Finally Got Some Alien Time in Aliens vs. Predator PSN Demo

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Posted by Rob on February 8, 2010 – 8:20 pm
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As I mentioned earlier, I had a bit of a hard time getting a match going in the AvP demo that launched on Thursday. I tried throughout the weekend at random times, and was unable to get another match going. Today I tried again, and I finally got into a match. I basically set it up and while it searched for a match, I walked into the other room and played around on the computer. After about six minutes, I began to hear other people on their head sets, which meant that I had finally gotten into a game.

First off, I must correct a previous statement. In my other post, I complained that you were unable to choose your character in the demo, and that both times I was assigned to be a Marine. That is only half true. You are able to choose your own character, but you have to be quick. For some reason, the developers didnt want an 8-Alien or Predator battle royale going down, so once the first few Aliens or Predators are selected (I do not know the exact number), the remaining players are automatically assigned to be Marines.

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Book Review: Dragon Age: The Calling

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Posted by Rob on February 8, 2010 – 12:14 pm
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I enjoyed reading the first Dragon Age book, which was The Stolen Throne. It did a great job of beginning to introduce the background which eventually would lead to the Dragon Age: Origins game. The characters were well-developed, and felt like they belonged in the book. However, I did not get the same vibe from The Calling.

The term “The Calling” refers to the fact that, when a Grey Warden ages enough, he/she journey to the Deep Roads so that they can die valiantly fighting darkspawn. In the book, a Grey Warden goes off on his Calling. However, his sister (who is also a Grey Warden) has a vision in that her brother did not die, and instead was captured, which is an odd thing for darkspawn. So a group of Grey Wardens (including the rookie Grey Warden Duncan, who makes an appearance in Dragon Age: Origins) approach King Maric and ask him to guide them through the Deep Roads. Thus, the book follows the adventure of Maric, Duncan, and several other Grey Wardens as they journey through the Deep Roads in search of the imprisoned darkspawn.

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The S(t)uper Bowl

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Posted by Rob on February 7, 2010 – 8:00 pm
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So today is Super Bowl Sunday, and I for one dont give a crap. I dont like football at all. Heres some of the reasons:

  • The game is too slow. There is a heck of a lot of down time, and it seems that there are waaaaaaaay too many commercial breaks.
  • The NFL season is lame. These guys get together to play a 16-game season, usually playing only one game a week. That is just pathetic. Also, there is just one final game, which is cheap. If a particular player has an off-night, or if someone makes one bad mistake (player or ref), that could taint the game. A best-of series is far superior to a one-time game, but of course a team that plays only 16 games in 17 weeks cannot be expected to play in a best-of series.
  • The NFL players are lazy. I will compare the NFL to the other three major sports in the US (NHL, NBA, and MLB.) In all three cases, hockey, basketball, and baseball players all play a heck of a lot more than football players do. What really irks me is that, for getting so little game time, they get paid a heck of a lot more than NBA and NHL players. Now, of course I understand its all about supply and demand, and that football brings in a hell of a lot more cash than hockey and basketball, but its still something I think is ridiculous.
  • People watch the Super Bowl because they “have to.” They act as if its the American pasttime, and that if you dont watch it, you are a terrorist. People who never watch more than five seconds of the regular season will be picking front-running with a team, and will go nuts if that team wins. However, their celebration is no more than a facade, made to impress actual football fans.
  • There is way too much gambling associated with the NFL. At one of my part time jobs, a bunch of the guys would professionally gamble on games. They were waiters, and all their tips went to their bets. If they lost, they would be pissed as hell for a week, and quite unpleasant. Also, all too often I would have to get one or more of them from the back when their “associates” would come in to collect. Now I know its their fault for doing that in the first place, but I never met anyone who would place bets on hockey or baseball games.

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Frustrations with Aliens vs. Predator Demo on the PS3

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Posted by Rob on February 5, 2010 – 5:28 pm
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Ive been anxiously awaiting the release of AVP. I love the Alien/Predator series, and played the AVP game on the Atari Jaguar back in the day at my friend’s house in middle school. The game is right up on my Gamefly queue, so I will definitely be snagging it when it releases in two weeks. However, the demo released yesterday on the PSN, and I was excited to get my hands on it and try out the three races (Alien, Predator, and Colonial Marine) in the deathmatch demo. Unfortunately, the demo is plagued with failure, and I have been unable to enjoy it.

Apparently, the game servers were not prepared for the amount of people who downloaded the demo yesterday. As a result, it has been impossible to find a game to join. I tried at four different intervals to get a game going yesterday, and succeeded in getting two matches total going. After each match was over, the initial host left, so I was booted out and then unable to find another game. This inability to find a game to play is very annoying and frustrating. I hope it gets fixed so I can start checking out the game more.

My other complaint is with choosing a race. Both times I was unable to choose a race, and was stuck playing as the Marine. This is upsetting because the Marine is the least original. Playing as the Marine is just like playing any other FPS. While the Aliens crawl around and go in for melee kills and the Predator stays invisible and hunts, the Marine plays as you would in any other FPS.

But enough of my complaints. From what I did see and experience, it was a blast. It is a very intense FPS, and very fast paced. The Alien players are able to move extremely quickly, and can climb walls and hang from ceilings. Their main attack is melee based, and playing as the Marine I suffered several tails through the torso and eating of my face. The speed of the Aliens is what allows them to get up close for these devastating attacks. Oh, and in case I didnt make it clear, these are one-hit kills. So yeah, the Aliens are nasty.

I didnt see much of the Predator, and from what I did, he was just invisible. Well, not totally invisible, as you can faintly make out his outline. However, I killed quite a few Predators, and I didnt meet death from any, so I dont know how their attacks are. What I do know is that many of the Predators stronger weapons are scattered throughout the map, and you have to track them down to use them.

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King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (or Losers)

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Posted by Rob on February 4, 2010 – 11:41 am
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So this documentary is basically about two guys who compete for the high score in the arcade version of Donkey Kong. While I thought it would be interesting to see “professional” gamers go at it, I quickly realized the kind of people that play games professionally are vain, inconsiderate, arrogant, and all-around losers. Let me introduce the two main players in the game.

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Above is the defending champion, Billy Mitchell. This mullet-toting weirdo has been known as one of the best gamers ever due to his high score in Donkey Kong. He enjoyed a simple life of selling hot sauce by day and being a gaming ambassador by night. However, this arrogrant prick is exposed as the jerk he is when a newcomer challenges his score.

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So Close to the Season Finale of Heroes

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Posted by Rob on February 2, 2010 – 7:35 pm
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So apparently last night was the second to last episode of the season, and it left off with plenty of loose ends. I was discussing it with Steve, and we both agreed that there is quite a lot of  plot to cover before the season ends. Im optimistic that the last episode will be a two-hour special, but I doubt it.

The whole back story of Noah’s past was pretty awesome. It explains quite a bit about who he is and why he does what he does. I was a bit stupified with his “arranged” marriage with Sandra, but everything else was cool.

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PSN Review: Critter Crunch

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Posted by Rob on February 2, 2010 – 3:47 pm
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I played and enjoyed the Critter Crunch demo. It was bright, colorful, cute puzzle game with a unique premise. However, I wasnt enjoying it enough to pay full price. But once PSN put it on sale for $3.49, I jumped at the chance to snag it. I mean, $3 for a new game is pretty sweet.

So Critter Crunch takes place on an island. You control an adorable little “critter” named Bigs. The main premise of the game is following the island’s food chain, in that the smaller creatures get eaten by the larger creatures. You have to keep this in mind as you play each stage. The stage is set up with several varying roles of creatures coming down at you. To the left is Bigs hunger meter. The point is to feed little creatures to big creatures. Doing this makes them pop, and they drop an item that, when collected, will increase your hunger meter. Once you fill up the hunger meter, you complete the stage. However, if one of the rows of creatures hits the end of the row, its game over.

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Just Beat Dead Space

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Posted by Rob on February 1, 2010 – 1:18 am
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I just wrapped up Dead Space. It was a great game, and I really enjoyed it. The ending cinematic really creeped me out as well. One of my only complaints was that it was too short…I would have loved to be playing it longer. I might actually go through a second playthrough.

A full review is forthcoming in the next day or so.

Book Review: Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne

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Posted by Rob on January 31, 2010 – 3:23 pm
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I really enjoyed the story and lore that shaped the RPG Dragon Age: Origins. When perusing the Dragon Age Wiki one day, I saw that there were two novels written by the game’s writer. These novels served as prequels to the game, and I was excited to start reading them to partake of more adventures in Ferelden. The first book in the series, The Stolen Throne, proved to be an excellent edition to Dragon Age lore.

The Stolen Throne starts off depicting the adventures of Prince Maric, the heir to the Ferelden throne. Unfortunately, the Orlesian nation has conquered Ferelden, and the royal family has been running a rebellion against the usurper. After his mother (the Queen) is killed, Maric flees, and eventually meets up with Loghain (who is one of the antagonists of the Dragon Age: Origins game.) The book then follows their adventures over the next few years, as they work to get Maric back on the throne.

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What Shell Said: 1/29/10

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Posted by Rob on January 30, 2010 – 12:54 am
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I was in the bedroom, reading a book. Shell was on the couch, sleeping. Suddenly I heard her mumbling, so I came out. I thought that maybe Loki was attacking her or something.

“Are you alright? Is Loki being feisty?”

“No…its these weights.”

I look at her, and she has two blankets on. I point to them. “These weights?”

“Yeah…they’re too heavy for me…”

And with that she was back to sleep in no time.

Trade In Text Books for Amazon Credit

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Posted by Rob on January 29, 2010 – 12:36 pm
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Well, I went through Amazon previously to sell some games, and yesterday I noticed that they also buy back text books. I took one look around my room, which is full of old text books, and said “why not?” It was a pretty simple process.

Once you get onto their trade in books page, you enter the ISBN of the book. The book will come up, and if they are currently buying it back, they will display how much its worth. Many of my books were not available to be traded in, but in the end I sold twelve books for $135. Most of the books were the usual couple of bucks you would expect from the college book store, but a few got $20 or so, and some of these were from Oneonta, which was like three-four years ago. And to sweeten the deal, Amazon pays for shipping. All you do is select the books, print out a postage-paid shipping label, and drop it off at your post office. Once they receive and verify the books are what you said they were, they credit your account with Amazon credit.

It was pretty sweet, and now I have $135 to spend on video games!!!

Thursday= Resistance 2 Co-Op Night

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Posted by Rob on January 29, 2010 – 3:25 am
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Just finished a four-hour co-op session of Resistance 2 with a few of the folks over at co-optimus. We started at around 10pm, and I was the first to bounce at 2am, but the rest were still going strong. There were five of us total, plus the occasional guest who joined in for a round or two. I got my Solider raised up to level 14, but the Spec Op is still stuck at level 10. Man, I really dont play the Spec Op very well.

I really do enjoy playing Resistance 2 online, for the co-op. Im not as big a fan of the competitive. I hope that Resistance 3 (whenever it comes out) borrows from this, and establishes a good online co-op mode. So I just figured I would write a quick little post up to calm down before hitting bed.

Tonight was a success, and I hope we have more organized game nights in the future. I believe that Tuesday night next  week is going to be dedicated to co-op and competitive Uncharted 2, which should be fun since I havent delved too much into it. If you read this and have a PS3, just add me. You know the PSN name: BigBadBob113!!!