I'm sure everyone's either seen or heard about the political phallus in GTAIV's Lost and Damned. Personally, I only have one gripe... It's too stiff. (Pun intended) We've gotten to the point where each individual boob in a game has it's own physics engine, I'm looking at you Soul Calibur. I know it's only a 2.5 second cameo, but it's supposed to be flacid, it should move a bit. If you're going to bother trying to drum up some controversy, at least do it right...

And wouldn't you know it, he was closed for a remodel! All the other stores in the mall were open. Apparently he's gone into skater apparel or something. I tried to get a better picture, but that silly racoon wanted to charge me like 1,000 bells to do so!

Oh well, maybe he'll have my slingshot when I go back there later...

As some people reading this know, I work for a major transportation industry.  Today we moved a koala from the Cleveland Zoo.  He's going to France via San Diego.  Of course being at work, I didn't have my camera, but I found a picture of the little guy online...

 

 

Recently there was news about the font being too small on older standard TV sets for the Banjo-Kazooie game coming out.  Sure it's great and all they're fixing it by means of a patch, but that's not enough.

First off, not everyone has broadband.  You really need to have broadband to apply any patch.  Second, there are plenty of people who have broadband, but couldn't do a simple network in their hous to save their lives.  Nor do they gave a care enough to pay someone to do it.  

Another issue is the game itself.  It's targeted to children.  I may not agree with it, but many kids have their own TV and console.  Being a somewhat responsible parent, you don't buy an HDTV for a 6 year old.  They get the hand-me-down RCA.  Even if the parents can network, you don't give a little kid unbridled access to LIVE.  RARE, what were you guys smoking?  Seriously?

Finally, when you buy anything, it should be complete. That goes for video games to toasters.  Would you put up with that sort of crap if you went to buy a toaster?  What would you tell the clerk if he told you they would send out the mechanism that "pops" the toast?  Certainly your toaster would be technically functional, it still makes toast, but it's still not right.  RARE, I want my toast to pop up without waiting for a patch.

Yesterday I had my first X-Box Live experience, and it was pretty damn cool. Let me start by saying I basically avoid Live because of the abusive players.

At any rate, I played Fable 2 yesterday with a friend, and it was a blast. My only complaint was it was hard to hear Andy through the headset. I don't know if that was me getting old, the Live system, or the fact he's half-way across the world. The whole experience was like when I was a kid playing in the same room with other human beings. Unfortunately at my age, not many people I know play games still. The ones who do are too far away or busy with their own lives. My wife will play once in a while, but only games she can play as a girl, and there's a co-op mode. Though it's hard to get her to do. Though she did play with me on my birthday, and I think that was the best gift I could've gotten....

Anyway, back on track... Live does cost $50, but if you can find somebody to play with who isn't a complete ass-hat, it's well worth it.

Well first, I'm back from vacation. It was good, pictures are on their way eventually. Second, my 360 is back. Actually it's a different one. Though I like having it back quicker, this kinda sucks. First, it's louder than the old one, by a lot. It's louder than the airplanes I work around. That makes me sad. The other big issue is some of the XBLA games don't seem to have a save file assosciated with them. Braid and Castle Crashers are gone. I have the games still, but I have to start all over. Not that I didn't enjoy playing either one, but I had a lot of progress in those games.

Oh well, at least I can play my games again. Rock Band 2 arrived while I was gone, so I'm looking forward to playing it.

My 360 just Red Ringed on me. At least it's in under the year, but it still sucks. On a positive note, I'll be on vacation in a couple of weeks, so I won't miss it too much...

Regardless what your political views are, you should be mad too. It seems that we've heard how we have a free and open market economy, and then the government bails out companies that are way to short-sighted/ greedy. Of course I'm talking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac right now, but this could apply to the automotive, airline, or any other industry.

The way government bailouts tend to work is the people in charge continue to make craploads of money, and the front-line employees and consumer get screwed. Sure it looks like a good thing at first, but long-term it's perhaps one of the worse things that can happen. People now in forclosure won't be protected later when they can't make their mortgage payments in a couple of years. They're still tied to the shoddy terms they agreed to in the first place. If the government forces the company to cut costs, it will be frontline personnel who loses jobs first. These are the guys who make money for any company. Finally, in the case of the mortgage industry, non-"preferred" shareholders, you and me, lose any stake in the companies.

Let me be the first to say I hate to see anybody made redundant, but that is a risk of business. Unfortunately our government has made a habit of allowing companies that underperform continue doing so because taxpayers have money to bail them out. Now that we've bailed out these knuckle-heads, the big three want bailed out too. This'll sound odd coming from a GM family, but they need to fail in order to grow. How is it the Japanese automakers have been making hybrids for a decade now in preperation for today? Are we saying that the American companies are dumber than foreign counter-parts? I don't think our engineers are any dumber, or even any smarter. I'm thinking just lazy. The heads of industry know they can fail and be bailed out by big brother.

Unfortunately there is such a thing as tough love. It applies to "grown-ups" as well as children. At some point in your life you realize you have to work for what you get, it can't always be handed to you. The only thing in life you're entitled to is death, no more and no less.

How is it a company that puts theives and pirates in their video games gets upset when someone pirates their game??

Am I the only one who thinks about these things?

I'm without internet at home right now. The phone has been dead since Saturday. The automated voice won't send someone out until Thursday. Right now I'm using a neighbors internet... Oh the shame:(