Remember when all you had to do when you wanted to play a video game was just plug the cartridge into the console and you were ready to rock and or roll? I'm referring to the Atari 2600 of course, the last console I had that didn't require a degree in computer science to operate. Some of you are probably arguing, well, Nintendo didn't require you to do anything else. Bull-honkey! You had to pray to whatever diety you believed in and hoped that the cartridge would work, I remember spending 2 and a half hours once trying to get Castlevania to work, I'm not kidding, I blew and blew until I couldn't blow anymore and the thing finally worked after that amount of time. Things have only gotten more complex since then. We eventually moved away from carts to discs. Discs gave us better graphics, sound, and CGI, but it also gave us loading times and scratches. I was usually pretty good about taking care of my games, but I've had a few that were unplayable after I left them sitting on my desk for too long.
As technology evolved, we are at a point today where your game console does everything but cooks you breakfast, (unless you own a George Foreman PS3) but we have to sit through long load times and installs, anyone who recently bought Resistance 3 knows what I'm talking about... my whole issue with it though mainly involves PC gaming. PC gaming has always at least in my point of view, sucked. I recently downloaded Portal for my laptop, keep in mind, my laptop is less than 2 years old, and can run blu ray movies, but I can't play Portal on it! For a game that came out so long ago, you'd think my laptop could handle it, nope. Video card can't render 3D. I try to play the game and get as far as the loading screen and the game crashes. WTF?! This of course was something I found out after my 6 hour download time (I'm on the equivalant of DSL because I'm cheap and would rather pay off my house than have quality internet, although I'm beginning to re-think that.) So my choices are buying a new PC again that can handle the game, or shelling out the 20 bucks for a copy of Orange Box that has that and Half Life included in it, (which ironically I already own and have installed on my 10 year old desktop running XP...at least it's not windows 98... so to make a long story short, I'm going to go break out Super Punch Out on my Super Nintendo.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Together We Break These Gears of War
So in about 1 week's time, Gears of War 3 is going to be released for the Xbox 360. The Gears series is
one that holds a special place inside of me (and not because I can make fun of the song Chains of Love by Erasure) because as each one came out, my life had changed for the better. The first game, and quite honestly, the only reason I think I have a 360, was introduced to me at a friend's house in 2006. It was my first visit to his new apartment, it wasn't very big, but most 1 bedroom places aren't, the key thing that caught my eye was the huge 60 inch tv he had in his living room and a game called Gears of War.
I remember seeing commercials for this game and thinking it looked cool, but we had a Nintendo Wii so I was kinda stuck. An hour later and I had been convinced, I needed to buy a xbox and get this game. About a week later on payday, I went to our local Circuit City (Remember those?) and bought a console, that game, and Beatiful Katamari (my girlfriend wanted it and I technically bought the console for both of us). The game didn't look anywhere near as good as it did at my friend's house on my worn down 25 inch CRT screen, the color on it was going, but I didn't care, I was Marcus Fenix, I was 86ing locusts left and right, I had engulfed myself into the culture of the game. November 2008 rolls around, we had moved a few months earlier into a new town, a new apartment, I bought a 50 inch flat screen tv around this time, and was ready for GOW2.
It literally was one of the few times I've actually pre-ordered a game for myself (I pre-ordered Animal Crossing for my girlfriend among a few others), I woke up extra early so I could get to Target when it opened, picked up my limited edition copy of the game and got home and popped it in. My friend at the time was really into playing online so I didn't really get into the story quite as much this go round, we were trying to do Co-Op storymode and because of achievements, he'd know if I'd skipped ahead without him and vice-versa. Couple this with our jobs making us work opposite schedules of each other and it became more of a hassle more than anything else. I still had a lot of fun with it, but with work and Christmas, it kinda got put on the backburner while I dealt with other stuff. Eventually we beat the game, and by that time, he'd had enough, he had finished all the achievements for the game by this time, and really had no interest in playing anymore, I did another solo runthrough of campaign on my own and had moved onto a new game (I think I started playing Condemned around this time?)
Now we come our present time, like before we have moved since then, I currently own a house
now, I really don't play a whole lot of video games like I used to, I've kind of lost interest in it. I
recently started playing Borderlands out of neccessity, I needed something to help me unwind after work
that didn't involve our house other than being in it. So will I pick up Gears 3? Chances are very high,
will it be launch day, more than likely not. I'll be waiting for a while, might finish up some of the
games I never beat (Borderlands, Castlevania, the Darkness, list goes on...) In the mean time, I'll
always have the first 2 and the fond memories they both bring.
-Cheap Plug Time!
Go check out the following people's blogs/sites, they are all awesome and if you enjoy reading my randomness, you'll surely like these folk, and if you don't like me, well, check them out anyhow
Dragons Are Delicious - My friend Travis writes this, for that reason alone, you should go check it out, not even for the fact he writes about debatable topics, just the fact it's well written.
Kingdom Of Foom - Awesome forum,webcasts, and just a great community in general. casts are Tue-Wed @ 4PM CST and Fri and Sat @ 8PM CST. (Link is on the main page) Watch them, you'll enjoy them or your money back!* (money back guarantee is not guaranteed)
The Midnight Snack - Charles Cress who writes Alphabet Soup for PWTorch writes this, this guy is what I apsire to be, a writer for a pro wrestling website/ comedic genius! I love the "My Brother Drew This" blogs. Good times. He can also be found on Twitter @CharlesCress, follow him or Cody Rhodes won't get tv time then it'll be #rhodesorriot
JonnyDWeekly - My friend Jon from high school writes about his films and other randomness, the tree story is one I can relate to.
Rose and the City - My friend Rose from work writes about all kinds of stuff, more recently, couponing, I don't get it but she's interesting, and that's gotta count for something.
If I forgot anyone, let me know and I'll mention you next time!
one that holds a special place inside of me (and not because I can make fun of the song Chains of Love by Erasure) because as each one came out, my life had changed for the better. The first game, and quite honestly, the only reason I think I have a 360, was introduced to me at a friend's house in 2006. It was my first visit to his new apartment, it wasn't very big, but most 1 bedroom places aren't, the key thing that caught my eye was the huge 60 inch tv he had in his living room and a game called Gears of War.
I remember seeing commercials for this game and thinking it looked cool, but we had a Nintendo Wii so I was kinda stuck. An hour later and I had been convinced, I needed to buy a xbox and get this game. About a week later on payday, I went to our local Circuit City (Remember those?) and bought a console, that game, and Beatiful Katamari (my girlfriend wanted it and I technically bought the console for both of us). The game didn't look anywhere near as good as it did at my friend's house on my worn down 25 inch CRT screen, the color on it was going, but I didn't care, I was Marcus Fenix, I was 86ing locusts left and right, I had engulfed myself into the culture of the game. November 2008 rolls around, we had moved a few months earlier into a new town, a new apartment, I bought a 50 inch flat screen tv around this time, and was ready for GOW2.
It literally was one of the few times I've actually pre-ordered a game for myself (I pre-ordered Animal Crossing for my girlfriend among a few others), I woke up extra early so I could get to Target when it opened, picked up my limited edition copy of the game and got home and popped it in. My friend at the time was really into playing online so I didn't really get into the story quite as much this go round, we were trying to do Co-Op storymode and because of achievements, he'd know if I'd skipped ahead without him and vice-versa. Couple this with our jobs making us work opposite schedules of each other and it became more of a hassle more than anything else. I still had a lot of fun with it, but with work and Christmas, it kinda got put on the backburner while I dealt with other stuff. Eventually we beat the game, and by that time, he'd had enough, he had finished all the achievements for the game by this time, and really had no interest in playing anymore, I did another solo runthrough of campaign on my own and had moved onto a new game (I think I started playing Condemned around this time?)
 |
| My girlfriend cross stitched the Crimson Omen for me, if that's not love I don't know what is |
Now we come our present time, like before we have moved since then, I currently own a house
now, I really don't play a whole lot of video games like I used to, I've kind of lost interest in it. I
recently started playing Borderlands out of neccessity, I needed something to help me unwind after work
that didn't involve our house other than being in it. So will I pick up Gears 3? Chances are very high,
will it be launch day, more than likely not. I'll be waiting for a while, might finish up some of the
games I never beat (Borderlands, Castlevania, the Darkness, list goes on...) In the mean time, I'll
always have the first 2 and the fond memories they both bring.
-Cheap Plug Time!
Go check out the following people's blogs/sites, they are all awesome and if you enjoy reading my randomness, you'll surely like these folk, and if you don't like me, well, check them out anyhow
Dragons Are Delicious - My friend Travis writes this, for that reason alone, you should go check it out, not even for the fact he writes about debatable topics, just the fact it's well written.
Kingdom Of Foom - Awesome forum,webcasts, and just a great community in general. casts are Tue-Wed @ 4PM CST and Fri and Sat @ 8PM CST. (Link is on the main page) Watch them, you'll enjoy them or your money back!* (money back guarantee is not guaranteed)
The Midnight Snack - Charles Cress who writes Alphabet Soup for PWTorch writes this, this guy is what I apsire to be, a writer for a pro wrestling website/ comedic genius! I love the "My Brother Drew This" blogs. Good times. He can also be found on Twitter @CharlesCress, follow him or Cody Rhodes won't get tv time then it'll be #rhodesorriot
JonnyDWeekly - My friend Jon from high school writes about his films and other randomness, the tree story is one I can relate to.
Rose and the City - My friend Rose from work writes about all kinds of stuff, more recently, couponing, I don't get it but she's interesting, and that's gotta count for something.
If I forgot anyone, let me know and I'll mention you next time!
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Why I don't have a dog
So the other day at work, the topic of pets came up and someone asked me why I don't own a dog, besides the obvious fact that I barely scrape by as it is because I won't leave for something better, (I'm a very complacent person) I'm happy with the way things are now. Dogs, unlike my cat, require a lot more upkeep. My cat poops in a litter box, I clean it out once a day, takes a few minutes tops. Dogs have to go poop outside, my backyard is filled up enough with bird droppings and broken tree branches from the 3 trees in my backyard that I'm pretty sure have some type of plant leprosy.
Neither my girlfriend or myself would ever be home to take it for walks,wait, scratch that, we'd be home, neither one of us would do it, I come home from work, grab a soda out of the fridge and fire up the Simpsons or whatever else I have recorded on the DVR. They require upkeep like vet visits, depending on the dog, grooming and factor in the fact we live in a pretty small house (compared to our friends who all have 4 bedroom houses, our little 2 bedroom looks small.) it just doesn't make sense to me. My main argument for this though has always been, but we have Momo!
Momo or Stinky as I sometimes refer to him, is our cat, his actual name is Gizmo. We've had our little orange ball of terror for roughly 2 years now. We adopted him from a family member who couldn't take care of him, which was supposed to be temporary but here we are 2 years later and he's still here. Momo has 3 things that he has to do: Eat, Sleep, Poop. That's it. If he's not doing one of those 3 things, he's usually doing the 4th, which is driving me nuts. Most cats as nature shows and other people's cats have taught me, they are only really playful as kittens, as they get older, they sleep a lot and usually don't do much else. Not mine, he has a weird obsession with doors and bottle caps. I've been woken up many of nights to him playing with our kitchen cabinet doors, opening our freezer door so he could knock down a tub of ice cream that he tried to eat, or bringing me random trinkets he finds around the house that he wants me to throw so he can bring back. His favorite items to bring me are bottle caps, hair binders and oddly enough, drinking straws. The straws are the best thing to watch him take, he will trot around like a show pony usually bringing it to his kitty toy fortress, in other words, his food dish.
Not everything about him is bad, he does like to greet me at our door as I come home from work, usually because he expects treats which he is very vocal about getting (he has a very distinct meow for treats, and another one for when he's upset he got locked into a room).For everything he does that annoys me, he makes up for it with doing the occasional cute thing or by being there when I need him to be. Whenever I come home from work and put my keys away, I usually end up giving him treats and sit down to watch tv in the living room, the second I sit down, he comes and sits in my lap and watches tv with me, he'll usually sit there until I move him or he finds something that interests him elsewhere in the house.
We've been through a lot together, when I left my apartment and decided to move into our house, Mo wanted to make sure I didn't leave him behind, so as I packed up my computer, he hopped inside the box and began meowing at me, he wanted to make sure he got to come with.
Shortly after we bought our house, we wanted to move furniture in and get things set up before we brought him home, so I left him at our apartment complex. Every day until I brought him home, I'd go to the apartment to check up on him, on more than one occasion I ended up sleeping on the floor of my old apartment because he didn't want me to leave and I felt bad about leaving him. I guess the real reason I don't have a dog is, nothing else could replace the companionship I have with my cat, he's my little boy and nothing will ever change that.
Neither my girlfriend or myself would ever be home to take it for walks,wait, scratch that, we'd be home, neither one of us would do it, I come home from work, grab a soda out of the fridge and fire up the Simpsons or whatever else I have recorded on the DVR. They require upkeep like vet visits, depending on the dog, grooming and factor in the fact we live in a pretty small house (compared to our friends who all have 4 bedroom houses, our little 2 bedroom looks small.) it just doesn't make sense to me. My main argument for this though has always been, but we have Momo!
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| This is the Momo. Fear him, for he bites. Sometimes. |
Momo or Stinky as I sometimes refer to him, is our cat, his actual name is Gizmo. We've had our little orange ball of terror for roughly 2 years now. We adopted him from a family member who couldn't take care of him, which was supposed to be temporary but here we are 2 years later and he's still here. Momo has 3 things that he has to do: Eat, Sleep, Poop. That's it. If he's not doing one of those 3 things, he's usually doing the 4th, which is driving me nuts. Most cats as nature shows and other people's cats have taught me, they are only really playful as kittens, as they get older, they sleep a lot and usually don't do much else. Not mine, he has a weird obsession with doors and bottle caps. I've been woken up many of nights to him playing with our kitchen cabinet doors, opening our freezer door so he could knock down a tub of ice cream that he tried to eat, or bringing me random trinkets he finds around the house that he wants me to throw so he can bring back. His favorite items to bring me are bottle caps, hair binders and oddly enough, drinking straws. The straws are the best thing to watch him take, he will trot around like a show pony usually bringing it to his kitty toy fortress, in other words, his food dish.
 |
| Accept me as your all-knowing and powerful ruler and nobody gets hurt. |
Not everything about him is bad, he does like to greet me at our door as I come home from work, usually because he expects treats which he is very vocal about getting (he has a very distinct meow for treats, and another one for when he's upset he got locked into a room).For everything he does that annoys me, he makes up for it with doing the occasional cute thing or by being there when I need him to be. Whenever I come home from work and put my keys away, I usually end up giving him treats and sit down to watch tv in the living room, the second I sit down, he comes and sits in my lap and watches tv with me, he'll usually sit there until I move him or he finds something that interests him elsewhere in the house.
We've been through a lot together, when I left my apartment and decided to move into our house, Mo wanted to make sure I didn't leave him behind, so as I packed up my computer, he hopped inside the box and began meowing at me, he wanted to make sure he got to come with.
 |
| Hey you, don't forget to bring me with, I wanna come too! |
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| Dreaming of Cheeseburgers and Caturdays |
Into the Warp Zone...
Welcome to my blog.
1. This blog has nothing to do with killing pigeons, it's only a clever name slightly based off my Rock Band band's name (Looking at Pigeons) and something my friend Travis came up with. The only killing of pigeons I do condone is when you are shooting them in GTA 4.
2. All things mentioned on said blog are usually of my own opinion, you don't like what I write about, tough cookies...oh yeah, I need some cookies now.
First off, let me clear up a few mis-conceptions before they begin.
1. This blog has nothing to do with killing pigeons, it's only a clever name slightly based off my Rock Band band's name (Looking at Pigeons) and something my friend Travis came up with. The only killing of pigeons I do condone is when you are shooting them in GTA 4.
2. All things mentioned on said blog are usually of my own opinion, you don't like what I write about, tough cookies...oh yeah, I need some cookies now.
Moving on...I fully intend to keep this as interesting as possible, not everything in my life is all that interesting at times, so if I bore you to tears, well, I apologize. With that said... Let's let the magic flute whisk us away onto the magic school bus that is, my blog. ^_^
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| Circa 2006. I'll do something more up to date later. |
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