Well I finished up Def Jam Fight for NY on PS2 :|

I don't think I will be spoiling anything by saying the story has a less then satisfying ending. The SP game was cool and running along nicely and you could tell it was building to the end so I'm not totally disappointed, it was a fun game.
[spoiler] Yes in the end of the game you get the girl and if you do things right you get to commit murder. Interestingly its possible to not actually do the crime and finish the game but the KO'd boss's body will miraculously appear where it should be if you had killed him how you were supposed too. The problem is it's no more spectacular then a really well done and framed Knock Out in the regular game and that's it,the end. You hear the cops and the credits roll. [/spoiler]

The fighting system is pretty cool and easy to pick up. Your locked into certain $tyle once you pick them so there are many ways to fight. I only tried 2 and ended up doing the last 1/3 of the game with a Street Fighter trained in Wrestling. When you add a $tyle it changes some of the things your fighter does including what type of strong punch you use so I did not add a third $tyle I think this made the end portion of the game easier because it went fast. It has an M rating but some of the songs are still bleeped and no nudity although Carmen Electra sure isn't wearing much, its no less then she had on at the Spike's Guy's Choice Awards. The sex and nudity in God of War seemed as if it was just tacked on. Almost as if the developer said well, we're going to get an M rating anyway we might as well make sure.

I still cant believe I knocked out two games in such a short time. I never do that. :)

No! I'm not talking about BioShock. I'm talking about the fact that the next best thing to nothing is back, Me!
Lets blog shall we.

I have been busy but I have been gamming of course, in fact more then usual. As soon as I finish writing this I'm going back to playing God of War. I should have it finished today. I wanted to buy God of War II and decided that if that game was as great as everyone says I better play the first one so I don't miss one little bit of the goodie goodness everyone is slobbering about. Since God of War (1) got great reviews, nominated for best in show@ E3 2004 and game of the year 2005 it wasn't exactly a big risk buying it. I think I will make it my first game review so I can get rid of that stupid "SleepyByte has contributed nothing" crap on my GameSpot contributions link. I don't think I will have time to play God of War II this trip so it will be nice to know I have that waiting for me in the future. I have spent most of August in the Rockies with my sweetie and I have been giving the kids PS2 a work out. I go home in a couple of weeks.

I have kinda put my PC gaming on the shelf although I have my laptop with me and everything I'm playing loaded but the PS2 has managed to keep my attention. On the PC side I downloaded the massive F.E.A.R. patch and that will be the next game I start. I still have R6 Vegas, COD to finish. I might do the COD United Offensive expansion before I start F.E.A.R. but I'm ready for a combat $tyle change in my shooter de jure. My previous shooter was Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and I think I will probably keep that simple rotation. I have plenty of games waiting in the wings to play. There will be no shortage of things to play later but for now I'm playing the PS2 while I can. I'm going to go back to playing but the next blog entry should be soon.

Well July's blog might be a little delayed cause I'm seriously not in the mood for writing at the moment.

I lost a filling a few months ago (probably more like six months ago) and never did anything about it so I paid the price this week. It got infected and just for good measure the one above it was jacked up too so yesterday it was off for a fun filled day at the oral surgeon I go. Now the good thing about going to an oral surgeon rather then the dentist is you get knocked out cold, cant feel and don't remember a thing. The bad thing about that is they could be punching you in the money zone and you would never know until it hurt like hell a few hours after you got home. There is no need for the surgeon to be gentle and they defiantly aren't, I feel like I got smacked in the jaw with a shovel then poked with a pencil a few times in various places just for good measure. Anyway, if your teeth are jacked up get em fixed even if they don't hurt right now. THEY WILL!!

I just don't feel like writing about games right now, I don't even feel like playing Rainbow Six......... yes it's that bad..... Maybe after I feel a little better I'll knock something out but don't be surprised if July's entry is skipped all together.

:cry:

I ment to have this done and up yesterday but I got busy :|

War. War never changes.

For starters it wasint the fans fault it was Bethsofts for not expecting a massive turnout.
The buzz about Fallout 3 started a while back in 2004 when Bethesda Studios purchased the rights to the well known RPG from Interplay. Until that point fans thought all hope was lost because Interplay was hurting and probably going out of business. Truth be known Bethsoft probably would have kept the lid on it if they could but because of legal reasons they could not hide the fact that they purchased the title and of course why spend 6 million dollars for something your not going to use. For the full skinnie on Fallout check out the No mutants allowed website. Fast forward 2 years............

It all started about a month ago with a countdown time timer and some conceptartwork that when clicked on lead to the forum.All hell broke loose just after 3 am PST yesterday when the counter ran out. Actually people in Crackcanastan who are +13GMT started whining a full day before but everyone assumed the teaser would be up at the start of business Eastern Standard Time. Well of course they were wrong and it ended up being more like the after coffee and a doughnut West Coast time. The video went up around 11am EST. but not before the inpatient fans had crashed the Bethsoft server several times. The first crash was around 4 am EST. Twenty "waiting for the video" threads opened and closed before the clip was finally put up. At times the number people on the board (that also services TES/Oblivion fans) topped 5000 with over 2000 of them viewing the one thread (600 or so unregistered guests) and a staggering 20 posts per minuet. That was ten times normal amount of users and broke the board record for members online at one time several times. This proved to be more then the Bethsoft server could handle and all there web sites crashed and still appear to be wounded although the dreaded "Cannot Find Server" seems to happen less frequently now that the initial surge has passed. Bethy should have expected this kind of turn out from such a loyal fan base like the Fallout community. Ultimately having the artwork site (where the teaser is now) link to the forum site when clicked proved to be a bad idea. People saw the little hand pop up showing that the photo was a link and assumed clicking on famous sepia tone TV test pattern from the beginning of the original Fallout game would start the teaser clip. Ooops... When users arrived at the forum they started clicking around looking for answers and it could not handle the load .

The teaser of course showed nothing of the game and was just a trailer like the ones we have all seen before here on games spot, at E3 and on TV for Gears of War Halo2 and the like, it's unlikely any game play footage will be shown before next year.

What will the game be like? Youcan visit the Bethsoft forum if you wanna talk about it but the truth is.......nobody really knows how its going to turn out or even the basics of thegame play mechanics will be. Everyone is afraid it will be Oblivion with guns and the old school fans cringe at that idea. I'm staying out of the debate for now. War never changes, but for better or worse the game obviously will. I hope it's a good game.

Man o man how annoying is this.

I got the new DVD of Hannibal Rising on Tuesday. It cost about 22 bucks pre order and the movie was pretty good. Now here is the problem. It came with nothing else. NOTHING! Just box and disc. No extra disc not insert no nothing. God this ticks me off. By contrast I bought my Mom a Tom Hanks movie That Thing You Do for $14.99 and that came double boxed (cardboard cover that the box slides into) 2 discs loaded with content and a 2 page insert with actor info and scene numbers. What the @#$% are these company's doing? Hey if I buy a movie for $9.99 I don't mind if it's in an empty box with just a disc or even in a snap case. At least those have scene selections and nice artwork.

Now here is an example of when they do it right.
VIDEODROME
Now I understand this is a old film and a cult ****c but there are lots of others done this well and this is just the first one that came to mind while typing this. To give just a little background VIDEODROME is a movie about a guy that runs cheap cable company in the 80's and they snag programming off satellites to show on their network. They accidentally intercept this weird feed that basically consists of women being tortured and killed in all sorts of kinky ways and it gets pretty freaky from there. That's enough of that. This isn't a movie review but, you kinda needed to know about the movie to understand the rest about the packaging. Back to the subject.

This movie is available in 2 versions.
These versions are polar opposets and perfect examples of a good value vs.a value added product. One version is for the "hey I've heard about that and always wanted to see it" bunch and one is for the hard core 'this is the best movie ever made, I'm a huge fan and must have it" group.

The first version cost $8.99 and I think it comes in a regular box not a snap case. The artwork is original and looks like the secondary movie poster one might find in the newspaper or magazine ad instead of in the window at the theater. This version doesn't come with much and why should it for 9 bucks. It's a standard print but at least its a widescreen DVD and it will look fine on your TV. It's got the movie and I think it might also have a theater trailer or two but I'm not sure.

The other version is The Criterion Collection version. $35.99
NOW THIS IS THE **** I mean poo ;).

First off about the box. The box is sweet, super sweet. All black with a shot of the scene when the guy gets sucked into Deborah Harry's lips on the TV. The top of the spine looks like a TV test pattern and the side has the logo and an old school digital barcode like what you see on a modern DVD in the center. When you take the box out of the sleeve it looks like a Beta Max video cassette complete with writing on the spine VIDEODROME and on the face the now famous catch phrase "Long Live the New Flesh" all looking like it was written in sharpie pen. The box is a 2 DVD box. Now let me be clear this is not the standard kind of 2 disc box that when you open it both DVD's are inside and you flip one over and the next one is under it. A two DVD box that you open one side and one disc and the book is in it and you open the other separate side and the second disc is in that .

Then there is a booklet, all 40 pages of it.
The first page is the chapters and the next two are cast and credits.
Next comes three essay's about the film.
The first "Make mine Cronenberg" was written by Carrie Rickey that originally appeared in the Village Voice in 1983. It was updated for this booklet in 2004. The essay goes into detail about this and other Cronenberg's movies.
The second "Medium Cruel: Reflections on Videodrome with too much stuff to list includes details an in depth interview with Croenberg including a discussion of the original draft of the screenplay.
The final one is "That Slithery Sense of Unreality" by Garry Indiana explores the impact of the movie and it's relationship to prior subsequent films. The Carrie Rickey essay can be found at Criterion dot com under in the Videodrome dvd section

What else do you get for your extra money?
High-definition digital transfer
Unrated with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen TV
All the extra content you could want and more.
Two audio commentaries, one with David Cronenberg and director of photography Mark Irwin
One with James Woods and Deborah Harry
Short films:
Camera (2000) nothing to do with the movie but written by the director
Forging the New Flesh, a new half-hour documentary about the movies video and make-up effects
Effects Men, a new audio interview with the effects guy
Bootleg Video: the complete footage of Samurai Dreams and seven minutes unedited transmissions from "Videodrome," the creepy stuff they pirate in the movie.
Fear on Film, a 26-minute bs session from 1982 with filmmakers Cronenberg,
John Carpenter, John Landis, and Mick Garris
Original theatrical trailers and promotional featurette
Stills galleries featuring hundreds production photos and publicity photos.
Special effects makeup tests

Now I know what your saying.... "Yeah sure sleepy, but they put that kind of high priced fancy crap out cause they know that old people like you can afford it and will buy it to replace your crusty old VHS copy."

Ok, fine, I can accept that and will give you another more modern example.

Alien vs. Predator
This movie comes in 3 flavors of DVD excluding sets and came out in 2004

The first version comes in a regular keep case not a snap case and has a surprising amount of content for the price of $11.99 including 2 commentaries and both the theatrical version and an uncut version . Take that for what it's worth, un-cut usually means crap you didn't miss anyway but on occasion it can be an ok addition. If you were lucky enough to get the first run of this one like I did it came double boxed. Those are still out there but you have to be careful if you order it online. Other content includes DVD ROM content with comic book covers artwork and lots more. A very very good value.

The second version is the latest one ( The Lenticular Edition) doesn't come out till next week June 5, 2007 for $13.49 Pre order. And what do you get for your extra buck fifty? Same as above in a fancy box. Yes it's just a fancy box with one of those images that changes when you tilt it. But, that's whole point of this article now isn't it? If you like fancy boxes then well worth the price, if not better get the cheap one now cause I doubt they will be around after they sell out.

The last one is the Two-Disc Collector's Edition. $19.99
SIDE RANT: Stop calling crap a "Collectors Edition" when it's exactly the same as the standard version! This movie doesn't fall into that category and that's a whole other story.
This version is Loooooooaded with content rivaling if not more than the Criterion Videodrome. Super snazzy cover art and double boxed also. I'm not even sure what all the extra stuff is because I own the first one but IMHO all of the stuff in the standard version would be plenty enough content for a collectors edition and in fact is way better then many "special edition collectors blah blah" copy's. I'm pretty sure it has fan created video's and making of documentary's and so on.

Need more examples?
**** off
I did enough homework for one day.
Look at your own collection and you tell me if the price you paid for any title had anything to do with what content you got or how it was packaged. I'm guessing it absolutely did not.

I own hundreds of movies and Damm this ANNOYS the heck out of me!!!
What makes this burn even more is you don't know what your going to get till you get it home and open the box most of the time. Sure the extra content will be listed in a tiny little box on the back but what's really in there is hidden by shrink wrap. There just isn't enough pages I can write or enough bandwidth to carry it to express how ripped off I feel when I pay 21 dollars for a DVD that one tiny little piece of printed paper inside it could have made me not even notice how much I over paid for it.

Get it together DVD distributors!!

Signed
An angry consumer who knows you don't care because I'll still buy your crap anyway.....add vulgar gesture here.

I know it's sillie but I'm very pleased.

I pulled out my Genesis to play Maximum Carnage for some good ol fashioned beat um up fun last night and occurred to me, why not upload some of my old Genesis games to my games list in the hopes of getting one of the old school gamer emblems. I check in today and what do you know.... there's one for being a PC gamer which of course I am.
Not what I expected but welcome non the less.

I just installed one of my new games "Star Wars Jedi Outcast" (I know it's not a new game but it's new to me) in honor of the 30th anniversary so I'm not going to waste a lot of time on this entry adding filler. Ahhh Star Wars, I remember going to see that at the Chinese when it first came out.
god I'm old....
Maybe I will write about that later.
Not the old part, the going to the Star Wars when I was a kid.
Off to fun filled weekend of gamming. After all, that's what being on GameSpot is supposed to be about in the first place right?

~edit~
Hey... This game is fun :)

I wanted to add that the next entry might be considerably longer.
I'm thinking of pulling something from my archives that you may or may not find entertaining.

Interesting, Never had a blog before.

What to do?

I guess I'll keep it about gaming for now, of course that could change at any time. For now I'll post about what I'm playing now and what I have waiting on the shelf. Maybe I'll get to some true blogging later but no promises.

Anyway, here goes

Musings of a Closet Gamer

For starters I'm a PC gamer for the most part. I have been into computers since the 80's but only seriously got into gaming a few years ago. All of the games starting with Hitman have been purchased in the past 2 years with the exception of NFS PU and Tron 2.0

Long ago in the monochrome age I liked games like ZORK and Freestyle Down hill.

I still have a working SEGA Genesis (the original one) and pull it out now and then for a nostalgic game of Mortal Combat, John Madden Football 92' or Road Rash. Some other titles for that Dinobox include

Buster Douglas Boxing(remember him? Knocked out Tyson and lost the title the very next fight)

Mario Lemieux Hockey

Super Hang On

Super Off-Road

to list just a few.

A while back I purchased a PS2 for my girlfriends kids. I have several titles for that, that are "mine" but to be fair that box belongs to the kids so for now I will leave those out.

I do most of my gaming on my lap top even though I have a very nice liquid cooled rig with 2 7600gt's and an AMD 4400+ I just seem to find myself doing everything on the laptop cause it has media center and I'm hooked on the extra features.

It's a long story. The laptop has a T5500 core 2 duo and a GO7600 in it and a 17" 1440 x 900 WSXGA screen so it isn't exactly a punk when it comes to power and games run very well.

As of this moment I have several games loaded, most of them old.

Hitman 2 Silent Assassin

This game is great! I'm surprised its not more well known and popular. I guess since the first game was painfully difficult (from what I have read) nobody gave the second installment a fair chance. It's Action Adventure with murder and it rocks! You can go stealth and sneak in using disguises and make your hit with out a sound or firing a shot. You can be casual and just pop anyone that is in the way or gives you a hard time or...You can make the hit just a side note in a blood bath. Of course your rewarded for doing it clean and neat. I have Blood Money but it's on the shelf till I get bored with SA. I understand that it's more important to keep it clean and cover your tracks in the next game but I have high hopes it will be just as much if not more fun.

Need For Speed Underground 2

I keep that one along with the next one for brainless dive in and drive fun. Another thing is it's keyboard friendly so it's great for traveling which I do a lot. I pulled NFS Underground 1 when I got this one and I'm almost sorry I did. It's basically the same but I think the drift racing is more fun in 1 even if you don't have the other cars racing against you.

Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast

Pure Arcade game and nothing more. If you don't have a game pad then you might as well not play this one. Don't get me wrong you can play it with no problems but it's real clunky with the keyboard and you need to get into a "flow" for this game to be fun. It's kinda hard to explain but if you play it you will understand. Still for what it is it's fun in small portions. What a time I had getting this title. I ended up ordering the UK version from Germany of all places. International commerce at it's best I suppose. I ordered a game developed in California from a company in the UK doing business Via a Florida subsidiary that shipped it from Germany. It was kinda neat getting my game in pristine condition complete with customs declaration and appropriate tax paid in a plain brown wrapper strangely resembling a bit of seedy underworld porn.

MX vs. ATV Unleashed

A great little Moto Cross racer I just never seem to lose interest in. I can always pop this in for a few laps of good fun.

Tony Hawks American Wasteland

Everyone should have at least one Tony Hawk game and I got this one on the bargain rack at Target for 5 bucks. This is another one that if you don't have a game pad your going to have a hard time with. I recently finished this one on kiddie level with just ONE FREAKING GOAL not finished. Man it's P!$$!ng me off. I can't for the life of me get the stupid pipe valve goal done. I have most of the cl@sic mode done but I have not lost interest yet so it's still loaded.

Lego Star Wars II

Come on, how can you not love this game. I will quote the preview I read right here on GameSpot May of 2006 by Brad Shoemaker that sums it all up.

"It's a proven fact that if last year's Lego Star Wars didn't make you get a big, goofy grin the first time you saw it, you have no soul. Given that highly scientific conclusion, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy ought to tug at even the most jaded gamer's funny bone when it ships later this year."

This game plays equally as well with the keyboard as a controller especially for those of us used to mapping the keys into our own personal standard configuration for most games. I blew through this one with a crappy completion percentage so I have not unlocked a large amount of content. LOTS of life left in this little gem and I think it will be loaded for some time to come.

Tron 2.0

This game is a guilty pleasure. If your not familiar with it, it's a pretty standard FPS set in the Tron universe. I'll post something I put up on a bbs when I first got the game at some point in the future.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

Lot's of fun and very addicting. Gotta love running around sin city taking out terrorists. This is my first venture into this type of game and I see I have been missing a lot.

On to games not loaded but on the shelf.

Star Trek Legacy

Man o man this one deserves it's own blog. I loaded it for a very short time and I'm not going to go into it. To play this game a XBOX controller is a absolute must since the keyboard commands suck and no other controller works with it. Like I said this one is a long story but if your thinking about getting it you better read up and see what your getting yourself into.

Splinter Cell and Splinter Cell Pandora's Tomorrow.

Got these on the bargain shelf and have yet to play them. Well established titles and I have no doubt they will be fun when I get around to them.

Call Of Duty and COD2

Same as above Picked em up cheap and I'm sure they will both be great.

F.E.A.R. + the Extraction Point expansion.

Must have game I just have not gotten around to playing yet.

Half Life 2 and Half Life 2 Episode One

Same as above Must have games I just have not gotten around to playing yet.

Need For Speed Most Wanted.

I have no doubt that when I finally get sick of Underground this one will take up the slack.

L.A. Rush

This game is pretty much crap. Still, it kept me interested for a while because of the fact you get to cruise around my familiar L.A. area and it was fun for a while. When I was done with it I was done and of to collect dust it went.

Need For Speed Porsche Unleashed.

This is a great game. I played it for months on my old P4 with a crappy MX440 video card and it ran like a dream. This is the game that prompted me to purchase my rarely used Logitech MOMO driving wheel. Some day I will pull this baby out again but for now it's mothballed.

TOCA Race Driver 3

I bought this game while I was building my AMD rig and was my incentive to do so. Funny but I never did get around to de-virginizing the box and playing it. I don't really know why I just didn't. I'll get around to it someday.... maybe LOL

Flat Out 2

I was scared away from this one because of the alleged Starforce problem causing software. Later I found out that a: it is not on the USA version of the game and b: in fact L.A. Rush had this problem causing copy protection software and it was indeed on my system already. It never caused me a problem but that's why I left it on the shelf. I'll make time for it one of these days.

My next acquisition will be Star Wars: Best of PC

It has a good variety of stuff from the Line

Empire at War

Battlefront

Knights of the Old Republic

Republic Commando,

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

Knights of the Old Republic will be my first RPG so that may be interesting.

That's all for now.