About time I updated you guys
This entry will be of little interest yo most of you, but anyway. There's little going on in my life now, and as far as my gaming is concerned...Well, during summers life's always a little slow.
This year I will be enjoying an extraordinary long time off from the uni. I desperately need it and so far I'm enjoying it. It's too bad that there's little going on in the world of my favorite pasttime (which would be gaming) but a lot of hours are spent outside and chatting up with some old online friends. Still, I'd like to have a job for the time being, but it has to be a nice one. Around this area there unfortunately is little work to do for students and seeing how I don't need the money to get by I want to make sure I find a nice job and not the crappy kind I've been working the past years.
I'm also longing for vacation or adventure of some sort. A friend of mine recently bought a great van fit for taking long trips to faraway places so we might just do that within now and 6 months. I've also been looking into volunteer work abroad, there's lots to find but I'm a little afraid to actually take the step and sign up. But beggars can't be choosers so I just might have to take the plunge and see what happens.
Well, me and my old friends have been discussing friendship and love a lot the past days. So let me ask you a question before I finish up this short update: When in company, do you feel you're being judged or do you feel like you're judging others? I'm curious.
Next week I'll be picking up Prey. Look forward to some impressions, this looks like the game that can pull me out of my personal 'slow gaming season' as I really liked the demo. I need a bunch of good games to play too, seeing how a heatwave has struck the country and going outside is life-threatening.
Mystikvm Blog
I got one
by Mystikvm on Comments
One of those HDTV's, that is
I've been wanting one for over a year now, and every time something stood in between me and an HDTV, always money-related. But this morning Pauline and I decided to go on the hunt for a good HDTV, in terms of quality and price, of course.
Demands? Preferably below 900 Euros, not too big, HD-equipped (of course) and if possible with component hook-up. We browsed a few stores, often with salesmen that of course wanted to have us pay about 500 Euros more so that the boss would give them some extra pocket money at the end of the month, but eventually we ended up in a store where we were not assaulted by saleshappy employees. After browsing a great deal of TV-sets we ended up at a display with a bunch of Samsung TV's. There were three diferent types to choose from, all with the same specs but with different sizes. It had all we needed, the right hook-ups, the right size and the right price. Sevenhundred and fifty Euro's later we had ourselves a 23" Samsung HDTV.
Rediscovering your games is the greatest part of it all. There's so much detail lost on a SDTV, and HDTV's are so much easier on the eye....
I wish I could elaborate a little more, but HD is something you really have to experience. SDTV's are good enough to get some great enjoyment out of gaming systems, but HDTV is absolutely the best you can get. The difference really, really matters. It's not marginal. It's huge.
I've been wanting one for over a year now, and every time something stood in between me and an HDTV, always money-related. But this morning Pauline and I decided to go on the hunt for a good HDTV, in terms of quality and price, of course.
Demands? Preferably below 900 Euros, not too big, HD-equipped (of course) and if possible with component hook-up. We browsed a few stores, often with salesmen that of course wanted to have us pay about 500 Euros more so that the boss would give them some extra pocket money at the end of the month, but eventually we ended up in a store where we were not assaulted by saleshappy employees. After browsing a great deal of TV-sets we ended up at a display with a bunch of Samsung TV's. There were three diferent types to choose from, all with the same specs but with different sizes. It had all we needed, the right hook-ups, the right size and the right price. Sevenhundred and fifty Euro's later we had ourselves a 23" Samsung HDTV.
Rediscovering your games is the greatest part of it all. There's so much detail lost on a SDTV, and HDTV's are so much easier on the eye....
I wish I could elaborate a little more, but HD is something you really have to experience. SDTV's are good enough to get some great enjoyment out of gaming systems, but HDTV is absolutely the best you can get. The difference really, really matters. It's not marginal. It's huge.
Sometimes I Forget...
by Mystikvm on Comments
...to actually update my journal
I deliberately did not update last week, because of the E3. I was thinking of sounding off, maybe even with a return of Week in Pictures, but I couldn't think of anything good to say. There's not a big chance I'll be getting a PS3....However, I know myself all too well and once I have the money I'll almost certainly give in. So I must make sure to not have money when November comes. Cannot be too hard.
UNO on Live Arcade is fun. I played over 200 games, unlocked every single achievement but keep returning to play with Gamespot people and folks I know from Dutch forums. It's the most social game I've played over the internet to date. If you're strapped for friends 400 bucks and 400 Marketplace points are the way to go to quickly gain a bunch of new buddies.
Pauline might get a new job a the National Tax Offices. She was approached by her boss last week, he was inquiring how she would feel about a job that's a little tougher on her. He couldn't promise anything, but he probably wouldn't approach her if she doesn't make the cut. Of course a better job means more money. I feel more and more like a leech every day. Even though she, my parents and friends keep telling me this is the way it is I keep feeling bad about it. I'm a student, I don't put full efforts in my studies and I live a nice life without too many worries while she's working her butt off 40 hours a week.
Especially the fact that Pauline said that we might get an HDTV when she gets promoted made me feel even worse. It's the thing I want most in this house right now, and with her paying almost fully for it...Well, I don't want to give the world the impression I'm living at her expenses.
I did game at someone else's expenses the past 2 days. A friend of mine got the 360 some time ago and passed me Battlefield 2 and Blazing Angels, the latter one he described as the worst buy he made this century, or something like that. BF2 is fun. I already have it on PC so it's chartered terrain for me, but chasing the achievements adds a new layer of polish. Doesn't take away the fact that I kind of suck, especially at the single player. I tried my hand at it, aced the first mission but kept on dying on the second. For some reason these shooters and I just don't match, even though I love those games.
But Blazing Angels....Man....That game is....not so good. Flying the planes is pretty easy and entertaining, but the mission design is completely off the chart...You make a test flight with a mechanic who happens to have gotten no permission to take the plane for a run. However, you and he get away with it and the odds have it that you immediately have to take down German planes. Ja! And zey have zis ztrange accent! Kinda like Schwarzenegger, but worse.
In any case, just because the flying is done alright I'll just ignore the voice-overs and the subtitling in Comic Sans and play some more this weekend.
You know what else changed over the past two weeks? The weather. It's raining now. Monsoon-like. It looks like it's autumn right now...That was one helluva short summer.
I deliberately did not update last week, because of the E3. I was thinking of sounding off, maybe even with a return of Week in Pictures, but I couldn't think of anything good to say. There's not a big chance I'll be getting a PS3....However, I know myself all too well and once I have the money I'll almost certainly give in. So I must make sure to not have money when November comes. Cannot be too hard.
UNO on Live Arcade is fun. I played over 200 games, unlocked every single achievement but keep returning to play with Gamespot people and folks I know from Dutch forums. It's the most social game I've played over the internet to date. If you're strapped for friends 400 bucks and 400 Marketplace points are the way to go to quickly gain a bunch of new buddies.
Pauline might get a new job a the National Tax Offices. She was approached by her boss last week, he was inquiring how she would feel about a job that's a little tougher on her. He couldn't promise anything, but he probably wouldn't approach her if she doesn't make the cut. Of course a better job means more money. I feel more and more like a leech every day. Even though she, my parents and friends keep telling me this is the way it is I keep feeling bad about it. I'm a student, I don't put full efforts in my studies and I live a nice life without too many worries while she's working her butt off 40 hours a week.
Especially the fact that Pauline said that we might get an HDTV when she gets promoted made me feel even worse. It's the thing I want most in this house right now, and with her paying almost fully for it...Well, I don't want to give the world the impression I'm living at her expenses.
I did game at someone else's expenses the past 2 days. A friend of mine got the 360 some time ago and passed me Battlefield 2 and Blazing Angels, the latter one he described as the worst buy he made this century, or something like that. BF2 is fun. I already have it on PC so it's chartered terrain for me, but chasing the achievements adds a new layer of polish. Doesn't take away the fact that I kind of suck, especially at the single player. I tried my hand at it, aced the first mission but kept on dying on the second. For some reason these shooters and I just don't match, even though I love those games.
But Blazing Angels....Man....That game is....not so good. Flying the planes is pretty easy and entertaining, but the mission design is completely off the chart...You make a test flight with a mechanic who happens to have gotten no permission to take the plane for a run. However, you and he get away with it and the odds have it that you immediately have to take down German planes. Ja! And zey have zis ztrange accent! Kinda like Schwarzenegger, but worse.
In any case, just because the flying is done alright I'll just ignore the voice-overs and the subtitling in Comic Sans and play some more this weekend.
You know what else changed over the past two weeks? The weather. It's raining now. Monsoon-like. It looks like it's autumn right now...That was one helluva short summer.
Summer Night City
by Mystikvm on Comments
Hot, Hot, Hot
Winter stayed for long this year, even in April we still had our shares of snow and lots, lots of rain. That's why summer hit me so hard this year. Last week we were freezing when Queen's Day (national holiday) was celebrated in rain and wind, and now we're sweating our butts off.
25 - 30 degrees Celsius. In May. That's absolutely hot, but I don't really care this year. Normally I like my springs temperate, a slow build-up to the warmer summer days, but since we had little to no spring this year anyway I'm liking the abrupt shift in weather types. The only problem is my new apartment. It's above a factory hall, which is out in the open, no trees surrounding it. This means that no matter what time of day it is, the sun is always burning on our roof. Thank God this place came equipped with two massive aircos, otherwise I'd now have molten. It's 30 degrees Celsius inside the house.
Still, I'm a summer person, hot houses or no. When people see me they often guess I'm a summer hater. I always wear dark shirts and long pants, but truth is I just don't like it when too many parts of my body are not clothed. However, when summer comes I enter the best time of year. It all has to do with the many great summers I had the past years.
Summers were where it was at for me and my friends. Summers are the long hot nights in front of the pub with something to drink while watching the passers-by and discussing facts of life and society in general. Not to mention the refreshment a quick thunderstorm can bring after a hot day. Summers are when we have the best talks, the nicest trips and when we spend the most time together. The weather just calls for it.
And everything is green. Green is good, especially since it smells so great when it's raining. I cannot describe the smell, if you've never noticed it, step outside on a hot day when it starts raining. That smell is what I mean. The feeling of biking around with no jacket on when the streetlights are reflecting in the wet streets at night....
I'm too nostalgic, I think. All the summers in the past years I have spent in this city. It's a pretty big city for Dutch standards (pop: 175,000) but I feel like I know every inch of it. Almost every part gives off a special vibe to me and reminds me of several ocassions when my friends were there. And as I've told you before, I always link it with certain kinds of music. Visiting those parts in this city by bike at those summer nights, rain or no rain is refreshing in itself. It feels like I'm revisiting my youth, especially when the right songs accompany me on me reminiscing trip. Yes, the fact that summer kicked in early this year can only mean good things. More great nights to spend outside, more reasons to not leave for bed early. I feel like a flower that's opening up after the dark and cold months that now lie behind me.
Hopefully you can welcome the sun in soon, too.
Winter stayed for long this year, even in April we still had our shares of snow and lots, lots of rain. That's why summer hit me so hard this year. Last week we were freezing when Queen's Day (national holiday) was celebrated in rain and wind, and now we're sweating our butts off.
25 - 30 degrees Celsius. In May. That's absolutely hot, but I don't really care this year. Normally I like my springs temperate, a slow build-up to the warmer summer days, but since we had little to no spring this year anyway I'm liking the abrupt shift in weather types. The only problem is my new apartment. It's above a factory hall, which is out in the open, no trees surrounding it. This means that no matter what time of day it is, the sun is always burning on our roof. Thank God this place came equipped with two massive aircos, otherwise I'd now have molten. It's 30 degrees Celsius inside the house.
Still, I'm a summer person, hot houses or no. When people see me they often guess I'm a summer hater. I always wear dark shirts and long pants, but truth is I just don't like it when too many parts of my body are not clothed. However, when summer comes I enter the best time of year. It all has to do with the many great summers I had the past years.
Summers were where it was at for me and my friends. Summers are the long hot nights in front of the pub with something to drink while watching the passers-by and discussing facts of life and society in general. Not to mention the refreshment a quick thunderstorm can bring after a hot day. Summers are when we have the best talks, the nicest trips and when we spend the most time together. The weather just calls for it.
And everything is green. Green is good, especially since it smells so great when it's raining. I cannot describe the smell, if you've never noticed it, step outside on a hot day when it starts raining. That smell is what I mean. The feeling of biking around with no jacket on when the streetlights are reflecting in the wet streets at night....
I'm too nostalgic, I think. All the summers in the past years I have spent in this city. It's a pretty big city for Dutch standards (pop: 175,000) but I feel like I know every inch of it. Almost every part gives off a special vibe to me and reminds me of several ocassions when my friends were there. And as I've told you before, I always link it with certain kinds of music. Visiting those parts in this city by bike at those summer nights, rain or no rain is refreshing in itself. It feels like I'm revisiting my youth, especially when the right songs accompany me on me reminiscing trip. Yes, the fact that summer kicked in early this year can only mean good things. More great nights to spend outside, more reasons to not leave for bed early. I feel like a flower that's opening up after the dark and cold months that now lie behind me.
Hopefully you can welcome the sun in soon, too.
Brother Love
by Mystikvm on Comments
You don't need to Wii to get into gaming
As you all might know I'm really into the Xbox 360. I'm advertising it to everybody. Not to the extent of a fanboy, I'm actually looking forward to the day I'll be able to afford a PS3 and the Wii is looking mighty interesting, even after recovering from its naming process. I just know after playing and spending lots of time with the machine that the 360 is one of the best consoles to ever hit the market. I own quite a lot of game consoles, but none of them has had me hooked to it for such a long time. Back when I got my NES I played it a lot, but not on a daily basis (if possible) like I do with the 360. The PS2 was a great novelty for me when I got it, but it wore off after 3 weeks or so when I played is just as regularly as I did with my other consoles. The 360 is a different story, it's not a novelty anymore, but it's still something which is able to surprise me with new demos, Arcade games and content. The experience doesn't stop after I stop playing a game, which is totally new to me.
My little brother is what you call a casual gamer who can get quite hardcore about his casual games. Where as most of his friends (he's turned 13 yesterday) play games like FIFA for 20 minutes a week, he can keep himself busy with such casual games for weeks on end. Because I didn't use my PS2 as much as I used to anymore since the arrival of the 360 I decided to borrow it to him. According to my mom he played it every single day. Surely the very same PS2 was also there when I still lived with my parents, but seeing how it was my property he didn't use it as much as he wanted to. Now that it was at his place, with me not being aroun to use it he could finally say that it was HIS console, even if he did borrow it from me.
Numerous times he's been over at my house, gazing at the 360. He always asked me to turn it on so that we could play. We had a few rounds of PGR3, beat each other up in DOA4 and then he would play Bejeweled 2, a game he loved on PC. He was delighted to see himself end up in the top 2500 after his first game at my place. He's had a troubled youth health-wise and he wasn't used to much, unfortunately, which makes him happy with even the smallest of things, even if it is a high spot in an online game.
However, the 360 was way out of his reach, he thought. He has a small job (paperboy) in the local community and he makes a bit of money. Combined with his savings account which he hasn't touched for 13 years he had amassed a lot of money, enough to buy a PS2, he reckoned. However, my mom and I advised him not to, if he wanted a long-lasting experience. Surely one can play the PS2 for many years to come, but I know how he's always staring at posters of new soccer games or major racing titles and how much he wants to play those. With support for the PS2 running on its last legs both my mom and I said that it might be wiser to take the jump into the next generation, so that he would have new games to play for the coming 6 years, and then some.
We might have raised him too well, as he dislikes to fork over huge amounts of money for something. Four hundred Euros IS a lot of money, especially for someone his age, but after hearing he could play with me online (we've become pretty close since I left my parents' place) try out almost every game and play these Arcade titles he became so tempted that he wanted one.
So last Saturday we bought the 360 at the local gaming store. A big moment for him, too. This would be his first major purchase, and his first very own gaming console. No more borrowing or kindly asking his brother for the Gamecube or PS2, and no more endless bartering with my older brother for a few minutes with the DS. This was HIS console. The joy of having his own machine with all the possiblities he's enjoyed at my place clearly justified the money in his eyes.
Yesterday was his birthday and Pauline and I would be coming over. My mom said that it would be best if I would hook up the console, I had done this before. Leaving that box untouched for a day was pretty hard for my brother, my mom told me he unpacked the box first thing Sunday morning (he had wisely occupied himself with other things the remainder of Saturday) and went over its contents multiple times, pointing out everything to all family entering the house to congratulate him on his birthday. It reminded me of myself when I first got my NES and later PlayStation.
In any case, when I arrived I got to work immediately. Normally I want to do things like computers and consoles on my own, but this was his purchase so I wanted him to help me out with cables and such. After 10 minutes we had set it up so we could fire up the machine.
I know my little brother all too well, and he has a relatively short attention span. He can keep himself occupied with something for 30 minutes, proceeds to do something else and then returns for another 30 minutes. He's extremely restless and I feared he would get bored of the new machine quickly to do something else. However, I've never seen him so occupied with something before. From the moment the machine was turned on he hasn't stopped playing it until 9 in the evening. Downloading, cleverly spending his Marketplace Points, checking out a few demos, playing Burnout online with me and my older brother (I had borrowed him that game) and of course enjoying the game he purchased himself.
He's an absolute soccer fanatic and wanted to have Football Manager 2006, especially since he knew I also had the game and we could play online together. Tomorrow we had our first few matches, and it's fun to hear him be so enthusiastic about winning a game from me and unlocking a few Gamerpoints.
And people who say that the Wii is necessary to get people into gaming...They're wrong. My mom and dad haven't touched a console since the NES days, when my father played and finished SMB3 in a marathon sitting, my mom went out of bed at night because she knew to solution to a puzzle in Lolo 3 and we played a golf game with the whole family using the multitap. After those days my mom occasionally plays a game on Yahoo equivalents, and my dad sometimes plays a wargame or fantasy MMORPGs on PC. But to say they are gamers....Not so much.
But the Xbox Live Arcade might change that, my mom already loved games like Bejeweled and Zuma, and Hexic is a pleasant surprise for her. My dad was already captivated by the Call of Duty 2 demo on my 360, so I might tell my brother to download it again for him so he might decide to buy the game somewhere in the future, and I'm sure that once my dad gets the hang of a game like Oblivion he won't let it go. I might introduce him to it in the future, seeing how he's already hooked on a game like Runescape. Oblivion is the same drill in single player, and more interesting too.
This is another good point about the 360. Ever since the NES days I've tried to get the family gathered around a console, but I always failed. There was little that really interested them, but the community options, Arcade games, demo downloads and online play of this machine seems to have piqued their interest. It's too bad I won't be there to have one of these old-school gaming nights with mom and dad and brothers we used to have years ago, but at least I can be there in spirit, using Xbox Live. Those who say the whole push on Microsoft's side to have this thing as a family machine is ridiculous....They need to reconsider. I don't think now that the intial awe has worn off my family will disregard the machine completely.
A point for Microsoft. Let's see if they can hold onto it.
As you all might know I'm really into the Xbox 360. I'm advertising it to everybody. Not to the extent of a fanboy, I'm actually looking forward to the day I'll be able to afford a PS3 and the Wii is looking mighty interesting, even after recovering from its naming process. I just know after playing and spending lots of time with the machine that the 360 is one of the best consoles to ever hit the market. I own quite a lot of game consoles, but none of them has had me hooked to it for such a long time. Back when I got my NES I played it a lot, but not on a daily basis (if possible) like I do with the 360. The PS2 was a great novelty for me when I got it, but it wore off after 3 weeks or so when I played is just as regularly as I did with my other consoles. The 360 is a different story, it's not a novelty anymore, but it's still something which is able to surprise me with new demos, Arcade games and content. The experience doesn't stop after I stop playing a game, which is totally new to me.
My little brother is what you call a casual gamer who can get quite hardcore about his casual games. Where as most of his friends (he's turned 13 yesterday) play games like FIFA for 20 minutes a week, he can keep himself busy with such casual games for weeks on end. Because I didn't use my PS2 as much as I used to anymore since the arrival of the 360 I decided to borrow it to him. According to my mom he played it every single day. Surely the very same PS2 was also there when I still lived with my parents, but seeing how it was my property he didn't use it as much as he wanted to. Now that it was at his place, with me not being aroun to use it he could finally say that it was HIS console, even if he did borrow it from me.
Numerous times he's been over at my house, gazing at the 360. He always asked me to turn it on so that we could play. We had a few rounds of PGR3, beat each other up in DOA4 and then he would play Bejeweled 2, a game he loved on PC. He was delighted to see himself end up in the top 2500 after his first game at my place. He's had a troubled youth health-wise and he wasn't used to much, unfortunately, which makes him happy with even the smallest of things, even if it is a high spot in an online game.
However, the 360 was way out of his reach, he thought. He has a small job (paperboy) in the local community and he makes a bit of money. Combined with his savings account which he hasn't touched for 13 years he had amassed a lot of money, enough to buy a PS2, he reckoned. However, my mom and I advised him not to, if he wanted a long-lasting experience. Surely one can play the PS2 for many years to come, but I know how he's always staring at posters of new soccer games or major racing titles and how much he wants to play those. With support for the PS2 running on its last legs both my mom and I said that it might be wiser to take the jump into the next generation, so that he would have new games to play for the coming 6 years, and then some.
We might have raised him too well, as he dislikes to fork over huge amounts of money for something. Four hundred Euros IS a lot of money, especially for someone his age, but after hearing he could play with me online (we've become pretty close since I left my parents' place) try out almost every game and play these Arcade titles he became so tempted that he wanted one.
So last Saturday we bought the 360 at the local gaming store. A big moment for him, too. This would be his first major purchase, and his first very own gaming console. No more borrowing or kindly asking his brother for the Gamecube or PS2, and no more endless bartering with my older brother for a few minutes with the DS. This was HIS console. The joy of having his own machine with all the possiblities he's enjoyed at my place clearly justified the money in his eyes.
Yesterday was his birthday and Pauline and I would be coming over. My mom said that it would be best if I would hook up the console, I had done this before. Leaving that box untouched for a day was pretty hard for my brother, my mom told me he unpacked the box first thing Sunday morning (he had wisely occupied himself with other things the remainder of Saturday) and went over its contents multiple times, pointing out everything to all family entering the house to congratulate him on his birthday. It reminded me of myself when I first got my NES and later PlayStation.
In any case, when I arrived I got to work immediately. Normally I want to do things like computers and consoles on my own, but this was his purchase so I wanted him to help me out with cables and such. After 10 minutes we had set it up so we could fire up the machine.
I know my little brother all too well, and he has a relatively short attention span. He can keep himself occupied with something for 30 minutes, proceeds to do something else and then returns for another 30 minutes. He's extremely restless and I feared he would get bored of the new machine quickly to do something else. However, I've never seen him so occupied with something before. From the moment the machine was turned on he hasn't stopped playing it until 9 in the evening. Downloading, cleverly spending his Marketplace Points, checking out a few demos, playing Burnout online with me and my older brother (I had borrowed him that game) and of course enjoying the game he purchased himself.
He's an absolute soccer fanatic and wanted to have Football Manager 2006, especially since he knew I also had the game and we could play online together. Tomorrow we had our first few matches, and it's fun to hear him be so enthusiastic about winning a game from me and unlocking a few Gamerpoints.
And people who say that the Wii is necessary to get people into gaming...They're wrong. My mom and dad haven't touched a console since the NES days, when my father played and finished SMB3 in a marathon sitting, my mom went out of bed at night because she knew to solution to a puzzle in Lolo 3 and we played a golf game with the whole family using the multitap. After those days my mom occasionally plays a game on Yahoo equivalents, and my dad sometimes plays a wargame or fantasy MMORPGs on PC. But to say they are gamers....Not so much.
But the Xbox Live Arcade might change that, my mom already loved games like Bejeweled and Zuma, and Hexic is a pleasant surprise for her. My dad was already captivated by the Call of Duty 2 demo on my 360, so I might tell my brother to download it again for him so he might decide to buy the game somewhere in the future, and I'm sure that once my dad gets the hang of a game like Oblivion he won't let it go. I might introduce him to it in the future, seeing how he's already hooked on a game like Runescape. Oblivion is the same drill in single player, and more interesting too.
This is another good point about the 360. Ever since the NES days I've tried to get the family gathered around a console, but I always failed. There was little that really interested them, but the community options, Arcade games, demo downloads and online play of this machine seems to have piqued their interest. It's too bad I won't be there to have one of these old-school gaming nights with mom and dad and brothers we used to have years ago, but at least I can be there in spirit, using Xbox Live. Those who say the whole push on Microsoft's side to have this thing as a family machine is ridiculous....They need to reconsider. I don't think now that the intial awe has worn off my family will disregard the machine completely.
A point for Microsoft. Let's see if they can hold onto it.
Football
by Mystikvm on Comments
I'm talking the REAL football here. You know, with feet.
But for simplicity's sake, I'll keep it at soccer. I'm not really a soccer aficionado, I just like to watch a good game of sweaty millionaires going at it on the green pitch from time to time. I've never really loved soccer games, except for the occasional round of Pro Evolution Soccer (Winning Eleven) and I don't even play the real game. I used to, though, but I quit when I was six. I loved the game, but hated practice.
But if there's one type of soccer game that can captivate me like the city zoo can captivate a 5 year old, it's soccer management and its inherent addictiveness. And so Football Manager 2006 for Xbox 360 is available in stores since last week and I got it immediately. You might wonder why I'm not getting this game for PC as it's undoubtly more convenient to click through to menus with a mouse rather than with a controller. Well, this game is so insanely complex and huge that it bogs your computer if you run more than half a league. Not to mention the frequent crashes because your system cannot churn it. I remember playing last year's edition on my 3.2 GHz Athlon 64bit with 1 GB of RAM and it still took more than 3 minutes to just load up a game.
You could blame the game. However, there's nothing wrong with a game trying to be too perfect. This game is perfect, too perfect almost, especially for the soccer fanatic. Here's the deal. You start a game and take control of a club in any of the world's major leagues, and almost all countries, all the way from the US to Japan are present. Your goal? Be successful. Wrestle with the line-up, try to get them to rank up there, or if you're up for challenges, lead a team that's always been a relegation candidate up to the world's best. Of course the ultimate goal is to try to win the World Cup with a national team.
This complexity hasn't been translated to consoles previously, because they lacked processing power. That's precisely something the 360 has aplenty, and that's exactly why you get the same game the PC has, and it even runs smoother than on many systems. The fun thing is that, apart from the massive amounts of data the console is squeezing out every minute, this game is completely bare bones. There are no graphics, there is no sound. It's just you and massive amounts of text and data to make something out of. Go for micro-management, or just let your 'assistants' do most of the job. The biggest let-down? Controls. Some of the menus feel awkward and it will take you quite some time getting used to flipping through the pages and menus.
It's too bad that it's not available in the US, at least the console version is not. However, I know some of you are soccer fans (Coleman?) and you might give this a shot if you're into things like fantasy football and know a little bit about soccer. The game is region-free and easy to import from a good number of websites, so it will run on US consoles.
What's also funny of that every region seems to have its own kind of game that's able to move millions of copies. Japanese have their quirky RPGs and dating sims, Americans have Madden and the endless other football spin-offs, and Europeans have soccer management.
But for simplicity's sake, I'll keep it at soccer. I'm not really a soccer aficionado, I just like to watch a good game of sweaty millionaires going at it on the green pitch from time to time. I've never really loved soccer games, except for the occasional round of Pro Evolution Soccer (Winning Eleven) and I don't even play the real game. I used to, though, but I quit when I was six. I loved the game, but hated practice.
But if there's one type of soccer game that can captivate me like the city zoo can captivate a 5 year old, it's soccer management and its inherent addictiveness. And so Football Manager 2006 for Xbox 360 is available in stores since last week and I got it immediately. You might wonder why I'm not getting this game for PC as it's undoubtly more convenient to click through to menus with a mouse rather than with a controller. Well, this game is so insanely complex and huge that it bogs your computer if you run more than half a league. Not to mention the frequent crashes because your system cannot churn it. I remember playing last year's edition on my 3.2 GHz Athlon 64bit with 1 GB of RAM and it still took more than 3 minutes to just load up a game.
You could blame the game. However, there's nothing wrong with a game trying to be too perfect. This game is perfect, too perfect almost, especially for the soccer fanatic. Here's the deal. You start a game and take control of a club in any of the world's major leagues, and almost all countries, all the way from the US to Japan are present. Your goal? Be successful. Wrestle with the line-up, try to get them to rank up there, or if you're up for challenges, lead a team that's always been a relegation candidate up to the world's best. Of course the ultimate goal is to try to win the World Cup with a national team.
This complexity hasn't been translated to consoles previously, because they lacked processing power. That's precisely something the 360 has aplenty, and that's exactly why you get the same game the PC has, and it even runs smoother than on many systems. The fun thing is that, apart from the massive amounts of data the console is squeezing out every minute, this game is completely bare bones. There are no graphics, there is no sound. It's just you and massive amounts of text and data to make something out of. Go for micro-management, or just let your 'assistants' do most of the job. The biggest let-down? Controls. Some of the menus feel awkward and it will take you quite some time getting used to flipping through the pages and menus.
It's too bad that it's not available in the US, at least the console version is not. However, I know some of you are soccer fans (Coleman?) and you might give this a shot if you're into things like fantasy football and know a little bit about soccer. The game is region-free and easy to import from a good number of websites, so it will run on US consoles.
What's also funny of that every region seems to have its own kind of game that's able to move millions of copies. Japanese have their quirky RPGs and dating sims, Americans have Madden and the endless other football spin-offs, and Europeans have soccer management.
Bread, Butter and Burnout
by Mystikvm on Comments
Imbalance
Before I start off raving, and ranting, about Burnout: Revenge I must point you to an article which was very fun for me to read. Clickez ici sil-vous-plaît. Nothing special, you'd say, apart from the fact that at the bottom of the article, amidst of all those European cities everyone has heard of is my town. Yes, that Dutch city. What's even more ironic is that I know how incredibly dull and small this city looks compared to the others, and how extremely not centrally it is situated. This must be the first time my town got featured on GS, though.
Enfin, last week I delivered on the promise I had made to myself to buy Burnout: Revenge. I bought it and I'm enjoying it....on and off. The thing is, I'm very good at Burnout, or that's what I'm telling myself at least. The game is hellishly easy. Every event I blaze through and I'm perfecting it in one try. Maybe two or three at best if I get unlucky for some reason. However, the Burning Lap and Preview events they put in the game...Those are insanely hard.
In these events you have to race against the clock. The clock has been set rather sharply in order to perfect the events with a gold medal, though. In fact, you have to boost all the way over the track, get all the shortcuts and you're not allowed to crash in the process. A lot of these events take me well over an hour to perfect....Of course I'm not settling for silver medals. It's pretty tough to know that of the 6 or 7 hours I've invested in the game so far more than 5 have been dedicated to these two types of events. Gah.
Good Nutrition
Apart from gaming and smoking I have another, rather unusual addiction. It's bread. Yes, the sometimes swampy and damp slices of dough and grain.
I've been told that in the US (and practically the rest of the world) you can choose out of three or four kinds of bread. All of my friends who've been abroad complain about how little choice you have when it comes to bread. One thing that I like about supermarkets here is that a good supermarket lets you choose out of 30+ types of bread. There's the common bread, white bread, dark bread, dark bread with extra grains, bread with corn, bread with sunflower seeds, bread with dark seeds, bread with sundried tomatoes and garlic, sugared bread, bread with raisins, black bread (completely made of rye), bread with cocunut, bread with some flour still on it, almond bread....I could go on and on.
I like all of them, but mostly I prefer the darker kinds of bread, especially since white and common bread have low nutritional value. Darker bread is chockfull of grains. It's also typically Dutch (and very much like me, too) to put all kinds of things on bread. Meat, fish, cheese, chocolate sprinkles, sometimes even cookies etc. etc.
Well, I'm absolutely addicted to this stuff. I eat 4 to 5 times a day. Bread in the morning, bread in the afternoon (often twice), dinner at night and late at night more bread. In case you're wondering where the variation is: With so many different kinds of bread there's a world of variation.
And saying that gamers live unhealthy is not true. At least, I'm not. I know most people prefer Coca Cola (yes, I'm in the Coca Cola camp, I hate Pepsi) and a bag of salts while gaming, but I've been at the point where I discarded my bag of salts to make myself some bread with apple juice more than once now.
Bread is my fuel. I love it.
Before I start off raving, and ranting, about Burnout: Revenge I must point you to an article which was very fun for me to read. Clickez ici sil-vous-plaît. Nothing special, you'd say, apart from the fact that at the bottom of the article, amidst of all those European cities everyone has heard of is my town. Yes, that Dutch city. What's even more ironic is that I know how incredibly dull and small this city looks compared to the others, and how extremely not centrally it is situated. This must be the first time my town got featured on GS, though.
Enfin, last week I delivered on the promise I had made to myself to buy Burnout: Revenge. I bought it and I'm enjoying it....on and off. The thing is, I'm very good at Burnout, or that's what I'm telling myself at least. The game is hellishly easy. Every event I blaze through and I'm perfecting it in one try. Maybe two or three at best if I get unlucky for some reason. However, the Burning Lap and Preview events they put in the game...Those are insanely hard.
In these events you have to race against the clock. The clock has been set rather sharply in order to perfect the events with a gold medal, though. In fact, you have to boost all the way over the track, get all the shortcuts and you're not allowed to crash in the process. A lot of these events take me well over an hour to perfect....Of course I'm not settling for silver medals. It's pretty tough to know that of the 6 or 7 hours I've invested in the game so far more than 5 have been dedicated to these two types of events. Gah.
Good Nutrition
Apart from gaming and smoking I have another, rather unusual addiction. It's bread. Yes, the sometimes swampy and damp slices of dough and grain.
I've been told that in the US (and practically the rest of the world) you can choose out of three or four kinds of bread. All of my friends who've been abroad complain about how little choice you have when it comes to bread. One thing that I like about supermarkets here is that a good supermarket lets you choose out of 30+ types of bread. There's the common bread, white bread, dark bread, dark bread with extra grains, bread with corn, bread with sunflower seeds, bread with dark seeds, bread with sundried tomatoes and garlic, sugared bread, bread with raisins, black bread (completely made of rye), bread with cocunut, bread with some flour still on it, almond bread....I could go on and on.
I like all of them, but mostly I prefer the darker kinds of bread, especially since white and common bread have low nutritional value. Darker bread is chockfull of grains. It's also typically Dutch (and very much like me, too) to put all kinds of things on bread. Meat, fish, cheese, chocolate sprinkles, sometimes even cookies etc. etc.
Well, I'm absolutely addicted to this stuff. I eat 4 to 5 times a day. Bread in the morning, bread in the afternoon (often twice), dinner at night and late at night more bread. In case you're wondering where the variation is: With so many different kinds of bread there's a world of variation.
And saying that gamers live unhealthy is not true. At least, I'm not. I know most people prefer Coca Cola (yes, I'm in the Coca Cola camp, I hate Pepsi) and a bag of salts while gaming, but I've been at the point where I discarded my bag of salts to make myself some bread with apple juice more than once now.
Bread is my fuel. I love it.
Back From Oblivion
by Mystikvm on Comments
Well, sort of...
Wondering where the silence in this journal came from? Blame Oblivion. Anyway, a week after its impact I'm with both feet on the ground again. I've poured in 45 hours so far and I'm far from done. But the novelty is slowly wearing off and I'm putting in more reasonable amounts of time again. Besides, slowly I'm looking forward to playing other games. But I bet that Oblivion will be in my 360 for a long time to come.
One of my best friends also got a 360 last Saturday, and he got Oblivion with it. This is a premiere for me, more or less. This is the first time one of my close friends has bought a console (apart from the PSX a friend and I bought last summer...he now has a GC too but he's in Canada). Yes, my friends are all die-hard PC gamers, unfortunately. I don't think PC games are bad, absolutely not, but PC gamers only look at two or three genres and the rest doesn't seem to exist in their realm. It's nice to know at least one of my friends stepped out of that habit.
Pauline and I bought Pauline's mom's laptop. She was getting a new one for her work so we could take over this one for a sweet price. It's a nice thing, really. 2.4 GHz, in good shape and it works pretty neatly. We got it because very often either I or Pauline would have to request the other to leave the computer because we had pressing matters to take care of on the PC. That ends now.
We also did a lot of work in house over the past two weeks. We now finally have curtains, we fixed some lights in house and most importantly, we set up the satellite receiver. It was quite a hassle because we had to go up on the roof in the cold for a few hours to get everything in place, but we can watch TV now. It's taken 6 (!!!) months for us to finally be able to watch some decent television. I'm loving it, I hate it to say TV is important to me, but I was surely missing it when it wasn't there.
Tonight Pauline and I will be going clothes shopping. Seeing how I got 250 Euros back from my health insurance (no-claim) I might pick up Burnout: Revenge tonight. I've been looking forward to that game for a long time now, might as well get it.
Wondering where the silence in this journal came from? Blame Oblivion. Anyway, a week after its impact I'm with both feet on the ground again. I've poured in 45 hours so far and I'm far from done. But the novelty is slowly wearing off and I'm putting in more reasonable amounts of time again. Besides, slowly I'm looking forward to playing other games. But I bet that Oblivion will be in my 360 for a long time to come.
One of my best friends also got a 360 last Saturday, and he got Oblivion with it. This is a premiere for me, more or less. This is the first time one of my close friends has bought a console (apart from the PSX a friend and I bought last summer...he now has a GC too but he's in Canada). Yes, my friends are all die-hard PC gamers, unfortunately. I don't think PC games are bad, absolutely not, but PC gamers only look at two or three genres and the rest doesn't seem to exist in their realm. It's nice to know at least one of my friends stepped out of that habit.
Pauline and I bought Pauline's mom's laptop. She was getting a new one for her work so we could take over this one for a sweet price. It's a nice thing, really. 2.4 GHz, in good shape and it works pretty neatly. We got it because very often either I or Pauline would have to request the other to leave the computer because we had pressing matters to take care of on the PC. That ends now.
We also did a lot of work in house over the past two weeks. We now finally have curtains, we fixed some lights in house and most importantly, we set up the satellite receiver. It was quite a hassle because we had to go up on the roof in the cold for a few hours to get everything in place, but we can watch TV now. It's taken 6 (!!!) months for us to finally be able to watch some decent television. I'm loving it, I hate it to say TV is important to me, but I was surely missing it when it wasn't there.
Tonight Pauline and I will be going clothes shopping. Seeing how I got 250 Euros back from my health insurance (no-claim) I might pick up Burnout: Revenge tonight. I've been looking forward to that game for a long time now, might as well get it.
Blind Spell
by Mystikvm on Comments
And a bunch of animals and fish
I'm blind. Well, practically. For the next 24 hours even.
I wear contacts. My eyes aren't extremely bad, but they are far from good. I see about 5-10 ft. very sharply, and all that's farther away gets a little fuzzy. It's enough to partake in the joys of life, but things that require intensive sight are hard to pull off. Reading, using the computer, playing games etc. etc. are tough.
Contacts need to be polished from time to time. Once every two years or so slowly my contacts become a little fuzzier, when I bring them to the store they fix 'em for me and I'm good to go for another two annums. So I did the same thing today. However, this time it'll take longer. I'm originally from a small town where there aren't many people wearing contacts. Whenever they polished my contacts it was done within the hour. I just dropped them off, took a short walk around the block and got them back again. In this bigger city it takes longer. Over a day, tomorrow at 11 am they will be done.
So I can't watch TV, can't play the consoles, I have a hard time using the computer and reading is also tough. I might try the DS later today, otherwise I just have to sleep a lot today.
Speaking of that DS, Pauline picked up Animal Crossing last week. Darn, that game is so much fun. Even though we haven't got the Wi-Fi functionality up and running yet, offline this game has so much to offer...I find myself checking our village two to three times a day or so just to please our neighbours and get new stuff. Stuff is good. The bad thing about this game is that we have 2 DS'es, but only one cart. And Pauline takes her DS with her to work every day. And seeing how she payed for the game she has every right to take the game with her too....Darn it.
On 360 I purchased Feeding Frenzy online. I heard GS complain about a lack of lasting value. That is true, but I don't really care about that. I just want something I can blaze through. Well, I'm up to the last level already and I must say it's a fun little game. It does get a little repetitive after such a long time, but eating remains fun. It's quite thrilling too, trying to avoid the bigger fish.
The biggest problem of this game is stuff you don't see. Bigger fish come from the side and will scoop you up instantly, before they have even entered the screen should you be hanging out at the edgrs. That is frustrating. Extremely frustrating. But for the most part it is fun, even though I stil ldon't see how someone can rake up immense scores in this game...The flaws will prevent you from doing so, I think.
I'm blind. Well, practically. For the next 24 hours even.
I wear contacts. My eyes aren't extremely bad, but they are far from good. I see about 5-10 ft. very sharply, and all that's farther away gets a little fuzzy. It's enough to partake in the joys of life, but things that require intensive sight are hard to pull off. Reading, using the computer, playing games etc. etc. are tough.
Contacts need to be polished from time to time. Once every two years or so slowly my contacts become a little fuzzier, when I bring them to the store they fix 'em for me and I'm good to go for another two annums. So I did the same thing today. However, this time it'll take longer. I'm originally from a small town where there aren't many people wearing contacts. Whenever they polished my contacts it was done within the hour. I just dropped them off, took a short walk around the block and got them back again. In this bigger city it takes longer. Over a day, tomorrow at 11 am they will be done.
So I can't watch TV, can't play the consoles, I have a hard time using the computer and reading is also tough. I might try the DS later today, otherwise I just have to sleep a lot today.
Speaking of that DS, Pauline picked up Animal Crossing last week. Darn, that game is so much fun. Even though we haven't got the Wi-Fi functionality up and running yet, offline this game has so much to offer...I find myself checking our village two to three times a day or so just to please our neighbours and get new stuff. Stuff is good. The bad thing about this game is that we have 2 DS'es, but only one cart. And Pauline takes her DS with her to work every day. And seeing how she payed for the game she has every right to take the game with her too....Darn it.
On 360 I purchased Feeding Frenzy online. I heard GS complain about a lack of lasting value. That is true, but I don't really care about that. I just want something I can blaze through. Well, I'm up to the last level already and I must say it's a fun little game. It does get a little repetitive after such a long time, but eating remains fun. It's quite thrilling too, trying to avoid the bigger fish.
The biggest problem of this game is stuff you don't see. Bigger fish come from the side and will scoop you up instantly, before they have even entered the screen should you be hanging out at the edgrs. That is frustrating. Extremely frustrating. But for the most part it is fun, even though I stil ldon't see how someone can rake up immense scores in this game...The flaws will prevent you from doing so, I think.
Ghost Sightings
by Mystikvm on Comments
Ghost Recon: Short Impressions
Some real short impressions as I'm stuck on a frustrating part in the SP-campaign and I do not want that to blur my final judgment.
I was supposed to be getting Burnout: Revenge, but instead I chose to join the online fray with this game as it seems that half the world is going crazy over it. Rightfully so as the game looks stunning, plays very accurately (only the teammates in the US military will be awfully stupid when 2013 comes...let's hope world peace is achieved by then) and is a thrilling ride.
There's little wrong with this game, it's just my type of shooter. Sneak and advance, block by block, taking your time to scan the perimeter. Which brings me to the frustrating part.
When sneaking you barely take any hits, if you execute it well. Should you take one it's nothing to worry about. But what when you are in the red, out of bullets on your automatic rifle and all you have left is a darned pistol while things get really hectic (especially for Ghost Recon standards). Then you are getting fried. Not once, but multiple times. Suppose you're not getting fried. Then you're stuck with the next small annoyance: Getting to the waypoints on your HUD. While arrows work well, too many of them makes the edges of the screen cluttered, and on top of that I'm colorblind and cannot distinguish green (your friends) from yellow (your waypoint). When the things are still heated up all I can do is run around in panic, hoping to find some kind of back door in the dark (I'm also blind in the dark....how visually handicapped I am) to get the heck out of there.
But I have to be fair. Even though it's crippling me in particular, with the game itself is nothing wrong, especially not when you get a bunch of friends together and jump into the online mode. That is where the fun is at. While the typical shooter modes like Deathmatch and King of the Hill are good fleshed out Ghost Recon versions of the same old tricks, where the fun is at is of course the 16-player Co-op missions. It can get extremely crazy over your headset, people handing out orders all at the same time, sometimes resulting in a massive failure, while at other times succeeding without knowing how, or with the help of one particularly skilled teammate. Too bad it's precisely this mode that's still a little buggy, but when this gets fixed we have a killer on our hands, if we already hadn't.
Now I'll just try to get past the frustrating part...I haven't had enough of the game yet, so I hope it lets me.
Some real short impressions as I'm stuck on a frustrating part in the SP-campaign and I do not want that to blur my final judgment.
I was supposed to be getting Burnout: Revenge, but instead I chose to join the online fray with this game as it seems that half the world is going crazy over it. Rightfully so as the game looks stunning, plays very accurately (only the teammates in the US military will be awfully stupid when 2013 comes...let's hope world peace is achieved by then) and is a thrilling ride.
There's little wrong with this game, it's just my type of shooter. Sneak and advance, block by block, taking your time to scan the perimeter. Which brings me to the frustrating part.
When sneaking you barely take any hits, if you execute it well. Should you take one it's nothing to worry about. But what when you are in the red, out of bullets on your automatic rifle and all you have left is a darned pistol while things get really hectic (especially for Ghost Recon standards). Then you are getting fried. Not once, but multiple times. Suppose you're not getting fried. Then you're stuck with the next small annoyance: Getting to the waypoints on your HUD. While arrows work well, too many of them makes the edges of the screen cluttered, and on top of that I'm colorblind and cannot distinguish green (your friends) from yellow (your waypoint). When the things are still heated up all I can do is run around in panic, hoping to find some kind of back door in the dark (I'm also blind in the dark....how visually handicapped I am) to get the heck out of there.
But I have to be fair. Even though it's crippling me in particular, with the game itself is nothing wrong, especially not when you get a bunch of friends together and jump into the online mode. That is where the fun is at. While the typical shooter modes like Deathmatch and King of the Hill are good fleshed out Ghost Recon versions of the same old tricks, where the fun is at is of course the 16-player Co-op missions. It can get extremely crazy over your headset, people handing out orders all at the same time, sometimes resulting in a massive failure, while at other times succeeding without knowing how, or with the help of one particularly skilled teammate. Too bad it's precisely this mode that's still a little buggy, but when this gets fixed we have a killer on our hands, if we already hadn't.
Now I'll just try to get past the frustrating part...I haven't had enough of the game yet, so I hope it lets me.
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