I own both an XBox 360 and a PS3, and I'd say I got my money's worth out of each of them, although the Sony device got used about ten times as much as Microsoft's console. However, when the XBox One and PS4 were announced last year, it was pretty clear to me that I needn't waste any money on the new box coming out of the house Bill Gates built. Bad decision after bad decision were revealed by Microsoft in the months leading up to November (when both new consoles arrived), and to be honest I never once wavered in my decision to give the XB1 a pass... not even when I found out that Titanfall, the long-awaited first release from the ex-Infinity Ward crew at Respawn Entertainment, would be exclusive to the XBox family of devices. Hard to believe anything could sour me enough to pass up a highly-touted first person shooter, and yet there it was.
Today I saw an article on the topic that brought back all those memories and reinforced my decision. My six-month-old PS4, on the other hand, gets used every week and has been a delight to own so far.
Showing posts with label XBox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label XBox. Show all posts
Friday, May 16, 2014
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Quit Blaming Video Games For Violence In The Real World
Here's a good article that shows just how weak the argument that "video game playing leads to violence" really is.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Entering The Plasma Age
After 10 or 11 years of reliable service, our big, boxy Toshiba 50-inch finally started giving up the ghost over the past several days. We'd get an all-white screen when first powering it on, and then it would eventually reset back to normal. Since we'd been talking about getting a new TV for a couple years now, I finally decided it was time to start looking into what was out there over this past weekend.
This afternoon we bought a 50-inch Panasonic 'smart' plasma TV (model TCP50S60, for the record), along with a "some assembly required" stand, since we were no longer going to have a mammoth crate of a television to store our various components on top of. We spent a lot of time putting the stand together, although Vicki was her usual, organized self and it actually went fairly smoothly. Once that was done, it was all on me to disconnect our jungle of existing equipment and reassemble it on the new piece of furniture. I took my time and actually tied off all of the cables for once so that it wouldn't be quite such a mess back there. I'd picked up a couple of HDMI cables along with the TV and stand (and surge protector), and I have to say that things are looking pretty sweet right now! I have the Rogers Next Box and PS3 both going into the TV via HDMI, and that upgrade along with the plasma itself have made an eye-popping difference. I played a little bit of the Fuse demo and couldn't believe how much better everything looked. Money well spent, I think.
This afternoon we bought a 50-inch Panasonic 'smart' plasma TV (model TCP50S60, for the record), along with a "some assembly required" stand, since we were no longer going to have a mammoth crate of a television to store our various components on top of. We spent a lot of time putting the stand together, although Vicki was her usual, organized self and it actually went fairly smoothly. Once that was done, it was all on me to disconnect our jungle of existing equipment and reassemble it on the new piece of furniture. I took my time and actually tied off all of the cables for once so that it wouldn't be quite such a mess back there. I'd picked up a couple of HDMI cables along with the TV and stand (and surge protector), and I have to say that things are looking pretty sweet right now! I have the Rogers Next Box and PS3 both going into the TV via HDMI, and that upgrade along with the plasma itself have made an eye-popping difference. I played a little bit of the Fuse demo and couldn't believe how much better everything looked. Money well spent, I think.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Free At Last
This time last year, I briefly thought I'd freed myself from the annual cycle of paying for a mostly-unused Gold XBox Live membership thanks to my credit card getting a new expiry date and verification code. Then, to my horror, the transaction somehow still went through! I had planned to call Microsoft and push them to remove the automatic renewal from my account - since they don't let you do it online or on your 360! - but once I read all of the documentation that they require from you when you make that call, I knew I'd never get through it.
Instead, I waited until September of this year and then I called the card company to tell them that I wanted to ensure they wouldn't put through any outdated transactions like they did last year at this time. What I got for my troubles was a long song and dance about how it's all automated now, so the only option I had was to allow it to complete and then dispute it after the fact. I said, "Uh, no, there's another option... you can cancel my card and I'll take my business elsewhere!" Faced with that possibility, the service person said, "Well, how about if we just cancel your card, issue you a new one with a new number, and then you won't have to worry about any old transactions being auto-approved against it." It certainly wasn't what I'd have preferred, but I was also pretty sick of giving $60/year to Microsoft for a service I'd stopped using more than a year ago. So that's what we did.
And just last week I got a series of increasingly-urgent e-mails from XBox Live, imploring me to quickly update my credit card information so as not to suffer a disruption of service. I just checked a few minutes ago, and sure enough I don't seem to be able to get online to play games there anymore. So I think - I hope!! - that this may actually be the end of this saga. The bullshit approach to 'capturing' your business in this way has definitely made it very unlikely I'll ever again buy a game on the 360 if it's available on the PS3. So, y'know... way to go, Microsoft!
Instead, I waited until September of this year and then I called the card company to tell them that I wanted to ensure they wouldn't put through any outdated transactions like they did last year at this time. What I got for my troubles was a long song and dance about how it's all automated now, so the only option I had was to allow it to complete and then dispute it after the fact. I said, "Uh, no, there's another option... you can cancel my card and I'll take my business elsewhere!" Faced with that possibility, the service person said, "Well, how about if we just cancel your card, issue you a new one with a new number, and then you won't have to worry about any old transactions being auto-approved against it." It certainly wasn't what I'd have preferred, but I was also pretty sick of giving $60/year to Microsoft for a service I'd stopped using more than a year ago. So that's what we did.
And just last week I got a series of increasingly-urgent e-mails from XBox Live, imploring me to quickly update my credit card information so as not to suffer a disruption of service. I just checked a few minutes ago, and sure enough I don't seem to be able to get online to play games there anymore. So I think - I hope!! - that this may actually be the end of this saga. The bullshit approach to 'capturing' your business in this way has definitely made it very unlikely I'll ever again buy a game on the 360 if it's available on the PS3. So, y'know... way to go, Microsoft!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
My Afternoon With Portal (The Original)
Rather unusually for a Thursday, I found myself with a clear schedule today: no tutoring sessions at all, and a wife who was off to Niagara-on-the-Lake on a bus trip with a girlfriend. In other words, I was gifted a perfect opportunity for some serious gaming! Unfortunately, the Playstation Network continues to be off the air - having been attacked early last week, they're still not back - so I went looking for other options. All the time Vicki, Ryan and I have spent in Portal 2 lately has made me nostalgic for the original gem, nestled in The Orange Box along with 3 other games.
I started a new game around 1:30, and the next time I noticed the time it was a little after 5:00 and I'd just killed GladOS and received my cake (or was the cake a lie?). I found it much easier than the last time I played it, but still a whole lot of fun. And I must say that some of the puzzles in it are still ridiculously difficult, even - as I discovered today - when you've gotten through them all a few years earlier! I appreciate some of the many humourous bits in the sequel more now that I've refamiliarized myself with its predecessor, which just adds to the enjoyment of Portal 2.
That Orange Box package continues to be one of the best values in gaming I've ever experienced!
I started a new game around 1:30, and the next time I noticed the time it was a little after 5:00 and I'd just killed GladOS and received my cake (or was the cake a lie?). I found it much easier than the last time I played it, but still a whole lot of fun. And I must say that some of the puzzles in it are still ridiculously difficult, even - as I discovered today - when you've gotten through them all a few years earlier! I appreciate some of the many humourous bits in the sequel more now that I've refamiliarized myself with its predecessor, which just adds to the enjoyment of Portal 2.
That Orange Box package continues to be one of the best values in gaming I've ever experienced!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
1 Week To Portal 2
The original Portal, which arrived via the incredibly economical Orange Box package, was worth the price of admission alone, despite being bundled with 3 other great Valve games (Half-Life 2, HL2: Episode 1 and HL2: Episode 2). I had no expectations for it at all, and yet it ended up being one of the most fun games Vicki and I have ever played together. As such, my hopes are probably too high for its sequel, which is due out next Tuesday.
To understand where I'm coming from, though, you have to appreciate just how great a game Portal really was! For anyone who has never tried it, the concept behind its gameplay is simple enough: you're given a gun that shoots two portals - one orange, and one blue - and forced to find your way out of increasingly difficult predicaments. Each portal is essentially a large, circular opening that will adhere to most surfaces in the game. Together, they form an entry/exit pair: whatever goes into the blue hole will come out of the orange one, and vice versa. To understand the utility of this, imagine you're at one end of a room that has a door out of it at the other end and a chasm filled with burning acid running all the way across the middle of it. You shoot one of the portals into the wall beside you and the other one into the wall at the other end of the room, near the exit. You then step into the (blue or orange) hole near you and immediately come out of the (orange or blue) hole across the room! Problem solved by the application of a tiny bit of spatial physics!
Lest you think the game is just a long series of similarly-trivial challenges, you're soon having to perform maneuvers like jumping off a ledge, shooting a portal below you as well as one in the ceiling above you, so that when you emerge from the upper hole (after falling through the lower one) you've got enough momentum to put to use after forming a portal in a side wall where you'll come out after plummeting through the floor-hole a second time and shooting across the room where you... well, it just goes on from there, in some of the harder puzzles. Vicki and I had a complete hoot trying to figure out how to get through the game, and spent weeks at it.
I don't know whether Portal 2 will live up to its predecessor, but I do know I can't wait to find out! I plan to pick my copy up next Tuesday morning rather than pre-ordering it for home delivery because I figure it'd just end up coming a couple days late, if I did. This one I want to be sure to get on its release day!
To understand where I'm coming from, though, you have to appreciate just how great a game Portal really was! For anyone who has never tried it, the concept behind its gameplay is simple enough: you're given a gun that shoots two portals - one orange, and one blue - and forced to find your way out of increasingly difficult predicaments. Each portal is essentially a large, circular opening that will adhere to most surfaces in the game. Together, they form an entry/exit pair: whatever goes into the blue hole will come out of the orange one, and vice versa. To understand the utility of this, imagine you're at one end of a room that has a door out of it at the other end and a chasm filled with burning acid running all the way across the middle of it. You shoot one of the portals into the wall beside you and the other one into the wall at the other end of the room, near the exit. You then step into the (blue or orange) hole near you and immediately come out of the (orange or blue) hole across the room! Problem solved by the application of a tiny bit of spatial physics!
Lest you think the game is just a long series of similarly-trivial challenges, you're soon having to perform maneuvers like jumping off a ledge, shooting a portal below you as well as one in the ceiling above you, so that when you emerge from the upper hole (after falling through the lower one) you've got enough momentum to put to use after forming a portal in a side wall where you'll come out after plummeting through the floor-hole a second time and shooting across the room where you... well, it just goes on from there, in some of the harder puzzles. Vicki and I had a complete hoot trying to figure out how to get through the game, and spent weeks at it.
I don't know whether Portal 2 will live up to its predecessor, but I do know I can't wait to find out! I plan to pick my copy up next Tuesday morning rather than pre-ordering it for home delivery because I figure it'd just end up coming a couple days late, if I did. This one I want to be sure to get on its release day!
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Gaming's Really Just Good Parenting
Loved this article about a university study that showed that dads playing video games with their daughters have a significantly positive effect on the girls' emotional well-being and the cohesion of the family unit itself.
This will come as no surprise to Tammy and I, who've bonded over a myriad of First Person Shooters over the past decade plus, going all the way back to Star Wars: Jedi Knight Dark Forces II in 1999 (my first foray into gaming). As recently as last Christmas, she and I had a great time playing Call of Duty: Black Ops together for hours on end, and there's really no one I'd rather play with than her (with due apologies to Boneman and McChicken, close seconds).
This will come as no surprise to Tammy and I, who've bonded over a myriad of First Person Shooters over the past decade plus, going all the way back to Star Wars: Jedi Knight Dark Forces II in 1999 (my first foray into gaming). As recently as last Christmas, she and I had a great time playing Call of Duty: Black Ops together for hours on end, and there's really no one I'd rather play with than her (with due apologies to Boneman and McChicken, close seconds).
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
3 Demos, 0 Sales
Earlier in the month, my sampling of the Dead Space 2 demo convinced me not to buy the game once it launched. Good for me, in that it saved me approximately $70, but bad for the game developer.
Yesterday, I tried two more demos: Bulletstorm and Crysis 2. Neither came even close to winning me over, although I could see how each would appeal to different types of gamers.
Bulletstorm gets top marks for creativity, as the focus in the game appears to be on earning XP by killing your enemies in the most original manners possible! Combo moves, such as pulling the creature toward you via an electronic leash and then smashing him against a wall, generate more value for you than simply shooting them repeatedly in the head. Therefore, anyone who wants to really think about how to eliminate their enemies will probably have a great time with this game. To me, it felt too much like a button masher where I have to expend large quantities of mental energy just remembering what to press in what order, and so I'll pass. But the demo definitely had a few fun moments, including the point at which I completely ran out of ammo and yet stayed alive for another several minutes by virtue of simply kicking everyone who came at me firing!
Crysis 2 feels like a poor man's Call of Duty to me. The graphics were unimpressive, and most of the movements felt slightly off, rather like Killzone 2 did, at first. Now, I got used to KZ2's 'weighty controls' after awhile, so maybe the same would be true for this game if I stuck with it. But I'm not sure the payoff's there, to be honest. I got sniped many times, often from a distance, and had a hard time figuring out exactly how the physics in the game worked. At one point I fell quite a long distance but suffered no perceivable damage; at another, I saw players making huge leaps that I didn't seem capable of. I also got killed up close by an unseen enemy, which was my clue that we could cloak ourselves. Those are all teething pains, to be sure, but nothing about the map (a rooftop greenhouse area) or the action itself made me want to continue.
If I had to buy one of the two, it'd be Crysis 2, I suppose. I could imagine playing it for a day or two before I'd want to go back to Call of Duty: Black Ops and experience real fun. With the Killzone 3 demo/beta just a week away now, and the full game coming a couple weeks later, I can't see shelling out cash for either of these Tier-B offerings, though.
[Update later that same day: I just finished trying Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II demo, with similar results. It's possible that I'm the dumbest gamer ever, but when I try for five minutes to force grip a TIE fighter in order to throw it into a tower, all to no avail, that's a pretty good clue that this game ain't for me!]
Yesterday, I tried two more demos: Bulletstorm and Crysis 2. Neither came even close to winning me over, although I could see how each would appeal to different types of gamers.
Bulletstorm gets top marks for creativity, as the focus in the game appears to be on earning XP by killing your enemies in the most original manners possible! Combo moves, such as pulling the creature toward you via an electronic leash and then smashing him against a wall, generate more value for you than simply shooting them repeatedly in the head. Therefore, anyone who wants to really think about how to eliminate their enemies will probably have a great time with this game. To me, it felt too much like a button masher where I have to expend large quantities of mental energy just remembering what to press in what order, and so I'll pass. But the demo definitely had a few fun moments, including the point at which I completely ran out of ammo and yet stayed alive for another several minutes by virtue of simply kicking everyone who came at me firing!
Crysis 2 feels like a poor man's Call of Duty to me. The graphics were unimpressive, and most of the movements felt slightly off, rather like Killzone 2 did, at first. Now, I got used to KZ2's 'weighty controls' after awhile, so maybe the same would be true for this game if I stuck with it. But I'm not sure the payoff's there, to be honest. I got sniped many times, often from a distance, and had a hard time figuring out exactly how the physics in the game worked. At one point I fell quite a long distance but suffered no perceivable damage; at another, I saw players making huge leaps that I didn't seem capable of. I also got killed up close by an unseen enemy, which was my clue that we could cloak ourselves. Those are all teething pains, to be sure, but nothing about the map (a rooftop greenhouse area) or the action itself made me want to continue.
If I had to buy one of the two, it'd be Crysis 2, I suppose. I could imagine playing it for a day or two before I'd want to go back to Call of Duty: Black Ops and experience real fun. With the Killzone 3 demo/beta just a week away now, and the full game coming a couple weeks later, I can't see shelling out cash for either of these Tier-B offerings, though.
[Update later that same day: I just finished trying Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II demo, with similar results. It's possible that I'm the dumbest gamer ever, but when I try for five minutes to force grip a TIE fighter in order to throw it into a tower, all to no avail, that's a pretty good clue that this game ain't for me!]
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
That's Very Annoying, Microsoft!
I reported back in November/December that I thought I'd finally broken free of XBox Live when my credit card that was on my XBox 360 account expired. However, the joke was on me, as the transaction apparently still went through, despite having the wrong expiration date and verification code (it still had the values for the old card, rather than the new one). Therefore I've been signed up for another year of XBox Live Gold, despite barely using it over the preceding year of service.
Tonight, since I was downloading the demo for Crysis 2 on my 360, I thought I'd remove the credit card entirely from my account, so as to ensure the same thing didn't happen next November. However, when I tried to remove it through the console, it directed me to a website. When I went there on my laptop, I was told that I couldn't remove it because there's a "service" on it. When I tried to deactivate that automatic renewal "service", it wouldn't let me!
So I guess I'm left with no option but to either call Microsoft Support and get them to deal with this - unlikely! - or call Mastercard in the fall and make sure they know not to authorize the $59.99 charge when it comes to them with the wrong credit card info (which they shouldn't be doing anyway!). What a scam by MS: make it childishly easy to sign up for the service but ridiculously hard to cancel it! This of course makes me all the more determined to be free of it!
Tonight, since I was downloading the demo for Crysis 2 on my 360, I thought I'd remove the credit card entirely from my account, so as to ensure the same thing didn't happen next November. However, when I tried to remove it through the console, it directed me to a website. When I went there on my laptop, I was told that I couldn't remove it because there's a "service" on it. When I tried to deactivate that automatic renewal "service", it wouldn't let me!
So I guess I'm left with no option but to either call Microsoft Support and get them to deal with this - unlikely! - or call Mastercard in the fall and make sure they know not to authorize the $59.99 charge when it comes to them with the wrong credit card info (which they shouldn't be doing anyway!). What a scam by MS: make it childishly easy to sign up for the service but ridiculously hard to cancel it! This of course makes me all the more determined to be free of it!
Monday, January 03, 2011
What 2011 Looks Like So Far
I could say that 2011 so far looks like a broken window in our garage - where the giant icicle fell on New Year's Eve, taking out a pane with it - but really it's more like this:
Jan 25: Dead Space 2
Feb 22: Killzone 3 [Update Apr 20/11: Came out right on schedule and is a very good, almost great game!]
Mar 22: F.3.A.R. (aka F.E.A.R. 3) [Update Jan 12/11: now delayed until May. Crap! Update Apr 27/11: Now delayed to Jun 24/11! Double crap! That's a 3-month slip, and counting... generally, not a good sign.]
Apr 18: Portal 2 [Update Apr 20/11: Out on time, and fantastic!!]
May 31: Red Faction Armageddon
Jun 7/11: Infamous 2
Spring 2011: Ico/Shadow of the Colossus release for PS/3 [Update Apr 20/11: now officially delayed, but with no new release date provided. Damn. Update Jun 7/11: Dated for Sep 28th at E3 this week.]
Sep 6: Resistance 3
Nov 8: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Nov 11: Aliens: Colonial Marines [Update Jun 12/11: This is now delayed until "Spring 2012", but a version was shown at E3 last week that seems to have gotten people excited.]
?? ??: The Last Guardian
?? ??: Battlefield 3
That's an average of a game a month over the course of the year! When you think about it that way, 2011's looking pretty sweet indeed!
Jan 25: Dead Space 2
Feb 22: Killzone 3 [Update Apr 20/11: Came out right on schedule and is a very good, almost great game!]
Mar 22: F.3.A.R. (aka F.E.A.R. 3) [Update Jan 12/11: now delayed until May. Crap! Update Apr 27/11: Now delayed to Jun 24/11! Double crap! That's a 3-month slip, and counting... generally, not a good sign.]
Apr 18: Portal 2 [Update Apr 20/11: Out on time, and fantastic!!]
May 31: Red Faction Armageddon
Jun 7/11: Infamous 2
Spring 2011: Ico/Shadow of the Colossus release for PS/3 [Update Apr 20/11: now officially delayed, but with no new release date provided. Damn. Update Jun 7/11: Dated for Sep 28th at E3 this week.]
Sep 6: Resistance 3
Nov 8: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Nov 11: Aliens: Colonial Marines [Update Jun 12/11: This is now delayed until "Spring 2012", but a version was shown at E3 last week that seems to have gotten people excited.]
?? ??: The Last Guardian
?? ??: Battlefield 3
That's an average of a game a month over the course of the year! When you think about it that way, 2011's looking pretty sweet indeed!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
What Santa Brung
Well, Christmas 2010 has now come and gone, and it was completely unlike what we had planned, for a variety of reasons. It wasn't the surreal experience that 4 years ago was, when both of my housemates were down with the flu for the day. However, a good friend of ours who had hoped to spend the day with us has had an ailing parent take a turn for the worse, wiping all yuletide thoughts from her mind, unfortunately. As a result, Vicki volunteered to make an impromptu trip out of town to deliver some essentials to the friend in need. Of much lesser import, Tammy and I didn't get our hoped-for Christmas Day walk in with Julie when her schedule didn't accommodate it, but instead decided to go on it by ourselves... only to bump into Julie and some relatives of hers on the trail! It was just a strange day full of unexpected twists and turns.
But gifts were still exchanged, and my haul included the following:
In other words, the three of us all did great, as usual. That much, at least, went according to the script.
But gifts were still exchanged, and my haul included the following:
- Books galore: The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, Earth: The Book by The Daily Show staff, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut, The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris, Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin and The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins (which I've been particularly-eagerly awaiting!)
- Video games: Alan Wake and Battlefield: Bad Company 2, both for the XBox 360
- a Daily Show / Colbert Report T-shirt from their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
- The Hurt Locker on DVD
- 2 Lois Lanes and 1 Superman comic, all lovely and from the 1960s
- a homemade pillow and pillow case (superhero-themed, of course!)
- a Future Shop gift certificate, some yummy chocolates and other sundry treats
In other words, the three of us all did great, as usual. That much, at least, went according to the script.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Your Trivia Answers
Thanks to Vicki, Tammy, Boneman and Jimmy Hinckley for playing our Trivia Game this holiday season (and shame on the rest of you who didn't!). They all did well, given the eclectic nature of the questions. Jimmy picked up 8 Blog Points for his 16 correct answers, Tammy and Vicki each got 7 BPs and Boneman wasn't far behind with 6 BPs (including a small bonus for making me laugh). Leaderboard standings should be updated momentarily.
For those who'd like to know the actual answers, I've provided them below:
1) Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina, told his aides he was "hiking the Appalachian trail" while he headed down south to Argentina for a tryst with his girlfriend there (his wife would later leave him). (2 of the 4 respondents got that right, to some degree)
2) It was the Texas Rangers, formerly owned by George "Dubba Ya" Bush, who lost to the Giants in this year's World Series. (2 right answers)
3) DC Comics' Green Lantern was front and centre for this year's Blackest Night event, just in time to get prepped for his leading man role in next year's GL movie. (2 right answers)
4) I'm currently - almost literally so - playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. Too easy! (4 right answers!)
5) It was poor Rascal who had to be put down this fall. (3 right answers. "Patches", Boneman? Really?!?)
6) I currently have just over 28,100 comics, so 28,000 is the winning answer here. (only 1 right answer to be found)
7) Pi is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. (4 right-ish answers, although part marks were deducted for misspellings of "pie" and "pii")
8) KTD = Kill to Death, as everyone knows who reads this blog. (4 right)
9) It was Roy "Doc" Halladay who pitched a no-hitter this October in his first ever postseason appearance, of course. (1 right)
10) Arsenic and old lace go together, but who knew that arsenic could be a building block for Life? We do, now! Well, some of us do, anyway. (1 right)
11) 2011 is the year of Thor, Green Lantern and Captain America movies. (2 right)
12) Robin's secret identity is apparently very secret, as no one knew that Damian Wayne (illegitimate son of Bruce Wayne) is currently wearing the costume. (0 right)
13) Back to back shutouts for the respondents here, as nobody seemed aware that the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is just around the corner, since it went down in April 1912! (0 right)
14) Chris Nolan's first film, which Vicki and I watched not too long ago, is called Following and is quite the weird little gem. (1 right-ish, although Vicki got the title partly wrong)
15) Only one Star Wars fan knew that The Hidden Fortress is the Kurasawa film that George Lucas borrowed so heavily from for Episode IV. (1 right)
16) Branding apparently works: everyone knows who Brown is: UPS! (4 right)
17) I guess only a comic fan would remember that Tony Stark's father's name is Howard, although after he appears in next year's Captain America film, maybe more will. (0 right)
18) The Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, despite being blogged about here not long ago, confounded all but one of our respondents. To quote Boneman, it's "when you are in a sitcom for one episode, and only ever referred to from then on" (hey, close enough!). (1 right)
19) Not surprisingly, nobody recalled that Pedro Martinez started off as a Los Angeles Dodger, before being traded to the Expos and making his name there. (0 right)
20) On the other hand, everyone knew that James Ford took the name "Sawyer" after a con man by that name caused the murder-suicide of his parents. (4 right)
21) Only one true film buff named Roman "Hey little girl, wanna party?" Polanski as the director of Chinatown. (1 right)
22) Much to my amazement, no one tagged 1919 as the year of the Black Sox! (Maybe we'll get another scandal of similar proportion in 2020?) (0 right)
23) Probably the toughest question of the lot involved the given name of Captain "Sully" Sullenberger. Jimmy came closest with "Chester", for which he got part marks. Right answer? Chesley! (1 right-ish)
24) Surely only surly Sean Connery could deliver the line about bringing a knife to a gun fight, as two of our respondents knew. (2 right)
25) Steve Rogers has better name recognition than I'd expected, as everyone ID'd him as the Star Spangled Avenger, Captain America! (4 right)
26) Who could ever forget the 5 notes that the aliens played for us in Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Well, apparently some could, as only half the people got that right! (2 right)
27) Almost everyone (surprisingly) knew that Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird! (3 right)
28) When do we get a leap year? In any year that's divisible by 4 but not divisible by 100 unless it's also divisible by 400, of course! So 1944, 1996 and 2000 each got an extra day for their troubles! (3 right)
29) What kind of people don't remember that it was Doomsday that killed Superman back in 1992? Apparently your kind of people, as no one got this right! (0 right)
30) And last but not least, it's of course my lovely wife Vicki and my wonderful walking buddy Julie who join me for frequent Movie Nights, as most of you knew. (3 right)
I hope you all enjoyed the trivia, even if you didn't take part!
For those who'd like to know the actual answers, I've provided them below:
1) Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina, told his aides he was "hiking the Appalachian trail" while he headed down south to Argentina for a tryst with his girlfriend there (his wife would later leave him). (2 of the 4 respondents got that right, to some degree)
2) It was the Texas Rangers, formerly owned by George "Dubba Ya" Bush, who lost to the Giants in this year's World Series. (2 right answers)
3) DC Comics' Green Lantern was front and centre for this year's Blackest Night event, just in time to get prepped for his leading man role in next year's GL movie. (2 right answers)
4) I'm currently - almost literally so - playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. Too easy! (4 right answers!)
5) It was poor Rascal who had to be put down this fall. (3 right answers. "Patches", Boneman? Really?!?)
6) I currently have just over 28,100 comics, so 28,000 is the winning answer here. (only 1 right answer to be found)
7) Pi is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. (4 right-ish answers, although part marks were deducted for misspellings of "pie" and "pii")
8) KTD = Kill to Death, as everyone knows who reads this blog. (4 right)
9) It was Roy "Doc" Halladay who pitched a no-hitter this October in his first ever postseason appearance, of course. (1 right)
10) Arsenic and old lace go together, but who knew that arsenic could be a building block for Life? We do, now! Well, some of us do, anyway. (1 right)
11) 2011 is the year of Thor, Green Lantern and Captain America movies. (2 right)
12) Robin's secret identity is apparently very secret, as no one knew that Damian Wayne (illegitimate son of Bruce Wayne) is currently wearing the costume. (0 right)
13) Back to back shutouts for the respondents here, as nobody seemed aware that the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is just around the corner, since it went down in April 1912! (0 right)
14) Chris Nolan's first film, which Vicki and I watched not too long ago, is called Following and is quite the weird little gem. (1 right-ish, although Vicki got the title partly wrong)
15) Only one Star Wars fan knew that The Hidden Fortress is the Kurasawa film that George Lucas borrowed so heavily from for Episode IV. (1 right)
16) Branding apparently works: everyone knows who Brown is: UPS! (4 right)
17) I guess only a comic fan would remember that Tony Stark's father's name is Howard, although after he appears in next year's Captain America film, maybe more will. (0 right)
18) The Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, despite being blogged about here not long ago, confounded all but one of our respondents. To quote Boneman, it's "when you are in a sitcom for one episode, and only ever referred to from then on" (hey, close enough!). (1 right)
19) Not surprisingly, nobody recalled that Pedro Martinez started off as a Los Angeles Dodger, before being traded to the Expos and making his name there. (0 right)
20) On the other hand, everyone knew that James Ford took the name "Sawyer" after a con man by that name caused the murder-suicide of his parents. (4 right)
21) Only one true film buff named Roman "Hey little girl, wanna party?" Polanski as the director of Chinatown. (1 right)
22) Much to my amazement, no one tagged 1919 as the year of the Black Sox! (Maybe we'll get another scandal of similar proportion in 2020?) (0 right)
23) Probably the toughest question of the lot involved the given name of Captain "Sully" Sullenberger. Jimmy came closest with "Chester", for which he got part marks. Right answer? Chesley! (1 right-ish)
24) Surely only surly Sean Connery could deliver the line about bringing a knife to a gun fight, as two of our respondents knew. (2 right)
25) Steve Rogers has better name recognition than I'd expected, as everyone ID'd him as the Star Spangled Avenger, Captain America! (4 right)
26) Who could ever forget the 5 notes that the aliens played for us in Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Well, apparently some could, as only half the people got that right! (2 right)
27) Almost everyone (surprisingly) knew that Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird! (3 right)
28) When do we get a leap year? In any year that's divisible by 4 but not divisible by 100 unless it's also divisible by 400, of course! So 1944, 1996 and 2000 each got an extra day for their troubles! (3 right)
29) What kind of people don't remember that it was Doomsday that killed Superman back in 1992? Apparently your kind of people, as no one got this right! (0 right)
30) And last but not least, it's of course my lovely wife Vicki and my wonderful walking buddy Julie who join me for frequent Movie Nights, as most of you knew. (3 right)
I hope you all enjoyed the trivia, even if you didn't take part!
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Greatest Game Trailer Ever?
I don't know for sure but this trailer for Portal 2 just might be the pinnacle of gaming ads. I laughed out loud several times, and it's not even 2 minutes long! Cannot wait for this game to hit (release date is 4 months from today).
[Update Dec 22/10: Looks like Portal 2's release date is now Apr 21, not the 18th. No biggie!]
[Update Dec 22/10: Looks like Portal 2's release date is now Apr 21, not the 18th. No biggie!]
Friday, December 17, 2010
Holiday 2010 Trivia (3000 Posts Later!)
Hey look, it's my 3000th blog post!!!
As promised, here are some trivia questions to help us all celebrate the milestone. Please answer from memory, rather than looking things up. Provide your answers in the comments. I've turned comment moderation on, and will hold off publishing any relating to this contest until after it closes, at midnight on Wednesday, December 22, 2010. If nothing else, this should provide some pre-holiday distraction and shake things up a bit on the Blog Point Leader Board.
And so, without further ado, here are 30 questions in random order, spanning a wide range of topics. Each correct answer will be awarded a 1/2 Blog Point:
1) Which American politician inspired the recent euphemism for stepping out on your spouse, now immortalized as "hiking the Appalachian Trail"?
2) Which team lost the 2010 World Series?
3) Which DC Comics superhero was at the center of the company's Blackest Night event in 2010?
4) What video game am I currently spending much of my free time playing?
5) What was the name of the pet that Vicki and I had to euthanize earlier this year?
6) To the nearest thousand, how many comic books do I currently own?
7) What symbol represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter?
8) What does KTD stand for in First Person Shooter games?
9) Who began his professional postseason career in 2010 with a no-hitter?
10) What element surprisingly formed the basis of a new life form discovered in Mono Lake recently?
11) What three big name superhero movies are scheduled to be released in 2011?
12) What is the secret identity of the Robin currently appearing in the main Batman titles published by DC Comics?
13) In what month and year did the Titanic sink?
14) What is the name of Christopher Nolan's first feature film?
15) Which Kurasawa classic is said to have provided inspiration to George Lucas in creating Star Wars?
16) Never mind figuring out "What Brown can do for you?"... who the heck is Brown?
17) What is Tony Stark's father's given name?
18) What is the Chuck Cunningham Syndrome?
19) On which team did Pedro Martinez begin his Major League Baseball career?
20) Why does James Ford go by the name "Sawyer" on the TV show Lost?
21) Who directed the 1974 film Chinatown?
22) In what year did the infamous Chicago Black Sox scandal occur?
23) What is Captain "Sully" Sullenberger's given name?
24) Which Academy Award winning actor slammed his on-screen opponent for bringing a knife to a gun fight?
25) What is the superhero name that Steve Rogers usually operates under?
26) How many notes comprised the initial musical message offered up by the aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
27) Who wrote the novel To Kill a Mockingbird?
28) Which of the following were leap years: 1900, 1944, 1962, 1986, 1996, 2000?
29) Who killed Superman back in 1992?
30) Who are the two women with whom I enjoy Movie Nights?
Good luck to all!
As promised, here are some trivia questions to help us all celebrate the milestone. Please answer from memory, rather than looking things up. Provide your answers in the comments. I've turned comment moderation on, and will hold off publishing any relating to this contest until after it closes, at midnight on Wednesday, December 22, 2010. If nothing else, this should provide some pre-holiday distraction and shake things up a bit on the Blog Point Leader Board.
And so, without further ado, here are 30 questions in random order, spanning a wide range of topics. Each correct answer will be awarded a 1/2 Blog Point:
1) Which American politician inspired the recent euphemism for stepping out on your spouse, now immortalized as "hiking the Appalachian Trail"?
2) Which team lost the 2010 World Series?
3) Which DC Comics superhero was at the center of the company's Blackest Night event in 2010?
4) What video game am I currently spending much of my free time playing?
5) What was the name of the pet that Vicki and I had to euthanize earlier this year?
6) To the nearest thousand, how many comic books do I currently own?
7) What symbol represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter?
8) What does KTD stand for in First Person Shooter games?
9) Who began his professional postseason career in 2010 with a no-hitter?
10) What element surprisingly formed the basis of a new life form discovered in Mono Lake recently?
11) What three big name superhero movies are scheduled to be released in 2011?
12) What is the secret identity of the Robin currently appearing in the main Batman titles published by DC Comics?
13) In what month and year did the Titanic sink?
14) What is the name of Christopher Nolan's first feature film?
15) Which Kurasawa classic is said to have provided inspiration to George Lucas in creating Star Wars?
16) Never mind figuring out "What Brown can do for you?"... who the heck is Brown?
17) What is Tony Stark's father's given name?
18) What is the Chuck Cunningham Syndrome?
19) On which team did Pedro Martinez begin his Major League Baseball career?
20) Why does James Ford go by the name "Sawyer" on the TV show Lost?
21) Who directed the 1974 film Chinatown?
22) In what year did the infamous Chicago Black Sox scandal occur?
23) What is Captain "Sully" Sullenberger's given name?
24) Which Academy Award winning actor slammed his on-screen opponent for bringing a knife to a gun fight?
25) What is the superhero name that Steve Rogers usually operates under?
26) How many notes comprised the initial musical message offered up by the aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
27) Who wrote the novel To Kill a Mockingbird?
28) Which of the following were leap years: 1900, 1944, 1962, 1986, 1996, 2000?
29) Who killed Superman back in 1992?
30) Who are the two women with whom I enjoy Movie Nights?
Good luck to all!
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Total Mastery Of A Game
For anyone who's played the amazing Portal, you have to watch this video of someone completing it in under 10 minutes! I've never seen anyone show such a complete and utter mastery of a game environment as this individual demonstrates. It will make no sense whatsoever for any strangers to the game; but for the rest of us: wow!
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Two Tales To Sadden Our Friends At Microsoft
Nightmarish "support" stories like this one, in which a consumer buys a new XBox 360-with-Kinect system, has it break right away (on the first day of use), and then spends weeks trying to get support for it while being told something different at every turn, tend to seem hilarious to everyone except the parties involved. I remember when Vicki and I worked at the bank back in the 90s we would hear the most atrocious tales of tellers or call centre operators providing crappy service, but fortunately such things were extremely rare. I'm not sure that's quite as true when it comes to Microsoft, though.
Speaking of whom... I have a mildly amusing MS story to share, now that I think about it. I've paid the annual Gold XBox Live membership cost ($59.99?) for the past several years, so that I could play the odd 360 game online with friends. My most recent subscription was due to expire in mid-November, and I had toyed with the idea of canceling it. To be honest, I've probably only played three or four hours of XBox 360 online so far in 2010, and considering that the PS/3 equivalent is free, it's hard to justify $60 for so little return. However, I'm a notorious procrastinator, and so I did nothing about it.
Eventually, I got the e-mail telling me that MS was renewing the subscription "for me", as they've done each of the past several years since I bought the box. Sigh. Oh well.
But wait! Then I received an e-mail saying that the credit card I'd used for that account had expired, and so I should please go and update the details so that I could get my subscription renewed and not miss out on the chance to play online with my friends! How perfect! Now I could procrastinate and actually get what I wanted, which is exactly what happened: I no longer have a current membership in the Gold XBox Live club, and have saved myself $60! This story, at least, has a happy ending!
[Update Dec 12/10: Sadly, I just saw on my credit card statement that the Gold XBox Live charge did go through, after all. So much for that good news story!]
Speaking of whom... I have a mildly amusing MS story to share, now that I think about it. I've paid the annual Gold XBox Live membership cost ($59.99?) for the past several years, so that I could play the odd 360 game online with friends. My most recent subscription was due to expire in mid-November, and I had toyed with the idea of canceling it. To be honest, I've probably only played three or four hours of XBox 360 online so far in 2010, and considering that the PS/3 equivalent is free, it's hard to justify $60 for so little return. However, I'm a notorious procrastinator, and so I did nothing about it.
Eventually, I got the e-mail telling me that MS was renewing the subscription "for me", as they've done each of the past several years since I bought the box. Sigh. Oh well.
But wait! Then I received an e-mail saying that the credit card I'd used for that account had expired, and so I should please go and update the details so that I could get my subscription renewed and not miss out on the chance to play online with my friends! How perfect! Now I could procrastinate and actually get what I wanted, which is exactly what happened: I no longer have a current membership in the Gold XBox Live club, and have saved myself $60! This story, at least, has a happy ending!
[Update Dec 12/10: Sadly, I just saw on my credit card statement that the Gold XBox Live charge did go through, after all. So much for that good news story!]
Sunday, November 28, 2010
The Sporting Wife
Just to mix things up a bit, today I asked Vicki if she'd be willing to play a little Call of Duty: Black Ops with me. I know that, when it comes to video games, First Person Shooters are not her cup of tea at all, but occasionally I can twist her arm into trying one out. I guess I caught her in a particularly good mood today!
We started off with some multiplayer (Team Deathmatch) Combat Training against Artificial Intelligence bots, the skills of which I'd dialed down to their lowest level. We played several maps but for whatever reason, the game kept putting us on opposite sides (must be a setting, but I couldn't find it). That wasn't particularly fun so then we opted for Zombies, instead.
This was a better choice for Vicki, and we enjoyed about four or five matches before Vicki was done in by the stressful and nausea-inducing action. We played online with two strangers each time, and so our success varied a fair bit as a result. I think we got to level 5 at our peak (I've gotten to level 11 or 12 when playing with 3 random partners before, once or twice) but Vicki was really getting the hang of it by the last game. She says she's up for more another time, so we'll see how that that goes.
I definitely have not gotten into Black Ops like I did Modern Warfare 2, at least not yet. It's fun, but not nearly the addictive experience the earlier game was. I can't put my finger on what the difference is, or whether maybe it's the fact that the two games aren't different enough that's to blame. Still and all, I'm certainly getting my money's worth, unlike earlier purchases of Left 4 Dead 2, Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach.
We started off with some multiplayer (Team Deathmatch) Combat Training against Artificial Intelligence bots, the skills of which I'd dialed down to their lowest level. We played several maps but for whatever reason, the game kept putting us on opposite sides (must be a setting, but I couldn't find it). That wasn't particularly fun so then we opted for Zombies, instead.
This was a better choice for Vicki, and we enjoyed about four or five matches before Vicki was done in by the stressful and nausea-inducing action. We played online with two strangers each time, and so our success varied a fair bit as a result. I think we got to level 5 at our peak (I've gotten to level 11 or 12 when playing with 3 random partners before, once or twice) but Vicki was really getting the hang of it by the last game. She says she's up for more another time, so we'll see how that that goes.
I definitely have not gotten into Black Ops like I did Modern Warfare 2, at least not yet. It's fun, but not nearly the addictive experience the earlier game was. I can't put my finger on what the difference is, or whether maybe it's the fact that the two games aren't different enough that's to blame. Still and all, I'm certainly getting my money's worth, unlike earlier purchases of Left 4 Dead 2, Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach.
Friday, November 12, 2010
For The Call Of Duty: Black Ops Fans
There's a very nice COD:BO weapon summary here. I found it quite informative, and I probably won't even use most of the guns available in the game!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Hitler Finds Out No Quickscoping Allowed in Black Ops
I guess it's no big surprise that a world class douche like Adolf Hitler would be a fan of quickscoping (the art of zooming in with a sniper rifle for less than a second before firing). Check out his reaction to finding out that Call of Duty: Black Ops (out in just 11 days now!!) won't support it.
[And for another treat, you might want to watch this Inception trailer made using Halo: Reach characters and sets!]
Speaking of CoD:BO, I was disappointed to learn this week that the PS/3 version won't allow online coop play through the campaign. XBox Live users will get that appealing feature, but not those of us running the game on the PlayStation Network. That sucks!
[And for another treat, you might want to watch this Inception trailer made using Halo: Reach characters and sets!]
Speaking of CoD:BO, I was disappointed to learn this week that the PS/3 version won't allow online coop play through the campaign. XBox Live users will get that appealing feature, but not those of us running the game on the PlayStation Network. That sucks!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
A Quick Halo: Reach Update
I hadn't played much Halo: Reach after the first few days of owning it as it really didn't grab me, but recently I've given it another try. I'm finding that it has a good variety of gameplay even just within the single player campaign (which is all I've tried in it so far), including some outer space battles the likes of which I don't recall from any previous Halo offering.
But nothing else quite compares with my favourite thing to do in a Halo game, which is to discover just how far I can take a Warthog (the game's main Jeep-like vehicle). Yesterday, while Vicki looked on, I maneuvered the turret-mounted buggie around some concrete blockades in order to get it up a set of stairs on the outside of a refinery building. From there, I could drive it along various catwalks, allowing my AI buddy to use the turret's rockets to quickly and effectively clear out all enemies that awaited us. Eventually I had to drive over the edge of an elevated platform in order to access a lower level, and from there I headed - Warthog and all - down through a hole in the floor into yet another area, also infested with bad guys. I remembered playing this portion of the game earlier with McChicken in Coop mode, but hadn't at that time tried to bring our ride with us. I can now attest to just how much easier the whole "clearing out" part is when you have infinite ammo on a rear-mounted rocket launcher to use for that purpose! Huzzah!
With less than 3 weeks left until Call of Duty: Black Ops takes over all of our lives, now seemed like a good time to get back into Halo: Reach. We'll see if it continues to hold my interest for the next little while.
But nothing else quite compares with my favourite thing to do in a Halo game, which is to discover just how far I can take a Warthog (the game's main Jeep-like vehicle). Yesterday, while Vicki looked on, I maneuvered the turret-mounted buggie around some concrete blockades in order to get it up a set of stairs on the outside of a refinery building. From there, I could drive it along various catwalks, allowing my AI buddy to use the turret's rockets to quickly and effectively clear out all enemies that awaited us. Eventually I had to drive over the edge of an elevated platform in order to access a lower level, and from there I headed - Warthog and all - down through a hole in the floor into yet another area, also infested with bad guys. I remembered playing this portion of the game earlier with McChicken in Coop mode, but hadn't at that time tried to bring our ride with us. I can now attest to just how much easier the whole "clearing out" part is when you have infinite ammo on a rear-mounted rocket launcher to use for that purpose! Huzzah!
With less than 3 weeks left until Call of Duty: Black Ops takes over all of our lives, now seemed like a good time to get back into Halo: Reach. We'll see if it continues to hold my interest for the next little while.
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