I guess I'm going for some kind of procrastination record, as I've gotten too lazy to even write about stuff or *gasp* review stuff. Such is life. I almost considered throwing my truck in the trash until it was fixed proper for the problem it had. I think my inability to travel in my own comfy vehicle has somehow screwed up my sense of time and place. Hence, putting stuff off.
I beat Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts to the point where it said I had beaten it, but I know better. One can reach the final challenges with 75 puzzle pieces, but there are 131 in total. My enjoyment of the game began to wane around 60, so going after twice as many wasn't going to win me over. Mind you, I like the game, but some of the missions became more frustrating than necessary for a non-Japanese game. I don't expect my balls coddled by games in general anyway. However, the idea of repeating a simple "race to the finish line" challenge ten or so times when it's as blatant as "drive in a circle really fast" gets old.
But right now I'm kind of pissed of at Xbox 360s. Cooper got Xbox Live, my ticket into getting some well-needed updates. My first trip included my console, where I successfully downloaded Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Oh boy, it's awesome. Until I bring it home and realize I forgot my only controller. So yesterday I traveled back armed with only my hard drive, believing this was the only necessity for getting assorted things off of Live. with my remaining points I purchased a costume pack for SFIV and some Samurai Shodown gamerpics. When I got home last night, apparently my downloadable content save on SFIV is "corrupted." In other words, no costumes in SFIV when I play on my own system. I've yet to test whether I A.) need access to Live to get this stuff (implausible), or B.) actually have to download the shit with my own console instead of from another's. I'd read somewhere that one needs to use their own console for keeping content, but it seemed insane. I'm not so much pissed off as I am irritated - pissed off would be if I couldn't access my $15 game. But it looks like I'm out the Microsoft equivalent of around five bucks, and that's pretty dumb. I've also yet to test my other games that received free downloads, like Guitar Hero III and Prince of Persia, but I don't expect any better results.
Still, I got SSF2THDR. Again, sweeeeeet.
On the PSP side, I bought Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? It's essentially a Mario-esque platformer starring the explosive penguins from the Disgaea series. For me, not a tough sell, especially when they pack it with an otaku soundtrack disc. Much to my dismay, Prinny is a hit-or-miss game. It takes a tried system of gameplay and basically botches it with floaty controls (good luck with jumping) and a difficulty system influenced by an in-game clock. I wasn't aware of this and became so frustrated with the mechanics I caused a overly churchy co-worker to gasp in amazement after uttering "fuck" during a break. Followed by "shit." She threatened that I'd have to put money in a cuss jar, but I informed her that it wouldn't be necessary as I was not ten years old. Hey, I don't enjoy getting pissed off at games either, lady, but as Lewis Black would relate, what AM I supposed to say? Pussyfeathers? Sassafrass? Grow up into the 21st century. There are Youtube videos where cats meow "fuck" readily available. Or if not, there should be.
I'm off-topic. Prinny would be good if NIS America continued making turn-based strategy games instead of experimenting with wanky platformers. enough said.
The weather has become more erratic the last few days. It snowed over the weekend, then melted and the sun shone for a good day, then mild hail and thunderstorms last night. As of today, it's a decent 55 degrees and sunny. I'm expecting frogs to fall out of the sky before the week's over.
So enjoy yourselves, sip something alcoholic, go download some Adam Carolla podcast, and have a wonderful whatever until I get back on here. That is, if anyone actually reads this damn thing.
-C.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
What To Do...
I'm halfway into my final semester ever in college. It's daunting and manic. I'm just wanting to be done with it all, much like I was that first week at TCC, over six years ago when I thought I could breeze through with an art degree. Right. So the question I'm asking myself now is, what am I going to do over spring break?
I went through my bouts in both SF4 and MK vs. DC. From my last blog, it's obvious which one got the most love. But all fighting games suffer from having little replay value once all unlockables have been retrieved. Oh, I could try and get some more achievements in MK, if only it didn't require such lengthy runs through the arcade more. Or I could beat my ass into submission by trying to be uber-awesome at SF4, but I'd rather pull toenails out than attempt to get a 10-pointer for doing those awful challenge mode objectives. No thanks.
So then I bought Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. For $40, it's a solid game, and I'd never owned a Banjo game before. (Long ago, I had played the first one at Cooper's house, briefly, as he was too goddamned stingy to let either Roller or me play it for long. The greedy prick now makes fun of me for having a game that he would've loved all those years ago.) What strikes me as odd is how frustrating some of the challenges are, considering the demographic it's aiming for. Gears of War this is not. And I can only stomach a couple hours at a time before I get tired of collecting puzzle pieces and otherwise fucking around trying to get the (all-too-easy) achievements. It's a good game, but somewhat derivative of the platform formula, no matter how many vehicle-based objectives it has.
I have other games I could mettle with, particularly DS games. I still haven't finished the Sonic RPG, and I bought Izuna 2 thinking that I somehow needed it. Methinks they'll get the summer treatment, especially if I go on trips.
That leaves me with the question: What next? I had heard generally mixed response to Resident Evil 5, which is almost scary as it's the first RE I've had any real interest in playing. Previous entries seemed too "peek-n-poke" for my tastes, and I'm really not into frightening shit as it is. But the enviroment of the game (Africa!) lends itself to promise more than just zombies in a spookhouse. I'd also heard remarkable praise for the new 50 Cent game, which became more of "it's not great but playable enough that you'll like how ridiculous it is." These are the kind of attitudes that led me to buy Banjo, but I'm sick of paying $60 for brand-new games so it may wait. Natually, Cooper heartily objected to my 50 Cent purchase proposal, but his reasonings were racist so I pretty much ignored him. Who knows which one will make the cut as next game. Seeing as how I'm currently counting my cash feverishly, it will likely be a while.
The next question will be whether or not I trek to Kansas for a few days. My truck is on suicide watch as it has refused to start up on two seperate occasions, both on mornings that I need to be somewhere quickly. As of now, it's in "fixed" mode, but the poor thing has certainly seen better days. But I feel after the onslaught of bad luck I've been stepping in lately, I could use the trip.
Despite the bad luck, good fortune seems to set in at random times. Imagine my shock when a fresh copy of Minghags showed up yesterday at my house. This was a movie I had waited a year for, thinking it was merely a fluke to kill my boner. And now I have the sequel to my favorite movie, Haggard. So, is it worth it? Yes. Is it as good as Haggard? Well, yes and no. As it is, Minghags is about as ridiculous as Haggard with a bigger budget. The only thing I can solemnly gripe about is that they had intended to make it PG-13 at one point, and it sometimes shows. I could've stood to hear more swearing and scatalogical humor, and the absence of Raab Himself shows. I find this unfair since I've set Haggard on such a high bar to surpass. The greatness certainly outweighs the meh, though, as people like Mark the Bagger and Lord Bottaro make welcome additions to the main cast of Bam's flick. But with the recent turns that Bam, Dunn, and Dico have made with their lives, I doubt we'll ever see another movie like Minghags or Haggard. And Where The #$&% Is Santa? doesn't exactly count since it's more of a glorified, 90-minute Viva La Bam episode than a film. Not that it's bad, but it's not the same.
So enjoy yourselves and have a fun, safe spring break. Go look online for Adam Carolla's podcast, because that's the best thing to hit the 'Net in a while. And don't shit the bed.
-C.
I went through my bouts in both SF4 and MK vs. DC. From my last blog, it's obvious which one got the most love. But all fighting games suffer from having little replay value once all unlockables have been retrieved. Oh, I could try and get some more achievements in MK, if only it didn't require such lengthy runs through the arcade more. Or I could beat my ass into submission by trying to be uber-awesome at SF4, but I'd rather pull toenails out than attempt to get a 10-pointer for doing those awful challenge mode objectives. No thanks.
So then I bought Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. For $40, it's a solid game, and I'd never owned a Banjo game before. (Long ago, I had played the first one at Cooper's house, briefly, as he was too goddamned stingy to let either Roller or me play it for long. The greedy prick now makes fun of me for having a game that he would've loved all those years ago.) What strikes me as odd is how frustrating some of the challenges are, considering the demographic it's aiming for. Gears of War this is not. And I can only stomach a couple hours at a time before I get tired of collecting puzzle pieces and otherwise fucking around trying to get the (all-too-easy) achievements. It's a good game, but somewhat derivative of the platform formula, no matter how many vehicle-based objectives it has.
I have other games I could mettle with, particularly DS games. I still haven't finished the Sonic RPG, and I bought Izuna 2 thinking that I somehow needed it. Methinks they'll get the summer treatment, especially if I go on trips.
That leaves me with the question: What next? I had heard generally mixed response to Resident Evil 5, which is almost scary as it's the first RE I've had any real interest in playing. Previous entries seemed too "peek-n-poke" for my tastes, and I'm really not into frightening shit as it is. But the enviroment of the game (Africa!) lends itself to promise more than just zombies in a spookhouse. I'd also heard remarkable praise for the new 50 Cent game, which became more of "it's not great but playable enough that you'll like how ridiculous it is." These are the kind of attitudes that led me to buy Banjo, but I'm sick of paying $60 for brand-new games so it may wait. Natually, Cooper heartily objected to my 50 Cent purchase proposal, but his reasonings were racist so I pretty much ignored him. Who knows which one will make the cut as next game. Seeing as how I'm currently counting my cash feverishly, it will likely be a while.
The next question will be whether or not I trek to Kansas for a few days. My truck is on suicide watch as it has refused to start up on two seperate occasions, both on mornings that I need to be somewhere quickly. As of now, it's in "fixed" mode, but the poor thing has certainly seen better days. But I feel after the onslaught of bad luck I've been stepping in lately, I could use the trip.
Despite the bad luck, good fortune seems to set in at random times. Imagine my shock when a fresh copy of Minghags showed up yesterday at my house. This was a movie I had waited a year for, thinking it was merely a fluke to kill my boner. And now I have the sequel to my favorite movie, Haggard. So, is it worth it? Yes. Is it as good as Haggard? Well, yes and no. As it is, Minghags is about as ridiculous as Haggard with a bigger budget. The only thing I can solemnly gripe about is that they had intended to make it PG-13 at one point, and it sometimes shows. I could've stood to hear more swearing and scatalogical humor, and the absence of Raab Himself shows. I find this unfair since I've set Haggard on such a high bar to surpass. The greatness certainly outweighs the meh, though, as people like Mark the Bagger and Lord Bottaro make welcome additions to the main cast of Bam's flick. But with the recent turns that Bam, Dunn, and Dico have made with their lives, I doubt we'll ever see another movie like Minghags or Haggard. And Where The #$&% Is Santa? doesn't exactly count since it's more of a glorified, 90-minute Viva La Bam episode than a film. Not that it's bad, but it's not the same.
So enjoy yourselves and have a fun, safe spring break. Go look online for Adam Carolla's podcast, because that's the best thing to hit the 'Net in a while. And don't shit the bed.
-C.
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