Sunday, November 21, 2010

Resident Evil 5

Alright, I've thrown in the towel on this one. The game is just going too slow, I cant force myself to finish it right now. My biggest problem with this game is the things that kill you in one shot and end your game. There is a part where you are walking through some Marsh in Chapter 3, and Alligators come after you, and if one gets you it's game over. Annoying... they don't even let you fight with it. So the game is killing me, I'm giving it a 2 out of 5 on the Brawlking game scale, and moving on.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Resident Evil 5 and things going on...

Well... I was working on Resident Evil 5 to throw up a review, but some work has been thrown my way and I haven't been home in 7 days to even touch the game. So, I haven't stopped, just on hold until I get back home and have some free time.

On a non-gaming related note there are a few things that I would like to talk about.

Today, I was at the Four Seasons in DC and we were setting up for a show (I work for a company that does "event based communication", multimedia stuff, hard to explain) we were checking the size of a freight elevator when I leaned down to measure, and my phone slid out of my pocket, hit the floor and fell apart, the back plate fell down in the crack between the elevator and the floor. I was standing there watching my battery teetering on the edge, but I grabbed it. So I asked if there was any way someone could get it out for me... I told them not to bother calling the elevator company just for the back plate, but it seems they did anyway and they fished my back plate out from under the elevator. Now THAT is customer service, I can't believe they went that far just to get a piece of a cell phone back. I could've kissed that girl, and I definitely would've, not only was she getting things done, she was very pretty. Where can I find a girl like that?

So after that debacle the day continued and more problems came our way. We were setting up a secondary display for this conference room and we couldnt get a signal down to the other end of the room for the display. Every time we plugged in both displays the secondary would only show a rainbow colored staticy grid. So we finally got that fixed about 2 minutes before it needed to be ready, I didn't fix it, it was Bill and some A/V techs to the rescue on that one, I'm just the computer guy. So we got that all done, and the show continued. We had a little session with some CEOs from large companies - I wont specify - in which the members in the room discussed ways to improve the public's opinion of big companies. I got the idea that the CEOs in the room think that the public in general has no idea what it takes to run a big company the way it needs to be run to make company. The specific words were that they wanted to "give the public an ecenomics course". I found that to be fairly condescending. On the flip side one of the members - this one I will specify, the CEO of Snap-on Tools -  suggested that one way to regain public trust would be to "stop worrying about what share holders want, and focus on customer needs". This is something that we as normal people want to hear. Most of the other suggestions weren't so simple, and were things that would take time to implement and to see the effects, but were some good things that I thought would actually work. Something I thought was interesting was that they mentioned trying to make the public see the value in moving certain jobs to other countries, and how it actually benefits the typical middle class person. There was some math behind it, a McKinsey report that actually showed how this business practice helps the middle class in general. Maybe it's true, but those people that got screwed out of a job are still screwed no matter how much cheaper that new TV they want is.

Over all, this week I beleive I've worked harder than I ever have in my entire life, but I'm making some good money and I really do enjoy this job. Oh, except when I've got 5 people asking me to do 8 different things at the same time and one of them gets mouthy with me about me not fulfilling their request first when I had asked someone else completely capable of doing it to help, so I could get one of the other 8 things done. But whatever, everything got done, and I was only slightly agitated at the situation.

After an 18 hour day, I am ready to sleep, and ready for the huge check I'll be getting in 2 weeks. Good night internet!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (SWTFU2)

If at any point during this post I need to actually say the name of the game, it will be abbreviated as SWTFU2, because the name is just too damn long to type out.

That being said, I really enjoyed this game, even though on my computer I had to use "low" graphics settings in order for it to perform well (Yes, I played this on PC, I'm not a big console gamer). Other than that, and one other REALLY annoying graphical glitch, as I said I really enjoyed the game. The glitch I'm referring to is that during some of the ingame cut scenes Darth Vader's cloak, or the dangly part between the legs of my Jedi outfit would FREAK OUT. Darth's cloak would look like a huge puffy filly collar around his neck, and it would bug the sound so everything sounded like it was being said in a hollow metal tunnel with a tinny echo. I'm sure there is a patch for it, maybe I should have downloaded it, but I didn't.

Now on to what I enjoyed about the game, keep in mind that I didn't play the first game so if I list something that was also in the first game then that's cool too. The ability to change your lightsaber's color was really nice, and the effects that they added were cool as well, such as the Wisdom (white) saber granting extra Force power from kills. Or the Healing (dark green) saber, I bet you can't guess what that one does! Those were the 2 I used most often, kept one main hand and one secondary. I liked the interactivity in some of the ingame cut scenes, and the actual cut scenes were well voice acted. I enjoyed the special types of boss fights, having to use certain force powers to take a boss down, and all the cool force powers and light saber tricks you can use in the game. I also LOVED getting to toss Stormtroopers over the side of tall buildings or hanging walkways, just launching them into an abyss was very amusing. As well as using Force Lightning on the Jetpack Troopers, and watching them fly around randomly like a bottle rocket out of control, oh that gave me some lols. Overall, glitches aside, I liked the game a lot. Part of the story line got kind of hokey, near the end before you fight Darth Vader, you're wandering through the cloning labs and you hear him breathing... Yeah, that was so B movie.

I enjoyed the game, some bugs made parts pretty bad, but I was able to get through, and parts of the story being cheesey were what brought this title down to 4/5 on the Brawlking game scale.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Fallout: New Vegas... I wouldn't quite say complete...

If I thought Fallout 3 was going to take a long time to finish, then Fallout: New Vegas was going to take years. The exorbitant amount of side quests, and optional objectives give this game tons of play time outside of the main story. I am going to have to go back through and actually take some time to do all the side missions, and get the cool extra stuff when I have time, but right now... I just dont.


So, take everything that you loved about Fallout 3, wrap it in a new, larger desert, with a lot more groups to fight with, a faction system, more crafting, and what you get is a lot more fun and play time in the form of Fallout: New Vegas. Sitting here, trying to rush my way through the main story, I was awe struck by the amount of quest... ok, I keep calling them "quests", but the game calls them "Objectives", its the RPG player in me. Anyway, the side objectives take you to so many places, with so many different things to do, it's just amazing to me. 


Dislikes... There weren't many, my biggest complaint was the game freezing up, it did it probably 9 times over 3 days of playing, and usually right after I used the instant transport to some place I had already been. The running speed was still too slow for me, but there was a perk you could get to help with that a little bit. One part of the main story I did find to be pretty confusing. The part of the story where you go into the Gomorrah and run around the place doing things for the Cachinco guy. That place got a little confusing, and one of the doors in particular was easily missed, even with the arrow guiding you, since there are 3 floors to the place, it got bad for me. Maybe others didnt have trouble, but man I ran around that place for an hour trying to remember where Troike, and Claden were.


Likes... All the same stuff as the original plus... There are more plot twists in this one than a head full of dreadlocks. There are so many points in the story where you can choose to go one way or another, and it affects the final out come of the game. I chose to help Mr. House this time around, I managed to save my game right before a lot of the important story decision parts so I could go back and see where each path went, so some day I'll go back and follow each path to its completion, but damn it would take forever to get them all done through... One of the new weapons I really enjoyed were the Gauss Rifle, and I really liked the idea of being able to disguise myself to sneak into enemy camps, I wore Brotherhood Power Armor in the first one so I would fit in, the whole noble paladin thing, it just fits me.


Just wanted to share this... at one point I was so annoyed with the Legion guys that I decided to sneak into their camp and just kill everyone. I took my sweet time, slinking around, sniping everyone I could see in the head, and even climbing up or down rocky hills and cliffs to keep myself hidden and snipe from far away. It was tons of fun...


Over all this game gets a 4.9/5 on the Brawlking game scale. Only reason I didnt give it a 5 was because of the bugs. Oh, I played on "Hard" difficulty, dont think I'm gonna bother going above that, I'm a huge noob :P

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Fallout 3 done! Not sure what's next...

Well, there were a few things about this game that I despised, but I found some codes to deal with them. My biggest complaint was that your character just runs too damn slow, and no I wasn't over-encumbered, I just felt like a fat man running through a pool of melted marshmallow. Hmmm... that sounds yummy... Uh, but back to the game. At first I thought that because of the slow running, that the game was going to take a looong time to complete, this turned out not to be true, because after you've been somewhere once you can use the World Map to travel there instantly, thank god.

The game had a ton of weapon choices, and even some really fun ones that you could find, like Experimental MIRV... It's like a Nuke on your shoulder, loved just blowing the crap out of cars and watching the HUGE explosions... I guess that means I'm not a cool guy, cuz cool guys don't look at explosions. Oh well.

The puzzles in the game were fun, sometimes having to figure things out, such as in Tranquility lane figuring out the sequence of objects to activate to bring up the Auxiliary terminal. The idea of Karma in this game was really cool, I typically like to play the good guy, where most people like to be as evil and destructive as possible, but I find it more challenging to be good in games that offer a choice like that. It's easy to run around just blowing everyone's brains out and blowing things up, but making hard choices is... well, hard, and to me much more rewarding. I also very much enjoyed sniping in the game, not many games pull off the sniping very well, but I enjoyed it in this game. Only other wish would be a silenced sniper rifle, but I hear that is available in New Vegas.

This game I'd have to give a 4.5/5 on the Brawlking game scale, one little hitch that made the game play not sparkle completely, but a great game none the less.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Prototype finished, next Fallout 3

Finishing this game made me some what sad, I really enjoyed the rooftop jumping once I got the hang of it, and all the disguising and hijacking/skyjacking military equipment was tons of fun. Flying around NYC in a Blackhawk, buzzing the tower (the Empire State Building), watching burning choppers crash to the ground, or pelting zombies and copperheads (huge ugly snake monsters) with death from above it was all enjoyable, and not difficult to master. Hijacking Tanks and APCs was another enjoyable part of the game, and sometimes a necessity to the completion of a mission(Good tip: if you are having trouble with a mission, try jacking some armor).

After some more plot twists mid-story line, your character gets some really cool upgrades like the armor suit, looks pretty bad ass when you morph your arms into some weapons, but as I said before its very Spawn-esque, but doesnt make the effect any less enjoyable. I skipped most of the extra events, side quests you can do to get extra EP (Evolution points) which can be spent to purchase new powers, or upgrade existing ones.

Over all this game gets a 4.5/5 on the Brawlking game scale. I would highly recommend this one if you like SciFi and RPGs.

Now on to Fallout 3 (I know, it's old, but I havent played it yet).

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Dead Rising 2 Complete... now Prototype

Dead Rising 2


After days of cutting, machine gunning, and head exploding I have finished Dead Rising 2. There were some interesting plot twists (not unexpected on my part) and a couple rather unfortunate casualties, but all in all the story turns out for the best, as expected. I wont spoil it in case someone that reads hasn't played yet, but the end left me a little... unsatisfied. Over all, on the Brawlking game rating scale I'd probably give it a 4 due to its creative weapons, and massive amounts of blood, guts, and carnage. Now... on to Prototype...


Prototype


This game is not exactly new, in fact it was released over a year ago, but I hadn't played it yet, and the concept - while not completely original - sounded cool to me. A dude with morphing arms that can turn into cool weapons (a la Spawn and the Necro-goo), and an Infested... (Kerrigan?) I mean Infected red head that wants to destroy the universe. Four missions in to the game so far it reminds me of a SciFi version of Assassin's Creed, not really surprising, this type of game has become very popular and many different flavors of this genre have been developed over the last 5 years or so.  Being so early in the game I don't have access to all the cool powers yet, in fact I only have 2 so far, but more on that later. I do like the consume and disguise features, I feel like Hannibal Lechter putting on the skin of another human being, its pretty... creepy, lol. The cut scenes aren't too poorly voice acted, and there haven't been any awkward pauses in the dialog as I've noticed in some other games. So far, so good...

Monday, October 25, 2010

Dead Rising 2 and WoW 4.0.1

Dead Rising 2


If you're not tired of all out zombie slaughter fests yet, Dead Rising 2 has something fun for you! The game puts you in the guise of Chuck Greene and starts you out on the T.I.R. game show, after a few short cut scenes you jump into action riding around mowing down Zombies with dual chain saws attached to a stunt street bike, followed by a few more cut scenes that set up the story for the rest of the game.


One of the features I found most interesting is something that the game was advertised for, namely creative ways to decapitate, destroy, or other wise dismember some Zombies. Weapons you saw on the commercials such as the Chainsaw Paddle are just one of the many interesting weapons you will find in the game. My personal favorite is shown below... Have you ever wanted to be a Zombie slaying Jedi? Well, Dead Rising 2 gets you as close as possible, they call the weapon a "Laser Sword", but all us true SciFi geeks know what it's supposed to be.


(I am getting FRAPS to make better quality movies in the future)



Over all, a fun game, with some interesting features, but still contains classic RPG features such as character stats, level based progression, and questing. Pick it up if you're in the mood for blood, guts, and motorcross mayhem!


World of Warcraft 4.0.1


Recently Blizzard released the Talent, Skill, and UI update to get players ready for the upcoming expansion Cataclysm. A lot of people like the changes, but as always there are those who are unwilling or unable to adjust, or just plain dont like changes. Human nature I supposed, but one thing that I've found is that the only thing that is sure and constant in life is that things will change, nothing ever stays the same. If you want to see a list of the most recent changes, a lot of them are listed in the patch notes. There have been a lot of changes to almost every class, if you haven't tried out your new Talent specs yet, its time to get moving. The new expansion is coming December 7th, 2010!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

RIM response to Apple

RIM Blog

I'm personally not a fan of Blackberry or Apple products

iPod
I do own an iPod because I can see the value and usefulness in having one, mostly that I can take my music anywhere with me, and keep all of it in one little tiny box, instead of lugging around a book full of CDs. Apple products just dont do it for me.

iPhone
Dont get me wrong, the iPhone is a cool device in that you can keep your music and your phone in one place, but I prefer to keep them seperate so if my phone dies I still have my music on my iPod, so there's no need for me to have both. Sure it's got cool apps, and can help you do all kinds of stuff, but so far my Windows Mobile phone can do all the stuff I really want it to do, including sharing it's Internet Connection. I have run Droid on my phone, and I do like Driod, except for the battery life, it just sucks...

iPad
This... well, I cant think of any good reason for me to want to use this device. Its got a lot of cool apps, sure, so does the iPhone. Its meant for Mobile Wed Browsing? Ok, gimme Flash please, too many of the websites that I, as a gamer, visit on an almost daily basis use Flash. Also, it is just way too expensive for what it does, or more correctly does not do. I'd first buy an iPhone before even considering this beastly waste of money. I have a laptop I can take in my living room and surf the web, and it does everything I want it to do.

Apple is trying to "keep it in the family", keeping their products running their services, and sucking people into an Apple vacumm. People want freedom, as well as functionality. Android allows for almost completely open development, you can run just about anything on it, and that is why their devices have been on such a big rise lately.

Think Apple needs to learn something from that.

Monday, October 18, 2010

DC Police Fail!

DC Police SUV T-Boned by Bumblebee


How was this officer not aware, or how did he get past the blockades, into the location where they were filming? How did he not recognize Optimus Prime barreling towards him? Would an Autobot really move out of the way of the Police? Pfff.... Hells no. Ok, so he really wasn't an Autobot, but really... how in the hell did this screw up happen? They claimed they were on a different radio frequency, well there still should have been some notice in the local precinct house that TRANSFORMERS 3 WAS FILMING, and it should have said the general location of where they were to be filming. Shouldn't you be aware that a MAJOR MOTION PICTURE is being filmed in your jurisdiction no matter how low in the chain of command you are? I'd think so.


DC Police, are you trying to screw up our amazing Transformers movies? Are you mad about something?


Get it together... DC Police Fail... -_-

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Axe Detailer (My balls are clean!)

So this morning I had to run to the drug store to get some more hygienic products, since I was out of one of the necessities. I've been seeing these commercials for the Axe Detailer since last year when the "Dirty balls" commercial was put up on Youtube, and recently started airing portions of it in America. I decided to try it out, so while I was there this morning I bought a detailer, and decided to try out a new scent/type of Axe.




So there they are, now I smell good, and I actually do feel a little cleaner. As for my balls... well, that's a secret!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Online Dating

Ok, so for a while now I've been on this online dating site PlentOfFish.com, since me and my Ex broke up a while ago and I live in the middle of no where there really aren't many places to meet women around here, and I'm not the type to bring girls home from bars. So I've been giving this a try... I've found a disturbing... ok, not disturbing, but odd pattern to every girl's profile on this site.


If you look at a profile on this site, you will find that every girl has at least 3 out of these 6 things:
1. I'm unique because I am one of the guys.
2. I love my friends, I would die without them.
3. I am very family oriented, I love my family.
4. I love all kinds of music, music is my life.
5. I'm looking for someone funny and/or genuine.
6. I'm down to earth. 


News flash ladies! These things do not make you a unique snowflake. Even if you're the hottest girl in the world this just makes you boring. Every girl thinks she's one of the guys, you're really not. Everyone loves their friends, why else would you be friends with them? Family oriented, and loving your family, 98% of women have that in common. You love all kinds of music, sure, but when you get into your car what is the type of music that is usually on your radio? You want someone funny... how original, I was really hoping if I bored you to death you'd fall in love with me. No one wants someone that doesnt make them laugh or smile. Down to earth... right... do you even know what that means? I've seen it in so many profiles, but from the rest of their description it just doesnt fit with what they are saying about themself.


Say something different, say something about a hobby you have, even if it's just knitting like an old lady. Its something special, and unique about you. A good example is this girl:


http://www.plentyoffish.com/member22940398.htm (you may need an account to see the profile, not sure.)


She goes rock climbing, and tries to climb lots of other stuff just for the hell of it. That is unique.

First Post...

Alright, so I've got a lot to say, but as a first post I just wanted to say hello to the world. I've got some stuff to say, and  believe me it's coming.