Year of the Sony?

I was successful in modding my own XBOX 360 last week as previously reported.  Since then, I’ve modded my friend’s 360 and will do doing another friend’s later this week.  I’m wondering if I can’t make something of this.

 

I’ve always liked to tinker but no necessarily modding.  This is my first try at doing it and it has gone smoothly. 

 

After the initial mod, I’ve also done my PSP, however, the Wii was a tough one.  The soldering that needed to be done was a bit out of my league, which means getting a professional to do it for me.  Luckily I had met a fellow gamer during my technology school days that knew how to solder extremely well (like a machine it’s so perfect) so I commissioned him to do it for me.  Now the problem I face is the only truly unmodified console I have is the PS3.

 

In the past few years, PS3 has been slow to start and was steady at #3 in the current console race.  There were no AAA titles that had to be played, and those that were good either wasn’t great enough or was of second rate mascots, when compared to the behemoth of Nintendo’s roster.  But if the PS3 holds true and Sony doesn’t let the recent Blu-Ray win get to their heads, I believe this could truly be the year of the PS3.

 

Another thing that’s been brewing on the horizon is a certain electronics boutique store is having trade in promotions.  Those of you in the know will get the reference.  Trade in a certain amount of games and you get a free Nintendo DS or PSP or a pre-order towards a game.  Now usually when these promos pop up, I capitalize on a few pre-orders or a few new releases for cheap.  But with my recent modding craze, I found myself with a lot of games on multiple systems that I no longer needed to have.  So I purchased a few DS and sold them at a discount online.  This act of buying to sell for some people is almost evil in certain people’s eyes but I believe otherwise.  There was rumour of someone purchases large amounts en masse to sell or trade but in general, I’m speaking of small quantities. 

 

Nintendo DS, PSP, and the Wii are fairly hot commodities and for someone to actually benefit from selling these, enough to justify mass hoarding, is rare.  Let’s do a calculation:  If you were to trade in for example 5 games in order to gain one Nintendo DS, that would cost you roughly $40 plus tax and gas.  If most people are working at $15/hour and gas costs $1/L, that’s a cost of $60 in time and money just to obtain that DS.  This is not even taking into the time you spend listing said item, packaging it, and mailing it.  In the end, it really nets you about a 20-30% profit.  So what we are talking about here is scales of economy.  20-30% profit is huge when you are talking about selling a car.  20-30% profit on a gaming console isn’t so much.  So why do I do it?  I do for the benefit of those that are unable to obtain these items at a reasonable cost or simply do not have the time to search.  My cousin in Toronto has wanted a Wii and DS for the longest time but every time she looks at a Toys R Us or Futureshop, they are sold out.  So I get her one, sell it to her below retail and she’s extremely happy. 

 

Commodities brokering is what this is about.  Those that obtain commodities for others that are unable to obtain it themselves. The only difference is we are talking about electronic toys instead of barley.

 

Great Success!

My first mod job. I got my 360 Arcade today and decided to try my hand at modding it with a quieter fan, arctic silver and while I had it open, custom firmware *snicker*! Well, I thought it would be tough but as Keanu would say, "I know Kung Fu." I disassembled the system in 5 minutes. Had the NTFS Dos disk made in another 5. Hooked up the drive to the PC and the flashing was done in another 10. Total time about 20 minutes. And it saved me $100 from having someone else do it. Best $100 ever not spent I tell you. Anyway, just a quick one today and I'll touch on something else this weekend. Now, back to Lost.

How To Lose a Job in 10 Days

Okay, I didn't lose my job. But there have been two co-workers that have been "let go" in the past three weeks. I'm currently working on a high profile project, one that is surely a "lifetime" building. This mean that I will probably never in my career see another project of this size/scale/type again. This also means that there are lots of people involved and everyone is required to pull their weight. Which is also a part of the difficulty in understanding these firings. If we are so strapped for people, why were these workers let go and yet other that were even less productive are allowed to stay? I didn't know these two people very well so I can't satisfy my curiosity. However, it does put things into perspective for me. It doesn't really matter how hard you work for your employer, because when push comes to shove and they need your spot for someone better, you can bet that you will be asked to leave. Sure, you can put in your hours and be as productive as you possibly can be, but once they see that you aren't living up to their expectations of you, they will can your butt rather than see where you may be needing help or guidance. There's a saying in Chinese and I think it sums up how I've decided to deal with this situation. The saying was told to me again by a friend and I think it fits quite well. It goes, "If you have your hands and feet, you have nothing to worry about." Which is very true of most of the Chinese culture. We are usually very hardworking and dedicated to our jobs. The exceptions seem to only apply to the Chinese workers in my office which I find extremely odd and annoying. But in general, we work without much complaint. However, the western culture doesn't foster hardworking individuals, instead it punishes them by giving them more work and higher demands. I've ranted on this subject before so I won't dwell on it. But it's just becoming more and more apparent to me. With that bit of background information about my week. You know I am going to need this weekend. I'm hoping to get at least a few hours of solid gaming in somewhere in the next two days. I've started to swim everyday at lunch to try and get back into shape so that should boost my energy level a little bit. For the mean time, I'm still hooked on Lost and I can't seem to stop watching Season 3 even though it seriously lacks the tension and suspense of the previous two seasons. Lets see how Season 4 will turn out. Oh, and I'm still looking for a Macbook Pro. With the latest refresh being not that substantial, I'm probably going to wait until June or right before September to see what else Steve will bring to the table. Peace.

Oh the weather outside is....Nice??

So some of you know I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We're not really famous for much except for the Stampede, 1989 Stanley Cup winners, and the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the wicked chinooks that blows down from the Rocky's. Well this month, it had hit -45 degrees Celsius all the way back up to 7 degrees Celsius. Needless to say, my head is killing me. But it sure is nice to be wearing shorts in the middle of February. While I was starting to writing this draft (work is brutal this month, I'm writing these over a few weeks), I have purchased, and returned, a number of things. I recently got a new desk for the home office. Excellent set up and looks professional. But this proved to be a bit of a problem since I can no longer have my Logitech Z5500 set up in the optimal positions. With that note, I also recently upgraded my HT setup to a Denon AVR-788, so my old crappy Yamaha HTIB was sitting in the basement collecting dust. So I sold my Z5500 for $100 more than what I paid (YES!) and set up my Yamaha as my main PC sound system. Great choice since it's basically the Z5500 with more inputs. Takes up a bit more space and doesn't look as great but I didn't have to pay anything :) With the money from the Z5500, I got myself a Viewsonic Optiquest Q241wb 24" Widescreen monitor! Man does this thing blow all my previous monitors out of the water! Color is bright and accurate without calibration, awesome screen real estate, and decent 5ms for games. Simply can't complain, and I got it for only $50 more than what I originally paid for my 2240W gaming panel. Next time, I'll touch on the status of my WoW revival.

Of Mice and Achievements

Achievement Whore: n.

1. The act of accomplishing or finishing an Xbox 360 game solely for the purpose of gaining achievement points.
2. A person who plays Xbox 360 games, regardless of the quality of game, for the bragging rights to a higher gamer score.

Yeah, that pretty much sums up what I've been doing lately. Achievement whoring. Why you might ask? I can't really explain to you. It seems to keep me playing games thought, however, I seem to really be hitting the old crappy games first. But at least this give me the satisfaction of actually playing through some of my old games so I can trade them in and save some valuable shelf space. I'm officially finished all the 06 Sports games I have in my collection! I've been toying with the idea of playing PC games while sitting on my couch. HTPC's are quite popular, especially for the den/basement entertainment centers. My set up is in the bonus room of the house (which is usually code for the extra room they build over you garage). This isn't the best place for late night gaming, which is when I have time to game these days. My wife sleeps about 2-3 hours earlier than I do, she needs her beauty sleep, while I'm more of a night owl. I personally have always resisted getting multiple computers. I just find it wasteful to have more than one device that does the same thing when you hardly ever use it at the same time. That's part of the reason why I love Vista and won't be going back to XP unless I have to. Vista's user setup is so much more refined than that of XP. With both my wife and I using the same computer, it's PARAMOUNT that she and I have our own setup for fonts, screen resolutions, desktops, etc. My wife's a CGA so she's used to using a computer and is quite adept at it (as compared to most women that I personally know - that's not meant to be sexist but it's simply the truth). But she does still have her own preferences and complaints. One of them being "why does it take so long?". She gives me a somewhat hard time about the constant upgrades I do to my PC. But the thing she doesn't realize is that 30% of the upgrade decision is based on her complaints about the PC being slow at multi-tasking. Granted, the other 70% is games and bragging rights but that's another story! So, I'm toying with the idea of joining the dark side of Mac. I'm fairly certain that I will be getting the new Macbook Pro once it's been announced but for now, I'll just keep thinking about it. Boot Camp certainly is a HUGE reason for the jump since I can't live without Windows. It's like trying to walk with one leg in a two-legged world. Sure, the Segway is faster, more efficient, and flashier than your regular legs, but just wait until you have to go up stairs and you are screwed! But with boot camp, it's like getting a nice pair of crutches that you can stow away in your fancy segway for the times when you need to get up the stairs and need a little help. Ok, that analogy needs work but you get the point. PC will always be my gaming platform of choice, even over consoles, but these days, it looks like I will have to start to change with the times.

Salame Salami

So the new job is going fairly well. I think I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter where you work, if your priorities are not life, you won't be satisfied. With my industry, it's increasingly difficult to find an employer that will truly take care of its employees. Certainly there are ups and downs, monetary compensation is a large part of that, however; it's not the only determining factor. I'm on this train of thought since I referred a friend to my firm and this is his first week. It's a bit daunting when you own reputation is put on the line in front of that of your employer. Can anyone honestly say that their company has their back? If you can, stick with them and be thankful you don't have to look for another job because you've already found that perfect one. On a side note, some old co-workers have invited me to a weekend in Banff. These guys (and a few gals) are all from my old company. It's nice that they have stayed in touch but it's becoming harder to find common ground. I'm not in the everyday loop and without that constant interaction, conversation with co-workers quickly turns dull. These guys also love to ski/snowboard. I'm not a big winter sports person (hockey is an exception) so it's going to be a bit of a tough choice for going or not. I also feel bad for leaving my wife for the whole weekend. Plenty of time to think about it since it's not until March. This has been a bit of a weird week. I'm staying at my parent's house, taking care of their dog and my grandmother. Needless to say, I have more time on my hands. It's not so bad. I'm catching up on some old games (Madden 06 - yes, I'm just dicking around for some achievement points!) And I'm going to give WoW one more go before seeing if I will call it quits in March. Anyway, next post will be on topic and not random drivel. Ta.

Lost for 24

Ok, I’m 3 years behind the times.  But to be fair, I did give the show a chance when it debut in 2005. 

 

I am of course speaking about the show, Lost, that airs regularly on ABC.

 

My co-workers and friends have all raved about the “mysteries” of this show and gossiped about what may happen.  I just found the premise very surreal.  Crash landing on a deserted island while trying to survive didn’t seem like a multiple season show.  However, I was recently able to come by a steal on the Blu-Ray version of the complete third season.  Seeing how I can’t really sell it and the deal was amazing (I paid $26 Canadian for the complete, sealed, legit set), I decided to rent the first season and watch.  First of all, two words: Evangeline Lilly. 

 

SIDE NOTE: My wife and I have a pretty open relationship so, very similar to that Friend’s episode where Ross has a “list” of celebrities he’s allowed to sleep with; we have a list of Hot Celebrities (not a sleeping list, but just an attraction list).  After Lost, Evangeline Lilly is definitely is going on that list.  It certainly doesn’t hurt that she’s an Albertan as well!

 

Ok, back on topic.  I’m on episode 15 of season 1 and I am officially addicted to this show!  My wife’s cousin said it best when she said this about Alias, “This show makes no logical sense and the situations are so outrageous that they are unbelievable.  Yet somehow you still believe they could happen.”  Seeing how J.J. Abrams also created Lost, the similarities in outrageous situations are certainly there.  The mysteries keep me tuned in after every episode and the flashbacks are very interesting.  With a possibility of 48 characters, that’s a lot of material for back stories.

 

The beautiful thing about watching shows on DVD is:

 

1. You have no commercials.
2. You can go as fast or as slow as you like.
3. And you can watch regardless if the writers are on strike.

 

Which is why I’m actually happy Battlestar Galatica, and 24 are not being released right now.  So here’s to hoping that they release season 1 and 2 on Blu-ray soon because I hate to double dip (which is another rant for another time).

Idiocracy

There was this movie released in 2007 called Idiocracy .  It starred Luke Wilson as a very average Joe, who volunteered to be cryogenically frozen in a study that was supposed to last one year.  However he was frozen instead for 500 year and awoke to a USA that was radically different.  Not the utopian future everyone dreams of but instead is a totally stupid society where the average IQ 50.  I often wonder if we will head towards that potential future with today’s social development.

 

Gametrailers has the clip of the abysmal FOX News’ coverage on the Xbox 360 game, Mass Effect.  I don’t believe I have ever heard of such unprofessional journalism as this piece.  FOX is certainly not known for their credibility nor are they watched for that purpose.  News on TV these days are more tabloid than fact and you will find more truth in Britney Spears story than the report on the Iraqi war. 

 

At one particular point during the “panel discussion” in FOX’s coverage on Mass Effect, a woman says that we are living in a society where children are not always supervised, which is a true statement.  But to use that as an excuse for failing as a parent/guardian is unbelievable.  A parent cannot be held responsible for the actions of a child because the child was not supervised?  The panel speaker goes on to illustrate her point with Playboy magazines and how video games are not as easy to keep from a child. 

 

The statements brought forth by this panel of experts, regardless if they had experience with video games or not, were simply false and were not thought through.  If you say that you are unable to control your child from watching or doing something such as playing a video game, then you have seriously failed as a parent.  Certainly I also have had experiences of doing something I wasn’t supposed to behind my parent’s back, were those things the fault of my parents, for the most part, yes.  My mom and dad were not the happiest couple in the world and they were certainly not ready for a child.  I was raised to sometimes think for myself but was usually told what to do without neigh an explanation. 

 

Video games, as anything else of stimuli in this world, require instruction and explanation.  If you don’t explain the reasons to a child, they are not going to value your experience and absorb that into their own understanding.  They require guidance, not just a yes or no answer.  Instead of blaming the developers of video games and other forms of entertain, how about actually doing your job and PARENT your child so they will be equipped to make educated decisions for themselves when they are old enough to buy a gun.

HD Fallout

I'm not one to be an early adopter. Sure, I'm usually the first of my friends to get the latest tech but I don't pre-order my bleeding edge video cards or the iphone. The only real early failures that my family has ever purchased was a Laserdisc player. But even then it lasted a good 4 years of use (since all orientals love to karaoke). That is why this current Warner Bros. announcement at CES this year really rocked my world. My name is Moe and I bought HD-DVDs. I fell for the superior specs and linux-like open source mentality and complete forgot that no major studio ever got to be a major studio by being open sourced. Hardware, yes. Software, no. Google maybe the only real exception to that but that's for another day. I didn't buy that many HD-DVDs, unlike some others around the Net. But I did have a fair share and certainly replaced some of my more loved classics on HD-DVD if I could. I was lucky to find a local buyer that was still interested in my player's up-converting capabilities and bought my set and movies for a decent price. However, this whole experience has taught me that nothing in tech is ever a sure thing, and in most cases, you are more likely to get struck by lightning than winning as an early adopter. Take a look at the Plasma VS. LCD battle. That's not even a format but everyone saw Plasma as a dying technology and segment for the personal home use but in 2007, there has been a resurgence AND Panasonic is now expecting to ship twice as many panels as they did in 2007 for this coming year. I'm going to stick to my guns and only purchase the cheaper DVD format (and used at that!) and spend $100 on an up-conversion player that won't take 30 seconds to boot up. For the exclusives such as Disney/Pixar films, that will be Blu-Ray. It was a great format on paper and in reality, but like the electric car, I think HD-DVD just didn't have a chance in the real world.

And it's now World of Guitar Hero

My plans for World (of Warcraft) domination was unsuccessful. I played for 3 hours on Christmas Eve and that basically led me to discover that I have somehow lost interest in the game during my time away. It was difficult as I found myself increasing bored the longer I stared at my character. I'm not sure if this is a lasting affliction but certainly for the next month I will not be logging in (which is too bad as I am paid up until March! Serves me right for signing up for extended membership!) Instead of playing WoW, I ended up finishing Guitar Hero 3 on the Xbox 360 on Medium setting. Now that's a game that I'm addicted to! Gets you off of the couch and lets you move around to the music. I especially liked the Halo Theme redux that you can download for the game (*gasp* yes, I don't hate all things Halo, the song is actually really moving). There's also a remixed rendition of the classic "Devil went down to Georgia". I also started into Mass Effect, which is the first Bioware RPG I have ever played. After a few hours, I immediately understood why people love their games. It's a very engaging experience, much more so than any Final Fantasy I have played. Instead of watch a story unfold, you are living the story through your character. This is "role-playing" that blurs a player's perception of their own reality. It's exciting to see it unfold, especially in 10 years when they look back at the "pioneers" of Immersions RPG (yes, I'm coining that term right now!) and lists Mass Effect and KOTOR, you can tell your 13 year old son/daughter that, "Yes, Daddy did play this game on the Xbox 360. I know the toaster has more processing power but that's not the point!" So, thus ends the reign of WoW over my life. What's going to happen as I move forward? Probably more Guitar Hero and maybe some Rock Band!

Merry Christmas!

Since this is Christmas eve, I hope everyone is enjoying their time away from work. For those of you lucky enough to get Rock Band in Canada, I wish all your drum pedals break! JK :) I wasn't lucky enough to find one, despite the hard searches. But I'm confident I will own one before the year ends. However, I am going to try and level to 40 before I have to return to work on Jan 2. I hope that the 100G my friend promised me will be a good enough incentive. Although I'm not hopeful about it. I wonder how many married gamers there are that fight with their spouses over when they get to play or stay up late. I personally have to get up and be out of the door by 7am at the latest during work days. And at this age, I require at least 7 hours of sleep to be semi-rested. Which means I have to be in bed and sleeping by 12am. This usually becomes a point of contention between my wife and I. She likes to sleep early and I like to stay up late. I have also come to realize that because I have troubles getting up early (and I mean a HARD time waking to my alarm), I feel guilty about staying up. If you think I should just man up and do what I feel, you obviously have not been in a long term relationship because that attitude will not get you anywhere with the women. So instead of playing games, which is the reason I was staying up, I read forum posts and look at websites. I believe that on a sub-conscious level I do other things so I won't have to justify doing what I stayed up to do in the first place. Anyway, I look forward to this holiday because I can finally just relax and not have to worry about staying up too late. I think there even maybe a few late night gaming sessions involved somewhere. I'll keep the blog posted and twitter will be updated with my WoW progress! For the Horde!

Two Teens Kill 7 Year Old Girl with Mortal Kombat Moves

What is wrong with society today? When kids get drunk and their natural instinct is to hurt someone more vulnerable than themselves. I have always advocated rules and laws against brutal behavior but the line is so fine between state control and good of the people that it's complete chaos. If you have ever seen the movie Idiocracy, you will know what I'm talking about when I say eventually, all the people on Earth are going to have the combined intelligence of an eggplant.

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Where's the F***ing Tree??

Merry Christmas everyone! Yeah, okay. I'll skip the pleasentries since I'm not a big fan of Christmas or, more accurately, what it's become today. I'm sure you've all heard the rants of other like minded individuals so I won't bore you. But rather I will explain my cyber absence since October. So my last few rants have been mainly about work so I'll continue the tradition: I quit my old job. Wait for it....And I got the same job, just at a different company. Remember that episode of Friends where Chandler quits his old job and then gets a new one, only having it be the same thing? Well, I'm doing the same thing but just getting more perks. Which is not to say that it's a bad thing, but it's not totally different. But I'm really looking forward to this year's Christmas time. It's going to be my first Christmas where I don't actually have to work! What are my plans? I plan on hitting level 50 in World of Warcraft, that's what! With the new experience patch active, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. /crosses fingers With the new job and trying to make a good impression, it's going to be tough to post. Well, it's not like I'm getting lots now anyway but I'll keep it short for now. I'm still planning on posting up those reviews I said I would, look for those before the year's end!

Death is a good motivator

You know those HR meetings where the bosses tell you that you must shape up, do your work well, work harder, and then gives you a reason why you must.

 

I just had such a meeting and the outcome is a very familiar sight. 

 

The difference between most companies is how you are compensated for taking the abuse and crap that is served to you.  Every company has crap on a plate that you are supposed to eat and love and say, “Thank you Sir, may I have more?”  The difference is how they treat you after it.  Similar to how you suck up to your wife or girlfriend after you just spend your month’s pay on the PS3 instead of taking her out this weekend like you promised.

 

Compensation is a tricky thing, because cash will only go so far.  The more money you have, the more expenses you have.  So you look for the silver lining in perks, such as flexible hours, friendly atmosphere, open doors, and company events.  These companies are very hard to come by unfortunately, and I have still to find mine. 

 

If you currently have such a place to work in, enjoy it and don’t lose focus.  Just remember, “if you are not being at least 80% productive, you are not make the company profitable”.

 

Wow, what do you say to that except, “Thank you Sir, may I have some more?”

 

 

Logitech Z-5500 5.1 THX Certified Speakers Review

I am not an audiophile. I prefer the joy of sight over the joy of sound, so naturally, you will have to read the following review with that rather large grain of salt. With that caveat aside, I will introduce you to what my experience has been with PC speakers. In ascending chronological order, here are the speakers I have been listening to with my PC for the last 3 years:

• Creative Cambridge Soundworks 5.1 surround sound system
• Logitech X-530 5.1 surround sound system
• Logitech Z-10 2.0 sound system
• Creative T20 2.0 sound system

And now I'm back to a 5.1 setup. The move to a 2.0 setup actually coinceided with my moving out and getting married period, where we lived in a small 600 sq. ft. apartment and real estate was limited. I do like to game in 5.1 and have missed it, but I also enjoy having a clean desk with little clutter (my wife would disagree but that's another story). I was very happy with my T-20's and they performed exceptionally well for a 2.0 system. I chose to try out the Z-5500 because my friend owns the Z-680 (the predecessor to the 5500) and he absolutely raves about them. That and the deal site I frequent had found these on sale for $250 Canadian. The price was just too sweet to pass them up so I took the plunge. Setup: The subwoofer that comes with this speaker package is a 10" sub enclosed in a wood housing with amplifier and a large aluminum heat sink. The box the whole set comes in is rather large and it was a challenge trying to get in into the trunk of my Mazda 3. However, once it was home and I started to set it up, it was a painless process. The Z-5500 uses regular speaker spring clips and speaker wires for its connection. It's not hard to connect these speakers but it does take a bit of patience and wire stripping. Just make sure you either have a sharp utility blade or a $10 wire stripper from home depot. After you have connected all 5 speakers to their inputs on the back of the amp (sub woofer), you should connect the massive, wired, desktop remote. The remote does more than adjust volume, all the appropriate controls are on there with the audio inputs. You can select which input, effects, and speaker levels all on the remote with the help of a 2 line LCD display. Performance: The Z-5500 accepts a Dolby Digital signal with support for Prologic II decoding and DTS 96/24 as well. You can hook up the speakers using direct 6 channel connection, Digital Toslink, or regular stereo input. I used both the direct 6 channel and Toslink to test these speakers. As most games do not output a encoded Dolby or DTS signal, you are forced to use the 6 channel (green, yellow, black) for positional audio. But for movies, such as the Matrix, you can switch the input to Digital Toslink and allow the Z-5500 to decode the DTS or Dolby track for you. I currently run a 5.1 surround system for my main TV and I really enjoy the loud bang that comes with all 5 speakers firing. And let me say my only complaint about watching a movie with these speakers is that my office chair doesn't transform into a Lazyboy! These speakers are the echelon of PC audio there is no doubt. The sounds from them are very clear, with great separation and well defined lows. The only thing I would like is a more distinct bass instead of a steady rumble, it would be nice if the bass could vary a bit with more life. Gaming is a joy with the Z-5500. You get a great sense of position with them. Bioshock is positively freaking when you can tell which direction a Big Daddy is in just by hearing it from behind....brrrr. Conclusion: I am very pleased with these speakers. They could be had for cheaper come Christmas time I'm sure and with the boxing day and year end sales, you should be seeing regular prices fall closer to the $200 mark. $200 for a set of speakers is expensive. But if you are someone that uses their PC for more than word processing and more for entertainment, then get yourself some decent speakers. There's a reason the majority of people out there call PC enthusiasts geeks and nerds, it's because we spend all this time and money oiling and greasing silicon chips in a box. So if you are going to be putting a HEMI in a Toyota, make sure you give it a good intake and exhaust so it can sound like a monster too.

What it's like to be on top

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Americans need not apply, your's is coming soon enough. I was hoping that this long weekend would be more relaxing and offer some extra time to crack open that PGR4 sitting on my desk. But like much of the time, I had something else to do besides playing my games. I had to work. Don't misunderstand my position. I am not belittling those hard workers in the service industry that has to work on Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays at minimum wage. I have been there before and it really grates on your nerves. But, I went to school, completed two degrees, and am now a professional. And why did I do all that? So I can have my weekends off and enjoy the successful life, or so said my University professor/counselors/social adviser. It's never easy to be at the upper echelon of professionalism. I am not a vice president of anything and I don't ever want to be. I am merely needed, just enough to require a long weekend work day, but not enough to be important. I'm not bitter, honest. I'm just wondering where the value in working your tail off is when mediocrity seems to be the battle cry for the majority of the work force. Well, I'll certainly chew on that for a while as I continue to show up to work this week, giving my 85.9% effort. Coming soon, reviews of: Logitech Z-5500 5.1 surround speakers, Spherex Xbox 5.1 speaker system, Creative Zen 8GB Media Player, Heavenly Sword - First Impressions.

Ooooooo.....Scary!

The weekend came and went, and I have to say, it was rather uneventful. Although I was able to log in about 2 hours of Team Fortress 2 on Friday night, it was not nearly enough as the rest of the weekend, I spent doing other chores. On a brighter note, I have complete the yard work required for this year in preparation of winter. The dog-run in the backyard is complete, save a few fencing and enclosures, which we will do next year.

TF2 was exhilarating as always and I was able to convince my brother-in-law to pre-order the orange box as well. He has always been a valve fan but has been devoted to Day of Defeat for longer than I care to remember. With the continued changes in that game, it’s become a completely different beast and he’s no longer enjoys playing it. With the introduction to TF2, he has found a new shooter that he can immerse himself into.

We also played a bit of Bioshock, and sadly to say, that game is NOT for me! I have never been a fan of horror games. Even the slightest amount of occult will cause me to lose sleep at night. I remember vividly when I first found this out. It was my friend’s 10^th birthday and we were having a sleep over at his house. He had just received a brand new Castlevania game for the NES and we were all determined to play it through. And I too my turn playing Simon Belmont and things weren’t so bad. It wasn’t until the sun set and the music started to get eerie did I start to notice shadows moving and felt eyes on my back. I know, most of you will think I’m a chicken for getting chills from a 8-bit game. But just think, if I’m that freaked out by an 8-bit game then, how much more freaked out would I be with Bioshock! I was able to play through Doom 3, Quake 4, no problems. I never played system shock so I can’t compare but with Bioshock, that’s just one creepy game! My brother in law was just as freaked out as I was and we decided then that TF2 was much more up our alley. Which is too bad as I can see that Bioshock is truly an experience. Perhaps if I run through the game full powered....but that topic is for another time.

My next project, depending on time, is going to be the continued leveling of my World of Warcraft character. I have yet to take a character to 60 and I would love to experience some of the higher end content. We will see, since 2.2 patch apparently broke a whole lot of add-ons, I may not want to continue if I have to reset all my buttons again in the UI. That’s just not worth my time right now.

Press Start

With the weekend approaching, it would be an appropriate time to explain a bit with how my weekends usually pan out.  You hear lots of gamers out there, married or in a serious relationship (read: where you don’t ditch the girl because Team Fortress 2 was released), are able to have few hours long gaming sessions.  I personally have never truly understood how that can possibly occur. 

 

To clarify, I don’t have kids, nor do I participate regularly in team sports (I do play squash with my good friend twice a week) so I should technically have lots of free time to play games.  But somehow it is never seems like I can get more than 30 minutes of gaming in.  I do take care of chores at home, such as doing my part in cooking, cleaning, and playing with the dog (he’s high energy!) but the other part, I think, is my own habit of filling up my evenings with other frivolous things.  I have a routine.  I get home and prepare dinner/eat/clean up.  Then I proceed to read all the news in tech and games before I feel relaxed.  During this time, I’m also interacting with my wife, my dog, and all other manner of interruptions.  So what ends up happening is 9:30PM rolls around and I have yet to play one second of any game. 

 

After speaking to some of my other “attached” friends, I believe they do their gaming times in the late evening, when their spouses or significant others have gone to bed.  This is an option but my home office (funny how we call it that when we do maybe 1% of our work there) is upstairs so noise levels are an issue.  Our big screen TV is in the bonus room, which is on a direct sound path to the bedroom.  This choice in positioning was a mutual decision but it’s something I’m beginning to think may not be a permanent solution. 

 

With Autumn here and Winter in Canada being pretty cold, I should be able to stay in for more evenings and be better off playing some games than doing yard work.  But for this weekend, I am going to try something new.  I will vow to stick to my schedules, and allow for at least 3 hours of pure gaming, with minimum 1 hour intervals.  Let’s see how that goes shall we?

 

A Small Segway

Ok, I didn't buy a Segway, or do I ever plan on doing so. But this morning, being the productive employee I am, I was checking the news on Extremetech and came on a story by Joel Durham Jr. on the current state of games. He touched on something that's been at the forefront of my mind this last 2 weeks, Halo 3. Now I'm not a fan boy of anything, and as you read the continuation of my first post, hopefully you will see that. But certain games I just believe are superior on certain platforms. Racing games are meant to be played on a console. Sports games are meant to be played on a console. Shooting games are meant to be played on a PC. You have probably been exposed to many points of view about this game already, and here are my two cents on the matter. Halo is mediocre. Mr. Durham wrote in his piece, "...just like television and movies, mediocrity pleases the gaming masses more than true inventiveness." I agree with this observation wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, the gaming masses are those that are purchasing consoles for under $500 each and are not even in the same category as those PC gamers that constantly upgrade, tweak, and care for their PCs. An analogy would be that the masses purchase Toyotas. Cars that are mass produced, gets the job done, and meets your everyday needs, where the connoisseurs of gaming are those that purchase BMWs and Massaraties. When Toyota introduced power steering and power windows, BMW owners wondered at what all the excitement was about. This was understandable as they were already using power windows and steering for the last 5 years. My purpose is not to advocate a particular attitude towards any genre or sect of gamers. In my mind, a true gamer is not one that discriminates but enjoys games at their core, fundamental level. This means that you do not limit yourself to any one particular genera, platform, or developer. I personally own all consoles ever made (I do now, and I again refer you to my forthcoming continued blog series for more information) and there are games I truly love on the consoles and games I truly love on the PC. Halo is just not one of them. I urge any of the deep Halo fans out there to broaden their horizons and try something else before playing their Halo 3 multiplayer maps to death. True, the Xbox 360 can pump out some impressive graphics on the right settings and immersion is quite realistic if you have the correct setup (read: 1080p and 7.1 surround sound) but on a PC, you can enjoy all those features and more with games that are 5 years old. Halo does not look any better than Prey does on the PC. Halo does not control better than Quake does on the PC. When id software completes their Quake Zero project, I believe console shooters will have a true competition. This will be the first, freely available, massively multiplayer (read: 64 players) online FPS, readily available to the masses with minimal hardware requirements (it runs from within a browser).

Go and read Mr. Durham’s article. He has many suggested FPS games with better narrative, more variety and better multiplayer options than Halo ever has.

Some Assembly Required

Welcome, dear readers, to the first bi-weekly posting of the Ikea Gamer blog. So what is an Ikea Gamer? The Ikea mentality is minimalistic for the sake of function and ease of use. You have an objective, what is the easiest way to get there with the least amount of cost to you? If you ask any student trying to furnish their dorm or rented rooms, they would undoubtedly tell you they are going to "Ikea the place". Such is the mentality of an Ikea Gamer. Some of us in this world were born to play. Be it sports, games, cards, toys, or instruments, these people were all meant to play. Some of these people are able to make a career out of it, pro-sports, pro-card sharks, game journalists, etc. But the majority of us are left with playing football with our friends on the second Saturday of each month for 2 hours, then hitting the bar before going home to clean the toilets and mow the lawn. For those of us in the latter scenario, I sympathize. I'm not a sports nut, I watch hockey time to time, cheer on my team, and even make it to a few home games during the season. I watch tennis on and off, and I play squash twice a week with my friend. But when it comes to video games, that's a whole different story. You see, my childhood was devoid of video games until my family immigrated to Canada when I was 8 years old. As a part of the bribe to lure their son to a foreign country and leave his childhood friends, my parents promised me a 8bit Nintendo Fami-Com system complete with a Disk Drive and 66 games. What they didn't tell me was that the system would require a power converter that wouldn't be available until 6 months after we arrived, and that 80% of the 66 games were going to be in Japanese. Myself being Chinese, this was, of course, unacceptable. But what is an 8 year old to do be accept that he is now in a foreign country, and he was the only black haired Chinese boy in his grade 3 class? So I did what most 8 year old at that time would do - play outside! This outdoors activities stage in my life lasted all the way into first year university when I was able to get a job and start to afford some luxuries in my life. At this time, I was already dating my wife so my minimum wage salary was divided into such: 50% tuition, 30% dates, 10% bills, 5% food, 5% entertainment. With that 5% budget to work with, I was once again deprived of any form of games short of a few rounds of arcade street fighter at the local Mac's (at $0.25, I could only play Street Fighter 2 and not the fancy new Capcom VS series, which required a significantly larger sum of $1.00). This trend continued well into my university education. I was finally able to afford my first real gaming system in my 3rd year of university. The Sony Playstation was the chosen system. At that time, many games had already been released and the hints of a Playstation 2 was already on the horizon. I realized I had a lot of catching up to do - but with work, school, and my girlfriend, I could barely spend time with my friends, let alone play video games. Sadly, this situation continues into today. What I hope to convey in this blog, is to share some of my views, as a married gamer about to turn 30, and perhaps release some of the stress of trying to balance a well rounded life at work and at home with a level 25 Blood Elf Warlock. Until the next post, have fun, enjoy the sunshine, and don't forget to multi-task!