Tag results for gaming

I'll write something more detailed sooner or later on the Vita, maybe.  But Xellopollex and Rawrity are both my gaming buddies for many years, and clearly we're nerds (I'm Grimmemo).  Those are world rankings out of everyone that has purchased Lumines Electronic Symphony for the new PS Vita. I'm not as cool as them though, they've both scored 9,999,999 and I've only managed 7.5 million.  But I'll hit that 9,999,999 number sooner or later.

Wow it's been a while since I've been on here huh?  Sometime after I got back from my trip to Europe I went into full work mode, concentrating on paying off some bills before the New Year.  Next thing I know it's 2012 and now it's February.  I've been fortunate enough to keep myself very busy the last few months, writing up a storm over at Autoguide.com while working on multiple website projects.  A couple of the sites are set to go live before the end of this month, while two of the bigger projects will be done in a couple of months or so.  I'll be sure to post up who they are as soon as I can make them public.

Took me about 10 hours to put together the 1,736 piece model.  

Been busy doing a ton of work since I'll be leaving town September 22nd to October 10th.  Here's some new projects/websites that were recently launched:

So I decided to give Apple another try.  Back in 2006, I bought a white Macbook and after a few months of using it, I gave up.  I just couldn't deal with the difference in keyboard shortcuts, and just mainly how everything on Mac OS X was so different than Windows.  Plugging away in front of a PC for over 20 years of your life will do that to you.  But after checking out Samsung's Series 9 and watching these other Macbook Air-wannabes coming out, I decided that the form factor of the Air was just unbeatable.  I anxiously awaited the refresh specs and was satisfied to hear that the 11-inch model would come with an i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD.  Off I went to get one from Best Buy last night, taking advantage of quadruple Reward Zone points.

I haven't had as much time as I'd like to play the wonderful 3D remake of one of the best Zelda games ever, but I figured I'd do a quick post on it for those that still haven't bought a 3DS and wondering if it's really worth the money.  There's so much negative press surrounding the 3DS right now, and although most of it is warranted, very few ever mention that the 3DS is actually a very neat piece of hardware.  I feel bad for those that aren't able to handle the 3D functionality of the system, as the depth and effect it gives off in games really gives an experience that no other system can offer.  I don't care if you're wearing funky glasses while trying to play your Playstation 3 in 3D.  Sliding the 3D slider to 2D and back up to full 3D in Ocarina of Time leaves me staring in complete awe, and that says a lot.

Not much keeps my interest these days but I really have to admit that Ocarina of Time on the 3DS is an awfully beautiful game to just look at.  The little effects of Navi flying by, or the feathers flying off a cuckoo is pretty impressive.  Fortunately I'm one of the apparently rare few that can play the 3DS on full 3D without any adverse effects so I'm able to take advantage of what the system is all about.  I can definitely see the plight of those that can't enjoy the 3D, which really leaves the 3DS being a beefed up DS with a remake of an old game being it's only real title.

Look, if you have any doubts of getting the 3DS, go check it out at your local video game retailer.  See if you can live with the 3D effect.  I really think the complaints are completely blown out of proportion.  I can easily sit there for an hour or two straight of playing a game and never do I get annoyed or irked that the 3D is out of focus.  Maybe I have magical eyes that focus quickly compared to the rest of the editorial world out there, but I really think there's way more people that can enjoy the 3D than those that can't.  Sure the 3DS had some really weak launch titles, but there's some bright ones on the horizon.  And if you're really thinking that the eShop or internet browser was a selling point to the 3DS, well then you're just silly.  I will admit that my 3DS sat around gathering dust shortly after the initial release of the hardware.  Street Fighter IV and Ghost Recon got my attention every now and then, but mostly when I was lying in bed and looking for something to do before I fell asleep.  But I will say that if Ocarina of Time's remake is any sign of what's to come then the 3DS will be a very good purchase for me.

And seriously, was the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3's launch titles really that great?  Hell, the Playstation 3 barely gets any good titles now.  Stop hating on the 3DS, it's a solid system that offers something no other gaming platform does.  Sure some may think it's gimmicky, but gaming is all about adding onto the experience.  To me, the addition of 3D and the way it's done in Ocarina of Time makes the game exponentially better to enjoy.  Instead of being annoyed having to catch cuckoos and throw them into a pen (who the hell believed that was "gameplay" when they came up with it?) I don't mind running around and figuring it out because it's just so neat to look at.

I'm completely anti-3D if it involves glasses.  I only watched Avatar to see what the hype was all about... but I can't imagine having to game in the comforts of my own home, staring at my television, while wearing silly little glasses.  And truth be told, the 3D effect coming out of those expensive Sony televisions isn't even close to the solid realism that the 3DS has to offer.  If you're able to witness the full effect of the 3DS' 3D, it's very natural.  It's not your Captain EO's "I want to reach my hands out and grab that furry creature" type of 3D - it's depth that brings things to life.  When staring at a laptop, computer monitor, television and phone screen all day that isn't in 3D, then turning on the 3DS, it's very refreshing to see a new perspective on how things can be done.

In anticipation to tomorrow's release of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DS, I've been reading up a lot of reviews and came across a cool article on GamesRadar comparing the 3DS' visuals with the N64's original release.  Considering how long ago the game originally came out, it's a given that there would be vast improvements, but seeing just how greatly improved the visuals and environments are on the 3DS, I really can't wait to get my hands on the game tomorrow.  It's about time the 3DS came out with a real game and hopefully it'll hold me over until Starfox comes out.

So I'll admit, I've been pretty disappointed that iOS users have been getting a collection of great Square Enix ports including Secret of Mana while Android hasn't really gotten any love from Square Enix. But today, Emily over at Square Enix, shared the word that Imaginary Range was out for Android and I got excited.  Imaginary Range is an interesting blend of comic reading with action-RPG elements.  Essentially you're reading a comic book, but interacting with the events unfolding through mini-games.  It's a pretty neat concept and perfect type of game for the phone.  I haven't spent much time in it yet, but the illustrations are a delight to look at and overall the app is very polished.  I'll share some impressions once I actually play through it some today.

But for those interested, you can grab Imaginary Range on the Android Market now.  It is free, a 44-meg download ... and one complaint, there's no app2sd - which is strange for something this large.  But Square Enix has said that they'll be providing updates to the apps including new chapters to the comic, so hopefully app2sd is coming.

Warning: this post is long.  Instead of making several posts on all the different announcements, I'm too lazy and threw it all into one, possibly incoherent post.  If you're that bored, read along!

Well rumors are no longer rumors and Sony's Playstation Vita now has a name and more details along with pricing, while Nintendo has finally revealed its Project Cafe as the Wii U.  Apparently this generation of consoles come with really horrible names but there's already plenty enough people ranting about that.  I watched the majority of the press conferences live, Microsoft's, EA's, Ubisoft's, Sony's and Nintendo's.  All had their ups and downs but many of them left me ambivalent.  Nothing completely excited me while plenty annoyed me.  I'll be the first one to admit I was really excited when the 3DS first got announced.  I eagerly followed all the impressions and despite it's pretty pitiful launch, I'm still happy that I purchased one.  Do I use it a lot?  Not really.  But I'm also one of those people that just has to buy new technology to experience it... that is unless you're Microsoft's Kinect or Sony's Playstation Move.

And nothing from Microsoft's press conference made me change my mind about Kinect.  In fact, it's completely turned me off from it entirely.  Don't get me wrong, the Kinect is a marvelous piece of hardware and what it's capable of is simply remarkable.  It's a fine piece of technology and it definitely has a place in the world of gaming... but not in Ghost Recon or Mass Effect 3 or Fable.  I mean seriously - the gamers that played any of the first two Mass Effects or any of the bajillion Ghost Recon games or any of the first three Fable games do not want to wave their arms in the air or bark out commands at AI players.  That's not what gamers do.  Casual gamers, young gamers, old gamers... that's what Nintendo's Wii introduced to our world.  Those are the gamers that embrace Kinect because they don't want to pick up a controller.  Is this a way to get those people interested in a game like Fable?  Possible.  But please don't make it in a way that completely negatively impacts the gaming experience for those that want a damn controller in their hand.

In defense of Microsoft, most of these games that have Kinect functionality will probably do just fine without it - obviously, being that Kinect is a peripheral that costs extra money and not every Xbox 360 owner has one, myself included.  But the fact that the entire press conference for the most part revolved around Kinect's functionality on these games just made me throw up in my mouth.  And then Nintendo introduced the Wii U to the world and I'm just full of rants.

Read the rest after the break.

I've been meaning to post up about this topic for quite some time now but haven't really had a chance to really sit down and put my thoughts into words.  This all changed when I saw the demo of Windows 8, and as cool as it all was, it really dawned on me: computing as some of us know it is regressing.  It spawned some conversations with some of my nerdier friends and it's really a scary thought what Apple has done to the world of computing all on its own.  And before any of you start rolling your eyes and think I'm an Apple hater - I'm not.  I love what Apple has done to the world of technology and how they have really found a way to put technology into the hands of the everyday user.  What completely blows my mind is the possibility of what our next generation of "nerds" are going to really be, if they'll even exist at all.

The Days of Bulletin Board Services (BBS)

So this is where it all begins, my tirade on what technology is these days and how computing is about to take a really weird turn backwards.  When I first started using computers, they weren't exactly cheap.  Now I'm going to skip over the idea of the Apple IIGS, which I used, and just jump straight into the generation of PCs and the world of MS-DOS.  We're talking computers with 4MB of RAM, a 320MB hard drive and a 25MHz processor.  For many of us, growing up with computers meant learning how to use a keyboard and command prompts.  The thought of multi-tasking didn't even exist.  In the world of DOS, you ran one program at a time and that was it.  The idea of having or using a mouse wasn't even around yet and everything revolved around a black screen with white text.  Going online back then revolved around local bulletin board services on which you'd just dial-up with your awesome 2400 baud modem (14.4k if you were really high-tech) and enjoying Teleconference with random people within the same county as you.  It was revolutionary back then, but it was limiting in the way that you were doing one thing at a time and one thing only.  Wanted to type up a paper?  That was all you could do.

BBS' were very interesting back then and almost seemed like an underground cult of hardcore techies and nerds that wanted to communicate online.  File sharing was born through File Libraries and discussion forums were alive and well.  Once Doom2 found its way online and people were able to play with one another, it opened up the doors to online gaming.  We're talking four players max without the ability to jump or aim up or down.  Some would say that was the good 'ol days, but the truth was, you had to learn your way around a computer in order to really get the most use out of it.

So in short, those using computers back then learned a lot more than they probably had to just to find their way around.  It was probably a daunting task, and really not anything inviting, to learn how to use a computer.  Then everything just fast forwarded at some exponential speed once Windows was introduced.  I still remember the first time I ever got a mouse as a present and installed Windows 3.1.  I hated it - I hated the idea of having to use a mouse to get around folders and access files and whatever.  I loved how simplistic, yet powerful, DOS was but I knew Windows was the brilliant way to go because of one thing and one thing only: multi-tasking.  Yeah, you can sit there and argue that its awesome user-friendly interface is what brought general computer to the masses, but it was the idea of being able to do more than one thing at a time that turned the computing world upside-down.

So Where am I Going With This?

Fast forward to when Apple introduces the iPhone.  Now back then I didn't pay much attention to the smartphone market at all.  I used a Sidekick II (which became a III and then an LX) and I loved it.  I loved the ability to have a constant connection to AIM, MSN, Email and ease of texting no matter where I was.  Hell, the browser back then was pretty damn awesome in my opinion.  But I also never cared to use a Blackberry or touched Windows Mobile.  The Sidekick was what I needed to function day-to-day and to work remotely the way I did.  When the iPhone was introduced, I knew it was going to be an awesome piece of technology.  It was a push forward for the world of smartphones with an easy-to-use touch interface and the ability to do literally everything you could have ever imagined on a phone.  Then the world of applications started and next thing you knew, Apple and AT&T was rolling around with a lot of money.  But that's what the iPhone did - it changed the world of smartphones and it was the logical next step towards evolution in that market.  It brought Google's Android and made RIM and Microsoft change how they perceived the smartphone market.  They all changed their mobile operating systems to make more sense, be user-friendly and full of rich functionality.

I never cased to get an iPhone simply because it never had a QWERTY keyboard attached to it.  Truth be told, I never really sat down and played with one; I just knew that I couldn't survive without a QWERTY keyboard and that still holds true today.  Maybe it's because I was so keyboard-oriented growing up, but the idea of using an onscreen keyboard and only an onscreen keyboard irks me.  I just can't get things done as quickly as I would like, and I constantly get annoyed when I can't get things done quickly.  So a QWERTY was a must have for me while everyone else was enjoying the robust and wonderful world of smartphone applications.

Then the G1 came out and I made the switch to Android and noticed how wonderful the world of smartphones were.  I knew I couldn't ever go backwards - and one could argue I did when I switched to an HTC Touch Pro 2 and Windows Mobile - but regardless, smartphones were powerful and becoming even more so and that was one part of technology that I really really loved.  I loved the fact that people that knew literally nothing about technology were able to navigate their way around an iPhone.  It was simple, easy-to-use, intuitive and anyone willing to learn could learn quickly just how versatile and friendly an iPhone was.  That was great.

Read the rest of this after the break.