I switched gamespot accounts because.... I really don't use the tag 'paranoiasurviva' anymore. So, would you kindly send ZOnikJJ a friend request... that would be great!

HOOORAAAAAY!

Teh w00t!

One of the arcades in my area updated their Guitar Freaks and DrumMania to V4 RockXRock!!

This easily takes off my concern for not having sufficient funding for Rock Band next month, since I'll probably betting my fill with Guitar Freaks and DrumMania two games. I was kinda hoping that the people at the Mesa Golfland (the best arcade in Arizona) would just order a new DrumMania machine entirely, so we could use all the features of V4, but oh well; double rock is better than old rock either way.

Even though I'm stoked about the new games, it kinda sucks that I'll be seeing more fat + smelly people there playing. *sigh*

Damn nigerneys.

In other news, I'm finally finishing up BioShock, since I'm starting to lose interest in Halo 3. If by the end of this week, I don't get the rest of the single player achievements, I'll probably stop going for them altogether. I have a plan to finish up the multiplayer achievements though .

Also, The Orange Box hits store shelves in a couple days. I'll be sure to pick that one up after my classes. TF2 looks too fun to miss!

I was suspended these past 7 days because... someone found one of my secret racist comments in old-ass news comment boxes. Oh well. It's a good thing I had Halo 3 the entire time to keep me busy.

Here it is.

Man, this trailer has me so hyped for MGS4. It has racism, comedy, and lots of action.... not to mention is makes some new references to what the story for this game is going to bring us.

Anyhow, it is to my understanding that Old Snake really isn't the star of Metal Gear Solid 4. It will either be a different Snake (the young one seen getting pooped on perhaps) or possibly a new character helping Old Snake out. The reason for this is because Kojima has been known to mislead fans into thinking one way, and bringing them to realize it is more or less the complete opposite in the fullness of time.

Example 1: MGS2.... no one knew about Raiden until it the game came out, and he ended up being the main character of the game.

Example 2: Kojima for the past couple years has been harking on how he can't put rumble in his game and his "rumble" guy on his team has nothing to do. Of course now with the revelation of the DualShock 3, Metal Gear Solid 4 turns out to have rumble support (as seen in the TGS Live demo station) so obviously Kojima's "rumble guy" has been working on something this entire time.

Another reason contributing to my belief that Old Snake is not the star of the show is that during gameplay, the name of Snake according to his health bar is "Old Snake." Now this may or may not turn out to be something of importance, but I believe that this is hinting that you'll be playing as a different Snake.

Just in time for the Halo 3 launch, my Xbox 360 starts to act up. First it just started freezing up when during a game, but now, I am actually getting the red ring of light every so often. There is no way that the Xbox has already overheated since I just started playing. I noticed that as soon as I changed my video resolution to 1080p, my Xbox started to slow down and that's when the game freezes started happening. I put it back to 720p but I have still experienced my game freezing up a few times now. I hope that this problem just goes away on its own. I want to play Halo 3.

Ok, so here's my plan for the remainder of this month and October as far as games are concerned.

September 13 - September 24: Finish up playing BioShock and Gran Turismo 4

September 25 - October 25: Play Halo 3 exclusively

October 26 - October 30: Rent and play through Tomb Raider Anniversary (Xbox 360)

It's much too hard to play out November and December since not only will there be Black Friday shopping and tons of new games I know I'll be suckered into buying.... There is always Halo 3 to go back to.... and I expect my classes to get tougher during that time. I plan on getting Final Fantasy XII and Rock Band sometime during November, it just depends on how comfortable I feel with the workload from school and the amount of money I have.

I am sure though that I am buying a Wii before December 3rd.... probably a Black Friday purchase (which was the original plan last year actually.... but I somehow ended up with an Xbox 360 instead that broke on me within the third day).

A couple of awesome old school games are to be re-released for Xbox Live Arcade! I expect each game to be 800 points each, but I'll be sure to buy both. Ikaruga is the hardest classic shooter I've ever played in my life, but even though I continually got owned (even on co-op with a friend), it was still hard to put down. Microsoft says it will be released soon, but I hope their definition of "soon" isn't early 2008.

yes

So I guess the four hour Xbox Live downtime was just for maintenance. There isn't any update yet.

No xVid for 360 yet.

As most of you already know, HD-DVD rips have already hit the massive pipelines of bittorent. With China now adopting a HD DVD-compatible format as national standard, I guess we could see a spike in total HD-DVD player sales as well as a spike in amount of pirated high definition content.

If the HD-DVD format becomes the standard for pirated media, Blu-Ray could be in a lot of trouble. It's hard to tell how movie production companies are going to react to this. It would make sense for them to stay Blu-Ray since (at least to my knowledge) the blu-ray format has not been cracked. But, if the dominant format in Asia leans towards HD-DVD, corporations might have second thoughts. Eh, who knows what will happen in the next couple years.

Anyway, for those who don't know, most of Asia is plagued with pirated movies, games, and music. It is common to find local shops that will modify your Playstation 2 to play burned copies of games, which is why the Playstation 2 is the dominant platform in Asia. Of course, no game consoles support HD-DVD as a distribution medium, so this doesn't really affect the gaming market.

This makes the format war more interesting. A few months back, I didn't think that HD-DVD had a chance, but now I'm not sure which camp will win. I'll probably end up with a PS3 by the next of 2008, so just moving up to this generation's optical disk format won't be much of a problem. It's just both camps have their pros and cons, and eventually, I'll have both. I just wish that the two camps could have just compromised on one format to avoid this mess. Just look how nicely the DVD format turned out.

Watch it. It owns.

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The more I try to get back into BioShock, the more I want to play the games I have left in the back of my cabinet. I started playing Gran Turismo 4 again (it still looks like crap in 1080i on my new TV), and I also got Super Puzzle Fighter HD Remix for Xbox Live Arcade last night. It also doesn't help that I am still practicing up on IIDX skills with the LunaticRave sim program on my laptop. I should have just waited a bit to buy it. Man, if I'm having this much trouble getting through my new games as it is.... I'll be a wreck when the Fall season really kicks in. I still haven't gotten my Wii yet, and if Super Smash Bros. Brawl ends up being half as good as SSBM... I'll definitly be addicted to smash all over again. Lame. I love playing games, but I hate getting addicted.

I think it actually tastes good. It is an acquired taste though.


GO POWER RANGERS!

Geez, after a few hours of trial and error, I got it to work. I don't understand why it has to be so hard to get it to work. Stepmania was really easy to use, but this.... is just dumb. Anyway, I can play IIDX now on my laptop with my IIDX controller

I was really hyped for this game until I played it myself. I am rather disappointed. I hope they polish the visuals a bit.... wtf was up with the jagged white outline around all the NPCs? EA really needs to fix this flaw in the lighting effects. The ideas for the game were really good. The health management system in this game is one of the best I've seen. I like how you can recover up a portion of your health depending on how much damage you took at the time, but you can still never fully regenerate your health. Also, I especially love the fact that I can chose my starting location. I played the demo a few times over to see exactly how my starting position changed the experience and for the most part, it was really fun.

The AI seemed really dumb though. On more than one occasion, I would be sitting out in the open fumbling with the controls (It was hard for me to adjust from playing Gears of War and BioShock for some reason, but that's just my fault), and I'd see an enemy aiming at me, but refuse to shoot. The AI tactics were just plain bad. I just expect a little bit more out of the AI in realistic shooters.

lame

So the Skate. demo was released on Xbox Live and I got to try out EA's newest IP. It does not have the arcade-like feel of the Tony Hawk series. It tries to be more realistic with the control mechanics. While it does make for some interesting gameplay, it just isn't.... AS fun as Tony Hawk's Project 8.

Ok ok, I know I'm being a bit judgmental with this game, comparing it to the fruit of the Neversoft crew, it just isn't my style of gaming. The best way I can explain it is with this analogy: Skate. is to Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 as Tony Hawk's Project 8 is to Hotshots Golf. it's just a different kind of skateboarding game. But gameplay aside, the game does look rather nice for the most part. A lot better than Tony Hawk's Project 8 if I recall correctly. It had nice details along with gratuitous use of HDR, but it also had a not so smooth framerate. There are quite a few flaws I found. This is to be expected though since this is just a demo, but if it doesn't get fixed by the time the product hits store shelves.... it'll just be another flop from EA.

I took the liberty of taking some screen shots of the game myself. (By screen shot.... I mean a shot of my TV screen with my digital camera. I did some cropping too.)


Note the flat/lame tree branches. You see the flatness when you are looking at the side. This reminds me of Nintendo 64 graphics....


WTF happened to my wheels?


I guess I hit the ground too hard. It didn't stop me from continuing to move forward though....

While there may be a few visual hiccups, the audio aspect was top notch. It could be because of the action being slowed down that I now notice the great sound effects of the skateboard rolling, hitting, and sliding against the cement. It also helps that I have a surround sound set up now, so I can enjoy the subtle echo of the board hitting the ground. The music was also turned down, but I expect the finished version of this game to have a good track list.

Well anyway, it's just a demo, they can still improve, but I doubt they will.

So I start playing BioShock for a bit school, and through medical. I did not once see the "achievement unlocked" thing pop up. I check my dashboard and I get a few points off the game already. WTF is up? Do games not display that pop-up anymore? I thought it was kinda cool....