Below the Land

Well That Was Fun...

2010-02-19T15:44:00.003+01:00

It's been a strange 4 months.

First my computer decides to kill itself, frying its motherboard, ensuring it can't be fixed quickly. This was right before NaNiWriMo was starting, something I was really looking forward to participating in this year. Not just that, Eddie Izzard was coming to the Netherlands for the first time and I was about to buy tickets on the very day the computer decided not to start up. Luckily, the second problem was solved by friends who also wanted to go see Izzard. The first problem... Well, better luck this year I guess.

At least I had Xbox Live to keep in touch with friends over MSN that way, right? Well, no. Ziggo, my old ISP decided to terminate my connection. The fun thing here is that they were supposed to automatically deduct the monthly bill from my bank account. This worked successfully for a year, until they went from the old and faithful Casema to the new and steady loser of customers, Ziggo. Instead of automatically deducting the bill, the immediately forwarded all bills to an incasso agency. I was already getting tired of this and right about to change ISPs when all of a sudden my internet connection was dead.... and I was being charged extra for all the incasso and disconnection costs. That's about 300 euros extra on absolutely nothing.

I'm sure I'm not in the wrong here. There's other people going through this that I know of, including my own mother. Hurray for customer service right?

So now I have a new ISP. At about 1/5th of the price and at the same speed. Ludicrous, I know.

Oh, and it snowed. In the Netherlands. A lot. In a way that's like hell freezing over. I've never seen snow several centimeters thick until now. I think this goes for a lot of people because the entire country panicked. It was hilarious. Especially all the people crying out that they want it to be summer again. By summer they'll have forgotten and will start saying they want it to be winter again.

FitzChivalry Skilled Me Into Writing This+podcasts

2009-09-23T02:25:00.005+02:00

Only 5 books in my entire life managed to make me take a deep breath, close my eyes and return to reality after reading it. Any time I think back of those few books, I have richly detailed memories as if they were my own. It's as if somehow my mind believes I was there myself, I lived the experiences of the characters.

These books are the three Lord of the Rings titles, Neil Gaiman's American Gods and now the first two books of the Farseer series by Robin Hobb: Assassin's Apprentice and Royal Assassin.

Lord of the Rings was possibly because it was the first thing I read in English. Not saying the book series is bad, in fact quite the opposite. I loved every moment of it.

American Gods was the main book that got me back into reading last year. Before reading it, I already read a few novels that year. Discworld stuff mostly. Neil Gaiman managed to get my attention to the point I pretty much was unaware of my own surrounding to the extent of forgetting what month I was living in.

Now I'm reading the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb. A series about the bastard son of the dead king-in-waiting trained as as king's man and assassin during a time the country is failing.

It has my favorite form of magic that I've seen so far, or rather two of them. Skilling, which is like a form of telepathy and the Wit, which is almost the same thing but in the form of bonding with animals and sharing their mind completely.

FitzChivalry's Skill-link with me is fading right now, so I'm ending this plea towards people to read this fine piece of fiction now.

In other news, I'm looking for good podcasts. If anyone out there has any ideas of good ones to follow, please do link me. It gives me something to listen to while surfing the web, instead of looping the same songs over and over.

I never was into the Podcasting scene, but I gave it a spin some time ago and now I'm usually listening to it while surfing the internets. Right now I'm listening to:

Red Bar and Comedy and Everything Else are quite messy, but they're fun to listen to. I find it quite hard to find a good podcast. There's so many of them, but most of them tend to be extremely terrible. One example of bad ones would be Smart Mouths. I tried listening to it, but they kept going for the "internet crowd".

By going after internet crowd I meant they used internet abbreviations while speaking out loud. I can't stand people doing that. Not just that, they were talking about internet memes and nerdfighters. Yeah, no thanks. As much as I'm part of the internet crowd, it becomes too derivative too easily to be an interesting main subject.

I think I'll end this post here. I could go on, but it'd become too boring too fast. It probably already has.

TwitterFlu

2009-05-01T00:36:00.003+02:00

I'm writing this because of a comic that I recently saw on xkcd.
Swine Flu. Flu from the swine.
There's only one thing I can say about it, and I'll start this blog of with it.
Mad Cow Disease 3.0, Bird Flu2.0, SARS1.5.
It's blown up by the media. Not just the media, blown up by brainless mass communication. IMing, writing pointless messages on Twitter. Making sure it's what is on everyone's mind every waking hour.
It's sad that people overreact to things to this extent. I mean, it's from Mexico. If you go there and eat, you're asking to get sick from food poisoning. It's the number one common story that people who just came back from Mexico have to share, food poisoning. The other main thing you'd get from Mexico is tequila. Which will kill you anyway.
So people that go to Mexico now, the kind that will remind everyone that "they really don't care about this nonsense" every chance they have. They're going blame Swine Flu for every little discomfort.
Food poisoning? Swine Flu!
Croaking the morning after you had tequila? It has to be Swine Flu!
Sneezed once or twice? Oh my god, it must be a Swine Flu symptom!
Swine Flu isn't going to kill us all, and you're never going to get it.
It's just like Mad Cow Disease, Bird Flu and those letters of white powder everyone would supposedly get.

I decided to see what kind of things people kept saying about Swine Flu on twitter, so I did a quick search for #swineflu to see what kind of things I got.

fashionable #swineflu masks!! http://is.gd/vIhb

Who wants to give me a back massage? I hear it wards off #swineflu.

Kid with the hacking cough behind me is freaking me out. #swineflu

#swineflu No panic. Already dead from SARS, bird flu, mad cow, killer bees, fire ants, anthrax, Asian flu, The Bomb, Communism, Kevorkian...

It's really that bad.

... and yes, I am aware that I am adding to the hype myself right now.

Music

2009-04-27T20:22:00.001+02:00

I have tons of CDs that I listen to tons of times, but only like the first 5 songs from.
Whenever I listen to the full disc, and it reaches song number 8 or 9, I feel like I've reached the final boss from the CD and that I should save my game.

Gaming has ruined me.

Horoscopidity pt. 2 - Tiger

2009-04-10T15:00:00.004+02:00

So last time I went through the Libra traits, now it's time to deep into the Tiger...
That did not come out right.I used other sites for this, and they used completely different formats. I'll try reformatting most of it the same way, but there will be bits that are really different. Also, this post is a lot longer than the previous one.

Characteristics
Courage, Vehemence, Self-Reliance, Friendliness, Hopefulness, Resilience, Vanity, Disregard
All true. I don't think I really feel like commenting on this too much, I don't have too much to say about these points.

Positive Traits
Independent
Am I? I always feel like I'm a pretty dependent person myself.
brave, confident, dynamic
I've been working on my confidence lately, I'd say I'm pretty confident now. Not sure how confident I am as opposed to other people. Dynamic? I probably am, but I wouldn't take it in a positive way.
intense, energetic
I personally agree, while other people around me would say otherwise.
sacrificing, faithful
To some extent, I am sacrificing, yes. I'd like to think of myself as a really faithful person, but I wouldn't dare comment on it myself. I could ask someone if they think I am, but I'm sure that asking such a thing would result in raised eyebrows, muffled laughter and lots of rolling eyes.
Attractive
Me? Really? Why thank you.
Intellectual
I don't really see myself as a smart or intellectual person that much. I used to think of myself that way a few years ago, whenever I think back to that I feel like I was an idiot. I probably still am one to this day.

Negative Traits
Moody
Very, very moody.
Reckless
I think all the cuts and burns I got through work speak for themselves. I tend to be very reckless.
Hot-headed
Pretty much, yes. I try to keep most of it inside, otherwise I'd be snapping at people constantly. Instead now I merely do it allot.
Selfish
I try not to be, but I am.
Impatient
-skip-
Impulsive
Very, very impulsive.
Opinionated
I'm an opinionated asshole.
Rebellious
Not as much as I used to be.

Likes: success, to be their own person, comfort - though not too sumptuous
So far so good.
big parties, appreciation and recognition of their prowess, spending money
I'm not fond of big parties that much. Appreciation bit was covered in the Libra post. Spending money is sadly true. I tend to enjoy spending more than the things I spend it on.
honesty in others and themselves, change and anything new or unusual, a challenge
Doesn't everyone prefer honesty? I'm not too fond of change, but I like completely new and unkown things. I love a little challenge in life. Whenever I'm stuck in a situation I'd really rather not be in, I try to see it as a challenge to get through it with the best results possible. It usually gets me going.
being in charge, flattery, surprises
Being in charge... I love power and control. Flattery is always nice, as long as it's not done in a mocking sense. Surprises are always great.

Dislikes: failure, feeling caged in by circumstances or people, rules and laws made by others
Nobody likes failure, I think. I often do feel caged that way, it's something I have to learn to deal with. A lot of times it's not even something that's wrong in the situation at all, yet I feel that way about it. The last bit, it's a nice way to say that I can't follow orders, advice or people. Which is true, I'm not a follower.
everyday life and its responsibilities, paying attention to detail, scandalmongering
Yup, I hate everyday life and its responsibilities. That's why I dwelled in escapism for years.
Paying attention to detail, we've got a contradiction here, according to my Libra traits I DO pay attention. Which I do. Scandalmongering.... That's the first time I hear that term, and I do dislike it.
taking orders or criticism, nursing others, jewels and trinkets
The first bit we've gone through twice now, both here and in the previous post. Nursing others, can't say I've really had too many experiences with it but I wouldn't be too surprised if it was true. Jewels, no. Trinkets, yes.

being ignored, established authority, hypocrisy
I don't think anyone likes being ignored. Not a big fan of authority, I know it's a neccasary thing, and I do support it, but I don't care for it. Nobody likes a hypocrit.

Color: Mid-green
I don't mind green. I'm not a big fan of the color though.

Suitable Gifts: Exotic cookbooks, travel guides, sports gear, mystery or crime novel, extreme sport lessons
I think I'm already cooking quite exotic food. Unless asian food isn't considered exotic.
I don't like travel guides that much, I prefer actually seeing things with my own eyes and reading proper books about the areas and the history behind it. Travel guiders are just drivel.
I wouldn't know what to do with sports gear. I don't need much stuff for my excersizes, more stuff would only needlessly add pointless rituals and make things more complex than I feel they need to be.
I don't like mystery or crime novels that much. I do like fantasy novels.
Extreme sports lessons would be nice. Once every 100 years or so.

Ruling hours 3am-5am
Thinking back about how I used to be an insomniac, and how I occasionally end up looking at a clock realizing it's 3am – now being one of those times. It seems funny to me.

I think I'll just end it here and now. No conclusion or final thoughts. It was fun doing this for me.

Horoscopidity pt. 1 - Libra

2009-04-07T15:00:00.000+02:00

I've been looking up stuff about my horoscopes lately. I'm not really a superstitious person or anything, but occasionally I like reading about it.
It's not like I'm reading daily fortunes or anything, they really don't interest me. They're always so open to interpretation that anything – including nothing at all – could happen and it would seem like it correctly described the day.
What I do like is the personality descriptions that go along with the horoscope signs themselves. Of course these are also as open to interpretation as the fortunes are, but I find them interesting nonetheless. It probably has to do with the fact that it's not telling you what's going to happen, but instead about who you are as a person and what qualities you have, including bad ones.
I don't believe them. Or rather, I don't want to believe them.
The problem is that some of it really describes me. Then again, that's probably the way they're made: chances are that if I was almost completely opposite to the person I am today, I'd probably still feel like it connects.
Being born on October 4^th, 1986, my signs are Libra and Tiger (Chinese sign).
So let's start on the Libra first.
Also, I'm stealing information from other websites for this. Hurray for plagiarism.

Positive traits:

Diplomatic and urbane
I'm not so sure about urbane myself. Diplomatic, well, maybe.
Romantic and charming
Romantic, yes. Too much so even. Charming? I hope so.
Easygoing and sociable
I'm not extremely easygoing, but I'm very sociable. Everywhere I go, I always meet people that I talk to. Every shop I frequent more than weekly I know the people working there on a first name basis. Every time I go anywhere I constantly keep walking into people I know. Idealistic and peaceable
Yes, and yes.
Loves art
I don't know art, but I know what I like.
Plans ahead
I have no idea what I'll be doing in half an hour from now. I have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing next year. I just see a big cloud of fog when thinking of five years from now. Need I continue?
Neat
Haha! No.

Negative traits:
Indecisive and changeable
I hate to admit this, but it is true. I can't decide on anything, which is terrible because I also tend to be very impulsive: I don't know what I want, but what I want is... now. Changeable, to some extent I am very changeable. Though most changes never really last long except the ones I push myself to take.
Gullible and easily influenced
To me this just sounds like an extension of changeable, or at least something that goes hand in hand with it. So yes, I am both.
Flirtatious and self-indulgent
Is flirtatious really such a bad thing? At least, while I'm single it shouldn't be.
Self-indulgent? Er... Yes.
Bossy at times
Just “at times”?
Slight perfectionist
Yup, that's me. I'm never satisfied with anything I do either. It's never good enough, no matter how good it is.

Likes: The finer things in life, sharing, conviviality, gentleness, Debates, Attention, Intellectual conversations, Admiration, Gifts, Beauty
I don't have to go deeply into this, but these are all true.

Dislikes: Violence, Injustice, Brutishness, Being a slave to fashion, Noise, Confusion, Sloppiness , Ugliness , Pressured decisions, Being rushed, Criticism
Correct, yet again. Though the first 3 all pretty much all the same thing, or at least they appear so to me. Noise has been underlined because It's something that iritates me to no end. It's why I watch videos and movies with my headphones on, so I don't have to deal with anyone else's noise.

Color: BLUE
I think the color scheme here speaks for itself. It's my favorite color.

Lucky Number - 6
My favorite number is 3.

I think I'll wrap it up here and continue towards the Tiger in the next post. I don't feel like annoying people with one gigantic block of text in one time. So instead, I'll bother people with two big blocks of texts.

Damn you, ATM designers!

2009-04-03T15:25:00.012+02:00

A couple of days ago one of my friends sent me an IM, telling me to look for a good image of the new ATM machines from ING. I think a bit of background information wouldn't hurt on this subject, so I'll explain about the new design before moving on to why it's so horrible.
Some time ago one of the most popular banks here got taken over by another bigger bank that hardly anyone trusts. Postbank, which was not only a bank but also did a huge hand in mail service - not sure if this is normal everywhere, I remember that some book about Japan had to explain that this was a normal thing in Japan to it's American readers, which surprised me since it used to be normal here too.
After the bank got taken over by ING, the mail service part of it was separated and half of the banks either turned into a mail service center or a bank. Making it harder to find both of them in several areas, including my own.
The loyal, mellow blue design got replaced for a cheerful, pain-in-the-eyes orange one and hundreds of people went to other banks.

Now that I've explained to you why the change is made and how people feel about it, here's what the new machine looks like, the old one is in the picture as well:

Ugly being replaced by eye blinding ugly.

So what wrong with it?

There's an old meme floating around the internet that's been there since the start of 'anonymous'. It's extremely well known as "IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER!". Originally started as a joke about the length of the Dragon Ball Z episodes, and how they stretched them. During one fight, a character called Cell took several episodes to charge up his fireball attack. Jokes about him and how long it took for him to charge up turned into the meme we know today. This is the image of him FIRIN the lazer by the way.
The newly designed ATM machines look awfully similar to the "Shoop da Woop" template.

Don't believe me?
Let's look at it again:

Shoop da woop!

Strange Kinda Woman

2009-04-02T23:59:00.004+02:00

A couple of days ago, I went out for a walk. It was great weather out, so it felt like a shame to waste it at home the entire time.
I was on my way back home when I saw a lot of people were gathered at the kebab shop across the street from my place. When I got closer I noticed the ambulance and the policemen there.
Being one of those curious people that not only sheepishly stands and looks at the train wreck, but also asks the fellow sheep, survivors and people trying to clear the mess if they know what happened, I asked the guy at the kebab shop what happened.

It turns out that this old lady, that I noticed was sitting in a chair outside when the guy mentioned her, suddenly went crazy. She started yelling that people had hit her in the face, and sat down on the ground crying and screaming for some time, until the police and an ambulance arrived. They put her in a chair, which seemed to calm her down.
I was wondering if that's really what happened for a while, it seemed illogical that nothing really happened. Maybe something did happen and nobody saw it.

A few seconds later, the women went berserk.
The kind people from the ambulance wanted to lift her from her chair, and she started screaming from the top of her lungs. If you didn't see what was happening, you would have thought that she was being severely tortured. Then they lifted her up and put her on a stretcher. She kept struggling, trying to break free. Crying, screaming, yelling the entire time.
Her screams made me shake, they sounded insane and sad.
I watched her being taken away, wondering what it was that drove her to this behavior.
Then I went into the kebab shop and nearly forgot about it.

She's probably not the kind that'll get written down in history.

I apologize for the horrible Deep Purple reference, I'm listening to the song while writing this.

Titles tend to go here

2009-03-31T22:36:00.006+02:00

I've been watching Firefly for a couple of days now. I'm not sure if we've ever had it on TV here, since I don't watch television - despite paying for cable monthly because it's in a package together with my internet connection. So I torrented it.
I probably would have bought the DVDs if they were released here, it's a good enough show to own on DVD. But it's not, so I can pirate it (yarr!) without feeling guilty.

I sometimes torrent or stream TV shows if I'm interested in them, and most of them I drop after 1 or 2 episodes. Since I stopped watching TV, I really haven't been able to concentrate on TV shows anymore. My mind doesn't enjoy switching off while watching TV. It wouldn't mind switching off with decent shows, but most of them are so flawed, so badly written and full of plot holes that my mind refuses to stay turned off. Because of that, I can predict what's going to happen next, why it's not lupus, who did it, why he left and who is going to get him back, why it IS lupus this time and other stuff, within the first 10 minutes or so of the episode.
That's why I usually prefer comedy shows. Who cares about an engaging story if the jokes are funny? Though to some extend, I'd say that part of the appeal of Arrested Development was that it did have an at least interesting story.

The only show that I've managed to follow that wasn't a comedy series was FarScape. Mostly because it had some really interesting ideas, in a way that only sci-fi could ever do. Another series I respect because of that (which is a comedy) is Red Dwarf, which featured incredibly genius ideas with incredibly stupid characters.
It seems like Firefly might actually get a spot next to FarScape. It might make me look like a huge sci-fi nut, but I'm not. So far, I love the western feel it has and most of the main characters. The story itself is still unclear and full of holes, but I've only watched 4 episodes of it so far, so I'm allowing it for now. Then again, it got cancelled fast and I'm already getting close to half of the entire show. So maybe they'll never clear anything up.

The reason I'm writing this as a blog entry is because I'm not getting addicted to this show. Usually when I see a new show that I like, I get really addicted to it and have to watch everything ASAP. I don't have that feeling now, despite Firefly being one of the better series I've watched. I had the same thing when I tried to watch The Sopranos. I loved every second of it, but it seemed so long. Like it never ended. After watching the first episode on DVD I had to check because it felt like I watched the entire first disc. When I found out it was just one episode, I felt incredibly tired.

I think I'm really not suited for watching television anymore.
There's this certain click that should be there, that just isn't there anymore. I found that if I watch shows now, I'm always multitasking. If I really sit down to watch it, and not do anything else besides it, I turn it off and tell myself to watch it later. Completely aware of the fact that I won't.
It's probably why Stand-up comedy is really good for me at the moment. You don't have to watch most of the time, just listening to it is good enough to get the vast majority of the jokes. So while I listen to my favorite comedians (Bill Hicks, Bill Bailey, Dylan Moran and George Carlin, before anyone asks), I'm doing tons of other stuff. Sure, most of it isn't productive, but I would've just spent it watching TV or comedians otherwise.

In my more productive time I write (crap), exercise, run a couple of blocks and read.
I've been thinking of doing some sports again in my free time, but I'm not sure what I'd like to do. So instead, I just follow my own exercise routine to stay in shape a bit.
I'm trying to watch videos and shows during the time I want to use to relax and rest, but I might have to look into other activities for that.
TV is not working.

The Strange Tower

2009-03-04T02:18:00.004+01:00

The strangest thing happened to me the other day. I went to see my mom and my little brothers who I hadn't seen for nearly a year. By the time I was heading back it was close to midnight already, so it was dark outside. I headed to the tram station, while looking around the area looking at how much it had changed. I haven't been back to the old neighbourhood so it was interesting to see how things had changed. Buildings were gone, a few new ones replaced them.
But most importantly, there was this small tower. It was one of those radio towers, to transmit nuclear brain destroying waves through the air to increase the connection for your mobile phones. The kind that people start protesting against when they hear news of one being built close to their home. Always leading to government funded researches to see if they're really as dangerous as people believe they are. Most of the time, the research proves that they are indeed dangerous, shouldn't be built so close to the homes of people, and then get built anyway.
This was one of those towers. I was staring at it for quite a while, looking at the strange green light at the tip of the tower.

After a while there was this almost car accident, and I started paying attention to that rather than the tower. By the time I lost interest in the people argueing over who did wrong, my attention went back to the green light at the top of the tower. Or rather, the lack thereof.
The light was gone, vanished. I didn't think much of it, figured it got switched off or something, until I noticed something weird. There was this strange flash in the air right next to the tower, it looked like something between a weird laser show and a lightning strike. The weirdest part of it was that it had that same weird green color as the one that the tower had just a moment before that flash.

I thought I was seeing things, it couldn't possibly be real. I figured I was probably just tired. Again, the same kind of light flashed, but this time a bit further away from the tower. I looked around me, as I wasn't the only person waiting for the tram, and the other people waiting were looking too. I wasn't the only one watching this weird green light show.
Despite the reassurance due to the fact of me not being the only one having seen this strange special effect, I still wasn't sure if it was real or not. In fact, I'm still not. Maybe we were all equally delusional at that point. Maybe that towers brain melting waves made us see things that aren't there. Perhaps that tower is shooting deadly laser beams throughout the sky.
Even if I question the sanity of myself and that of the other witnesses around me, I still blame the tower for it.
There's just something not right with it.

Then again, a whole bunch of other unlikely things have happened to me while waiting for a tram at midnight. I personally believe that tram stops defy the laws of reality around midnight, but that's just my theory.
I know, I know, the 2 people actually reading this blog are now going to be worried about my sanity, but I still stand by what I saw.

On gaming.

2009-02-19T00:37:00.002+01:00

I've been thinking about gaming a lot recently. Or rather, I've been thinking if I really still want to continue gaming in general.

It might seem like a weird thing to write about, but let's put it this way:

I've never known any better.

I grew up on gaming. My mom is a gamer, my aunt is a gamer, my grandmother is a gamer.

Heck, they still game to this day. Sure, they're all playing NES, SNES and N64 games now, but they're still going at it after all these years.

It makes it harder to tone it down, or quit it. Because I've always been doing it.

At the start of this generation, I was considering quitting gaming. I didn't like the direction it was going, and most of the stuff didn't really interest me.

After a while, I ended up getting a Wii because Galaxy, Zelda and the Virtual Console were just too shiny to ignore for me.

Zelda turned out to be one of the most dissapointing titles in the series for me since Zelda 2. Virtual Console runs at 50hz with the terrible conversion system used back then, and simply costs too much for what it's worth. Galaxy on the other hand, was a gem. An extremely rare gem, when thinking back of my Wii experience. The only other game I enjoyed as much as I did Galaxy was No More Heroes.

Galaxy and No More Heroes inspired me into trying out a console that actually still has games on it. Since the PS3's library was laughable at that time, I ended up going for the 360.

I've had some extremely good experiences on the 360. Battlefield: Bad Company's demo online with Pmac, Call of Duty 4's single player, GeoWars, Orange Box, Bioshock and most importantly Fallout 3.

The rest can best the described as meh.

The more time I've spent playing games online, the less appealing its becoming to me. I hate playing annoying random morons online, and since XBL only has matchmaking or playing with people in your friends list, most of the time I ended up playing through matchmaking.

I sorta wished there was a serverlist or anything, like you'd get on a PC, at least then communities can be formed allot more easily.

Playing with friends is fun and all, but you'll end up having to play with a bunch of other random douches anyway, at least if you don't want to play 1 on 1 on an almost completely empty map.

I always loved multiplayer, but I think I've learned that the multiplayer I love is the offline kind. Something that is getting neglected more and more lately. Allot of games don't even include offline multiplayer or co-op anymore, and when they do it's often a lot less good as the online kind. Providing less features, options. Basically forcing you to play online if you want to have the full experience.

So what about single-player?

Take the horrible Max Payne movie's storyline, add some gameplay that feels exactly like the multiplayer minus the fun, and you have most single-player campaign modes.

I don't care how deep the story is, or how amazingly well it's told. If I want a story, I'll read a book. Thank you.

There are a few exceptions to this, such as BioShock, Mass Effect and Fallout 3, but neither of them made me play because the story was so amazing. I played them because I enjoyed the gameplay, the stories were good and sure, they did make me enjoy the games a bit more. But they weren't grand epic life changing stories.

Are stories really bothering me that much in games these days?

Yes and no.

I really don't mind a good story in a game, honestly I don't. The problem is that it completely destroys and kind of arcade style fun. It's hard to just play a game for a few minutes if the cutscenes get in the way, and not just the cutscenes but the ingame conversations between characters where you can't really do anything. It turns turning off a game into something like switching off a DVD at any random point to watch it later again. In fact, it's very much like it. It also makes it harder to get back into a game if you haven't played it in a few days. At least, for me it does.

I always hear people talking about outgrowing gaming. I really think this is different, I haven't outgrown it. I can still enjoy the kind of games I used to enjoy to this day. Geometry Wars 2 and MegaMan 9 have certainly proven that. I think gaming and I have grown in two seperate directions. Gaming wants to extend it's grasp to something similiar to Hollywood blockbuster titles, I want something a bit more real.

Am I going to quit gaming?

No, I don't think I ever will.

Thoughts after playing Far Cry 2 for some time...

2008-12-11T03:36:00.002+01:00

Some time ago I bought Far Cry 2 from a friend, he didn't like it too much and wanted to get rid of it, I wanted a new game without paying full price for it.
At first it seemed like a win-win situation, new game without paying full price. Then I actually played the game.

Now I'll admit, the game is fun for a good half hour.
The gigantic jungle, the amazing effect of a hand grenade to entire area around it, the ability to burn everything down with molotovs, and sadly the most amazing thing in my eyes: the sliding.
All right, the sliding reminded me of playing the Mirror's Edge demo, which is probably why I thought it was fucking awesome the first 10 times I did it.
That's the whole problem with Far Cry 2: everything is fucking awesome the first 3 times you see/do it.

The first few "hidden" diamonds you find, the first few Guard Posts you scout, the first few execution kills...
It's all awesome, til you suddenly realize that it's all meaningless.

I first realized how meaningless everything you do in this game is when I scouted my second guard post. After killing all the guards, I wandered around a bit, hoping to find some diamonds.
When I was done wandering around, I headed back to the guard post to take one of the vehicles parked there, only to realize all the fucking guards I killed 5 minutes back were back.
After killing them again, I took one of the cars and drove off... Only to check the map and see I was going to wrong direction. I quickly turned around and headed back to that same guard post...
Once again, all the damn guards were back AGAIN.
Ignoring them, I went on to the weapons shop, for some quick missions in order to unlock some better weapons...
Or rather, to unlock the ability to buy them.

After about 4 missions I gave up, every single convoy mission is the exact same:
There are 3 cars driving around the map following a route that endlessly loops. Blow up the car in the middle and you've accomplished the mission.

I took a 3 day break from the game, and today I decided to give it another go. However, this time I'd do a proper mission.
The proper mission was as followed: There are 3 cars driving around the map following a route that endlessly loops. Blow up the car in the middle and you've accomplished the mission.
Screw this. I've had it.
Sandboxing in GTA4 is more productive than doing the missions for this game.

Also, if there's one thing I hate in shooters it's chance.
This game loves deciding things by random chance.
Jamming weapons, while it's a way to make a game harder, it's also a good way to just completely piss you off when your weapon suddenly decides not to fire without any reason whatsoever.
They could have at least given a reason for weapons to jam, like they've done in Gears of War. But no, instead your weapon just jams when the game feels like it.
Sure, you can prevent weapons from jamming by buying them from the store and buying the manual, but that's besides the point. It's just a cheap way to make a game harder.
Another thing that completely pisses me off is how your buddies will sometimes save you after you die.
Sometimes.
So if you die, there's a small chance you might not have died and you'll get saved.
If not, you'll just die and it ends.

Also the online mode isn't worth spending any time in either.
As I said I hate it when chance plays a big role in shooters, and weapons can still jam online. I heard someone complain about his machete(!!!) jamming, after that I didn't feel putting any more time into the game.

I'll admit, I honestly don't like action games that revolve around big open worlds to sandbox in. Mostly because it means the makers have no idea what to do with those worlds themselves, and hope that you'll find something to do yourself.
Plus they don't seem to realize that big open worlds like that only really feel like big open worlds if your actions actually have an effect on them. Which is something that works in RPGs, but not in shooters.
If I play a shooter, I want to shoot things. If I play a shooter, I don't feel like running or driving through gigantic empty fields in search of the next camp of respawning bad guys.
I want things to shoot, and I want them to be close to each other so I don't have spend half an hour searching for them.

I don't get the attraction many people seem to have towards this game.
Yes, graphically it's stunning in many ways, but what game these days isn't?

The AI is dull, to a point it's almost like Oblivion, except with guns (unlike Fallout where the AI seems to have improved quite allot). If you hide behind something for cover they'll assume you're just staying in your last position. So let's say you run behind a house, they'll expect you to come back around the same corner. Heck, if you sneak around the other corner you'll often see them shoot at your previous location.

Which at the same time is quite funny because cars and boats often go out of their way to "see" you; they already know your exact location without any logical reason for them to have found you.

Also, I just thought about the money system in this game...
If you're supposed to have the freedom of doing whatever mission you want, and search for as much hidden diamonds as you want, they shouldn't limit the amount of things you can buy with the loot. To me it seems that it means there's a certain amount of diamonds that you will get if you complete the game, which will be the precise amount needed to buy every gun once (once you've bought a weapon it will stay in every storage place in the game so you can pick it up again whenever, rendering your home's storage places useless), buy all the manuals and upgrades and whatnot.
From my point of view that kind of limitation goes against the whole idea of an open gaming world where you can do what you want and go where you want.

Okay, I'm done ranting about this game now.
I missed the first Far Cry and hoped this game would show me what was so special about it. I've read several blogs that kept saying how AMAZING this game was, and after the first few minutes I almost bought into it.
I haven't been angry at a game like this since MegaMan Battle Chip Challenge, which, in case nobody has played it, plays itself while you hope you will win.

Guitar Heroes?

2008-08-25T01:32:00.003+02:00

A long long time ago, in a place far, far away, there was a little concept for a game called Guitar Hero.
It was a simple concept, it was an emulation of playing a guitar using a plastic controller to play along to some old rock classics that everyone likes, oh and "I love Rock & Roll" though nobody ever understood why that song was in there.

Not too long afterwards, the second part in the series came out. Having noticed how important competition was in this game, and how people were competing for high scores, the makers decided to make this one allot harder. However, to compensate they made hammering on and pulling off allot easier than it was in the previous game.
Because of it's competition based fans, they decided they needed something extremely hard, something that'd take a long time for people to clear. So they added Buckethead's Jordan to it. The note chart was on the borderline of being compelte bullshit, but it wasn't completely impossible.
People loved the game, and the game loved them, everything was allright.

Harmonix, the company behind the game however, felt tired of this new development and wanted to move on. So after a quick cash-in with Rock the 80s, they moved on to create Rock Band. Leaving Guitar Hero behind for another group to mess around with.

This new group, Activision, created the biggest bullshit known to mankind: Guitar Hero 3.
The notecharts no longer felt like they had anything to do with the song, hammerin on and pulling off was brutally raped and the only thing left behind was a button mashing game.
In short, fun was being replaced with the word COMPETITION.

To replace the impossible bullshit trend that was started with Jordan, they added DragonForce. Which everybody already knows isn't even a real band.
The fans of the series however, the score based crowd, was happy. After some time, one of them even managed to do a full combo on Through the Fire and the Flames.
As a responce, they added more DLC from the same band.

Having watched a few videos of people playing these "songs", I've noticed one thing.
Guitar Hero has nothing to do with music anymore. It's become Stepmania. While Stepmania is a cool game because it's free, I wouldn't pay for it. I especially wouldn't pay extra for songs or song packs, even for the awesomeness that is the UKUG pack.

I'm glad I got Rock Band on the 360 instead of Guitar Hero 3.
I haven't really paid much attention to the guitar that much, but from what I've played the note charts make sense, especially on the drums. Not only that, the choice in music is allot better than that on GH3. I don't know about the DLC, because I haven't paid that much attention to GH3's DLC, but in terms of what's already on the disc Rock Band wins.

Yet several of my friends insist that Guitar Hero 3 is better because of the DragonForce DLC. Because it's harder, and therefor better.
I'm here wondering... Wasn't this originally about the music? After watching a video of Operation Ground and Pound looks almost the same as someone trying to play Guilty Gear with a Guitar Hero controller.

Dear attack spammer.

2008-08-11T16:41:00.006+02:00

Dear attack spammer, remember me? Yeah, I'm that guy who first lost a game against you in Soul Calibur 4. You probably thought I sucked right? Well, at least you thought so until we met again later on.

When we met again, I suddenly beat you silly with 3 perfect rounds in a row against you, using none other than Xianghua. How could this have happened?
Oh, that's easy. There was no lag this time, and you still continued to use the same attack constantly. Put those 2 together, and you have a constant stream of guard impacting. Yes, that was no cheating, that was timing. Normally I don't use it that often, mostly because people can be unpredictable. You on the other hand, kept using the same attack constantly (forward+A, if I recall correctly), so it's quite easy to read ahead.
It was a very, very easy win for me.

Yet I still put you on avoid on Xbox Live, for being unsporting. You don't understand why, do you? I loathe people like you. You disgust me. You play a game online and think you're good at it, while a blind person would be able to see through your style. You constantly press forward+A, even though there is a full move list out there.
That's why I put you on avoid. But you probably don't understand, you're probably just angry that your 5 star rating is now down to a mere 4 and a half. You're probably searching for the person who did this to you, as you don't pay attention to who you play against. To you, other people are just like computer controlled characters. I'm sure that someone who doesn't think in terms of strategy and patterns would probably not notice the difference between the two.

You may wonder why I'm writing this message to you.
I'm writing this because I have a question for you.
Is your win/loss ratio important to you? It's just a number on the internet, you know. It doesn't represent how good you are, nor does it prove anything to anyone.
Are you playing to win? Is that why you constantly spam the same attack, instead of actually playing the game? You do know there are people out there who are playing the game to have fun, right? People who might get annoyed when someone cheaply lags their way to victory.
The thing that bugs me, is the fact that you're not really playing the game, so what's the point? I can play like that while reading a book, since you don't even have to pay attention to the screen.
Are you actually enjoying the game this way? I couldn't possible enjoy playing a game without really playing it, but that might just be me.

But it's not about having fun here isn't it? It's about winning, no matter what the cause.
I'd respect that kind of attitude, if that meant you'd actually play the game correctly.
I know how easy it is to slow your connection down, and I find it funny that the game only lags when I play against people like you.

I'd like to invite all of your laggy kind over to my place, and just play a single round on my console, without going online. That way we can enjoy a real game, without any lag. I'm pretty sure I could play a hundred matches without getting hit by any of your pathetic kind. But no, you have to hide behind a weak connection, one that lags too much to be able to properly react to moves.

I hope you move toward the next big game soon, that way I can enjoy a good game of Soul Calibur's ranked online modes without encountering your kind. It'll be just like Virtua Fighter 5, except I'll have a chance at winning.
God, those people on Virtua Fighter 5 are good. You should try playing that, you might break your 360 out of frustration since you obviously can't stand losing.
I hope you do, then I'll never have to play you again.

Yours truly, the guy that owned you with Xianghua.

What happened to cinemas?

2008-08-11T10:05:00.005+02:00

A couple of days ago I went to see The Dark Knight in cinemas. I absolutely loved it, it might even be my new favorite super hero movie. I'm not going all out to say that it is just yet, I'll have to watch it a second time to properly judge it, since I've always believed that how good a movie is depends on how enjoyable it is to watch a second or third time.

But I'm not writing this to say how great The Dark Knight is or how amazing Heath Ledger was as The Joker...

I'm writing this because I was shocked at how much cinemas have changed in the last 2 years.
It's as if all the magic has been drawn out, and his since been replaced with loud crunching sounds from plastic wrappers.

I remember a time when you could order a large Coke, and get this big cup filled with Coke and ice cubes to keep it cold. Instead, now you can get a Coke, a small plastic bottle that costs the same as the old big coke even though you get less than when you ordered a small coke. Obviously there's no ice in it, so halfway through the movie it'll get warm. Not to mention that every time someone opens up their bottle it causes a loud noise.
Popcorn, while still inside machines of some sort, no longer taste as if they have just been made. They're still kind of warm, but not anything like it was 2 years ago. You may as well buy some pre-made popcorn in a supermarket, it'd probably be fresher too.

For some reason they thought it would be a good idea to have a whole selection of other candy, as long as it's wrapped in plastic. Ranging from M&Ms to Lays.
Seriously, am I the only person that thinks it's annoying that the entire cinema is now filled with the noises from people eating their potato chips, opening their bottles of warm soda and whatnot? They might as well allow people to just keep their cell phones on during the movie.

Okay maybe it's not that bad, but my magical cinema feeling was already broken when I couldn't have my large ice cold coke and warm popcorn. That and having to pay almost double for old popcorn and triple for the 2 bottles of warm coke.

On a side note, me and my friends are still playing Rock Band ALLOT.

Rock Band is more popular than me

2008-08-03T23:01:00.003+02:00

So, last week I ended up getting Rock Band.
After that news leaked to my friends, I suddenly became twice as popular as I was before.
2 days after I played the game with some of my friends in some shop in Rotterdam, 2 friends of mine came over to play some Rock Band as a "band".
This time, instead of doing the guitar on expert (or hard, for the extremely hard songs), we ended up with me on vocals.

Now I'm not exactly a good singer (translation: I'm tone-deaf and should never be allowed to sing, ever), but they couldn't even handle Creep (Radiohead) on easy, so I had no choice but to sing along on hard. Meanwhile the other 2 kept switching between drums and guitar. Mostly because they're used to playing games that do not require movement. At the end of the day both of them were exhausted.

Tomorrow, one of the people I played with in Rotterdam is coming over with someone else to play some more RB, I'm not sure if they want to go on tour or do a quickplay round yet.
I wouldn't be too surprised if I ended up on vocals again, but I don't mind. It's my game, so I can play whatever instrument I want when they are gone.

Next Wednesday the 2 friends that came over last time are coming again, to pick up where we left off.

I don't get much visitors most of the time, but ever since I got RB things have changed.

Meanwhile, online on Soul Calibur 4, I keep getting friend requests and game invites. Everyone wants to play against me, as if I'm some soft of god at that game. Admittedly, I have yet to lose a single round with Xianghua, so I guess some of it is justified, but part of me is freaked out and wants to stay away from the online mode of the game now.

The thin line between making a fool out of yourself and being awesome

2008-08-02T00:24:00.005+02:00

There's a very thin line between between making yourself look like you've just escaped from the nearest mental hospital and being so damn awesome that people wish they were you.
I've always wondered what it was, and at the moment I'm still clueless as to what it really is.

Rock Band is a game that is pretty much only considered awesome when you're talking about it with other people who have already played it and every other person out there thinks that it's a gigantic waste of time with silly plastic equipment. While actually the latter are the people - in my opinion at least - who are absolutely right, don't get me wrong; I actually do enjoy the game.

Yesterday I went to Rotterdam to hang out with a friend of mine, and he dragged another friend along to go and play some Rock Band in some store. There were a few people already playing the game, playing Nirvana - In Bloom with every instrument on easy. Almost everyone in the store was evading the Rock Band stand, and they were acting like rockstars, moving the guitars around aimlessly, looking like complete retards. Luckily, after they played about 3 songs, they decided to move on and let us "give it a try, since we would probably fail anyway".

We then proceeded to play Enter the Sandman with all the instruments set to hard, except the vocals. Because the bassist was also going to do them at the same time.
After the song was finished, we had an entire crowd looking at us play, some of us staring at us as if we just played the song with real instruments. The guys that let us "give it a try, since we would probably fail anyway" already left, they probably felt ashamed.

Then we gave the microphone to someone in the "audience" and played a few easier/popular songs like Dani California. We easily cleared those songs while the crowd kept getting bigger and bigger. Suddenly the game started to have this big performance feel to it, as if we were finalists in a big gaming tournament.
While technically we were just messing around with plastic toys...
Well, except the drummer at least, drums in the game are insane and real drumming skills (link is a video from the same guy as the last link) will actually get you allot further in the game.

In other news Soul Calibur IV is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
So far I like it allot more than Soul Calibur II. I'm glad they didn't continue in SCIII's direction, while still keeping III's only great feature: Create-A-Character.
Soul Crushing and equipment destroying are great features as well.

No, I don't want it in my own language, thank you.

2008-07-29T04:09:00.009+02:00

If there is one thing that annoys me to no end it's how websites, as they grow bigger, always assume everyone wants to access their pages in their own native language.
So instead of hiring a group of people to translate the site, they'll just cheaply Babelfish it, or use some similar translating software to do the job for them. Never checking to see if the translation actually makes sense.

If they really feel as if the website is too big to actually be used globally, they'll find more ways to separate each country from one another. Like how YouTube gives countries their own Most Discussed/Viewed list, to keep them satisfied with lower views and keep them from competing with the global Most Discussed/Viewed.
Not only does this keep those evil vile Europeans out of the Most Discussed list (which is 50% US, 45% UK, 5% Australian), but also keeps people from their own countries together.
Who knows what kind of disastrous effects could come out of global interaction? They might discover that people in foreign countries are not that bad, or find out about products which they'd like to import! That must be stopped!

If you think I'm exaggerating with this, think of how allot of videos on YT are not allowed to be viewed in certain countries. Yes, certain videos are regionally banned.

It would be harder to control a crowd that spans the entire globe, than it would be to control multiple smaller crowds, each moderated differently.
Almost all of the Dutch people are trying to find an international crowd, and they're failing at doing so, mostly because they've accepted that we are put on a different 'Tube.
Me being one of the few exceptions, actually having contact with most of the "community".

Yes, I am aware that I am currently committing the biggest sin possible on this blog: I'm mentioning my vlog.
So here goes, an image to illustrate how much "effort" has gone into translating

I have actually emailed YT, but that was half a year back. That was before my rants, and before I spammed the hell out of their email along with every other user that watched the YourTubeAdvocate back then.

So, why not just change it and move on?
You're free to change the language of the site to whatever language you want, but because your IP is associated with your country, every email you get will be in your language. And every time they send you an email to confirm someone replied to a comment, or sent you a video, or wants to add you as a friend, they will reset the language for you.

Hopefully, I have finally found a way to at least keep the pages on this blog in English.
It took me 4 attempts at doing this, and finally it has stopped setting itself back to Dutch.
Strangely enough, I've actually seen 2 completely different pages on which you can change the language of the blog, and the first always seemed to set itself back to the Dutch after about half an hour.

One of the weirdest sites to have been translated must be MySpace.
We already have our own Dutch community website like MySpace, and more Dutch people are there to interact with other Dutch people. There's no need for a Dutch MySpace, as most Dutch people on MySpace are there to connect with people from outside the country, mostly from the US. I wouldn't be surprised if even those people have moved on to the current fad, FaceBook.
Wouldn't be surprised if people are leaving FaceBook for another fad though, I don't really pay attention to it that much.

I'm currently also having translation problems with Xbox Live.
Almost all the information for the downloadable content is written in a form of Dutch that can only be born from a cheap translation tool. Sometimes I have to check other websites to make sure what I'm about to download, just because the information and name do not make much sense.
Call of Duty 4's Variety Map Pack is the worst so far though, the information and name was written in French. I wasn't exactly sure if I actually downloaded the correct pack until the moment the maps started popping up when I played online.
Sadly enough, I'm not allowed to change the language for the marketplace information, it's decided for me based on my IP. Which doesn't make much sense since my entire 360 is set to English, so I'm now stuck with an English menu with Dutch information.

I'm sure that I'm not the only person annoyed by this.
I remember that when Beyond Good and Evil was released the sales were decent for the PS2 and Xbox, while the Cube version hardly sold a single copy. Why? Because the Cube version was Dutch only.
I wouldn't mind it that much if the translations were actually done properly, but I guess that just costs too much time and effort; something that nobody wants to spend these days.

Batman Arrested?!

2008-07-29T02:10:00.011+02:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/2444863/Batman-actor-Christian-Bale-arrested-over-assault-allegation.html

I know it's an old topic by now, but I can't resist posting about it anyway. On a certain forum I visit there's a thread about it that's still on the first page. Every single time I see that topic title, the first thing I think of is Adam West being arrested.

I can just picture it now, how Adam West would be sitting in his prison cell all alone, dressed in an old fashioned black and white striped prison outfit. Late at night, long after most of the guards have gone home, he'd find a way to blow up the wall of his cell. Possibly by smuggling an old fashioned bomb (obviously shaped the way they are in cartoons) in his shoes, running to his ~~Bat Mobile~~ Adam West Mobile, which just happens to be parked right there.
Then, he'd go and finish the job, first encountering The Sister. He would know where to find her, it would be on the bridge. There would be no reason for her to be there, but he'd know that she'd be there.

The Sister would tell him that it's already too late, since Mother has already won. However, he can still try and stop here, even though it's already too late, she's waiting for him at the hospital.
After her message, she would disappear, never to be heard from again.

After arriving at the hospital, Adam West would encounter a whole group of security guards, who were waiting for his arrival. Sadly, none of them would be a match for Adam West, and he'd easily force his way through them, up to the floor where Mother would wait for him.

Mother, who had always been like a mother to him, would have smiled at him as he would walk through the door.
"It's already too late, Adam... We've won" she would have said, and before he'd have a chance to reply, she would take a staff of TNT out of her purse, already lit of course.
"I'm glad I still get to dispose you personally, I wouldn't like to see my son, my biggest enemy rot in jail".
Adam West would have jumped out of the way to avoid the explosion that the staff had caused just in time, but it would have been close, very close.
The entire place would catch flames, and it would be mere seconds before the entire hospital would collapse. Adam West would have only one choice, and that was to run away, hoping the Mother would perish along with the hospital.

He would drive his Adam West Mobile home, and sit down in his West Cave, reading the news online while listening to "The Joker and the Thief" by "Wolfmother".
"BATMAN BURNS DOWN HOSPITAL AND KILLS MOTHER"
The rest of the article would explain how he also killed all of the security guards and ambulance personnel that were bringing in his sister, who he had pushed off a bridge while on his way to meet his mother after escaping from prison.

But he would know what really happened.
He'd be the only one who knows the truth.
Unless she survived...
Then he'd stop to think for a while... "What would Christian Bale do?".

Hurray for.. er.. Duke?

2008-07-18T01:06:00.004+02:00

I don't know what to make of the new "trailer" for Duke Nukem... er... Trilogy?

People have been waiting for the next big Duke game for over 10 years now, and they release that...
I don't know if they are toying with their fans (or what's left of them), or if they are serious with this one.
For those who are too lazy to actually watch the video, I'll try to quickly sum up the entire 4 minute video.
The logo - Duke Nukem Trilogy - for 4 minutes. With the occasional imagine of Duke Nukem (not ingame, just artwork) sliding across the screen, lights flashing from his handguns to give the idea that he's shooting.
That's it.

If they are toying with their fans, then this is the most brilliant trailer ever. It's as if sliced bread has been reinvented.

If they are serious, then they are even more pathetic than Nintendo.

Personally, I feel it's somewhat a mixture of both; Duke Nukem Trilogy will be a real game, and this is their way of announcing it: by (Rick)"Rolling" their fans. If that was the idea behind it, I think it's brilliant.
Now just show us some damn game footage for Duke Nukem Forever, because we've been waiting for so long that the "Forever" jokes have already worn out.

Nintendo's idea of the future of gaming

2008-07-15T23:02:00.007+02:00

Is it me, or is this just plain wrong? This is like Rock Band, minus the Band or the Rock.

I seems as if Nintendo forgot to bring their games to the games exposition. Great job on going from kiddy to just plain retarded, Nintendo!
My golden star goes out to you!

P. Diddy, keeping racism alive since 1969

2008-07-10T16:18:00.004+02:00

Somehow I came across this vlog by P.Diddy where he basically advertises the movie Hancock...
Wait, yes, I am absolutely serious, P.Diddy is vlogging about super heroes. I know this sounds crazy, and actually, it is. The man can't string together a proper sentence if his life depended on it, and while this might work as a rap if you throw it into a rythm and call it a song, it does not work when you're vlogging. I really doubt his conversational skills because of this video, but that's besides the point.

The fact is, P.Diddy is saying how great it is that we are living in TWOTHOUSANDANDMOTHERFUCKINGEIGHT and that we are finally getting a black super hero.
Thank you very much, P.Diddy, we needed someone to keep racism going strong, and I think you've done a good job on this.
I do hope you're kidding though, because if you like comic books you should know that there have already been black super heroes way before TWOTHOUSANDANDMOTHERFUCKINGEIGHT.
Heck, I'll list a few, personally I'm not that big at comic books but at least I know a few black ones out there:
Blade, Black Panther, The Falcon, Storm... heck, there's been a black Green Lantern, and I remember one of the main characters from The Incredibles being black.

Next time you think of throwing race into marketing, try using your head a little, at least, if you have something inside of it.

Online play, and why it sucks.. oh and BattleField Bad Company

2008-07-09T23:33:00.002+02:00

Recently I ended up buying a little game called BattleField: Bad Company, a game that I mostly wanted to get because the free online demo was awesome and I expected the game to stay like that. After buying it I found how much more fun the full version was than the demo and I immensely enjoyed it... for 3 whole days.
After these 3 days a retarded group of gamers migrated from Call of Duty 4 to Bad Company and completely ruined it in every single way possible.

In BF:BC you have a huge map in which every wall and tree can be destroyed, big explosions leave giant gaping holes in the ground, in other words; things can be destroyed. You either play on the Attacking or Defending team, and basically the attackers have to destroy the 2 Gold Crates, either by blowing it up with explosives, or setting a timed charge. The time charge is allot faster as the crates have a huge amount of health, but blowing it up can be effective if the defending team is guarding it with their life.

Now here's the problem, everybody playing this game is fucking retarded.
They think it's so cool that you can blow up walls, that they just feel like they have to blow up everything that could have been used for cover, heck they'll just shoot at the walls with a tank WHEN you're using it for cover.
The defending team always seems to think that using explosives to guard the Gold Crates is a wise strategy, while the attacking team thinks you can go into the enemies territory and start the charge for the Gold Crates by sniping from as far away as the possible can, heck, they'll even group up together so that a single grenade can take them all out.
Team members will insist that kniving you when you're both trying to walk through the same door at the same time isn't such a bad idea at all.
But worst of all, the fucking healers do not feel like healing most of the time. They always seem to think that running straight at the enemies with their almost completely useless gun will somehow work, when half of the players use Assualt with M16s, which just like in CoD4 is the cheapest gun the game.

I ended up enjoying the single player more than the online mode, which is just sad because the single player is nothing special at all.
It constantly insits on how a group of 4 people can put an end to all evil and become rich by simply walking away from the army in search of gold. Heck, the first few missions even insist on how the entire army is useless and those 4 people clear out every area before the rest of the army comes in, and that this is normal and happens all the time.
It almost makes me think if they really targeted that retarded online audience on purpose.

Super Smash Brothers: Brawl

2008-06-30T20:34:00.002+02:00

So, it's finally out....

I'd like to start this off by saying one small thing:
Nintendo... Seriously, why did it have to take so long to release this game here?
You guys took so long that half of Europe, including myself, has already played a pirated copy of this game before it's release.
Not that Nintendo gives a damn about Europe, the way it got release it over here had this childish "Awh, Do I have to?" sense to it.

That being said, it's FINALLY out, and I finally got enough playtime with it to state an opinion about this game.
Sadly, the only thing I can really say about this game is "Where the fuck has the gameplay gone?!".
After playing the story mode or whatever name they decided to give it - and having seen so many cut-scenes that I thought to myself that Solid Snake wasn't as out of place as I originally thought - I felt cheated out of my money.
This game is LOADED with cut-scenes that tell no story whatsoever. It's basically Nintendo characters circle jerking in their spectacular appearance, in a desperate attempt to cling on to the hardcore Nintendo fanboys so they get some good ideas for their next fanfiction blog post on the internets.

After about half an hour I decided to give up on that and went straight to the Classic mode, where I realized another great fact about this game: Items.
I'm not a tourney-fag that only likes Super Smash games if it's:
no items
no fun
no time
fox vs fox
FINAL DESTINATION!
But honestly, the items in this game have become so cheap and fill up so much of the entire screen that I might start becoming one if I keep playing this game, minus the tournament playing.

Everything in this game had to be bigger than BIG, and when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. From the opening cinematics until the new Trophy system.
Now, instead of gambling a bunch of coins in trade of a new trophy, you have to play this completely pointless and time consuming shoot 'm up where every single bullet costs a coin.
You can collect sticker that increase your stats RPG-wise in the single player, and you can take pictures of them and share those with your friends. Same goes with the trophies too.
Also, the game has completely mimicked the 360's achievements by also having a huge list of achievements within the game where you unlock music and and trophies, with a screen where you can neatly keep track of them ala 360's Achievements.
You can collect music CDs to unlock more from the soundtrack and choose which songs to play on every stage.
You can collect as many things as you like before realizing this game is artificially lengthening itself by having as many different collectable items as possible within a single game.
I wouldn't be surprised if you can collect more items per stage than you could in Banjo-Kazooie, with the difference being that collecting things in Banjo-Kazooie gets you further in the game, while collecting everything in Brawl gets you absolutely nowhere.

If you haven't played this game yet, think of it as the giant summer blockbuster hit movie, with giant explosions and special effects but no substance whatsoever, but in game form. That's basically what describes this game the best.

So far, at least in my opinion, the Wii's must-have list is still at two games: No More Heroes and Mario Galaxy.
Please Nintendo... Just become a third-party developer already.

This is the first serious attempt at blogging I've made...

2008-06-20T23:16:00.000+02:00

I've started many different blogs in the past, but I've never really cared about blogging, nor did I have anything to write about.
Lately I've been noticed that allot of the posts I've been making on some of the message boards that I frequent have become extremely blog-like, so why not just start a blog and write that sort of stuff on it?
So, that's why I started up this little blog.
Let's just see how long this one will last.

Anyway, most people know me from 3 different sites: YouTube, Stickam, or the GameRankings message board (it's a private board now, since the original site no longer has a message board).

I'll probably use this blog for smaller things that I don't want to make an entire video about, or just random stuff I haven't decided on yet.
So, if there's anyone still reading up to this point, welcome to my blog!