Press Start Two Play: gaming

Showing posts with label gaming. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Magic is Fun

You know what's really sad, ladies and gents? For a long time, I used to play Magic. A lot! Every lunch break at school me and a bunch of friends would spend time playing, and it was awesome.

Time passes, and suddenly there are no more games of magic. Sure, every once in a while I'll buy a box, people I work with say they'll play, and we do, one game or two. But after that? Nothing.

Tonight that changes. Me and two other friends got together and played. I made two decks, one for me, and one for one of the others. You know what's really sad? It was her deck that keeps winning. I don't like it.

I do like the game however. I don't care that I don't win (although getting mana screwed is always embarrassing), I just love the mechanics of the game. I could play for months, never win a single match, and still feel good.

That being said, I will be using her deck as my own from now on. I want to win.

Next post should be more video game related, just wanted to share the wonderfulness of actually getting together and playing stuff. Thanks to online gaming, getting together and actually seeing the people that you're playing with seems to be a lost art, one that will be sorely missed.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Slice Slice Stabbity Stab

Hello once again folks. Another week has gone by where time towards gaming was limited, but the time I did spend playing games was most enjoyable.

Locoroco 2 is officially my "Breaktime" game. At work, I get two fifteen minute breaks, plus an hour for lunch. My hour I walk home and eat something, but on my fifteens, I need something to break the monotony of putting things on shelves. Usually, that involves me bringing a handheld to work so that I can waste ti... I mean, spend time playing games. This week, it's been the Side-Scrolling Katamari style game. Each mission is usually around 8 - 10 minutes your first time through, plus a quick quirky little cut scene showing... something that resembles a story, but usually looks like a reggae head doing something evil. It's your job to collect the fruit, and make your loco roco dude bigger so that ... you can save the world... somehow. I don't really understand the story itself, but in games like this, the more you understand the story, the more confused you get.

Speaking of stories that make no sense: Warriors Orochi. I plugged this one into my 360 just to kill random dudes. The story involves 3 Kingdoms China and Samurai dudes getting into a massive weapons wielding fight with an asian sorcerer named Orochi. Combining time travel and violence in a way never seen before... unless you've played any of Koei's games before. If you have played them before, the game is roughly the same thing with new costumes and music.

Now, if you've listened to the one episode of the podcast that's up (and if you haven't, shame!), then you'll notice I mentioned that I play games predominantly for their story. The Warriors series is kind of like the exception to the rule. I don't really care why a bunch of dudes are coming together to murder each other, as long as I get to do the stabbity stabs! It's random violence, and sometimes that's all you really need.

And I need to go randomly kill some sword wielders. A La Prochain. I think that's spelled right... >_>

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Metal Head filled with Sick

Getting sick is never fun. You take time off work, you lie down for long periods of time, sleep in, play some games... alright, getting sick isn't all bad. Coming down with a fever and sweating from head to toe, THAT is bad.

Heavy MTL was really fun. At first, what with that surprise bill popping up (discussed in a previous post) I wasn't even planning on going anymore, but the room mate decided to buy me a ticket for the Sunday show.

For those who aren't in Montreal (or hate metal music), Heavy MTL is an outdoor concert designed around rock music, usually in the heavier variety. The first concert was in 2008, and it was going to become a yearly thing, however 2009 already saw a lot of metal acts perform in Montreal (or near it, although if any band plays Canada, and they hit Toronto, they usually hit us too), so they pushed it to this year promising that it would be bigger and badder than ever.

Now, I've always been told that religion and politics are two things you should never bring up in conversation, because someone will always get pissed off that you don't share their opinion. Music is starting to be the third leg in the tripod, so to speak. However, this is the internet, a land where fact and opinion get rearranged faster than a guy and a girl in a chick flick. Suffice it to say, without pulling out the trusty Soapbox, I enjoyed myself thoroughly at the concert. Seeing Rob Zombie live twice within 7 months didn't dim the performance, KoRn played a lot of their older stuff so I wasn't upset seeing them either. Lamb of God played well, I only ever heard one of their tracks (Laid to Rest), and that was thanks to a video game (Guitar Hero 2, before Activision milked the franchise to stagnation) and always wanted to hear more. They didn't disappoint.

Considering this was a metal concert, it stands to reason that my throat would be completely destroyed by the end of it, and that my neck would be hanging on a thread. Sadly, I didn't really feel anything until two days later, while I was at work. The day that Starcraft 2 came out.

So there I was, heading home early because I felt completely wiped, and I couldn't even play the game that was (arguably) twelve years in the making. Instead, I had to wait until the next day, where I called in sick because I couldn't talk, and could barely move.

A quick side note before I talk about SC2: How the hell did they expect me to "call" in sick when I couldn't talk? The strangeness of things.

Anyways, so I jump into a little campaign, and the first thing I notice is "wow... my PC can actually run this thing!" Unfortunately, with my huge gaming collection (805 games and counting), as noted earlier this month, I rarely get a chance to play and beat my games before new ones come out. While I am taking steps to rectify that (IE I'm not buying any new games until they are cheaper or until I beat ones I already have) that still leaves me with the original Starcraft and Brood War expansion unbeaten on the backlog.

Thank God for collectors editions coming with their older game counterparts. SC2 CE came with a USB stick that had the original games on it, so I installed them and started playing them again. I'm up to Mission 6 on the Terran campaign in the original, and even now, the game holds up really well.

As far as SC 2, I've played a few multiplayer matches with my Room Mate (she picked up a regular edition for herself), and ... well, we get crushed pretty fast by the CPU.... set on Easy. Le Triste. I need to practice building faster, and getting a strong defense up. Hopefully, with us playing a few games a night, I'll get into it a lot more than online on the first game. But that's another issue for another day.

The campaign I haven't touched much, since I haven't beat the first games yet. I am upset to see that the Medic unit isn't available for online yet, but I'm sure a patch will fix that... or their holding off on making all units available until each races campaign comes out. >_>.

I will say this: It seems pretty Activisiony that Starcraft 2 is being released in 3 installments, but to be fair, the way this campaign is (26 missions long, with 3 choices in game that affects which mission you end up doing for a total of 29 missions to do), I can see why you need it in separate games, rather than all in one. Still, I'd rather it all in one. What, I'm a greedy person who wants all his game in one shot, sue me!

Well, that about wraps up another exciting edition of me typing for too long, I'm Chris Taylor wishing everyone a pleasant Gammage.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

The Weekend-er

Huzzah folks. Sorry for the downers of the last two of my posts, it was just something I felt needed to be said.

This week has been pretty non-game related on my end of things. Me and the Room Mate started playing Warriors Orochi a couple of days ago, it's pretty much your standard Dynasty Warriors fare, with a little bit of Samurai Warriors thrown in because lets face it, you need 77 different characters in a game like this. There really isn't much of a storyline, so much as there is an excuse for a bunch of characters with funny looking weapons (case in point, one guy uses his own, elongated nails) to beat the crap out of each other, and their similar looking army's.

Aside from that, Loco Roco 2 has been in my PSP. Think Katamari, but side-scrolling. You control a little yellow dude, and he gets bigger the more things he eats. You use the shoulder buttons to move the world, so that the yellow dude can follow along the route set out for you. Sometimes you need to squish through a tiny little hole, so at the push of a button you go from big yellow dude, to several smaller yellow dudes. Haven't gotten that far, (actually, only did one level) but it seems fun and I can't wait to play more.

As far as what I've been doing outside of gaming; Work has decided to give me more responsibility. Instead of having a small section, I will now be in charge of about half the store... well, in terms of inventory and stock stuff. I won't be management again, I flat out refuse. It's just not in my DNA.

I've also been reading again. I'm up to book 7 of the Harry Potter series, the only book so far that I haven't read yet. Seems good so far, but it also seems to drag a bit. Still in the first hundred pages or so, we'll see what's what when I'm done.

Lastly, Pokemon Cards. I've been reorganizing that all afternoon. I've got a metric ton of cards, so sorting them out has not been a picnic.

Starcraft 2 is out this week, as is Blazblue 2. I'll be picking up SC on payday, but Blazblue will have to wait until it becomes cheap. Until next time, I'm Chris Taylor, wishing a pleasant Gammage to all.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

My name is Chris Taylor, and I ....

am addicted. Should be pretty obvious considering my game collection (802 games and counting), and considering I'm writing on a blog that's dedicated to it. That being said, it is not necessarily gaming itself that is my addiction.

My addiction: Collecting.... everything!

Now, I know what you are thinking; If I'm addicted to collecting, then every game I have would be completed 100% because I wouldn't be able to stop myself from collecting everything. That is not what I mean by addicted to collecting.

While I do in fact have a huge collection of games, I have barely beat a quarter of them. Looking at my gaming backlog (which I shall link to at the bottom), only 200 out of my 802 have either a beat or complete checked off. (Interesting note: 12 of those games have been nulled, as they are either not really games, IE Brain Age, or doesn't really have a way to beat it, IE Ice Hockey on NES). Partially, this is because I have a full time job, and on top of that I try to write whenever I can, (I am an aspiring author after all), but lets face it: those are excuses. Excuses to hide the real problem.

I can't stop buying. I spend a lot of my breaks at work checking out the game store that's practically next door. Why do I do it? Because every once in a while I see a game for five bucks, and my mind tells me I need to get it. "It's only five dollars, it's really cheap! If you don't get it now, it'll go back up in price and you'll kick yourself for it". I have no real plans to play Rumble Roses on my 360, but it's in my collection because it was cheap. Red Steel is a terrible game by most standards, and barely tolerable for a launch title by my own, but it's in my collection because I got it cheap.

It gets worse, in the form of collectors editions. Sometimes, and let me stress the sometimes once more right here, they are actually worth it. Demon's Souls came with a guide that is practically required reading if you wish to stand a chance the first time through the game. Starcraft 2 is coming with a soundtrack, art book, and hell, blizzard is even throwing in the first game on a USB stick!

But then there is Batman. A Batarang that looks like it was keyed, and comes superglued to the stand so you can't even whip it at people. A big box, and a leather bound book chronicling The Bats villains. That would have been interesting if the info in said book wasn't already in the game, (and also in the strategy guide, which I also purchased on Day 1). I knew ahead of time that the collectors edition of Batman was not even close to being worth it, but I bought it anyways, because it was a collectors edition. There is just something inside my brain that tells me that if it has something extra, I have to buy it day 1. I have to buy it.

Gaming is not a necessity. Food, a place to stay, a job, clothing, those are things we all need to have, not gaming. Gaming is a luxury, one that has cost me dearly. But once your brain starts thinking it needs something, it's hard to unthink it.

Now, I bring up strategy guides, and there is something else of interest right there: I have bought the guide to a decent amount of games that I have bought. Not just checked out a GameFAQS guide, but actually went to the store and bought the guide. Sometimes on day 1 with the game. Sometimes it is worth it, and other times, it isn't. That's just something else I need to collect.

Now, like games, sometimes a guide will have a collectors edition. In the case of FF XII, a game I can honestly say is only in my collection to complete my collection of Final Fantasy games (more on this in another post), the guide came with an art book, and art books are usually worth the price of admission on it's own. This, I was not disappointed with. However, The Legend of Zelda, Phantom Hourglass also has a collectors edition. It is hardcover, comes with a leather bookmark, and the pages are shiny. That is it. For once, my insanity with collectors editions was able to be repressed as I did not in fact put my money down for that one. (not for lack of wanting that is...)

I wish that this was the end. As I'm sure you can see, a therapist would have a field day trying to dissect and analyze all of my different foibles and insecurities as it pertains to my addiction of gaming. And lets face it, how often does one have the opportunity to use the word "foibles" in any topic of conversation?

Alas, there is much more going on here. Video game collecting is not my only vice.

Anybody who has seen the inside of my place usually notices two things:

1) Wow, your place is messy, don't you ever clean?

2) How many freaking games do you have? This is nuts!

What they don't usually notice, is the other thing, the thing that probably kick started my collecting habit into full gear, right around the time I was in third grade. That kick start, was Magic.

I had seen the cards all over the place when I was a kid, and was always interested in learning how to play. However, I was... a loner in school, to put it quite mildly, and since games like those usually required at least one other person, I was relegated to not ever picking up cards.

However, one day when my father and I were going to a movie, we stopped off at a card store nearby. It was pretty small, but something on one of the tables caught my attention. "Magic, 10 black, 9 common, 1 uncommon, $1". I showed my dad, and since he liked to spoil me rotten, I walked away with a pack of those treasured cards in my hand. The guy behind the counter even gave me the rulebook to the new set that had come out, Tempest, and the rest was history.

I now have more cards than I can count, from more games than I can possibly play. I've got cards for Pokemon, Magic, a few Yugioh, World of Warcraft, dot hack Enemy (a game that only about six people on the planet have ever heard about, and even less play), I even have almost the full first set of Tomb Raider cards. If it has a cool piece of artwork, and text written underneath, you can bet your sweet ass that I'm going to want it in my hands.

To be fair, Tomb Raider was something that had a separate set of rules for those who weren't playing with other people, and at once point I did try playing all of those games WITH other people, usually around the time I picked up my first set of cards, but everything after that was just feeding my addiction.

Now, you'll notice that pokemon was written, and lets face it, there are two games that when talking about addiction really feed well into the topic: pokemon and World of Warcraft.

Now to me, World of Warcraft wasn't overly appealing. To me, it was just a really pretty Diablo 2 with more options, massively multiplayer online, but Diablo never hooked me in the way that it did almost everyone I knew, so Warcraft almost didn't stand a chance.

Pokemon however.... there is a story and a half. No joke, when Soul Silver was released, I took a 1 week vacation just to play the game. A vacation... for a video game. Granted, that is slightly better than blowing off work just because a new game came out, but still. On top of that, over the course of that weekend, I played over 70 hours. That's 10 hours a day! My longest stretch of time playing in a row spanned two days, staying up all night just to try beat the main storyline. I deprived my self of sleep, and even pushed away friends, just to play the game longer.

The pull of pokemon gripped me at a far younger age than now. When it was first released, I was far from a perfect kid. I was grounded a lot when I was younger, and was unable to play my games for a good portion of the time. That didn't stop me from playing this one though. I knew where my parents had hidden my Gameboy, took it out of its hiding place, and would play it in my room, with no sound, at all times of the day. My hiding place? Underneath the guide for the game. I merely said that since I couldn't play the game, I wanted to read up on it so that it would be easier to play when I finally had a chance. My parents didn't fight it much, (they felt that as long as I was reading, it was alright), but I think they knew all along that I had the game. After all, how hard is it to hide a giant brick of the original, 4 battery game boy? The guide barely covered it.

Pokemon feeds into my addiction fairly easily, as with every new installment comes a new set of at least one hundred new pokemon to collect. Plus, I've always loved games with a leveling system. Hell, that was the only thing that kept me interested in Forza as long as I was.

Now, you may be asking yourself, what the hell triggered this long winded (and long worded) speech about gaming addiction? Well, it was a letter from my old cell phone company.

See, up until now I knew, for the most part, that I was addicted, but as long as I felt that I had it under control, as long as everything was still being payed, and I had a roof over my head and groceries in the fridge, everything was fine. It wasn't a problem. Kind of like how DR. House uses his pain pills: He functions with them, it helps him do his job, and me having games helped me with this job (as well as the game review thing, something I need to get back into).

The letter pretty much said that I hadn't payed the cancellation fee for my cell phone. It wasn't overly serious, and it isn't even all that expensive. It's not going to stop me from paying rent, and I still have food to eat so there aren't any worries there. But the fact that they needed to send a letter forced me into accepting what was really happening.

My priorities weren't in order. I was thinking of games first, spending first and foremost, and necessities second. I was becoming the very thing I couldn't stand, someone who only thought of what he could spend money on, and not on important things.

This jolt of reality is really a wake up call of sorts, that I really need to stop worrying about getting a game day 1, or wasting my money on cards that I never use, and barely even look at. At the very least, I need to play the games I have (correction, BEAT the games I have) before picking up new ones. I must get this collecting addiction under control, NOW, before it's a letter from the rental office telling me that I need to pay up.

I, Chris Taylor, am addicted to buying stuff I don't need, when I shouldn't really be buying that stuff in the first place... right away anyways.

Now, the real question you've all been asking this whole time: Why the hell didn't I talk about any new releases? Answer: Because there weren't any. Next week should be bigger however, with Starcraft 2 coming out. And yes, I'm getting it on launch day, in collectors edition form.

Some people will never, ever change.

This is Chris Taylor, signing out, and hoping that his next fix doesn't come from a strange man in a dark alley with a Virtual Boy hidden in his trench coat. Happy Gammage to All!!

My collection of games can be found here: www.backloggery.com/Assclown_King

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Mood Swings and Californ-I-Eh?

Howdy folks, this one could be long, so I'll get the fun stuff out of the way, then grab the soapbox and rant for awhile, so sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Am I the only one that has different moods for his games? Maybe mood is the wrong word here, but I do know that every once in a while, I feel that I need to play a certain type of game. Sometimes I feel like playing wrestling games almost exclusively. Other times it's platformers, or RPGS. Rarely it's shooters, but that's happened too.

This week, it's been oldies week. I picked up the Namco Museum game, and I've been playing that pretty much non-stop since getting it. Already beat 2 out of the 21 games on it (bringing my total games beaten up to two hundred! Also my total games to over Eight Hundred, so I still got an insurmountable mountain of games to get through). I've also got an itch to play some old Mario on my Wii's Virtual Console, I just don't know if it's a Karting, or RPG mood. Could just flat out be Mario 3 like I've been trying to get into for ages.

That being said, I also went and beat Assassins Creed Altair's Chronicles on DS. It's a fun little platformer that has a tendency to hold your hand just a little bit too much. There wasn't really too many times where you're thinking to yourself 'where do I go now?'. It even tells you which button to push in case you might have forgotten. It's almost like a quick time event, except it's always the same buttons.

It also doesn't feel much like an Assassins Creed game. It took out most of the stealth and climbing tall buildings ala spiderman, and replaced it with a pretty by the books platformer. It is still fun, but I'm glad I got it dirt cheap.

Now that the fun stuff is out of the way, there was a piece of news that piqued my interest. The state of California is trying to pass a law banning the sale of violent video games to children. Government legislature replacing parenting: What is the point?

First of all, the stores that sell these games should be following the ESRB guidelines. It's pretty simple, if someone looks under 17, card them. If they can't show any ID whatsoever, then it's an immediate no-sale. Hell, when I worked at EB I carded just about everybody, even people who were almost into their thirties, just because I wanted to make doubly sure they were actually 17.

If they aren't 17, you should need a parent, but it shouldn't be watch-dogged by the government. This should all be the responsibility of the parent. When the hell did parents get so lazy that they don't want to know exactly what their kids are doing? I remember one time I rented GTA 3. For a while, I would just grab a baseball bat and just beat the living tar out of civilians. My mother was there, and I think I can quote what she said: "Chris, if you don't go and do a mission right now, you're changing games". That was it, no discussion, no arguing, nothing.

Parents of the world, you shouldn't need the government to make decisions for you. You should know what your kids are doing, what they're playing, and if it's something you don't like, take it away or just flat out never buy it. Period!

"Oh, but if I don't buy it for him, he's going to whine about it." So? Sooner or later, they're going to get over it, and be better off for it than if you just give them everything. YOU are the decision maker, not them. Any time you say no, and the kid manages to change YOUR mind, you have failed as a parent.

"Oh but you don't understand, you aren't a parent, it's a lot harder than that". No, it isn't. You say no, they listen. They aren't old enough to know better, but you should be, and if you aren't, you shouldn't be a parent.

Sorry, didn't mean to make this so long and confrontational, but sometimes things just piss me off, and lazy parenting (and the legislature that is born because of it) is one of those things. Sermon over, next time it'll be a happier post.

Also, this may be edited later for making things clearer / more cohesive, which I guess means clearer. Sayanora, mama cita!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Soft Reset

Hello there all. As you may have noticed, I have not posted in a while. Let me first assure the six of you reading this that I am indeed alive and well. The podcast on the other hand... not so much. Not for the moment anyways.

First of all, problems that only pop up when you first start doing something like this ... well, they popped up. Things like figuring out which recording software to use (I'll be bringing this up again in a little bit), what mike setups work and don't work, actually editing the damn thing.

No joke, Episode 1 became a Phantom Menace (haha, see what I did there?). After spending four and a half hours clearing out all the Umms and Uhhs out, the save file doesn't save properly, and cleared itself out. Considering we wanted the first Podcast up on Cananda Day, and I started editing on the Tuesday before, that added a little bit of over-stress to yours truly.

Episode 1 on its own was interesting all on its own. For one, we were using a One Mic setup. Passing a Rock Band USB Mic back and forth while trying to make things sound conversational, natural, and above all else, Interesting, that wasn't much fun. We were using Audacity, which while being easy to use didn't allow us to use two USB Mic's... or at least, not how we had things plugged in.

Episode 1 had a Second Take. The second take sounded more nautral, and ended up sounding a lot better. The problem was, we switched recording software. This time we used Kristal. While it allowed us to use two USB Mics, there was a time sync issue, which not only had us talking over each other, but cut out random parts of word and sentences, rendering the effort useless.

After posting Episode One, Jeff and I started trying to work out the kinks. We got some ideas together, and Episode Two looked to have a bit more direction. A LOT more direction. It wasn't going to just be about us talking about ourselves, we were going to give our Podcast some feeling, some personality. We got some topics together, and started recording, again, using Kristal since it was the only one that allowed us to use two mics and try to sound natural.

Episode two, I will admit, was our best outing so far. We still ramble a little bit, but lets face it, that's who we are. There's no denying or escaping it, when you have two guys in a room who are passionate about games, and have opinions about games, you're going to get sidetracked a bit. BUT, it never ended up being so off-topic as to render things random. Episode two would have been an excellent showcase of what was to come.

Alas, past tense.

Once again, thanks to a slight delay during the recording, our voices intermingled too much. Not as bad as E1 Take 2, but bad enough to again render things unusable.

Currently, the setup is one mic on a stand, with us sitting relatively close together, talking into said mic. Not as comfortable as a two mic setup, but the sound is good, and we're raring to go. Episode 2 Take 2... then take 3... 7.... 14. The harder we tried to make things sound as good as our first run of Episode 2, things spiraled downward. Either it wasn't as interesting, we veered off track too much, it just wasn't the same. It just didn't have the same feeling that our first take had.

So, where do we go from here?

We're taking a break from the podcast phase. It was harder than we expected, and we tried to go too fast before really preparing ourselves. So, a soft reset. A return to Title Screen if you will. Jeff and I will be posting regularly here instead of trying to push out a podcast, while still planning and practicing the recording process. I assure you, the new Episode 2 will be much better than it was before. For now, I'm going to quote a famous poet, a gentleman and a scholer, a man by the name of Frosty. For as it pertains to our podcast...

"I'll say goodbye, but don't you cry, I'll be back again someday".

... Alright, so he wasn't much of a poet, and yes, Mick Foley the pro wrestler did exactly the same thing when leaving his position (albeit short term wise anyways...), but still, the point still stands.

Thanks for reading that longer-than-normal post. The next ones will be Gaming related, I assure you.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Press Start Two Play - Episode 1

So without further ado et sans tambour ni trompette, here is our first podcast. Let's just say that this was a real learning experience on many levels (technical, preparation, etc). We actually recorded a second version of our podcast, but that one, albeit better, was plagued with technical issues.

We'll "hear" you again in Episode 2.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email us at:

jeff.pstplay@gmail.com

chris.pstplay@gmail.com

Go To FileFactory.com

Go to folder - FileFactory.com

P.S.: You'll hear at the end a medley of some of the best video game songs of our childhoud. We also invite you to visit Aldofo Baez's site for some really cool stuff done with the Mario Paint composer. You will be able to download the song mixed in as an mp3.

Press Start Two Play

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