Madness
I have a few things to talk about, so this one might get a little long. so, let's get started!
First off: Infamous. I picked it up yesterday morning, played around with it a bit, but didn't get too deep in. I do know this: I'm excited to play some more. My first impressions leave a few small complaints, but nothing major. the first is that the in-engine cut scenes leave lots to be desired. the character moments during these scenes are very stiff and jerky, they remind of psychonauts. Also with the animation: while the game play animations are smooth and nice looking, they are very animalistic and I wonder if sucker punch just recycled a lot of animations from sly cooper? I can definitely see that being the case both with in game and cut scene animations. the game looks fine otherwise, and the non-engine cut scenes are in this really cool comic book style art that i just want to watch over and over. I'm also not totally sold on the story so far. I mean terrorists? Can't we come up with something a little less... bush administration? gamespot promises the story is excellent, so i guess I'll have to spend more time with it to know for sure. Aside from these complaints the game is very good, and it is fun, which is all that really matters in the end, right?
speaking of gamespot, i saw this on their homepage, and thought "dayum, poison ivy is fucking hotttt!" haha, here ya go:
Now, just for fun, I was sent a series of random questions, and asked to answer them on my blog.
*What was your favorite TV show when you were in grade school? power rangers, of course.
*If you could live in any home on a television series, what would it be? the x-mansion would be pretty wicked.
*What's your favorite Web site? I have a few I haunt pretty regularly. Facebook, The Superficial, and Giant Bomb come quickly to mind.
*What was your most recent trip of more than 50 miles? 2 Wednesdays ago, I went to Grand Forks to visit my bestie before she moved.
*What's the best costume you've ever worn? I'm pretty proud of Marge Simpson when i was in middle school.
*What's your least favorite word? I don't really have any words that really bother me, but I'm not a fan of the word 'cock'
*What's your favorite infomercial? I don't really watch TV, since I don't have cable. but the snuggie ones are always ridiculous.
*What is the worst job you've ever had? Definitely working in a call center for NY times. I didn't hate it from day 1, the training was OK. but the customers were all so crabby about something so trivial.
*What is the dumbest purchase you've ever made? if you mean the biggest waste of money, that would probably be my second ps3. even after selling my first one i ended up spending far more on a backward compatible ps3 than just buying a new ps2. if you mean the lamest thing I've spent money on, there have been many, but I would have to say magic cards. I never got too deep into that, but lets face it, they're lame.
so there ya have it. If anyone would like to ask me more random/serious/whatever questions feel free, I'm pretty much an open book, but i won't answer anything too vulgar in such public forum. I'll also probably have another post coming up, because I did cut some things out because they seemed out of place/made the entry too long. so until then...
~Ben
First off: Infamous. I picked it up yesterday morning, played around with it a bit, but didn't get too deep in. I do know this: I'm excited to play some more. My first impressions leave a few small complaints, but nothing major. the first is that the in-engine cut scenes leave lots to be desired. the character moments during these scenes are very stiff and jerky, they remind of psychonauts. Also with the animation: while the game play animations are smooth and nice looking, they are very animalistic and I wonder if sucker punch just recycled a lot of animations from sly cooper? I can definitely see that being the case both with in game and cut scene animations. the game looks fine otherwise, and the non-engine cut scenes are in this really cool comic book style art that i just want to watch over and over. I'm also not totally sold on the story so far. I mean terrorists? Can't we come up with something a little less... bush administration? gamespot promises the story is excellent, so i guess I'll have to spend more time with it to know for sure. Aside from these complaints the game is very good, and it is fun, which is all that really matters in the end, right?
speaking of gamespot, i saw this on their homepage, and thought "dayum, poison ivy is fucking hotttt!" haha, here ya go:
Now, just for fun, I was sent a series of random questions, and asked to answer them on my blog.
*What was your favorite TV show when you were in grade school? power rangers, of course.
*If you could live in any home on a television series, what would it be? the x-mansion would be pretty wicked.
*What's your favorite Web site? I have a few I haunt pretty regularly. Facebook, The Superficial, and Giant Bomb come quickly to mind.
*What was your most recent trip of more than 50 miles? 2 Wednesdays ago, I went to Grand Forks to visit my bestie before she moved.
*What's the best costume you've ever worn? I'm pretty proud of Marge Simpson when i was in middle school.
*What's your least favorite word? I don't really have any words that really bother me, but I'm not a fan of the word 'cock'
*What's your favorite infomercial? I don't really watch TV, since I don't have cable. but the snuggie ones are always ridiculous.
*What is the worst job you've ever had? Definitely working in a call center for NY times. I didn't hate it from day 1, the training was OK. but the customers were all so crabby about something so trivial.
*What is the dumbest purchase you've ever made? if you mean the biggest waste of money, that would probably be my second ps3. even after selling my first one i ended up spending far more on a backward compatible ps3 than just buying a new ps2. if you mean the lamest thing I've spent money on, there have been many, but I would have to say magic cards. I never got too deep into that, but lets face it, they're lame.
so there ya have it. If anyone would like to ask me more random/serious/whatever questions feel free, I'm pretty much an open book, but i won't answer anything too vulgar in such public forum. I'll also probably have another post coming up, because I did cut some things out because they seemed out of place/made the entry too long. so until then...
~Ben
Blog blog blog!
I'm going to attempt to NOT write about video games today. I doubt I'll succeed, we'll see.
First of all, my birthday is soon! yaaayyyyyy! I love my birthday. If anyone wants to come celebrate, well... go ahead! We'll be going to dinner, bar hopping, and partying at the brothel, and since I like attention, everyone is welcome, but obviously minors can't come bar hopping, and there won't be anyone at the brothel in the mean time.. sooo i guess if you wanna join us after the bar, that's cool. also dinner is open too. I'm so excited! I hope its a good one :)
other news: I'm officially moved into the brothel. Its pretty rad. Kristen is still moving in and Karla's away most of the summer, so right now its just AJ and I. Its so weird to be living there. I still kinda feel like a guest, but even when I didn't live there I pretty much acted like I did so I guess its not that weird, ha. I couldn't get my box spring up the stairs so right now I just have a mattress. It's so ghetto and trashy. My father may be bringing me a split box spring from home when he visits me (FOR MY BIRTHDAY! -- I also hope my mom can come)
Dating: Still single. not that that's anywhere near news anymore. I have been talking to/meeting lots of new guys lately. so we'll see if anything comes of that.
My new obsession: Glee! Its this new fox show that I'm really psyched about. the pilot is on hulu, but unfortunately, the rest of the season doesn't start till the fall.
I could talk about inFamous (the demo was good) but I'll wait till the game comes out on tuesday.
Bisies! ~Ben
First of all, my birthday is soon! yaaayyyyyy! I love my birthday. If anyone wants to come celebrate, well... go ahead! We'll be going to dinner, bar hopping, and partying at the brothel, and since I like attention, everyone is welcome, but obviously minors can't come bar hopping, and there won't be anyone at the brothel in the mean time.. sooo i guess if you wanna join us after the bar, that's cool. also dinner is open too. I'm so excited! I hope its a good one :)
other news: I'm officially moved into the brothel. Its pretty rad. Kristen is still moving in and Karla's away most of the summer, so right now its just AJ and I. Its so weird to be living there. I still kinda feel like a guest, but even when I didn't live there I pretty much acted like I did so I guess its not that weird, ha. I couldn't get my box spring up the stairs so right now I just have a mattress. It's so ghetto and trashy. My father may be bringing me a split box spring from home when he visits me (FOR MY BIRTHDAY! -- I also hope my mom can come)
Dating: Still single. not that that's anywhere near news anymore. I have been talking to/meeting lots of new guys lately. so we'll see if anything comes of that.
My new obsession: Glee! Its this new fox show that I'm really psyched about. the pilot is on hulu, but unfortunately, the rest of the season doesn't start till the fall.
I could talk about inFamous (the demo was good) but I'll wait till the game comes out on tuesday.
Bisies! ~Ben
weeeee!!!
I have a problem, and that is I own a ps3. Aside from the fact that it is a very expensive system to own, I want to hate it, but I just can't help loving it. every night. The exact the contra positive is true with my wii.
The problem i have with loving the wii is, of course, the games. or lack thereof I should say. the hardware is fascinating and fun to play with but there's only so much you can take of wii sports. there are some great games on the wii, some of which i haven't played yet (super Mario galaxy, world of goo). But the vast majority of wii games are shovelware, mass produced to make a quick buck off of the wii's popularity. Not only that, but there are very few games for the wii that are good. With only 8 games having scores of 90 or more 3 of which are ports and one is wiiware. its great that a wiiware game can be that good, but its kind of sad when a budget indie game can beat out most of the disc-based games. The other 4 are first- or second- party games, which, lets face it, Nintendo has pretty much become a shrine to itself. Most of the great games on nintendo systems from N64 onward have been developed by nintendo or one if its subsidiary companies. The other end of the spectrum shows almost 100 games with scores of less than 50
This being said, I will gladly lend my voice to the choir singing to nintendo: Where's the games?!
~Ben
Update: Perhaps I should explain my love/hate for PS3: in a nutshell it represents everything I hate about the gaming community. the least of which is not the 'graphics over gameplay' mentality that too many people have. Also the ps3 has a ridiculous amount of shooters, which I'm horrible at (especially the first-person variety). But looking at numbers alone: 12 games with scores of 90+ and only about 30 with scores of less than 50.
The problem i have with loving the wii is, of course, the games. or lack thereof I should say. the hardware is fascinating and fun to play with but there's only so much you can take of wii sports. there are some great games on the wii, some of which i haven't played yet (super Mario galaxy, world of goo). But the vast majority of wii games are shovelware, mass produced to make a quick buck off of the wii's popularity. Not only that, but there are very few games for the wii that are good. With only 8 games having scores of 90 or more 3 of which are ports and one is wiiware. its great that a wiiware game can be that good, but its kind of sad when a budget indie game can beat out most of the disc-based games. The other 4 are first- or second- party games, which, lets face it, Nintendo has pretty much become a shrine to itself. Most of the great games on nintendo systems from N64 onward have been developed by nintendo or one if its subsidiary companies. The other end of the spectrum shows almost 100 games with scores of less than 50
This being said, I will gladly lend my voice to the choir singing to nintendo: Where's the games?!
~Ben
Update: Perhaps I should explain my love/hate for PS3: in a nutshell it represents everything I hate about the gaming community. the least of which is not the 'graphics over gameplay' mentality that too many people have. Also the ps3 has a ridiculous amount of shooters, which I'm horrible at (especially the first-person variety). But looking at numbers alone: 12 games with scores of 90+ and only about 30 with scores of less than 50.
backtracking
Today I was reading old blogs of mine. Its really weird doing this, and seeing how I've changed and grown. It's also surreal to remember stuff that I'd otherwise long forgotten.
One of those blogs (and I've already tweeted this) had this thing from memegen, basically you just fill in different fields and it randomly generates results based on certain algorithms or something... so if you type the same thing you always get the same result, but even one character different (including capitalization since they are different on a character map), you get different results. Anyways there was one that all I did was put in my first name and it said my career was going to be a graphic designer. This is really weird reading that because at the time i wanted to be a paleontologist, but now I'm going to go into graphic design.
I've also came to the conclusion that I really want to get back into dating again. I haven't really been adverse to the idea, but nor have I put any effort forth. so yea, we'll see where that develops
One of those blogs (and I've already tweeted this) had this thing from memegen, basically you just fill in different fields and it randomly generates results based on certain algorithms or something... so if you type the same thing you always get the same result, but even one character different (including capitalization since they are different on a character map), you get different results. Anyways there was one that all I did was put in my first name and it said my career was going to be a graphic designer. This is really weird reading that because at the time i wanted to be a paleontologist, but now I'm going to go into graphic design.
I've also came to the conclusion that I really want to get back into dating again. I haven't really been adverse to the idea, but nor have I put any effort forth. so yea, we'll see where that develops
Deth
Death is strange when you aren't sure what you believe. Today was my grandma's funeral, its the closest I've ever had to death. It's tragic, but I mostly feel a strange emptiness more than sadness.
I was planning this entry on the drive back home for the funeral, but now I don't even know what to write. This is further complicated by the death of my former neighbor, whom I used to play with on the daily when I was a kid. I'm at a total loss of what to say.
RIP Grandma, I love you, and you will be missed.
RIP Casey, you always were a great friend.
I was planning this entry on the drive back home for the funeral, but now I don't even know what to write. This is further complicated by the death of my former neighbor, whom I used to play with on the daily when I was a kid. I'm at a total loss of what to say.
RIP Grandma, I love you, and you will be missed.
RIP Casey, you always were a great friend.
Lots of things.
Since I haven't made a post in a while, and I actually have many things I have wanted to talk about this might get a little long and somewhat disjointed. I've divided everything up with bullets so if the first few words don't catch your interest, skip it! let's get started!
· The new facebook: Facebook recently underwent another major overhaul, and I hate it! Now, I'm not one of those people who hates change just because its different, I actually have reasons to back it up. Last time facebook made a big change a lot of people were upset, but they were only upset because they weren't used to it, and after some time came to realize it was more organized.
The latest incarnation of Facebook just isn't very functional. It reminds me of twitter, which works great for twitter with facebook you have this scrolling page of status updates dotted with quick mentions of other points of interest such as notes or wall posts and everything else such as groups, events, and photos shoved to the side. It really is a mess and makes it hard to find anything specific. I now find myself going on facebook to check my notifications and messages instead of my usual random clicking about in search of points of interest.
· Totally unrelated, Metal Gear Solid 4: First of all, this is going to be somewhat of a review, so if you haven't played it and plan on it, skip this section because there will be spoilers. Secondly, if you aren't afraid of spoilers, read some reviews. Now after reading those (or maybe just skimming) every bit of praise for the game is true. Its a tasty little morsel that i fully recommend to all gamers. So instead of repeating what they have written, just know that I fully agree with them and am going to be bringing up some negative points.
First of all, and beautiful as the graphics are some scenes are ruined by some minor flaws. cast shadows are often jagged and jittery which can prove very distracting, especially in the final scene in the graveyard (note: this may or may not be due to playing the game on my not-so-big SD TV). Also water effects have come a disappointingly short distance since the days of ps1. the spraying and splashing around a large ship is about on par with the FMV scenes in final fantasy 8, which were simplistic at best. aside from those details the game has probably the best graphics I've ever seen.
[spoiler city ahead] Another point, and this is mentioned in the is the game can be confusing to newcomers, which is partially true. I never played a MGS game prior to this, so the impact of some of the scenes was totally lost on me, and the political nature of some of the dialogue confused me, though this is mainly because politics in general confuse me. That aside there are other story points that are just ridiculous. Raiden should have died about 3 different times yet is alive AND has both arms at the end despite losing both at some point. Also with Raiden, please explain how he single-handedly stopped a charging submarine. Various other characters should probably have died within the game, especially snake and maybe Meryl/Johnathan. Snake's survival after crawling along a radiated hallway by some miracle drug which not only kept him alive but gave him the strength to do some serious kung fu. Anyways, I'm ranting now, but just be prepared for some serious WTF moments with this game. Also the final scene really drags on.
· Also in the gaming realm, I just want to touch on the concept of games without a HUD. Dead space (which I haven't played out of fear instilled upon me by the reactions of the gaming community) totally lacks a HUD, instead all the information you need is displayed on your character its a really neat idea that certainly improves immersion factor, but I feel that important bits of information may be missing. Another game that uses a similar concept is Afro Samurai. This, rather than lending to immersion, helps more to boost the art factor. the closer to death you are, the bloodier you (or your enemies) become. also a simple jewel dangling from Afro's sword tells you about focus gauge and experience. this is a really interesting concept that definitely won't work with all games, but I still hope to see more of in the future.
*whew* still with me? I think that's about everything I wanted to write about for now. so until next time...
~Ben
(PS. I know my grammar and punctuation probably sucks here, but its too much work to fix it now.)
· The new facebook: Facebook recently underwent another major overhaul, and I hate it! Now, I'm not one of those people who hates change just because its different, I actually have reasons to back it up. Last time facebook made a big change a lot of people were upset, but they were only upset because they weren't used to it, and after some time came to realize it was more organized.
The latest incarnation of Facebook just isn't very functional. It reminds me of twitter, which works great for twitter with facebook you have this scrolling page of status updates dotted with quick mentions of other points of interest such as notes or wall posts and everything else such as groups, events, and photos shoved to the side. It really is a mess and makes it hard to find anything specific. I now find myself going on facebook to check my notifications and messages instead of my usual random clicking about in search of points of interest.
· Totally unrelated, Metal Gear Solid 4: First of all, this is going to be somewhat of a review, so if you haven't played it and plan on it, skip this section because there will be spoilers. Secondly, if you aren't afraid of spoilers, read some reviews. Now after reading those (or maybe just skimming) every bit of praise for the game is true. Its a tasty little morsel that i fully recommend to all gamers. So instead of repeating what they have written, just know that I fully agree with them and am going to be bringing up some negative points.
First of all, and beautiful as the graphics are some scenes are ruined by some minor flaws. cast shadows are often jagged and jittery which can prove very distracting, especially in the final scene in the graveyard (note: this may or may not be due to playing the game on my not-so-big SD TV). Also water effects have come a disappointingly short distance since the days of ps1. the spraying and splashing around a large ship is about on par with the FMV scenes in final fantasy 8, which were simplistic at best. aside from those details the game has probably the best graphics I've ever seen.
[spoiler city ahead] Another point, and this is mentioned in the is the game can be confusing to newcomers, which is partially true. I never played a MGS game prior to this, so the impact of some of the scenes was totally lost on me, and the political nature of some of the dialogue confused me, though this is mainly because politics in general confuse me. That aside there are other story points that are just ridiculous. Raiden should have died about 3 different times yet is alive AND has both arms at the end despite losing both at some point. Also with Raiden, please explain how he single-handedly stopped a charging submarine. Various other characters should probably have died within the game, especially snake and maybe Meryl/Johnathan. Snake's survival after crawling along a radiated hallway by some miracle drug which not only kept him alive but gave him the strength to do some serious kung fu. Anyways, I'm ranting now, but just be prepared for some serious WTF moments with this game. Also the final scene really drags on.
· Also in the gaming realm, I just want to touch on the concept of games without a HUD. Dead space (which I haven't played out of fear instilled upon me by the reactions of the gaming community) totally lacks a HUD, instead all the information you need is displayed on your character its a really neat idea that certainly improves immersion factor, but I feel that important bits of information may be missing. Another game that uses a similar concept is Afro Samurai. This, rather than lending to immersion, helps more to boost the art factor. the closer to death you are, the bloodier you (or your enemies) become. also a simple jewel dangling from Afro's sword tells you about focus gauge and experience. this is a really interesting concept that definitely won't work with all games, but I still hope to see more of in the future.
*whew* still with me? I think that's about everything I wanted to write about for now. so until next time...
~Ben
(PS. I know my grammar and punctuation probably sucks here, but its too much work to fix it now.)
Disney Birthday!
So a couple weeks ago Samantha and I were talking about how fun a trip to Disney World would be. Tonight I decided to research costs, options, flights, and all that fun stuff. I realized I could totally afford it, and it is now more a question of if my friends can. I'm really excited and hope it all works out! I also need to figure out who I'm bringing with, its not like it would be easy to get a huge group to go down to Florida and party with me in Disney world.
~Ben
~Ben
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