Tuesday, December 16, 2008
-Whooooo, as I type this earlier today, I had my last class of the semester! Did OK on my Nutrition exam, not the greatest but I'll take a low C considering I overslept my alarm and only had a half hour to study instead of the planned three to four hours. I was sitting with a high C, but there were still a couple of other ungraded assignments so I still may have a shot of finishing with a B. College Publications class I know I finished with an A, while Hispanic Culture class is looking to be an A also.
-Finally got a text message plan after Verizon raised their individual text rates twice in the past year or two. It was 10 cents a text about a year not even two years ago, then it went up to 15 cents for what seemed like a few months and has been 20 cents for awhile now. For the longest time I was only average around $2-3 worth of texts a month so it never seemed worth upgrading, but more and more recently the past year texting has been catching on and with the 20 cents rate my last couple bills have averaged out to around $6-7 worth of texts. Tried to find a way to add the feature off Verizon's website, gave up and called our local dealer and was surprised at how quick it took me, only two and a half minutes, the duration of the call didn't even fill an entire RAW break. Now I must join the text0rz revolution!
-Speaking of wrestling, I reluctantly rented WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2009 a few days back after being severely disappointed with SDvRAW 2008. Some positive reviews and the promising demo on PS3 got me to bite. Glad I did give this a shot though as I will most likely buy this sometime soon. They tweaked the controls enough this year that the game is fun to play again, and not plagued with redundant mini games like the last couple of games, I did attempt the new Hot Tag feature, which was a QTE mini-game of sorts, but actually didn't seem tacked on and created an authentic feel of experiencing the hot tag of an actual match. Inferno match was a decent addition this year although I don't see myself coming back to it that much. Roster is a little more stacked too this year with current stars since they are saving the legends for the upcoming Legends of Wrestlemania.
Mode I have been having a good time with is Road to Wrestlemania. Which is the inclusion of several character's story modes that are about a dozen matches in length with the usual calibur of cut scenes scene in past Smackdown games. Playing through Triple H's Road to Wrestlemania so far which is pretty entertaining and has two paths to follow where you can choose to reform DX or Evolution. Of course I reformed DX, and made a separate save so I can go back midway and recreate Evolution.
You can still trade wrestlers online with people on your friends list which I thought was a great feature. I got around to creating a wrestler a few hours ago, and the feature is just as in-depth as I remembered past editions. If you take the time with all the body and skin morphing modifiers you can essentially create whoever you want, and there are some excellent create-a-wrestler websites out there. Also toyed with the Create-a-Finisher mode, which is actually not as overbearing as I thought it would be. I created my own version of the Jackhammer in minutes. Awesome to see Yukes making this year's game fun to play again, hopefully not by accident.
-One last thing on wrestling, on my latest episode of my wrestling podcast, The Cheap Pop, we attempted a new format and broke from our "recap everything" style and tried something new. Give it a listen and let me know what you think, we were also pressed for time for this recording so it is our shortest show yet at 25 minutes. The easiest listen yet.
-Since I'm on the topic of podcasts, it is worth mentioning since my last blog, I have posted the final installment (part 9) of the RPG retrospective. Chris and I had a lot to talk about this installment which was all about RPGs on the 360/PS3/Wii, we also cap things off with both of our Top 3 RPGs of all time. What are you waiting for, download away!
-Had an awesome time playing a marathon of online PS3 games with my coworker, Alex. Since I still don't have a headset, we used our cell phones instead for voice communication(how's that for a workaround?). Started off the night with some Motorstorm 2, and out of the dozen or so races I managed to finish first just once. The first few races I was thrown for a loop as I thought I completely forgot how to play Motorstorm, but everything fell into place again in no time. Definitely dig the new tracks and new settings, and I was surprised at how easy it was to keep progressing directly into the next race within moments.
Moved onto some Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix next, and yes I do own both the XBLA and PSN versions. After playing against Alex and another coworker, Chris, I finally feel like I posses some skillz0rz as I managed to accomplish a surprising amount of victories against the duo.....while I have still yet to achieve my first victory out of a dozen or so online ranked battles on XBLA. I'm not a tournament-caliber player by any means but I do recall many countless nights playing SF2:Turbo on SNES and nightly tournaments with Marvel vs Capcom 2 on Dreamcast so I would like to say I have some skills.
After some fierce Hadoken-filled throwdowns, we moved onto Buzz Quiz TV, and after a couple connection issues we managed to get a game in. I was a little hesitant on picking up Buzz since I already own Scene It on 360, but the peer pressure got to me. I like the presentation and the faster game progression in Buzz a little more, though I do miss those film clips from Scene It (unless I just didn't run across any from the one match of Buzz I played so far). After that Alex obliterated me in two rounds of High Velocity Bowling. It is worth noting I have made zero progress in the single player so I haven't unlocked any of the superior balls in the game....that and I can't throw a curve for the life of me. Overall, some great times online, and my best overall online Playstation experience yet!
-So has anyone else heard the rampant rumors that EGM is going to be online only soon, and the popular magazine that had once dominated video game print media since the 8-bit days will soon cease to exist? It should be no surprise that a lot of mags are going the way of the do-do since online has grown into prominence, but Future appears to have no problems running their business with their various magazines and have even managed to secure the rights to run the official Playstation Magazine away from Ziff Davis, and somehow, someway when Nintendo is in the midst of running wild in Wii success, got permission to publish Nintendo Power when Nintendo restructured their corporate offices last year. I'll admit EGM wasn't my main gaming magazine growing up (I was more of a fan of the defunct-Game Players and yes, Nintendo Power in my teen years), but I randomly picked up an issue of EGM on occasion, and do own its 100th issue. Speaking of which, there is an awesome feature on it at Die Hard Gamer that I encourage you all to check out. So what was your gaming mag of choice growing up?
-Finally, there was a blustery blizzard that hit the area last weekend. The weather service predicted a warning from 6pm Saturday until 6am Monday, and they were pretty spot on with their prediction too. Didn't get too terrible out until late night Saturday, as I was still able to go out and meet my sister, Jane (who made a surprise visit from Georgia out of nowhere!) and shoot a few rounds of pool with her. However, all of Sunday was just disastrous outside. The fast winds helped mask how much snow we really got, but it yielded unpredictable snow drifts all over town, which made for some treacherous drives, and a majority of stores not being open at all, or closing early on Sunday. Instead of braving that crazy weather I wisely hunkered down indoors all day and played games and watched television. Definitely the worst blizzard to hit the area in years.
-That wraps up this entry. Later!
-Finally got a text message plan after Verizon raised their individual text rates twice in the past year or two. It was 10 cents a text about a year not even two years ago, then it went up to 15 cents for what seemed like a few months and has been 20 cents for awhile now. For the longest time I was only average around $2-3 worth of texts a month so it never seemed worth upgrading, but more and more recently the past year texting has been catching on and with the 20 cents rate my last couple bills have averaged out to around $6-7 worth of texts. Tried to find a way to add the feature off Verizon's website, gave up and called our local dealer and was surprised at how quick it took me, only two and a half minutes, the duration of the call didn't even fill an entire RAW break. Now I must join the text0rz revolution!
-Speaking of wrestling, I reluctantly rented WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2009 a few days back after being severely disappointed with SDvRAW 2008. Some positive reviews and the promising demo on PS3 got me to bite. Glad I did give this a shot though as I will most likely buy this sometime soon. They tweaked the controls enough this year that the game is fun to play again, and not plagued with redundant mini games like the last couple of games, I did attempt the new Hot Tag feature, which was a QTE mini-game of sorts, but actually didn't seem tacked on and created an authentic feel of experiencing the hot tag of an actual match. Inferno match was a decent addition this year although I don't see myself coming back to it that much. Roster is a little more stacked too this year with current stars since they are saving the legends for the upcoming Legends of Wrestlemania.
Mode I have been having a good time with is Road to Wrestlemania. Which is the inclusion of several character's story modes that are about a dozen matches in length with the usual calibur of cut scenes scene in past Smackdown games. Playing through Triple H's Road to Wrestlemania so far which is pretty entertaining and has two paths to follow where you can choose to reform DX or Evolution. Of course I reformed DX, and made a separate save so I can go back midway and recreate Evolution.
You can still trade wrestlers online with people on your friends list which I thought was a great feature. I got around to creating a wrestler a few hours ago, and the feature is just as in-depth as I remembered past editions. If you take the time with all the body and skin morphing modifiers you can essentially create whoever you want, and there are some excellent create-a-wrestler websites out there. Also toyed with the Create-a-Finisher mode, which is actually not as overbearing as I thought it would be. I created my own version of the Jackhammer in minutes. Awesome to see Yukes making this year's game fun to play again, hopefully not by accident.
-One last thing on wrestling, on my latest episode of my wrestling podcast, The Cheap Pop, we attempted a new format and broke from our "recap everything" style and tried something new. Give it a listen and let me know what you think, we were also pressed for time for this recording so it is our shortest show yet at 25 minutes. The easiest listen yet.
-Since I'm on the topic of podcasts, it is worth mentioning since my last blog, I have posted the final installment (part 9) of the RPG retrospective. Chris and I had a lot to talk about this installment which was all about RPGs on the 360/PS3/Wii, we also cap things off with both of our Top 3 RPGs of all time. What are you waiting for, download away!
-Had an awesome time playing a marathon of online PS3 games with my coworker, Alex. Since I still don't have a headset, we used our cell phones instead for voice communication(how's that for a workaround?). Started off the night with some Motorstorm 2, and out of the dozen or so races I managed to finish first just once. The first few races I was thrown for a loop as I thought I completely forgot how to play Motorstorm, but everything fell into place again in no time. Definitely dig the new tracks and new settings, and I was surprised at how easy it was to keep progressing directly into the next race within moments.
Moved onto some Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix next, and yes I do own both the XBLA and PSN versions. After playing against Alex and another coworker, Chris, I finally feel like I posses some skillz0rz as I managed to accomplish a surprising amount of victories against the duo.....while I have still yet to achieve my first victory out of a dozen or so online ranked battles on XBLA. I'm not a tournament-caliber player by any means but I do recall many countless nights playing SF2:Turbo on SNES and nightly tournaments with Marvel vs Capcom 2 on Dreamcast so I would like to say I have some skills.
After some fierce Hadoken-filled throwdowns, we moved onto Buzz Quiz TV, and after a couple connection issues we managed to get a game in. I was a little hesitant on picking up Buzz since I already own Scene It on 360, but the peer pressure got to me. I like the presentation and the faster game progression in Buzz a little more, though I do miss those film clips from Scene It (unless I just didn't run across any from the one match of Buzz I played so far). After that Alex obliterated me in two rounds of High Velocity Bowling. It is worth noting I have made zero progress in the single player so I haven't unlocked any of the superior balls in the game....that and I can't throw a curve for the life of me. Overall, some great times online, and my best overall online Playstation experience yet!
-So has anyone else heard the rampant rumors that EGM is going to be online only soon, and the popular magazine that had once dominated video game print media since the 8-bit days will soon cease to exist? It should be no surprise that a lot of mags are going the way of the do-do since online has grown into prominence, but Future appears to have no problems running their business with their various magazines and have even managed to secure the rights to run the official Playstation Magazine away from Ziff Davis, and somehow, someway when Nintendo is in the midst of running wild in Wii success, got permission to publish Nintendo Power when Nintendo restructured their corporate offices last year. I'll admit EGM wasn't my main gaming magazine growing up (I was more of a fan of the defunct-Game Players and yes, Nintendo Power in my teen years), but I randomly picked up an issue of EGM on occasion, and do own its 100th issue. Speaking of which, there is an awesome feature on it at Die Hard Gamer that I encourage you all to check out. So what was your gaming mag of choice growing up?
-Finally, there was a blustery blizzard that hit the area last weekend. The weather service predicted a warning from 6pm Saturday until 6am Monday, and they were pretty spot on with their prediction too. Didn't get too terrible out until late night Saturday, as I was still able to go out and meet my sister, Jane (who made a surprise visit from Georgia out of nowhere!) and shoot a few rounds of pool with her. However, all of Sunday was just disastrous outside. The fast winds helped mask how much snow we really got, but it yielded unpredictable snow drifts all over town, which made for some treacherous drives, and a majority of stores not being open at all, or closing early on Sunday. Instead of braving that crazy weather I wisely hunkered down indoors all day and played games and watched television. Definitely the worst blizzard to hit the area in years.
-That wraps up this entry. Later!
Comments:
Post a Comment
