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Blog: Game Review: Infinite Undiscovery (Xbox 360): This review is one that I posted over on GameFly.
IR.. http://ping.fm/Ml6EL

Yes, I live. Had company this past weekend and just not been near a computer in ages. Anyway, was poking around getting caught up on Zero Punctuation and Yahtzee had this quote:

"This is probably the most balanced generation of all time with it all coming down to what you personally want from a console. The Wii is an excitable little yappy bastard good with children but a little exhausting. The PS3 is a big dependable black monster slow but lovingly bringing in your slippers every morning. And the 360 is a good all rounder, but only occasionally pisses itself and dies. " ~ Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw from Zero Punctuation: Mailbag Showdown.

You have to admit, he's quite true. Though I see the xbox more for FPS and hardcore gamers, PS3 for RPG graphics whores, and the Wii for Kids and Parties. I just like how he puts it so much better. Watch the video though, it's hilarious!

Play Scribble Free Online | Big Fish Games:

Fun game from BigFishGame that I just found. Simple, but.. I'm finding it addictive. My first run was in 121.2 sesconds, but then I'm using a touchpad.

I heard about Endless Ocean not long after the Wii came out. Mostly just the lines of "A game where you're diving in the ocean". Considering the way the Wii works, sounded pretty cool and perked my interest, but since we didn't get a Wii I just never thought of it again. A bit ago rhast rented it from Blockbuster and was telling me about it. Sounded something right up my alley.

So, as y'all know, I got the Wii a week ago. Wii sports is fun and all, but, truth be told, I seriously needed something soothing to escape the stress of Mom. I -was- going to go to blockbuster and rent some wii games, but they don't HAVE a blockbuster here. It closed down sometime this winter. The nearest blockbuster is down in South Bend, IN, which is around an hour away. Er, sorry but no deal. Well, I had a really bad day, so I just went over and picked it up at Best Buy.

After putting it in the Wii, the first thing I'm introduced to is something that blows me away.. the intro song. I've already posted the lyrics to it: "Prayer" by Hayley Westenra. Haunting, enticing... the perfect song to go diving to. Character creation was somewhat customizable. More than I expected, but still pretty limited. Doesn't matter though. There are more costuming options that are unlockable throughout the game and you're able to change everything about how your character looks except gender.

You start out on the deck, dealing with your 'assistant' who is the venue for most the plot. There are a series of 'missions' that are the basic tutorial, though it's kinda easy to just go around without doing most any of them. The whole game is very very laid back. You can do everything on your own time schedule. The only thing that's 'timed' is the photo requests. You have 7 ingame days to send in the photo. However, you don't have to do them at all. That's how you unlock most of the customizations apparently, but you can still pick and choose.

Diving is very fun, relaxing, and in many ways therapeutic. From the deck, you use the D-Pad to select "dive". A loading screen is shown where you can then go left and right on the D-Pad to select what song you wish to have played. You have a series of songs from the game (many are unlocked throughout the game) or import your own songs via an SD card (which you can also play on the boat via the radio). Once you're in the water, it's simply a matter of pointing the wiimote in the direction you want to go and holding down the trigger (B) to go forward. There are more advanced controls, but you can go through the whole game without caring about them. You can click on any wildlife you see in order to interact with it. Some are in a 'closeup' view which is really neat. Those are like needles in a haystack, but your dolphin 'partner' can be used to find those.

Partners are fun. There are many types of dolphins you come across that you can befriend. You're allowed up to 3 partners at a time, though I know you can replace one with another. I -think- you can go back and get that same type of dolphin later once you find the location of it's 'pod'. I -just- replaced my bottlenose with a different one, so later on i might go back and see if I'm able to pick up another bottlenose later. Anyway, there are two things you can do with your partners: dive and train. Diving has them as your dive partner where you can interact with them like anyother sea wildlife, though they will swim around and find the 'closeup' spots on the ground/coral/etc. If you're staying near your boat, specifically looking to interact with your partner and the wildlife in the immediate area, thist is awesome. You can even grab ahold of them and swim around, though only in a small circle. However, if you're looking to wander around alot, doing lots of exploring, having your partner can be kinda annoying. Because the 'flashies' (closeup spawnpoints) don't go away after you view them, your partner can get stuck pinging out the same one over and over. While you're heading on, it's stuck there trying to get your attention. I -think- you might be able to use the whistle to try and get them to move along, but it's a pain in the ass. In my opinion it's best to just explore alone, and have fun/"go over with a fine tooth comb" with your partner. Training is something like a minigame. You go to the gangplank of your boat and choose which partner you want to train with. From there, you do a few combinations of simple 'touches' to tell your partner what commands you want him to execute. You then do the motion you all have probably seen at Sea World (or documentaries) where you fling your hand out to tell them to go do what you just told them. It is VERY important to have the wrist strap on for THAT one. I have nearly let the thing slip out of my hand even with the rubber jacket on the remote.

The best thing I like about this game is just how peaceful and relaxing it is. You're floating, drifting down under the surface, going where you want at whatever speed you wish. Simply sitting there watching the fish swim around can be fascinating. You have an HOUR real time of spending underwater per dive. It's just.. serene. I like the fact that there are no real time restraints. No pressure. Currently I'm going through and surveying (visiting and mapping out) the entire sea before I start to 'detail' it. Surprisingly along the way I've also done a nice bit of plot too. I can't tell how far along I am, as I've purposely avoided any plot spoilers. I sorta know what happens, but not any real details. The "details" consist of finding every fish in the game. You eventually unlock an 'encyclopedia' which you are helping your assistant fill out. It lets you know what you HAVE found, as well as give you an idea as to how much more you need to find. The other 'collection' portion of the game is the salvage. You find them under special little flashing bits of "closeup" flashies. Your footlocker on deck lets you know how much you've found. Some pieces, I will warn you, have multiple parts you have to find. Once you gain all the pieces, you'll get a special mail from someone telling you about the completed object. Neat huh?

One thing I will caution people with is.. frankly, how realistic it can be. There is one area that you can go to pretty early in the game called "Deep Valley". It's literally a crack in the sea floor. The first time I approached it was like the first time I approached the windows at the top of the Sears Tower. Swimming out over it made me feel like I'd just had the floor disappear out from under my feet. Eventually you dive down into that crack, into "The Abyss". I nearly got sick the first time I went down there. It was even in full daylight and I was just as disoriented as if I had really been thrust into a place so deep that light couldn't reach. It took a minute or two of walking around to remember which way was up. But then, I have a REALLY over active imagination. Perhaps most folk won't have it that bad. It helps that as long as you haven't chosen to turn on the "advanced controls' your character will try to stay oriented properly. Apparently doing the advanced let's you do things like perform somersaults and swim upside down. Frankly, I think I'd get motion sick like that.

My -only- complaint with this game is in the multiplayer. There is a 'quick chat' and the "underwater pen", but that's it. No real chat possible. It adds a huge bit of realism to the team diving, but in reality it makes it kinda frustrating, especially in deep water areas. The compass just let's you know relative direction, no clue on depth for your partner so it's very possibly to get separated and not find each other. With no way of saying "go to surface" the most you can do is cancel the dive and force everyone back to the boat. That being said, I have a laptop with teamspeak installed. Voice chat fixes all of it.

Anyway, as long as you're not a super goal oriented person, really like to relax and escape, then this really is the game for you. I highly suggest it to anyone, though I will caution folks to try RENTING or BORROWING it first if at all possible.

now, it's time to wrap this up as i've been writing it all day and it's time for me to go to bed.

This is the main song for the Wii game "Endless Ocean".

Let your arms enfold us
Through the dark of night
Will your angels hold us
Till we see the light

Hush, lay down your troubled mind
The day has vanished and left us behind
And the wind - whispering soft lullabies
Will soothe - so close your weary eyes

Let your arms enfold us
Through the dark of night
Will your angels hold us
Till we see the light

Sleep, angels will watch over you
And soon beautiful dreams will come true
Can you feel spirits embracing your soul
So dream while secrets of darkness unfold

Let your arms enfold us
Through the dark of night
Will your angels hold us
Till we see the light

Let your arms enfold us
Through the dark of night
Will your angels hold us
Till we see the light

~Hayley Westenra - Prayer

No sleep last night.

Well, more like little sporadic bits of sleep here and there. Around 3am the maintainance man for the cheese factory my mom works at called the house. He got his days mixed up and thought mom hadn't had her surgery yet. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that apparently there had been a fire at the plant. I was too sleepy to ask what happened or how bad it was, so the rest of the might I had psydo-nightmares about the entire plant being burned to the ground.

Did I mention it was freezing cold? When I crawled into bed, had on two shirts, my robe, and even a pair of socks. Buried myself under the sheet, wool blanket, comforter, AND a down comforter.

Oh, and there was a storm. When I finally left the hospital it was all wet, but after I got home it started raining, then grew into a full blown Michigan spring storm. Lasted from about Midnight till 2:30-3am.

*sighs*

Its astonishing that BOTH of mom's knees were the two worst knees her doctor has ever seen. And, this is NOT a young doctor.

Today she did very well. Had a bout of bad nausea before I made it in. Got there in time for their group excersises. Mom really pushes herself. We ate lunch there then she fell back asleep shortly thereafter. That's when I ran to do errands, get american idol set up, etc.

Speaking of american idol...

Mom told me I had to tape this weeks shows for her. Yes, you read right... TAPE. As in.. VHS. Went to target for a few other things, they didn't have any. Went to best buy with little hope. Found a guy and told him "I have an impossible task for you" where in which he proved, while difficult, it was indeed not impossible. Got their last bunch. As in, they are not planning on getting anymore. Started to head to the casheir when I turned to the two guys who ended up helping me and said, "I already know the answer, but I gotta ask: Any Wii's?"

Their answer was a chours of "Yes".

My response: "YOU'RE SHITTING ME!!!!"

Apparently they were frustraited at the fact all their stock was going to the ebay resellers and just instituted a new "policy" of sorts. They are no longer putting them on the shelves. Ebayers simply won't ask a sales person "Can I get 10 wii's?" Personally I wouldn't mind seeing places to the whole "one per customer" thing. Sure, the bold few will work around it, but most won't bother.

Anyway, mine wasn't the last either. A guy heard my exclimations and came over to find out if it was indeed wii's. There was a guy and his son in front of me, the older one behind, and I got the impression there were even more in the back. So, anyone looking for a wii, go to your local best buy. I dunno if its just a decision that this local manager decided, or if its a chain policy now. Either way, support best buy and their effort to defeat the evil resellers (though I blame the people who buy the resold stuff cause if people didn't buy them, no one would resell).

That's what that voice post was about. Doesn't say "hello everyone", says "I got one!" Sorry for the crappy sound. *sighs*

So yesterday I got my wii, set it up and have it working with the wireless.Today I bought Endless Ocean and LOVE it. Beautiful music. Contols can be difficult at times. Perfect time eater. So relaxing. Was just what I needed. Why?

Well, time with mom was pretty good. she had a spot of pain, but not bad and the nausia wasn't back at all. She slept most the time. I left arounf 7:30ish to go make sure her american idol taped properly. My knees, feet, and head were all killing me. Between lack of sleep and the crazy MI weather, I'm suprised my head didn't explode.

Since I didn't want to really buy a game and end up hating it (when games were 15 bucks not much of an issue, but 50 doller games is nothing to sneeze at) I went over to the only rental place I knew of (blockbuster closed sometime after Nov). They didn't have Endless Ocean, even for sale. Frustraited I just said fuck it and left. Not having an account anymore, not sure if they would let me open one with an out of state addy. As I'm pulling out of the parking space, I notice a car pulling in, seemingly heading straight towards me. Stupid me am so focused on the incoming car... I failed to notice the car behind me. *sighs* Tapped the bumper. Didn't do any real damage to the old chrystler, but it slightly dented mom's bumper and left rubber residue. Gods I wish it had been MY car. I'm scared to death that Mom's gonna get in trouble for it.

Ran into the store, talked to the car owner, who really didn't care since it didn't do any damage. I still am kicking myself for not leaving my cell number 'just in case'. Better than then him suddenly trying to contact mom. Doubt anything will come of it anyway. Shouldn't take much to get the dent out anyway. Just.. gah.

Even more frustraited, I make my way towards the house and detour to best buy (it is literally on the way). Endless Ocean is 30 bucks, Smash Brothers is 50... hmmm... lemme see... Yeah, got endless ocean.

Came home, almost 8:30, and American Idol is STILL going on. Its their funraiser thing. Growling, I go to get on the puter to make the donation mom asked me to, only to find that the CD rack with all her CDs had tipped over while I was away.

Move the rack, put back the CDs, make the donation, though I can't find my cell phone in my bag. While I'm looking for it, notice during a commercial break that the VCR had stopped recording. I stick endless ocean in, but while I'm trying to figure out how to get the Wii to display (switching to line 2 with a button buried in the remote), I notice that although the VCR did what I told it to, American Idol was STILL GOING ON!!! GAH! I make the mad rush to get it recording again. Would you believe I had just rewound it? Thankfully it was some girl's rock/country performance, and it only clipped the first half of it. Oh.. and THEN.. Right at the end, just as Maria Carey is comming on stage, the tape gets to the end and starts to rewind. I had forgotten to put it in EP mode. FuckinA. Another mad rush to put a new tape in. I hope mom doesn't mind too much. I didn't care for the song anyway. She'll love the fact I got what was important: the closing performance of the idol finalist singing a "praise and worship" song. I'm temped to install itunes on mom's computer just to buy that song for her. Its one of her favs too. That's twice now that they have had christian themes going on. Dolly Parton and her song when she 'mentored' last week, then this. Flat out suprised me.

Anyway.. the best thing was, right after I got Idol retaping the first time.. Robin Williams came out. He's such a good comedian. Had me in near tears. Just what I needed.

After all the taping was done, Finally got into my game. So much fun. I'll 'review' it later.

Crashing now. Should have 3 hours ago. Once again gotta get up early, and its fucking cold out (barely above 30 right now I think).

Night peeps.

[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

((I started writing this on 3/22 but never finished.. will finish now.))

He was good and held off this long, but quu has finally succumbed and bought an Xbox 360 with Mass Effect. He was kind enough to also pick up Assassins Creed, but when I said "get a multiplayer game"... he got Halo 3. Considering we have devlyn_moreland over this weekend, I don't think he understood what I meant. Oh well. He's happy and addicted so I can't complain. Maybe one day I'll be able to pry him away from Mass Effect long enough to try Assassins Creed.

However, what people might like to know is that soon we'll have the house fit for visiting again. I have Flor samples arriving just before I leave, at which point I'll be making a decision as to what I want in the living room. No, not getting the laminate first. The Flor acts like a huge wall to wall rug, and then later down the road we can get the laminate installed and turn the Flor into a carpet rather than wall to wall.

---current---

Ok, so more has happened. We now also have "Eternal Sonata" and "Viva Pinata". I LOVE Viva Pinata. Taking a bit to get used to, as you just can't really get all the animals in a single garden. Why? There is a food chain. It's more like you need to just.. build your garden, then work on getting new residents to unlock them, sell off the ones who are being problems, improve your garden. It's not so much about the pinatas and more about the garden. I spend more time planting, fertilizing, and watering the vegetation than paying attention to the pinatas now. Also, I'm getting to the point where I don't even bother breeding them. If someone needs to eat something to romance, then I let the prey get eaten and wait for a new one to show up. Very difficult. But.. I now have the full garden space so hopefully it will be easier to go back to my first couple of gardens and fix a few things. My latest one is a water garden with a large pond. Anyway...

As to the Flor, the samples arrived earlier than expected, but that's great. I'm GLAD I ordered them as the one style I was looking at using I find out I hate. The other set I was looking at seems great, though going to get a different color than I sampled as this one is just too dark. The thought of having a lighter carpet makes me uncomfortable a bit, but it will be worth it. My biggest problem with the living room is that it's just so dark. With the wood paneling, dark couch/loveseat, and smallish windows, there just isn't a lot of ambient light in here. So, what am I getting? A checkerboard mix of Twill Ride and Checkered Past in Silver/White. I saw the layout of the two in the catalog and paired up the samples I did get and really like it. Will add a brightness and a texture to this room that it does need, especially if/when we get rid of the other patterned couch (the one with the wood accents).

Part of me wants to paint over the wood paneling, maybe do it tastefully with the groves being a darker color to accent the paneling. Not sure how that would work out. I need to get a good bright picture of this room and then play with the coloring in GIMP or something to get an idea of what it will look like. I kinda like the idea of sticking with the muted greens and going for an almost oriental feel. Like what we saw HERE at Ikea (sorry for the bad pic tatianamik). I like that green/beige/light wood scheme with hints of blue. Very oriental-ish, very.. bamboo. I dunno why but it always bring to mind bamboo to me. I'm just weird I guess. I know that in the den area I'm going to leave the walls white and then use the green modern mix with the green organic overlay to make a rug over the hardwood. A big part of me wishes they'd use the blue for the organic overlay because I absolutely LOVE the blue modern mix. It's bright without being overpowering. Hrm.. i just had the idea of using the tan modern mix with the green organic overlay... i wonder how that would look. But.. that's much farther down the line.

quu assures me that they will have the new carpet in the living room before I get back from my trip up north. We'll see.

I have more to say, but I think I'm going to make it into another post.

the DAEDALUS PROJECT: MMORPG Research, Cyberculture, MMORPG Psychology

If you've not heard of it, this is probably one of my favorite psychology surveys I've ever seen. Why? Because the guy who's doing this isn't making grand assumptions. He tells you the tendencies, points out that there are those who don't go with the generalities, and overall does very very good research. I highly suggest you fill out the surveys that apply to you (like right now there is one for kids and people with kids, so don't fill it out if you don't fit in), give him your email address and then whenever there is a new survey up (he emails you), go fill it out. Best part is to go and then read all the articles he's written about the information he's received from the surveys. My current favorite is "Our Virtual Bodies, Ourselves?" Really does seem to explain why there is such a rift between play styles of the horde and alliance in WoW.

Ok, was doing my morning webcomic check when I saw a link on the Applegeeks site that just said "Applegeeks City". I go and check it out, and It's this fun little completely web-based... link thing. On a fluke, I decided to start my own... "Winvale City" (based off a village I made for some LARP stuff). Click on the link, pass it on, do whatever. I'd like to see just how big it grows and how it grows.

Oh wow, there's lots:

Atlanta
Kennesaw
DeviantArt
SlashdotCity
Facebook
~*SP*~Forever (Something Positive i think)
Wayne'sWorld
Discworld
Hogwarts

Probably tons more.

Well, christmas is come and gone, still have a handful of cards to still send out.. hopefully before new years. *sighs* But.. got a LOT done.

( Cut for kids stuff. )

( Cake and Soup Adventures! )

( Christmas. )

( Gaming. )

( LJ Icons! )

( Health and Depression. )

( Da House! )

Gah.. that's about all I can think of.

Trying to get back in contact with friends again.. but it's hard. Ya'll know how bad I am at keeping in touch.

Looking forward to ShadowCon though.

Enough for now.. hope ya'll enjoy the LJ cuts.. didn't want to clog up the friends pages and make everyone ignore me. >_>;;;

Laters!

It's a Ryzom movie. The game is just so beautiful. I wish the play aspect was so much better.

Yes, the band players had fun, but you know for a fact that their band leader and chorographer are the real gamer geeks.

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=26120

So far I think this is the order they go in:

Pong
Tetris
Mortal Combat
Contra??
Smash Borther's Melee - but could be pokimon
Zelda
Super Mario Brothers (four themes)

I can play Black & White 2!!

Damn this lappy is nice! Yes, Vista is on it. Yes, It runs a little slow at times because Vista is a huge ass memory hog. Yes, I think that Vista really has a bad rap because people are severly ADHD and impatient. If I up my ram and its still having issues, then I'll fuss. However the first service pack is coming out soon and promises to fix a lot of issues.

The only game i'm having problems with is still Tabula Rasa. However, I think that's because it's like Oblivion was when it came out, way too advanced for current home machines. That was one thing I had to applaud Blizzard for when WoW came out, you didn't have to have the top of the line cutting edge machine to have a pretty and fun game.

NWN gave me issues at first until I found out you just have to go into the properties and tell it to run in XP compatiblity mode on each of the EXE files.

Did I mention I can finally play Black and White 2?

Or mention that I can play Overlord on full settings, beautiful enough to make me cry?

<3z new lappy!!!

I still need to take pics and post them.

Worst part is having to import all of my music into itunes. Mostly my anal-ness in double and triple checking everying, and my impatientness when I couldn't sleep and canced the humoungous batch copy to play B&W.

Speaking of which....

My friend rhast sent this to me over aim:



It's a highly interesting read, totally neutral in tone and simply factual reporting. Wish more news was like this.

Mystery of the Abbey:

CLUE ON CRACK! quu  just brought this home for me. Yes.. it's MY game.. :-P Anyone interested in playing just let me know!

On the Nintendo vs. On the DS ( See Below )

CRN Games: The Shadow of Yesterday:

A friend of mine recommended this game to me. Kinda interesting, don't you think?

Not much going on..

Last weekend was ShadowCon and was lots of fun. Got to see synamontwist, ladyalexis, tatianamikhail, devlyn_moreland, lostboydv, and even internetbrain showed up despite saying she wasn't! Got all sorts of things too. synamontwist gave me "Archangel" by Sharon Shinn along with the new Elfquest series. I made the mistake of saying "I'm just going to read a few pages while i'm sitting here waiting for the rest of them" and got completely sucked into the book and couldn't put it down for the rest of the con. >_< There are a couple more books, hopefully one day I'll get them. For now they areon my Amazon.com wishlist.

Let's see, got the "Art of Discworld" and "A Tourist Guide to Lancre" which is a map of the kingdom of Lancre in Discworld. Also got the In Nomine sourcebook. It's a pretty easy system... quu kinda wants me to try my hand at running a game, methinks it is more of a try to get me to be more social and interact with people than a real urge to play the game. *shrugs* I dunno. Either way I'm reading the book and looking around.

Not much else to say. Forgot to post this yesterday. Thank god for autosaving of drafts in Semagic. *sighs*