Merry New Yearsmas!

Heyo, Sorry for the lack of updates. A combination of the holidays and a hefty work load has left me with little to no time to play games. I did get Rockband though!

My tale begins and on a cold and stormy night. Well it was cold, but not so stormy. I had just gotten back into town from working and was quite hungry. I decided I'd stop in to Gino's Pizza (PLUG! Gimme free pizza Gino's!!!) and grab a panzerotti for dinner. While I waited anxiously for it to be made I walked over to Roger's Video (PLUG x2! Gimme free movies/games Roger's!!!) to browse while I waited. As I entered the store my eyes fell upon a large box. On the box was written "RockBand". My jaw dropped and I looked at the clerk at the counter and asked "Oh my god, is that Rock Band?". The clerk looked at me and said yes. I asked if they had the Xbox360 bundle and they did. I can't remember exactly what I said but it was something along the lines of "OMG Gimme!". 176$ later I had Rockband!... and to a lesser note, a panzerotti too! I had to go out right afterwards so I didn't get a chance to play for a little while. Alex and Matt came over when I got back and we ripped it open and formed a band. We named our band 'Ebola Cubed' which in itself is it's own story. I took up the Drums while Alex plucked Bass and Matt shredded on Lead Guitar.

Intermission! ~Let's all go to the lobbbyy and get ourselves a snack!~

For Christmas I was heading to my sisters in London. I brought Rockband with me so that while we were at her boyfriend's parents on Christmas Eve. That went well for a while until the unthinkable happened! My nephew knocked over my Xbox360 with the game still running! I rushed to the system and opened the disc tray and to my dismay the disc has a ring in it from where the laser struck it in the impact. I nearly cried. My sister offered to buy me a new disc but finding one now would be next to impossible. I packed up Rockband and tried not to think about it for the rest of the day. On my way back on Christmas day I stopped for gas in Brantford and across from the gas station was a Blockbuster (PLUG x3! Gimme free movies/games Blockbuster!!!) that was open and to my surprise they offered a disc refinishing service. None of the other stores around Hamilton offer that to my knowledge. I went in and asked if they could refinish it and they said they could but it would only be a 50/50 chance of it working. I said that was better than nothing and handed them the disc. They felt so bad for me about which game it was and how hard it was to find that they did the refinishing for free. I got the game home and popped it in and it worked again! Crisis averted! Time will tell if its completely fixed but it appears to be working at the moment. I may still run into a spot that wont read properly but lets hope that doesn't happen.

Well that's my tale. Exciting eh?

Lot's of video game purchases made over the last few days. (Yay boxing day sales!) I'll list what I got next post. For now I'm off!

Ciao
Scynthe

'Ace Combat Six'? More like 'Ace Combat Sux'!

Sorry for the lack of update for the last few days. It's been pretty hectic around here. My parents left for Florida, like they do every year, and I'm left alone to run the family business. I have twice the workload right now than I normally do. It calms down closer to Christmas though luckily. I can't really complain cause I make a fair amount while they are gone. Just doesn't leave me much time for games.

I played 9 out of (16 I think) missions of Ace Combat 6. The graphics were amazing and very life-like but I just wasn't getting into the game. I had no intention of every buying or renting it but I couldn't beat the deal I got it for. Anyways, after trudging through 9 missions I finally had my fill of the game. Playing any more would be forced labor and not any fun at all. If playing isn't going to be fun, it's not worth it. So I traded the game in at Blockbuster for 38$ credit. This was great seeing as I only paid 20$ for it. Yay 18$ profit!

While I was at blockbuster I was rummaging through the games section and found a used copy of Soul Calibur II for Gamecube on sale for 4.99$. For that price I couldn't go wrong. I've always liked the Soul Calibur games. They one of my three favorite fighting game franchises, the others being Dead or Alive and Capcom fighting games. The version of this game for Gamecube has Link from Zelda as the guest character. On Xbox they have Spawn for the guest character and for PS2 they have Heihachi Mishima from the Tekken franchise. I played through once quickly as Link to test it and make sure that it worked and it did. Link was actually very enjoyable to play. I was kind of skeptical as I thought it was more of a gimmic than anything else but he's a well rounded character.

Anyways, Not sure whether to start Two Worlds for Xbox360 or Final Fantasy XII for PS2. I might wait until I have a bit more time closer to Christmas/New Years.

Scynthe

PS>On a side note, if anyone knows where I can get VHS cases with transparent sleeves please let me know. I want to put my N64 and SNES games in them and print off labels. I can get them on Ebay but shipping is kinda pricey. Color doesn't matter as long as they have the sleeves and I'd prefer them without the center hubs.

Lordy, lordy! 2 for 40!!

First off, sorry for the poor image quality but until EA and their stupid website starts working properly I'm reduced to taking pictures of the TV. This was my starting car. Aside from visual upgrades it is completely stock. I managed to defeat Kenji (the first boss) with this and won his car. I switched to his RX-7 since it was Tier 2 and finished the next two bosses with that car. For the third race wars though I had to upgrade the RX-7 so it could compete with Tier 3 cars. I bought a Mistubishi Lancer with as soon as Tier 3 cars were available for purchase. I upgraded that one up the wazzoo and proceeded to take down the final boss. It took a few tries but I eventually beat him and finished the career mode. I've finally beaten NFS: Carbon after having it for over a year. One thing that annoys me though is the fact that I didn't unlock any achievements aside from the ones for beating career mode. All other achievements in this game cannot be accomplished while playing career races. You have to either go online or go into free roam to complete them. I like having achievements, but I don't want to go that far out of my way for them. So I guess I'll have to live with a measly 2 acheivments for this game.

While somewhat on the topic of street racing, the government of Ontario is revoking a Reverend named Jo from renewing his custom plates. They read "Rev Jo" and the government fears that this might encourage street racing. Silly peoples and their silly rules...

Rogers Video has it's "2 for 40$" sale on again. Any two used games for 40$. I bought Bioshock, Timeshift, Two Worlds and Ace Combat 6. Each was priced at 40$ individually but I got all 4 for 80$. I think I will trade Ace Combat 6 into blockbuster once I beat it as I really have no desire to keep it. The trade in value for it is 38$ and I officially only paid 20$ for it! I could probably trade all these in and make a decent profit since they are all fairly new games.

Anyways, gonna play some more Ace Combat 6 before I leave for my RP group tonight. Catch ya later!

Scynthe

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

There's the finished product. It works pretty good too. I gave up on using the wheel with NFS: Carbon though as it's way too sensitive in that game. The wheel has 270 degrees of movement but only 30 degrees seem to matter in this game. I've played it with Forza and others and didn't have this problem. I'll assume that it's because the wheel was released well after the game came out but a sensitivity option wouldn't have hurt. So I'm going to continue with my in game career using the gamepad.

Before I gave up on the wheel I defeated Kenji with my stock RX-8. I wonder if they scale down the difficulty depending on the level of your car? I won his car at the end too and am driving that now as it's a Tier 2 car and alot more powerful. I'll post pictures of my cars later when www.needforspeed.com isn't being the worlds biggest bitchcake. Stupid EA...

Scynthe

I like my women like I like my cars... old and rusty...

That's actually the furthest from the truth. "I like my women like I like my cars... new-ish, clean, with low kilometers and preferably with a warranty against defects" is more like what I would say.

I decided that Need For Speed: Carbon for the Xbox360 would be the next game I play. This was the first game I got when I bought my 360. I was a big fan of the Need For Speed: Underground series, and while this was not a direct sequel to them, it was along the same lines. I almost finished this game once when I got it but I am going to start over fresh. I have the wireless racing wheel as well which I didn't have last time I played so it should be a completely different experience.

A while ago I built a stand for the racing wheel that would support it and the pedals. It was big and clunky and took up a lot of space so eventually I just disassembled it and popped it in the basement. Today I brought it back out and redesigned it. I used a lot of the old pieces but added some new functionality to it. I replaced some screws with carriage bolts and washers to make better pivot points and added special hinges on the bottom of it. It now is collapsable, locks shut and can be adjusted for different heights. You can also change the angle at which the wheel faces you. Kind of like a low-tech tilt feature you find on real cars. I'm in the middle of painting it now. Once this first coat dries and the second coat goes on I'll take a pictures so you can see it for my next post. Then I can get back into playing NFS: Carbon.

Scynthe

Oh snows? Oh noes!!!

I finished Mass Effect today! Sorry for the lack of updates but I've been quite busy with work lately and haven't had to time to play any games :( After I finished work today though I popped in Mass Effect and finally finished it. The story was awesome and I can't wait for a sequel. I hope Bioware doesn't pass it off to Obsidian to develop the sequel though like they did with Knights of the Old Republic II and Neverwinter Nights II. Not that Obsidian makes bad games, they are just not as good as the product that Bioware produces.

I joined a D&D group this weekend. We had our first session this Saturday. It's going to take a little getting used to but I'm enjoying it. We are playing AD&D 2nd Edition and I'm a level one Mountain Dwarf fighter named Daelyn. The more I play, the more I'll get into it and it will feel like I am actually contributing. Right now it's kinda just me tagging along and observing and seeing how things work. I need to read the book on Dwarves so I can learn how to roleplay as one better.

Anyways, just a quick update to say that I finished the game. Not sure what I'm going to attempt next though. I have KOTOR and KOTORII so I could keep a Bioware RPG theme going and play those. I also have Jade Empire coming in soon from Ebay too which is another. I think for now I'll just relax and think about it some more in the morning.

Scynthe