Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Simpsonized!


your_image
Originally uploaded by Gemini Ace
I'm not rushing out to see the movie, but I thought this was cool.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Joe Rogan

We went to see Joe Rogan last night at the Improv. He is fucking hilarious! If you haven't, I highly suggest you buy his cd Shiny Happy Jihad. Oh, and my wife got to meet him...
IM000048

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Too Many Podcasts

I came to a realization today. Actually, I've been thinking about it for a little while, but there usually has to be something to come along to actually push me over the edge on something, then I get fired up. Anyway, I heard through the grapevine that Aeropause.com has started their own podcast. This in an of itself is not terrible, but it got me to thinking. How many podcasts is too many?

Now, if you go look up a niche topic like french fries or shoestring art, you won't find many shows. But, if you search gaming news or Xbox 360 news, you find well over a hundred shows on iTunes alone. That's not to mention everything you find on PodcastAlley or PodcastPickle. And the great majority talk about the same thing. The same topics, the same segments, the same games.

I have a feeling that we might see the bubble burst on the podcast thing soon. Not that they will all go away, but I think the independent shows will start to dry up and go away. Personally, I try to support my friends out there that are putting shows out there, but a lot of times I can't listen to them all. Especially when it's all the same news.

Currently, my favorite shows are GamersWithJobs, Distorted View, Nobody Likes Onions, Podtacular, Xbox360Fanboy, and This Week In Tech. Everything else is just extra at this point.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Last Comic Standing

This is my favorite guy on Last Comic Standing.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Friday, July 20, 2007

Flatout Ultimate Carnage

The demo for Flatout Ultimate Carnage was released yesterday to our friends over in Europe. I heart my European gamertag. I logged in and downloaded the demo. I haven't used it since the Chromehounds demo came out. Hehe.

The demo gives you 3 types of racing with 1 track available per race type. There is one car you can choose on each type of race. The race types are Carnage Race, Destruction Derby, and Race.

Carnage racing drops you into a checkpoint race and rewards you points for crashing into your opponents. It felt a lot like Burnout to me at first, except the controls weren't as tight and the cars didn't feel as glued to the road.

You get a decent sense of speed, especially when using your NOS. This brings up my major gripe with the game. In most racing games the A button is your handbreak. Not so in Flatout. The A button fires off your NOS. This can really cause you to screw up some turns. I would be going into a turn and expect to drift once I hit the A button, but instead I would accelerate into some houses. Not cool. And there was no option available to change the button layout. Hopefully it will be in the retail release.

The Destruction Derby races are fun. They drop you into a parking lot with 5 lives and you smash the other cars into oblivion. You get points for each hit, which in turn equate to either a bronze, silver, or gold trophy. You can also get multipliers during the game. All I got was a 2x, but I imagine there are more.

The last type in the demo are races. 3 laps around the track. The one included in the demo is a dirt road track with trees and a few buildings. The car they give you does not have much grip. Needless to say I saw some of the trees up close. This is the race type that I actually saw my driver get shot out of the windshield.

Speaking of that, it seems odd to me that at least one of the mini-games weren't included in the demo. The mini-games are what sets Flatout apart from other racing games, so I don't understand why they didn't include it.

Based on the racing alone, I wouldn't buy this game when it comes out. Burnout does a much better job with both the racing and the crashes. Of course, if you really need to do some driving and crashing before the holiday season, then it's not a bad option. Especially if you're like me and not into the Forza 2.

Digg!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

I Hate This Wii

I love my Wii but I also love this song!



http://www.sarcasticgamer.com/

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Interpol FTW!

I was listening to the new Interpol album today in the truck and it's the shit! Highly recommended by yours truly.

Gamefly sent me Lost Planet on Saturday. WTF, Gamefly? That was like number 10 in my queue. Spider-Man 3 was above it and had high availability. Makes no sense.

We watched Catch and Release last night. Kevin Smith was in it. It also had the guy that played the villain in Live Free or Die Hard and who's also playing Hitman. Otherwise the movie blew.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Friday, July 13, 2007

Achievement Indictment

I've been playing Shadowrun as an elf since I got the game. It's been over a month since I've been playing the game. I am taking into account the 2 weeks I didn't have my 360 because it was being repaired.

The problem is this. I'm trying to get some achievements in this game. Each character class has an achievement associated with it. 100 games as a whatever. I've been trying to get the elf achievement since that seemed to be the best class when I started. I have since realized that the elf is cool, but the troll and dwarf are better. I want to change, but I know that the next game I play as an elf is the one that will get me the achievement.

Basically, I feel that there should be some type of achievement tracker in this game. Actually, I think there should be a tracker in every game. It would not be difficult to do, and it would allow achievement whores like me to track their progress. Is there really a downside to something like this? I don't think so.

The other issue I have is with how the games are counted. I know a lot of games put a stipulation on how many people are in the game to make it count. Basically, if you come in once a game has started, it doesn't count towards the achievement. I found this on achieve360points.com. (Sorry DaKing240)

14. Elf Player: Play as an elf for one hundred games (10)
15. Dwarf Player: Play as a Dwarf for one hundred games (10)
16. Troll Player: Play as a troll for one hundred games (10)
17. Human Player: Play as a human for one hundred games (10)

(All self explanatory, just play, don't have to win don't have to lose. I am almost
positive you need to play full games though so joining games late doesn't count. These
will take you some time to get all four, but if you pick one race at the beginning and
stick to it until you get one, just keep on going. Or you can play a little with each
race and not get any of the achievements like me.)
Basically, if you join in the middle of a match, the whole thing doesn't count. Don't you think that prolongs these achievements? It's a stipulation that shouldn't be.

Now, I'm not complaining that my gamerscore is too low or that I'm not getting achievements that are owed to me, but I am complaining about the fact that I have no idea how many game's I've played as an elf.

I have the same issue with Gears of War. I don't want to have to play in the ranked matches with people I don't know. I understand that otherwise you can have people boosting their gamerscore, but big deal. We all know boosting happens. Just fix that problem, Epic, and I will be happy to do some major fragging in GoW.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Heatseeker

I started playing Heatseeker on the Wii last night. It's pretty fun. The most annoying part was how your commanding officer shouts orders to you. Each sentence is either started or finished with "Downtown". That's your name in the game, and they remind you every 7 or 8 seconds.

"Downtown, you've got to protect that plane!"

"Get over there and blow up those jeeps, Downtown!"

"Downtown, those boats are gonna fire on our position, Downtown!"

I sent back Red Steel. I didn't finish the single player. I got bored with it. Besides, my Command and Conquer came in and I still have Shadowrun. Woot!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Halo 360

The Halo 3-themed Xbox 360 was announced last night. I think it's a cool design. I was hoping the gray system would be a reality. I like it when console makers offer different colors. Faceplates are one thing, but having a completely different box is better.

Nintendo has proven time and again that releasing special colors for their systems pays off.

I would also like to see a clear or translucent case for the 360 like the original Xbox had.

And a blue one!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Gray Xbox 360?

Is the core going gray?
grey360qx7

Monday, July 09, 2007

Transformers

We went and saw the Transformers movie this weekend. It was really freakin' awesome! The special effects were incredible and the action was insane. I was disappointed that they didn't use Soundwave as the boombox, but oh well. Maybe in the sequels.

100 Damned Guns won the best country and western award from Ft Worth Weekly. Congratulations to those guys. They deserved to win.

I'm still waiting for Pownce.com to show why it's better than Twitter. So far I have mostly the same friends, so it's pointless to double post. Thanks, Kevin Rose! :-p

By the way, if you want an invite to Pownce, send me your e-mail address.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Lovin' The Shadowrun

Even with all the criticism that's been heaped on Shadowrun, I have fallen in love with the game. The magic, tech, and weapons of the game are just awesome. Each map and game bring new and different combinations. I honestly didn't expect to like the game this much, but I am completely smitten.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

July 4th Goodness

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I got a call from UPS letting me know I had a package scheduled for delivery on the 3rd. It arrived yesterday and I couldn't be happier! It looks great. The disc drive works great. It took a long time, but it was worth it.

I called into the live Unscripted 360 show today. Coincidentally, Godfree from GTR called in right before me. DeaconBlade, Coach, Godfree and I ended up having a good debate about EA and E3 and all the other issues we've been having. I still don't agree that having EA sponsor the podcast is a good idea, but I can see Godfree's point. We agreed to disagree.

Here is the direct link to the show. Fast forward to the 20 minute mark to get to the debate.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Red Steel

I played Red Steel for a couple hours last night. I really like the action so far. It feels like you're in a John Woo movie at times, which I like. Replacement Killers FTW!

The cutscenes are pretty craptacular. Reminds me of the scenes in X-Men 3:The Official Game. The worst part is, you can't skip them! I understand that they are trying to tell a story, but I don't care. I just want to shoot some bad guys!

I want to try the multiplayer out before I send it back. Maybe the wife will jump in with me for some deathmatch.

In 360 news, I'm still waiting for my console to be repaired and sent back. It's been 2 weeks. 17 days since I've been on Xbox Live.

It really sounds like there's a bigger problem than Microsoft will admit to.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Pownce

I got an invite to join Pownce.com from DaKing240. Not sure what the big difference is between Pownce and Twitter, but I guess I'm going to find out.

http://pownce.com/GeminiACe/

Journalism and Podcasting

Since I'm being watched, I thought I would post a little reading material.

This is taken directly from the journalism page of wikipedia. Pay special attention to the lines in bold.

Since the development of professional journalism at the beginning of the 20th Century, journalists have been expected to follow a stringent code of journalistic conduct that requires them to, among other things:

  • Use original sources of information, including interviews with people directly involved in a story, original documents and other direct sources of information, whenever possible, and cite the sources of this information in reports;
  • Fully attribute information gathered from other published sources, should original sources not be available (to not do so is considered plagiarism; some newspapers also note when an article uses information from previous reports);
  • Use multiple original sources of information, especially if the subject of the report is controversial;
  • Check every fact reported;
  • Find and report every side of a story possible;
  • Report without bias, illustrating many aspects of a conflict rather than siding with one;
  • Approach researching and reporting a story with a balance between objectivity and skepticism.
  • Use careful judgment when organizing and reporting information.
  • Be careful about granting confidentiality to sources (news organizations usually have specific rules that journalists must follow concerning grants of confidentiality);
  • Decline gifts or favors from any subject of a report, and avoid even the appearance of being influenced;
  • Abstain from reporting or otherwise participating in the research and writing about a subject in which the journalist has a personal stake or bias that cannot be set aside.
Just because it's in a podcast and labeled as "independent" doesn't mean the rules don't apply.