Sunday, June 27, 2004
Sweet! Wow! It is a good day to own an XBox and have a Live account. I tried competing on the first round of the Master Tournament, but I did not quite make the top 500. Ouch. Love the look of the multi-eye dude, looks really cool. These are the type of monsters I want to fight!
Ninja Gaiden has spoiled my perception of every other third person action game out there. When I play a game I find myself comparing it to NG. The game may be a perfectly good game, but that does not matter if it's camera angle is off, or the controle reaction is slow. With NG there was like this sixth Ninja since where I became one with Ryu. I can since where the opponents are. I dodge, attack, and deflect with perfect timing. It has been a long time since I have had this experience. Not since playing Star Wars X-Wing or Interplay's Descent have I had this oneness with a game.... (Damb, I could not find links to the company's web page for these games. I feal old...)
|
Ninja Gaiden has spoiled my perception of every other third person action game out there. When I play a game I find myself comparing it to NG. The game may be a perfectly good game, but that does not matter if it's camera angle is off, or the controle reaction is slow. With NG there was like this sixth Ninja since where I became one with Ryu. I can since where the opponents are. I dodge, attack, and deflect with perfect timing. It has been a long time since I have had this experience. Not since playing Star Wars X-Wing or Interplay's Descent have I had this oneness with a game.... (Damb, I could not find links to the company's web page for these games. I feal old...)
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Die Spammers. I am totally cool with the idea of the ISP cutting a person's internet access until they clean up their infected computer. So if you have zombies, or spyware on your pc you may be quarantined from the rest of the world. My favorite quote is from AOL. '...Now, according to Spam fighting firm MessageLabs.com, nearly two-thirds of all Spam is sent via such computers{zomie pc}. AOL says the number is even higher -- perhaps 9 in 10 spams come from so-called "zombie" machines.' Hum, so is AOL saying that their users are dumber, and are more susceptible to spyware and zombies?
With the price and availability of broadband, people need to realize that they need to be more responsible network administrators. Yes, that means you have to open up your wallet, buy and properly set up an anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spyware programs. If you are lost, go and look in your phone book and find a computer tech to install this stuff. With this amount of speed, power, and access to millions of other computers, people who cannot be responsible, should not be a hindrance on everyone else.
One other idea. If people insist that it is wrong for them to have their internet access revoked, have the ISP route all the Spam that their pc is spewing forth, and put it back in their mail box. May be then they will realize what trouble they are causing other people. Everyone wants to complain about Spam, looks like there is something you yourself can do to combat it.
|
With the price and availability of broadband, people need to realize that they need to be more responsible network administrators. Yes, that means you have to open up your wallet, buy and properly set up an anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spyware programs. If you are lost, go and look in your phone book and find a computer tech to install this stuff. With this amount of speed, power, and access to millions of other computers, people who cannot be responsible, should not be a hindrance on everyone else.
One other idea. If people insist that it is wrong for them to have their internet access revoked, have the ISP route all the Spam that their pc is spewing forth, and put it back in their mail box. May be then they will realize what trouble they are causing other people. Everyone wants to complain about Spam, looks like there is something you yourself can do to combat it.
Sunday, June 20, 2004
I liked Pitch Black so much that I went and watched The Chronicles of Riddick this week. The fact I had a free movie ticket for buying Pitch Black didn’t hurt either.
The movie started off with some guy in dreadlocks being chased across a giant frozen thumbprint by a ship with two people strapped to its wings. They are shooting nets at this guy that is just skipping along and leading them into the only cave on the whole frozen thumb, oops I meant planet. Once in the cave, dreadlock dude starts cutting flyboys wing harness, and the people safe inside the ship decide to open the door and have a look-see. Surprise, the rest of the crew gets tossed out, and now dreadlock dude and the captain have a nice chat. Find out that it was a mercenary chasing Riddick for a bounty that was on his head.
Now for the rest of the movie I am left wondering many, many things. Why did he just toss everyone, and not kill them? How is it this mass murder that everyone feared in the first movie suddenly become so squeamish about slicing someone? How did he figure that the holy man in the first movie is the one that placed the bounty on his head? Why is he pumping kool-aid into his blood stream? Did I just miss the explanation when I sneezed?
So Riddick goes to a new planet and finds the holy man. I’m guessing he was listed in the galactic phone book. Now we learn that planets are being wiped out by an army of necromancers, and some prophecy indicates that Riddick is the only person able to defeat them. We also find out that Jack got in trouble trying to find Riddick. They are interrupted by the INS. “We know there is some for'ner in there; we can see that our world is going to be invaded by a huge ass army, but damb it, we need to arrest him and deport him back where he came from.” What fallows is almost the only time Riddick uses his night vision, and again there is an absents of killing, just tossing threw walls.
Soon after all this the invasion begins. Ships that look like giant statues plummet into the grown and release hundreds of fighters. Drop ships fly over and zap solders topside. The resistance light up the sky with AA fire, and fighter ships clash. This looks so cool! A group of troop that had just zapped down are all running down a street, protecting a guy with a pool. What fallows just leaves you in wonder. What the hell was that? Was that them playing ‘King of the Hill?’ What purpose did that have? What are these things that look like Gollum with diving helmets on? Why is this town the only place shown being invaded? Are there no other cities? It had so much potential to be a cool invasion.
Later the town folk are gathered up, including Riddick. I do not remember how they caught him, so it means it was lame, or it was yet something else left on the editing floor. The head honcho tells them that he is on a quest to an under-verse. Being the nice guy he is, he needed to invaded them and tell them of this wonderful place that he has seen. If you refuse to join his religion he will pull your soul out of you. This info of cores is not shown to the rest of the planet on 52’ plasma TVs from the ships. No, the only place in this whole world is this little town. Beside, the people would start fighting with a renewed purpose and overthrow there captors, to have control of the remote for the TVs. What is the purpose of invading? They show no strip mining of the planet to make new ships. No massive slave labor. No drilling for oil. No harvesting of crops. No forcing them to watch 'I love Lucy' reruns till they break. Just invade, convert people, nuke, and leave.
The rest of the movie just goes all over. You are left with more questions than answers. There are some cool fighting, but it has very little to do with Pitch Black. It has very little to do with anything for that matter. You could watch this with never seeing the first one and enjoy it just as much. Of all the things you are left wondering, you are never left wondering if Riddick will help save the people. I am hoping when it is released on DVD they add like 5 more hours of stuff they left out, but I doubt it.
|
The movie started off with some guy in dreadlocks being chased across a giant frozen thumbprint by a ship with two people strapped to its wings. They are shooting nets at this guy that is just skipping along and leading them into the only cave on the whole frozen thumb, oops I meant planet. Once in the cave, dreadlock dude starts cutting flyboys wing harness, and the people safe inside the ship decide to open the door and have a look-see. Surprise, the rest of the crew gets tossed out, and now dreadlock dude and the captain have a nice chat. Find out that it was a mercenary chasing Riddick for a bounty that was on his head.
Now for the rest of the movie I am left wondering many, many things. Why did he just toss everyone, and not kill them? How is it this mass murder that everyone feared in the first movie suddenly become so squeamish about slicing someone? How did he figure that the holy man in the first movie is the one that placed the bounty on his head? Why is he pumping kool-aid into his blood stream? Did I just miss the explanation when I sneezed?
So Riddick goes to a new planet and finds the holy man. I’m guessing he was listed in the galactic phone book. Now we learn that planets are being wiped out by an army of necromancers, and some prophecy indicates that Riddick is the only person able to defeat them. We also find out that Jack got in trouble trying to find Riddick. They are interrupted by the INS. “We know there is some for'ner in there; we can see that our world is going to be invaded by a huge ass army, but damb it, we need to arrest him and deport him back where he came from.” What fallows is almost the only time Riddick uses his night vision, and again there is an absents of killing, just tossing threw walls.
Soon after all this the invasion begins. Ships that look like giant statues plummet into the grown and release hundreds of fighters. Drop ships fly over and zap solders topside. The resistance light up the sky with AA fire, and fighter ships clash. This looks so cool! A group of troop that had just zapped down are all running down a street, protecting a guy with a pool. What fallows just leaves you in wonder. What the hell was that? Was that them playing ‘King of the Hill?’ What purpose did that have? What are these things that look like Gollum with diving helmets on? Why is this town the only place shown being invaded? Are there no other cities? It had so much potential to be a cool invasion.
Later the town folk are gathered up, including Riddick. I do not remember how they caught him, so it means it was lame, or it was yet something else left on the editing floor. The head honcho tells them that he is on a quest to an under-verse. Being the nice guy he is, he needed to invaded them and tell them of this wonderful place that he has seen. If you refuse to join his religion he will pull your soul out of you. This info of cores is not shown to the rest of the planet on 52’ plasma TVs from the ships. No, the only place in this whole world is this little town. Beside, the people would start fighting with a renewed purpose and overthrow there captors, to have control of the remote for the TVs. What is the purpose of invading? They show no strip mining of the planet to make new ships. No massive slave labor. No drilling for oil. No harvesting of crops. No forcing them to watch 'I love Lucy' reruns till they break. Just invade, convert people, nuke, and leave.
The rest of the movie just goes all over. You are left with more questions than answers. There are some cool fighting, but it has very little to do with Pitch Black. It has very little to do with anything for that matter. You could watch this with never seeing the first one and enjoy it just as much. Of all the things you are left wondering, you are never left wondering if Riddick will help save the people. I am hoping when it is released on DVD they add like 5 more hours of stuff they left out, but I doubt it.
Sunday, June 13, 2004
I am hopeless. Even thought I already have a Game Boy SP, I went and got the Classic NES edition. It is totally cool. When it is closed, it looks like the original NES from the top. When you open it up it has the look of the old controllers, it even has the textured labels. Everything about the system is exactly the same as the original ones, no improvements at all. I hate when Nintendo does this. They come out with a new Game Boy system, then after a year or so, they release the same thing but cooler. They do it all the time, and then you are kicking yourself because you couldn’t wait. This is the first time I went out and repurchased one of their products, honest. It is totally cool, ENVY ME!!!! Mwaa ha ha!
Of course a new retro game boy couldn’t have the first game played in it be a new game like Advanced Wars 2, so I had to get one of the classic NES games. I opted for the Legend of Zelda. So many memories came back of me. Memories of me mooching off of all my friends and family, playing there NES all the while my family visited, because my parents would not get us one. ‘The Atari 2600 is good enough, be happy with what you have.’ I was happy, but the NES had so many cool games. I spent hours wondering around aimlessly in the woods of Hyrule, trying to figure out the goal of the game. Now things have changed, I still wonder around the woods, but at lest now I know what the goal is. Find and rescue the Princess Zelda. I always thought I was playing Zelda, not Link. Funny how that goes. I use to also think Samus was a guy...
They did a great job porting the game. Unlike other games they have done, this one is exactly the same. No new graphics or revamped look and feel. The game even lags when there are too many sprits on the screen or flickers when two sprits overlap. Great stuff at twenty bucks a pop. I guess the younger kids will think I have lost my mind, but you would have had to grown up with these games to appreciate the beauty of it. I hope that they convert more of them. I do have a NES now, and I have quite a few of the great games. It is just nice being able to play these games when ever, where ever.
|
Of course a new retro game boy couldn’t have the first game played in it be a new game like Advanced Wars 2, so I had to get one of the classic NES games. I opted for the Legend of Zelda. So many memories came back of me. Memories of me mooching off of all my friends and family, playing there NES all the while my family visited, because my parents would not get us one. ‘The Atari 2600 is good enough, be happy with what you have.’ I was happy, but the NES had so many cool games. I spent hours wondering around aimlessly in the woods of Hyrule, trying to figure out the goal of the game. Now things have changed, I still wonder around the woods, but at lest now I know what the goal is. Find and rescue the Princess Zelda. I always thought I was playing Zelda, not Link. Funny how that goes. I use to also think Samus was a guy...
They did a great job porting the game. Unlike other games they have done, this one is exactly the same. No new graphics or revamped look and feel. The game even lags when there are too many sprits on the screen or flickers when two sprits overlap. Great stuff at twenty bucks a pop. I guess the younger kids will think I have lost my mind, but you would have had to grown up with these games to appreciate the beauty of it. I hope that they convert more of them. I do have a NES now, and I have quite a few of the great games. It is just nice being able to play these games when ever, where ever.
Friday, June 11, 2004
Score one for gamers. Valve said that arrests have been made in the Half-Life 2 Source Code leek, thanks to the persistence of the gaming community. They just heap the praise. Wow, so I guess not all gamers are pirates, and thieves. I have a feeling they will still have anti-copy and anti-virtual image stuff. Oh well, it is nice to be given credit for once. I still wonder if it was a marketing gimmick.
|
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Cool, this place is still up and running. I ran across them a while ago. They play video game music. Old games and new. Great stuff to play when at work.
|
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Frank J of IMAO, the funniest blog I have seen, is apparently looking for a new car. I guess with all his Nuke The Moon t-shirt sales he can afford a real car. I would suggest an American car but when I saw this one the second thing I thought was ‘this is something I could see Frank J. driving.’ The first thing I thought was ‘Oh, Hell Ya, I want one’! I know it is made in Germany, but come on this is just too cool.
|
Sunday, June 06, 2004
The rules of dating are more complicated than any RPG or RTS game known to man. No mater how many different variables and features there are in games, they pail in comparison to the game of dating…
First off the girl (or guy) has so many different attributes. The physical attributes alone are astounding, skin color, hair color, hair style, body build, eye color, piercings, tattoos, cloths, and many other things. That is normally what you see that attracts you to a person, and any of these can and often times will change. You learn more of the attributes by observing. The sound of the voice, temperament, and attitude are just a hand full. If you like what you see you may then try approaching to interact with her. Hopefully she is not a non-playable character and you get a dialog going. Unfortunately there is no dialog box with predetermined response. You are on your own to use your skills of communication, wit, and persuasion. Maybe you will succeed and get a phone number. Some people make it look so easy, but remember that is because they are at a higher skill level. Do not worry if you get defeated, you still earned skill points. It just may be that she did not like your attributes or her status is ‘already has a boy friend’, ‘married’, or ‘wants all guys to die.’ You still have religious preference, political class, and many other things to contend with.
There is a whole new set of rules if you succeed and get a new quest. Now resource management comes into play, the resources being Time and Money. Time gets processed in the research labs to find places to go, things to do, and to gather intelligence on her other skills and attributes. Money gets converted directly into candy, gifts, flowers, tickets, meals, and other things. Use any one too fast and it could prove disastrous, or use them too often and it becomes less effective. Even the best laid out plans can be over run by a rush of bad luck, or besieged by an on slot of personal issues, or just a constant raid of different forces. Remember to always keep an eye on your resources because they have a tendency to get used up quickly. Sometimes you can convert one resource to another, but this can be problematic.
There are more factors, variables, and skills involved than can possibly be covered in a million years. There are strategy guides out there and even some cheat codes. Friends, magazines, websites, and books offer a lot of tips and pointers. Scientist in all the spam I get clamed that there are ‘cheat code’ perfumes and pheromones available. How ever you decide to play the game, good luck. End of briefing. Loading game grid....
|
First off the girl (or guy) has so many different attributes. The physical attributes alone are astounding, skin color, hair color, hair style, body build, eye color, piercings, tattoos, cloths, and many other things. That is normally what you see that attracts you to a person, and any of these can and often times will change. You learn more of the attributes by observing. The sound of the voice, temperament, and attitude are just a hand full. If you like what you see you may then try approaching to interact with her. Hopefully she is not a non-playable character and you get a dialog going. Unfortunately there is no dialog box with predetermined response. You are on your own to use your skills of communication, wit, and persuasion. Maybe you will succeed and get a phone number. Some people make it look so easy, but remember that is because they are at a higher skill level. Do not worry if you get defeated, you still earned skill points. It just may be that she did not like your attributes or her status is ‘already has a boy friend’, ‘married’, or ‘wants all guys to die.’ You still have religious preference, political class, and many other things to contend with.
There is a whole new set of rules if you succeed and get a new quest. Now resource management comes into play, the resources being Time and Money. Time gets processed in the research labs to find places to go, things to do, and to gather intelligence on her other skills and attributes. Money gets converted directly into candy, gifts, flowers, tickets, meals, and other things. Use any one too fast and it could prove disastrous, or use them too often and it becomes less effective. Even the best laid out plans can be over run by a rush of bad luck, or besieged by an on slot of personal issues, or just a constant raid of different forces. Remember to always keep an eye on your resources because they have a tendency to get used up quickly. Sometimes you can convert one resource to another, but this can be problematic.
There are more factors, variables, and skills involved than can possibly be covered in a million years. There are strategy guides out there and even some cheat codes. Friends, magazines, websites, and books offer a lot of tips and pointers. Scientist in all the spam I get clamed that there are ‘cheat code’ perfumes and pheromones available. How ever you decide to play the game, good luck. End of briefing. Loading game grid....
With the movie The Chronicles of Riddick coming out I decided to see Pitch Black I was not disappointed. It blew me away. This low budget movie had better acting, better story line, and better CG than many big budget movies I have see. Guess it just goes to show that money doesn’t make a movie great.
It starts off with a bang, literally. The crew of a deep space passenger ship is awakening to blearing sirens, flashing red lights, and death as space particles riddle their hull. To make matters worse they are uncontrollably falling onto a planet. Parts of there ship are being ripped off or jettisoned. The camera flashes every where, the crew’s eyes, the instruments flashing, the sleeping passengers, the approaching planet. Oh the humanity! The when the dust settles they find they have crashed in California City Then the movie slows down. You get to know the survivors all have something to hide, and you find that the psychopathic murdering convict (Vin Diesel) has escaped. Luckily the only cop able to catch him is one of the survivors. He decides that some of them will stay and salvage the supplies, and he and some others will start looking for "water" or "civilization".
Now it starts getting interesting again. People start turning up missing, and dead. But it is only the people dumb enough to be alone. This leads you to only one conclusion; there are no movies in the future, other words they would know not to go running around in strange planets by yourself. The scouting party finds the only house in all of Cal City, and surprise it is deserted. There is a ship, but someone forgot to fill it with gas before they disappeared. No problem, they have an American to Europe power adaptor in the wrecked ship and just enough fuel cells to get them off this rock.
When more people start turning up dead they finally realize that there is something alive on the planet, and it isn’t kangaroo Rats. These monsters are cool, think aliens with wings. They are safe as long as it is light out, and being on a planet that has three suns, this is not a problem. Except for the fact every twenty years there is an eclipse, and guess what day they crash landed on? Now they decide they need to be nice to Riddick because apparently jail is the only place that they still have cable TV and he has memorized the Alien movies. That and he has these really cool eyes that let him see in the dark like the Predator. So now they are left with all these questions for the rest of the movie. Can they trust him after all the mean stuff they did to him? Will he lead them safly back to the ship, or into the belly of a hungry beast? Will the ship run? Will the human nature to survive turn them on each other? How long till all the woman start falling in love with the convict? Will that love be mercilessly ripped out of their arms?
What? You want me to tell you everything? Go rent it.
I look forward to the next one and I hope that having a bigger budget will not mean that it will blow.
|
It starts off with a bang, literally. The crew of a deep space passenger ship is awakening to blearing sirens, flashing red lights, and death as space particles riddle their hull. To make matters worse they are uncontrollably falling onto a planet. Parts of there ship are being ripped off or jettisoned. The camera flashes every where, the crew’s eyes, the instruments flashing, the sleeping passengers, the approaching planet. Oh the humanity! The when the dust settles they find they have crashed in California City Then the movie slows down. You get to know the survivors all have something to hide, and you find that the psychopathic murdering convict (Vin Diesel) has escaped. Luckily the only cop able to catch him is one of the survivors. He decides that some of them will stay and salvage the supplies, and he and some others will start looking for "water" or "civilization".
Now it starts getting interesting again. People start turning up missing, and dead. But it is only the people dumb enough to be alone. This leads you to only one conclusion; there are no movies in the future, other words they would know not to go running around in strange planets by yourself. The scouting party finds the only house in all of Cal City, and surprise it is deserted. There is a ship, but someone forgot to fill it with gas before they disappeared. No problem, they have an American to Europe power adaptor in the wrecked ship and just enough fuel cells to get them off this rock.
When more people start turning up dead they finally realize that there is something alive on the planet, and it isn’t kangaroo Rats. These monsters are cool, think aliens with wings. They are safe as long as it is light out, and being on a planet that has three suns, this is not a problem. Except for the fact every twenty years there is an eclipse, and guess what day they crash landed on? Now they decide they need to be nice to Riddick because apparently jail is the only place that they still have cable TV and he has memorized the Alien movies. That and he has these really cool eyes that let him see in the dark like the Predator. So now they are left with all these questions for the rest of the movie. Can they trust him after all the mean stuff they did to him? Will he lead them safly back to the ship, or into the belly of a hungry beast? Will the ship run? Will the human nature to survive turn them on each other? How long till all the woman start falling in love with the convict? Will that love be mercilessly ripped out of their arms?
What? You want me to tell you everything? Go rent it.
I look forward to the next one and I hope that having a bigger budget will not mean that it will blow.
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Ronald Reagan passed away. What a great man. What a loss.
|
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
|Tuesday, June 01, 2004
I went and caught Van Helsing in the theaters. For people that have seen the old monster movies may have a harder time enjoying this movie as a new spin has been put on the story. I found it enjoyable. You cannot take this movie seriously, it has a whole undertone of goofy throughout the movie. It reminds me of the X – Men movies as far as things went. A little light humor and some kick ass fights, which made me wonder if they had forgotten that Jackman is playing Van Helsing now, not Wolverine. It was predictable, but that just added to the goofiness.
Helsing has a lot of cool toys, but he did not use them very much. The heroin, Anna Valerious, gets to do a lot of fighting. I am not sure if they did this to keep Helsing from beating up on the Brides of Dracula, or if they just know that cat fights are more fun. Either way I am not complaining.
One part of the movie reminded me of Aliens where Helsing stuck his bare hand into a giant egg sack to see what they were up against. First off you have hundreds of these things wiggling around, what are you doing sticking your hand in one? You want to get it bitten off? I kept expecting a head huger to jump out and get him. Everyone knows that things come jumping out at you from inside gooy eggs, that is why you use a stick, or a shotgun. If it was me I would have blown the things up or diced them and then seen if there was anything left to figure out what they were. I guess he could have been thinking it may be one of Dracula’s victims that he cocooned like the mother Alien, but you could not pay me enough to put my hand in that thing.
The special affects were great. The way the Wolf man changed was bitching. Instead of the hair and nose growing out, he started to change inside his skin and then rip it off himself to show the beast with in. Dracula did not morph into a giant bat, but a huge beast from hell with wings. Much cooler looking than a bat squeaking around.
Very cool movie, looking forward to its release to DVD.
|
Helsing has a lot of cool toys, but he did not use them very much. The heroin, Anna Valerious, gets to do a lot of fighting. I am not sure if they did this to keep Helsing from beating up on the Brides of Dracula, or if they just know that cat fights are more fun. Either way I am not complaining.
One part of the movie reminded me of Aliens where Helsing stuck his bare hand into a giant egg sack to see what they were up against. First off you have hundreds of these things wiggling around, what are you doing sticking your hand in one? You want to get it bitten off? I kept expecting a head huger to jump out and get him. Everyone knows that things come jumping out at you from inside gooy eggs, that is why you use a stick, or a shotgun. If it was me I would have blown the things up or diced them and then seen if there was anything left to figure out what they were. I guess he could have been thinking it may be one of Dracula’s victims that he cocooned like the mother Alien, but you could not pay me enough to put my hand in that thing.
The special affects were great. The way the Wolf man changed was bitching. Instead of the hair and nose growing out, he started to change inside his skin and then rip it off himself to show the beast with in. Dracula did not morph into a giant bat, but a huge beast from hell with wings. Much cooler looking than a bat squeaking around.
Very cool movie, looking forward to its release to DVD.
