I'm not going to update my profile until I have time to do it properly.
The Cable dude came by today so that's pretty much all I did. We have been having a problem with the sound on ABC for about a month so we finally got around to calling last week. The dude was cool and did a lot of work but no joy. He checked all the lines and put new connectors on everything but the problem still persists. Next step is (whenever we call back that is) they will run a new line from the pole. It was really windy today so I didn't pressure him to do that and personally I don't think it's going to fix the problem anyway.
I spent the day finishing a video game so I'll cut in my gamming blog here.
I finished Uncharted today...
If you don't count Portal... this is the first pure PS3 game I have played all the way through to the credits. I got bored with Assassins Creed although I plan to finish it this week.
Uncharted: Drakes Fortune was a good story. Very old school and entertaining. The gameplay... not so much. Visually stunning? I don't think I would go that far. They traded brown for green and I like that look a lot better. Uncharted is to Assassins Creed what Far Cry is to Call of Duty and I much prefer the vibrant colors to the blah. Over all graphics in all those games is roughly the same and I understand that the war setting should be more drab but then again it's a video game not a simulation. R6 Vegas had the opportunity to change that and was very conservative. They went with red instead of brown with mixed results IMHO. So far I'm still very under whelmed with the PS3. When I get it hooked up to HD it might be more impressive but I seriously doubt it's going to measure up to my laptop, let alone my almost 2 year old gaming rig.
Uncharted is a very good game but not without flaws. Many animations are quirky and it's possible to get stuck behind scenery. Invoking very strange actions such as standing on one leg as if balancing on any edge no matter how high you are is only amusing the first couple of times. More often or not it will cause some error resulting in injury or even death depending on what's going on at the moment. When your trying to move around and figure out where to go, having things and places you sometimes can and sometimes cannot traverse but look exactly the same gets frustrating. It was not horribly annoying but noticeable non the less. It's especially annoying because hidden items are truly hidden and can only be found by a slow flashing light that represents their location. So, your constantly trying to go places you cannot because these are the areas that items can be found. The problem is you can only climb that ledge or squeeze behind that wall if an item is there. It felt very unfair and so I'm going to use a guide to find the ten or so out of sixty items I did not find even after spending several extra frustrating hours on my first run through.
The game is completely linear and tedious searching of every corner for items and ammo is as close to exploration as your going to get. Another thing that was very frustrating is the shooting. In the making of the game video (unlocked for finishing the game) the players targeting rectal clearly changes to red when it's on a target however, this does not happen in the game. It makes getting head shots pure luck unless you have plenty of time to line up your shot and are reasonably close. The other problem with shooting is that very few guns will take down an enemy unless you get that elusive head shot. The entire game is scripted and that's not such a bad thing here because the script is very well done. If you let the game take you where it wants you to go it's quite fun and you do get a sense of adventuring, ala Indiana Jones. The platforming is a lot of fun and really seems like the vision that the makers of pitfall had in their minds when they made that cIassic over Twenty-five years ago. Those portions of the game (and there are a lot of them) are extremely entertaining.
My first play through was a little over fifteen hours and I'm sure would have been around ten if I had not spent so much time wandering around. I'm sure this second run through will be more in the eight to ten hour range. I'm still getting used to shooting with the controller so I wont be rushing.
On that note I've improved quite a bit. Portal was the perfect game to teach the subtleties of right stick look left stick move basic skills. I still enjoy the mouse and keyboard more but at least on the PS3 shooters are becoming less tedious. I think I'm ready to tackle MGS4 but most likely I will play HL2 episode one or Stranglehold first and save the best for later. I've been playing God of War II a little and thought I would run it right through like I did the first one but so far hasn't gotten my juices going.
That's it for today and not much going on tomorrow either, just some packing and maybe get off my butt and go to the gym.
Just a quick blog to wish everyone a joyous and safe Independence Day.
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