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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

EA gets PS3 sales...more than 360


Wow. Where the hell is this PS3 spurt coming from? Will it be short lived?

A couple of good games come out, but the console isn't any better than it was last year. A clunky unfun mess, that desperately needs Home and a new interface. We did finally get rumble controllers at least. Without Final Fantasy as my end-all for the PS3...I'm not sure what to look for now. I'll give Killzone 2, MGS4, and Resistance 2 a try, even if I'm not a fan of their predecessors. What else is it?

I found it funny; a recent Game Informer preview said, "Sixaxis integration is thankfully sparse..." (Issue 183, page 62) It must be accepted that Sony's version of motion control was silly, and used (and over-used) inappropriately by many developers.

Maybe Blu-ray is getting noticed more? I'm still waiting for that perfect Blu-ray movie to blow me away, and validate my 1080p purchase. Suggestions? The best looking HD flick I've seen to date is Batman: Begins...but that was a download rental from Xbox Live. Maybe I'll skip DVD Transformers and give it a whirl?

Sunday, July 27, 2008

My Lulu tat and my daughters Rikku tat

My Lulu tattoo is finally finished after about 3 months of healing and three sessions. It's quite a looker, and I'm really happy with it.

While at my "surrogate daughter's" baby shower, I decided we should get a side-by-side picture of our FFX tats. Well, hers is the FFX-2 Rikku, but whatever. Maybe I'll just say FFX-2 since Lulu stayed the same in both. Anyone have a Yuna tat so we can have all the girls from the original covered? No dice, Paine. LOL

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Quickie Comment: UMD on TV

My bedroom is my project for the next couple of hours. While sorting through the piles of rubbish from moving, I decided to plug my PSP into my 26" TV and watch Resident Evil. I actually don't think I've tried this before; I think I've only played Crisis Core on the bigger screen.

In my opinion, this performs just fine. Maybe if I was playing it on a 50" screen it would look poor, but it seems to be slightly less than DVD quality. And since I'm happy with DVD quality, I think any doubts can be laid to rest.

Too bad the UMD format doesn't have much of a future.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

In and out!

I'm about to do the personal unthinkable: go to the theaters! Such may seem normal, but very rarely will I watch a flick anywhere (even at home).

While waiting for my friends to round up their kids to the babysitters, I noticed that I had some extremely outdated advertising on my page. Jericho, SVR, and Drawn to Life? Holy crap those were released long ago. They were the last trio of games I was able to review and then life changes hit. Anyway, they are gone, and I hope to get back in the swing of things and get some new "sponsors".

To start, it seems that I'm going to have to chop down my RSS feeds. N4G is a prime candidate for the chopping block since they essentially regurgitate direct pulls from other sites. PSP and NintendoWiiFanboy are next; if the news is interesting enough, then Joystiq or Kotaku will cover it anyway. TeamXbox can go too; they really don't offer much. I just get way too many articles, and probably a third of them are repeats.

Hopefully I'll be catching up on games in the next couple of weeks. Between various home upgrades, the Lulu tattoo, and my dental implants, I'm going to be poor and unable to go anywhere anyway. Phew!

Why are you buying a PS3?

So I hear people are jumping to PS3. What I can't figure out is why? I guess Metal Gear Solid, but that's only one game. Even if it is a "ten", I can't say I understand why one would prefer MGS to Splinter Cell. Hiding in boxes and barrels just seems a little too fantastic for me, but maybe they made it fun this time. When MGS4 hits the bargain bin, I'll pick it up. The first 3 failed to capture my attention in all honesty, and I TRIED to get into them.

Okay, I give in. I bought the PS3 just for Final Fantasy XIII. Unfortunately, it turns out that was a mistake. Maybe many felt the same way about MGS. I mean, they did make 4 of them, so the game has to mean something.

Still, Blu-ray is still unimpressive and I find myself continuing to stick to DVD's. It was odd, but I saw an older gentleman purchasing 2 stand-alone Blu-ray players which had me scratching my head. Why not just buy PS3's? Well, I bet the stand alone player would be a hell of a lot easier to use than the PS3, so I rescind the question.

At this point, I can't say now is the time to jump on any of the consoles. The 360 has the best over-all library (in quality and quantity), and that will probably continue to be the case. However, summer isn't really treating it well for that. The Wii...well, I don't know what the hell it is anymore. I'm over it, I know that much. The PS3 isn't a totally awful console, but it has to be the least enjoyable for me. I haven't even bothered to get the last couple of updates, and the one game I was waiting for will be on my preferred console now. Sure, Killzone 2 and Resistance 2 are coming...but did the prequels really warrant any excitement for continuation? I can't say yes to that without lying.

Sony, just get an ALIENS VS PREDATOR exclusive and I'll be happy. LOL

Monday, July 21, 2008

Emails sent, so I'm back.


Talk about a sigh of relief.

I just sent my parting emails to the other blogging sites I was poorly writing for. The idea of working for someone else in the blogging world seemed fantastic at first. Honesty strikes; I had hoped it would help me get to bigger and better things.

Reality counters; I'm in my career field with Information Technology/Systems. I do love writing, and wish I could do it more often. But until it can be a paying venture, I cannot sink a lot of time into it anymore. My new home-life and upcoming demands at work are going to be too time-devouring for me to accomplish anything prominent in digital journalism.

So, it's time to be reabsorbed by my old roots. Blogging here isn't a job. It's fun. And that fun comes with arguing with ridiculous fanboys without reservation. Hell, I've still got plenty of 360 fanboy tendencies, even though the previous vigor for such things has dwindled to mere embers. Now that it's obvious that all three consoles have their place, it should bring about some evolved discussions on the issue.

Or as usual, this place could continue to be the Internet. Flame on, I guess. LOL

Dead Rising Wii looks awful, Kicked off EGN?

Check out Wii's Dead Rising screenshots.

I really enjoyed Dead Rising, and it saddens me to see it in it's sickly state on the Wii port.

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I noticed today that I no longer have EGN or whatever they were called at this point on my blogger listing. Probably because I haven't written anything for them in ages. The problem is that I can't just focus on Xbox 360. The last couple of crappy articles I've written here have actually been about the other consoles. The next batch will probably be about the 360, but oh well.

Honestly, it was kind of hard to deal with expectations from a non-paying group. It's not their fault, they are young and probably trying really hard. I'm sure some upstarts would be happy to meet their expectations. I'm just not compatible with them right now. In the beginning, I put a concerted effort into blogging for them, but aside from a few third party comments, and praises on my writing, I didn't get much out of it. As a result, I've not heard anything from M80 in a while.

This site is the place I need to be, unless of course I get a part-time paying job at blogging. My gaming motivation is still in recovery mode, as I have several fiascoes at my house to deal with. If anyone from hookedgamers or EGN is reading this, I plan on talking to you shortly. I apologize for not being able to commit, but I really need to stay solo for now and move at my own pace.

For those getting into vg blogging, I would take a lot of care in writing for multiple sites. It is extremely difficult, especially if blogging isn't your source of income. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try if you're motivated though. Just make sure you don't piss off the girlfriend or wife in the process. LOL

Thursday, July 17, 2008

E3 disappoints....a lot.



Penny Arcade's comic sums it up.

Monday, July 14, 2008

My PS3 is officially worthless. FFXIII on 360!



A thousand little fanboys did the wave about 10 minutes ago. Square-Enix revealed that they are getting smart and putting FFXIII on the 360. That's a big blow to Sony, who has had a monopoly on the main FF titles (Crystal Chronicles and Tactics don't count) since FF7.

Anyone who has read my opinion of the smashed black burrito (aka: PS3) knows that FFXIII was the ONLY reason I purchased a PS3 last year. And then this news comes and makes me realize that I REALLY DID waste $600 on a worthless PITA console. It's a double-edged sword to an extent, but I'll take the fact that both versions will be released simultaneously as a consolation prize.

[via Joystiq]

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

The End?

I have this feeling that my video game blogging days are coming to close. This blog really started out of boredom, and to appease that itch I've had to write all these years. Unfortunately, it ended up being something I just threw out there. It came to a point where I was just doing it to do it, and the posts have become more sparse as of late. My interest in gaming news is still there, but the concept of keeping up with the blogging regulars just isn't happening here. I went from reading dozens of articles the day they were released. Now I "get back to them" 1-4 weeks later and delete about half of them without reading them at all.

Another issue: My drive to play games has dwindled quite a bit. There are a ton of great games out there right now, but I just don't find myself making time to play them. All I can muster is Rock Band as of late; and I'm really just using it to practice singing. Even that's getting old since they never seem to release any songs I care about.

It could just be because I'm more interested in turning my house into a home. Without everything in place, it seems more like a half-breed shed. It's not that it's messy, but I don't have everything I need, and there is quite a bit of maintenance tasks and upgrades to wrap my hands around.

I've always been into gaming, so I'm sure it will come back. Just not soon.

At least my Lulu tattoo is coming along quite nicely! LOL

lu-ra part 2