” (with Sting as your bass player and Travis Barker from Blink-182 on the skins). My GF told me a hilarious conversation she had with a coworker about guitar gaming:

Coworker: We were playing Rock Band the other night. I was all hyped up and thinking I was cool. As soon as I started playing, I couldn’t hit a single note. I failed us out in no time. Guitarist are gods. A couple chords on a guitar and the panties drop. No one ever got laid by playing a guitar game.

GF: Keith did.

LOL! That’s awesome! And the best I can do is 5-staring the “Medium” setting. She loves her dork. ;p~

 

l8rz!

But, I’m with the band… (parte duex)

Where did I leave off? A yes, the Artist pass. We did not realize the true power of this simple laminated card until the second day. My GF has a bad habit of overstepping defined lines of security; mostly out of absentmindedness. OK, well, I’ve seen her do it twice. Anyway, she noticed a friend of hers working for the sound crew that we did not anticipate to be on the cruise. She hopped into the “secure” area behind the stage to say hello, not thinking about the fact that cruise goers were not supposed to be back there. Apparently, the security detail lurched for her, but quickly stopped once he saw the pass around her neck. Heather neglected to tell us that as long as we wore that pass, we could go behind stages and sit in the artist listening area for the Skynyrd show. To be honest, we didn’t take advantage of the pass’ power except for the Skynyrd show. I sat next to Kevin Kenny of Drivin’ and Cryin’. I didn’t want to bother him as he was there to listen to Skynyrd with the woman on his other side (his wife/gf/lady friend I would assume), so I never actually talked to him. But I sat next to Kevin Kenny…. Heh. Surprisingly, most of the artists, other than Skynyrd, walked out and about in the crowd while they weren’t playing. Over the course of the cruise, we talked with Dan, lead singer of Hill Country Revue, at one of the bars (he told me he had a huge crush on Heather once I said we were her friends), Phil from Molly Hatchet, Paul from Hightide Blues, Tom Hambridge and his agent, Richard Turner (he was pretty quiet) from Blackberry Smoke and his wife Mary-Anne (sp?) (who sat with us late night), along with others I can’t really remember. My brain suffered a social overload at some point. Heather introduced us to the rest of Oakhurst (AP, Kruller (the happiest man alive), Max, John, and Loomis), of which I think it’s safe to say they befriended us. Zach came to Atlanta to play for Heather’s live CD, so we partied with him, his wife, and Heather after the show. There was always a late night show where Francisco Vidal or Scott Munn (or both) would perform covers joined by various people from the different smaller bands. Zach seemed to play with everyone. By the second evening, we kept asking, “Where’s Zach? Oh, he’s on stage.” Heather aptly titled him the “banj-ho”. Since my GF wore her “I <heart> my dork” T (it received a lot of good comments), we decided that Zach’s wife is getting a “I <heart> my banj-ho” T for her birthday later this year.

On our third day (second full day), we docked in Cozumel for 8 hours. Heather, Ralph, Zach, Loomis, Kruller, John, my GF, and I rented scooters to tour the coastline outside the city for the afternoon. AP originally joined us, but ended up staying in town due to a pretty rough night before (it was his birthday). Our first stop was a Mexican cantina for real fish tacos (corn tortillas and fresh fish), tequila shots, and Mexican beer (I was happy to see they had Sol). You can tell this place was used to catering to Americans. English was spoken better than some places in Atlanta, and they had running water. I will tell you, however, taking a dump in Mexico is odd. They won’t let you put the TP in the toilet. There’s a trashcan next to you lined in a plastic garbage bag. They must change it regularly since there was no stench in there. Anyway, as we walked in looking for a place to sit, Scott, Nick, Kenny, and Ron from BonePony invited us all to join them and pulled up tables. They had rented a Jeep instead of scooters. After food, we toured the coastline more working our way around the west outside the city. I’ve seen the clear water of the Keys and grew up in the muddy waters of the southeastern seaboard, but I’ve never seen water as blue as I saw in Cozumel. It was like living in a postcard. Our next stop put us at a tiki-mexi-Rastafarian-type bar. As we parked the bikes, sitting there was none other than BonePony, again, and Hightide Blues. Jokes and stories ensued. I found a hammock next to Kruller and Loomis. With my $2 Sol, I felt like every George Strait, Kenny Chesney, and Zac Brown song I’ve ever heard about Mexico. No wonder they never want to leave. The temperature was beautifully near 90 with a cool breeze. And this is in January! I didn’t move for almost an hour. Unfortunately, our time was limited, so we continued our bar-hopping for one more stop, then returned to town and the boat.

We made a lot of new acquaintances that week; many we hope to see again next year. Oh, yes. We will be going, again. Heather said she is even going to try to get us officially registered as her crew this time. Might as well since she kept introducing us as her entourage. ;) Our first vacation together, and a first real vacation for both of us in many years. It’s something this gaming techogeek definitely needed.

So how did we get home? Ha! Here’s the funny part. The rattletrap said it’s final farewell about an hour and a half from home (almost 30 minutes from where we blew the tire on the way down). A blown head gasket. I wasn’t all that worried as my GF has family not from from that location. Ralph had family not far as well, so we had a place to stay if needed. But, it was getting dark, we were not used to the cold since we had been in warmer climates all week, and we were sitting on the side of the road with hangovers and lack of sleep. Luckily, 3 of the bands Heather had befriended were not far behind us on their way back home. In twos we loaded up with each of our rescuers. John and Charlie with Hightide Blues, Heather and Ralph with Blackberry Smoke, and us with BonePony. I cannot begin to express my gratitude to these guys for taking time out of their trips to accommodate us. Scott, Nick, Kenny, and Ron are a great bunch of guys. They took on almost complete strangers (other than our quick meeting at lunch on Cozumel) to help us home. Thank you so much for your help and goodwill. You are more than welcome in our home if you ever need a place to stay while in Atlanta.

Whew. What a story. What a week. Memories that will last forever; or, at least, until next year! :p~ Thank you Sixthman! Thank you Heather!

 

w00+!

But, I’m with the band… (part 1)

It has been a little over a week since my return from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man Cruise 2010. It’s taken me that long to recover. 4 days of music on open water (minus the 8 hours we spent on Cozumel). One of the most defining comments I heard on the boat describes the whole cruise. “Nowhere else will you see this many drunk rednecks and no fights.” I felt sorry for the Carnival crew as they are probably more used to serving calmer and non-riotous customers. By the last evening, I noticed the staff behind the bar was singing and dancing with the music of the late night “super-band” of Scott Munn, Francisco Vidal, Zach Daniels from “Oakhurst”, Heather Luttrell, Walter Ray, and Paul McDonald from “Hightide Blues”. I’m pretty sure they were just celebrating the fact that all of us crazies were getting off the boat the next morning, but it was at least good to see them loosening up. :)

So where to begin. Well, I had been trying to find the funding to go on a Sixthman cruise since the first Rock Boat back in 2000. Last year, along with Heather’s convincing, I was able to talk my GF into booking. Little did we know what was in store for us over those 4 days. As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve become pretty good friends with Heather Luttrell and her band which consists of Ralph Luttrell (her father), Charlie Wooten, and Hoffa. John McKnight sat in as drummer for Hoffa since he couldn’t make it. Our trip began bright and early Wed morning before sendoff as Heather and boys picked us up in a rattletrap 1991 Ford passenger van borrowed from a friend. Now when I say rattletrap, did this thing ever rattle. You had to slam the doors with the force of a small elephant just to get them to securely close. At it’s top speed of 65mph, when you open or close all the windows, the roof would make a popping sound as the aerodynamics and pressure changed around it. I still think there was an automatic airfoil (like on the Porsche or Audi cars) up there just readjusting. ;) Anyway, about an hour into our trip, the poor thing blew a tire. An hour and a half, a call to AAA (since we couldn’t find the jack), and a stop at the nearest Wal-Mart for 2 new tires (the spare was bald), we were back on the road. Aside from John’s hysterical sense of humor and constant jokes, the rest of the 6 hours went by pretty uneventful as most of us caught up on our sleep. Sixthman sponsored a “send-off” party at a bar in Tampa, which we attended. We had never been on a cruise before, so we didn’t really meet a whole lot of people there. The beer was cheaper than what I’m used to paying, so I was happy.

The next morning, we all piled down into the lobby of the hotel with the other bands for our VIP shuttle to the port. Now Heather had worked it out with Sixthman about a month before the trip that my GF and I would be boarding as her “staff”. We just thought that just meant we got to avoid all the lines getting on and off the boat and that was it. I will say, avoiding that waiting line was one of the biggest treats I could ever be thankful for. I later heard there was up to a 2 hour wait in that thing. After boarding, Heather and Ralph dragged us to the nearest bar on the deck for their traditional “frozen fruity rum drink”. Afterwards we split off to our cabins to claim our luggage. At this point, we pretty much assumed we probably wouldn’t see Heather again except at her shows, which we were fine with. So after 2 hours of orientating ourselves with the layout of the boat and music stages, we headed to the nearest bar for drinks and listened to Molly Hatchet performing on the deck stage. Amazingly enough, even with 2200 people on the Carnival Inspiration, there was so much room. In some sections, you would hardly see anyone. I will say, the deck did stay pretty packed, but there was still plenty of room to move around without having to bump into people. On our way to the next show Heather flagged us down. As she handed us our “Artist” passes, she added, “Let’s go eat. I’m starving.” If you’ve ever been on a cruise, you know how it works. The food is 24/7 (or 24/4, in our case). I did discover that the bars close at midnight with one remaining open until 4am, however. This pretty much was the case for the rest of the trip. Our day would begin once we finally got up (usually from me waking up around 10a or 11a). I’d beeline for the nearest coffee pot, we’d grab a small breakfast (or whatever they were serving), then head off for our hair-of-the-dog. I finally learned that a bloody mary breakfast really works. After a couple of hours, Heather would find us or we’d find her. We’d travel around between shows together for the rest of the afternoon and evening except when she had to perform (which we’d watch from the crowd). Now by travel, I mean at a snail’s pace. It would take her 45 minutes just to go 100 yards. I found it quite entertaining to watch her get stopped by people asking for pictures, autographs, and some regular conversation. Heather obliged them all, of which I am very proud of her. She really appreciates her fans. I’ve also never seen her revered in this sense before. She and Ralph are “gods on the water,” and it showed in both of them. They both performed with enthusiasm I have never seen from either of them in their regular hometown performances.

I feel like I’m writing a novel here. Since this is getting retartedly long for a blog, I’m breaking it up into multiple posts. Come back tomorrow for the power of the Artist Pass, the banj-ho, partying like a rock start, and scootering Cozumel, along with the grand finale.

 

l8rz

I <3 Deadpool.

He’s such a crackup! Click the pic for a larger image.

Coming back around.

Staying on top of this social networking thing is becoming more and more difficult. My resolution for the year wasn’t to spend less time on Facecrack, although it should have been. Work has been keeping me pretty busy with the new year, and by the time I get home, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer. I finally caught up on all my webcomics yesterday. My RSS reader is still full of feeds left to read, though. However, despite my lack of free time, for all you interwebers out there I’m back with 4 quick reviews. I have been gaming a little too much, lately. Of course, being furloughed for a week and having a week holiday (tallying to two weeks off) during the cold winter season didn’t help. :) I’ve Gamefly’d my way through 3 titles, plus, I bought ODST the next day after my last post.

I had to try out G.I. Joe. I was a fan of the cartoon as a kid and loved the new movie. Unfortunately, the game was designed more for kids. It was fun, but not my usual bag. I do have one thing to say about it: there should be requirements for games if they’re going to start them out at $60. I mean, G.I. Joe should have sold for a LOT less as its opening price. There were no efforts put in to make the characters look humanly realistic. The landscape was expansive, but there were limits to where you could roam. The play control was sluggish as well. All of this I would expect from a game targeted at kids, but not worth $60. Gears of War is well worth the $60 price tag.

I’ve been slowly getting back into our Wii. My GF got it from her parent’s last Christmas mainly for the Wii Fit. Turns out, she’s more hard core about her workout, so the Fit wasn’t enough for her. That just means more Xbox time for me. :D At least, until she found out about Super Mario Wii… So Gamefly shipped me London Rush Hour Taxi. Not a bad game. Getting used to driving with the Wii controller was a bit difficult to start with, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty fun. However, my desire for a challenge and difficult puzzles goes beyond a driving game these days. I can’t even get into the Project Gotham and Forza series any longer than one evening. Taxi went back the next day.

Red Faction Guerilla. Here’s another “meh” I ran across. The graphics are well done and the landscape is massive! However, after a couple hours of gameplay and knocking out the first section, I was bored to tears. The monotony of the demolitions and guerilla-type “missions” you undertake gets old, fast. It’s worth a rent if you have some time. However, I wouldn’t recommend buying it until Gamestop drops the price to $20 on the “Previously Owned” list.

OK. Here’s one that’s been going around and around on the net. What is your take on Halo: ODST? To be honest, I love the Halo story. So to me, getting ODST was like buying the next in a series of books. Now, as far as the difficulty, I was quite disappointed. You start out the game as the “Rookie” (isn’t that typical). You’ve been passed out in your drop ship for the last 8 hours and wake up to Mombasa in shambles in the late evening. If you haven’t played yet, I’m not sploitzing here; this is all shown in the promo videos. You’re wandering around the city trying to catch up with your other ODST buddies (i.e., the rest of your 5 man and one bitchy ranking officer woman squad). As the Rook finds the remains from where his other teammates were, you run through their story as them. I found this to be a quite intuitive method for telling the story. But, like I said, the difficulty of the game is not like playing Legendary in Halo 2 or 3. I finished ODST on Hard the first go ‘round fairly easily. Normally, it takes me quite a while to tackle Hard without help. I even managed to rack up a good bit of the achievements along the way. Of course, the ODST's are human. They can’t take the beating that cyborg Master Chief can. You get shot in the head once, you’re dead. The ending is not something I have come to expect from the crew at Bungie. It was quite weak and more like one of those sappy “Hollywood endings.” This is probably why the game has gotten so much flack. My guess is Microsoft (or whichever execs are signing Bungie’s checks) forced them into a quick release for the series. That always equals some sort of bad result. Sadly, I haven’t had the calling to pick ODST back up and try out Firefight mode. I don’t play online that often, and most of my “Friends” are not Halo aficionados. I’ve been mesmerized by Soul Calibur IV lately, for some reason. And I’m not that big into fighting games (although I do own a few).

Oh, I almost forgot. I got Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for Christmas. I got stuck in one spot, so I quit playing. I’ll probably end up starting over. Quickly, I have likes and dislikes over the first (Marvel Ultimate Alliance), but I’ll tell you more about them later. If you’re a Marvel comic fan like I am, you’ll like it either way.

I had a good rant thought up about how gaming has changed (even with me) since Microsoft introduced the Gamer Achievement system, but I’ll save that for another time since this is already too long. BTW, according to Sakusen, “…2010 is not the start of a new decade…”. “It’s the end of the decade.” Just saying. :)

 

l8rz

Soggy review.

So I mentioned that I rented “Wet”. Yeah, the demo may have reeled me in, but the over all game was not quite as reeling as I expected. The “bullet time” (ala Max Payne) or “tequila time” (John Woo’s Stranglehold), or whatever you want to call it, is pretty frikin’ (hah hah… my spell check suggests firkin’) awesome; but… It gets really old, really fast. I like the game. I just wouldn’t put it at the top of my “loved it” list. The graphics were very well done, and I’m extremely impressed with the soundtrack. To be honest, if there were actually a CD Soundtrack for the game, I’d buy it. The thing I was most impressed with is that the game plays out like an actual movie. This is a concept I haven’t seen much of in quite a while. My best example is “7th Guest” era and that one that came out for the Playstation (that’s PSOne, for you younglings) in its early days (“D” or something like that). I’m not talking a movie adaption game here, either. This is a story exclusive to the game… I could even see this becoming a movie someday (hell, Max Payne did it). Well, so long as Ewe Boll doesn’t direct it. To be honest, he’s not a bad B-Movie director, but that’s for a-whole-nother rant (and I do mean rant). The characters are well developed. Even Eliza Dushku voices the main character, Rubi. Eliza made her breakout in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” as well as rolls in miscellaneous movies along with more recent TV series like “Tru Calling” and, the currently running, ”Dollhouse”. She seems to work with Joss Whedon a lot. ;) Whoa… according to IMDB, her starlet debut was a voiceover part in 2 episodes of the the “Jem” cartoon series in 1986. Now that takes me back. :p~

So overall? Not a bad renter for solo players, like myself. The gameplay gets monotonous pretty fast, but if you can keep interested with the storyline, you’re good till the end. Unfortunately, I lost interest after two levels. Probably because I had just finished Batman before this (it is now on my “to buy” list). I rated “Wet” 6 out of 10 at Gamefly. It has an average rating of 6.5.

“Borderlands” is next on the list, but the availability is low so we’ll see what comes next. I still haven’t picked up “Halo: ODST”, yet. What is wrong with me?!? I’m not that broke.

 

l8rz.

A thankful day, and a reminder…

Yes. Like most everyone else, I’m going to post my Thankful Day givings and what I’m reminded of this one day out of the year. I find it completely tacky that it takes a simple holiday celebrating the founding of my Country to remind me of all the things I’m grateful for. This is something we should all do on a daily basis; however, we get so wrapped up in our societal misgivings and day to day transgressions. This wholeheartedly sucks, but it’s better than not remembering at all…

I can never make myself fully appreciate the love of my immediate family. They have supported, assisted and encouraged my trip through life in more ways than I can ever repay. Along with the creation of a family of my own, I have recently been adopted by a new “family” that has also accepted me (thanks to the love of my life) as a new member over the last year. You have all shown the unconditional respect and caring that I can only hope to return at some point in my life (if I haven’t already tried).

Even as I grow more irritated with the political stupidity of the masses that I must coexist around, I can still never fully express the respect I have for our militia and public service (law enforcement, fire department, emergency medical technicians, etc): the young and old of our men and women that give or have given their lives to unconditionally serving country and community (whether I fully agree with the reasoning or not). Your service has provided me with the ability to sit here and rant, celebrate, and/or complain about whatever I want without restriction. THANK YOU for doing what I’m not sure I could nor would do!

Last, I am thankful for video games. Without you I would be a completely unmanageable ball of stress that my love would never be able to handle. You provide me with a virtual release to mutilate enemies, rescue those in distress (mostly, damsels), and explore worlds I can only barely imagine. I am also thankful for computers. Without you, I would not have a career, a form of income for which to afford my video game addictions, nor this blog. ;)

 

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

l8rz.

Time for a little catch up.

After a loooong day of fixing computer issues, I’ve plopped me arse in a stool at Taco Mac. Nothing beats TM for their beer selections and TMI wings. The ultimate “come down” after a hard day at the office. I don’t know how long my battery will last, so let’s go with it.

Yeah, considering this is the “Ramblings of an IT” yadda, yadda, I’ve never actually posted anything relating to computers. Mostly gaming stuff. I spent an exuberant amount of time today trying to find a way to parse through a txt file, remove all the “newline” (EOL, CRLF, \n, etc) entries, and replace them with a space to put all the text on one line. I thought this would have been an easy task with sed or awk (I’ve been scripting in UNIX waaay too much lately), but it didn’t turn out as simple as I thought. If anyone has any insight on this, please fill me in. Also, I’m psyching myself up for learning PowerShell, WinRM, and WMI scripting for remote management of Server 2008 Core systems. Unfortunately, the other rigormaroo of day to day tasks just keeps getting in the way. As I find simpler ways to script things, I’m might be so inclined to start posting them here… if the answer isn’t already all over the interweb via Google. I will fill you in on a little secret. My newest Windows command line tool friend is ‘dsquery’. You can pull all kinds of info out of AD (that’s Microsoft Active Directory, for the computer illiterate) with this thing. And fast, too. Must faster than using the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC (dsa.msc) plug-in.

Ok, ‘nuff ‘puter talk. On to games (as usual). I’ve been moving through my Gamefly queue a little more now that life has settled down (sic stat: the new house is in a livable state). Don’t kill me on this one, but I actually rented Onechanbara. Yes. It was completely horrible; hence, the reason I added it to my rent queue instead of buying it. Graphics, soundtrack, cut scenes: it all sucked. The only plus? Gore. Tons and tons of bloody zombie splatter. I like to call it “stress relief”. Next! “Batman Arkham Asylum”. Now this one does not sux0rz. I’ll admit the Riddler challenges are annoying, but once you get used to how they are presented, they get pretty predictable and easy. If there weren’t so many, it’d be a Joke. Ha! Get it? Joke? … Nevermind. Just play the game. The voice actors do an astounding job (including Steven Blum, aka, Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Beebop). The graphics are schweet. Play control is… eh… But over all? R0x0rz! Oh, and Harley… H O T!! I have “Wet” as well, but it’s been sitting on the TV until I finish the Batman story mode. The demo was awesome. It was a little to reminiscent of Max Payne, but I’ll give more detail after I’ve played the full game.

Oh, and Gordon Biersch Marzen for the win! w00+!!

 

l8rz.

Site layout addition.

So I decided to add something new to the blogsite >>>>>>>>>>

(*** EDIT: I'm an idiot who doesn't even know my own page. ;) Link fixed below ***)
(oh, for those reading this through feeds, links, etc, go to http://foundprophet.blogspot.com/ to see what I'm talking about)

Well, it's not a dancing hamster, but at least you have something to do while you're rambling through the old posts. Heather Luttrell. My bartender, my GF's good friend, and one hell of a "Soul Honkey" (as she so entertainingly put it). Next time you're trolling the Atlanta area for some blues and jam, you can catch her at Blind Willies on N Highland about one Tuesday a month, regularly at Vinocity on Fri or Sat, or in her home bar at the East Point Corner Tavern.

Wow. That was a completely shameless plug, but... she's awesome, dude!



l8rz!