Alright, this is the same video blog as before, but edited to make it more, uh, viewable I guess. I realize the first version was ridiculously long and I apoligize for that, you can thank albedos_shaow's endless ramblings for that. I hope those of you who didn't watch this the first time will watch it now, and please leave comments, feedback, requests, challenges, questions, anything you want to see or you think should be better. I'm working on making a better intro, but I couldn't get audio files to work :evil: The editing's pretty poor (hey its my first time, geez) so sorry for any rough transitions or random subject changes, I was just aiming to cut it down to ten minutes.

[video=dXI7kzL65b8JvzTa]

Hope you enjoyed, peace out everybody

-zelda450

I'm kinda pressed for time here, but here's the videoblog from albedos_shadow and myself. Please comment, and I'm sorry for the unedited parts, we're noobs to Windows Movie Maker. Anyways, enjoy, we talk about some good stuff and bring up some random topics.

[video=KicwxTes5b8JuTLc]

[video=cXdglzP75b8JuTLb]

[video=KyZgnzSs5b8JuTLW]

Thanks everybody

-zelda450

Hey everyone

I've been working on collecting some new material for... you know... an actually good blog. But for now you'll have to settle for this. :P

I just wanted to say that albedos_shadow and I are making a DUAL VIDEOBLOG. Yes, go back and read that, see if it makes sense, which it probably doesnt. Done? Ok, continue on now. We'll hopefully be making it this Saturday, so look for it Saturday night. Please leave some questions here, we're looking to make an awesome debut vblog, and we could use your help. I know he posted pretty much the same thing in his blog, so if you're reading this for the second time...sorry :D

Don't worry, I promise an actual real blog where I actually talk about stuff people care aboutsoon. I know I haven't made a good blog in awhile, so I want this one to be a good return blog.

Thanks everybody

ASK QUESTIONS NOW!!!!

Hey everybody, pretty short blog today, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

First off, just like I did with All Pro Football, I made a video involving three cool plays from Madden 08. Please let me know what you think about it.

[video=cXNnkzv_5b8IuzHY]

And now, I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be starting a new series of blogs soon that are very interesting and I think you'll enjoy them.

Also, I started making a basic storyline for my Simpsons episode, but if you guys have any ideas, I'd be more than happy to hear about them. I'll post a plot overview in my blog once I work out the kinks.

Ok, thats all. Let me know what you thought of the video, or if you didn't watch it, I guess you could always give me some good simpsons ideas, right?:D

Thanks for reading and peace out.

Oh, I forgot one thing. You see, albedos_shadow and I go to the same school. Although I'm a junior and he's a senior, we still take the bus home. (we could get cars, but that money has to go toward videogames :lol: ) But yeah,there was this wierdo freshmen who was trying to hide the fact that he was taking videos of albedos_shadow with his cell phone. Weird. He kept on giggling too.... I'm afraid :( Sorry, but I had to say that just because it was so wierd. Sorry I made you read this. Don't be angry now! :D

For real now, later everyone

-zelda450

Hey everybody, sorry I haven't blogged alot lately. I just wasn't writing very good blogs and decided I needed a break. But know I'm back and better than ever. (We'll see about that)

This blog has it's own theme music, so if you would very kindly open this link in a different window and let it play (which you won't, but if you do.... :D ) Blog theme song

First thing I want to do is a little comparison between the two new football games this year, All Pro Football 2K8, and Madden 08. I'll break this down into categories, and we'll see how the games compare side by side. We'll get the little stuff out of the way first, and work our way down to the most important areas of the game. This blogs more than about football, so if you're not interested just skip down to the bottom.

CROWDS

APF: The crowds are very nicely rendered and all move differently, so they're not just a swarm of clones wearing baseball hats that seems to be doing a never-ending "wave"

Madden: Pretty much the opposite of what the crowds in APF are. Very blocky models, all wearing baseball caps, and they all move at the same time, so it looks like they're constantly doing the wave.

Edge: APF

SIDELINESS

APF: Very well done sidelines, the character models are the same looking as the ones on the field. They're also animated very well, and will stop or slowdown players on the sidelines, and catch thrown-away passes. They'll also do other things such as run down the sidelines with your players as they run towards the endzone.

Madden: Same as it ever was. Looks like N64 graphics, and they all do the same animation at the same time, so it looks really cheesy. They don't interact with whats going on either.

Edge: APF

OVERALL GRAPHICS

APF: They're not bad looking by any means, but they could use more polish for sure. The uniforms do scuff and get dirty in unique ways, and that's a nice touch. The face models of the legends are for the most part spot on, but some could use some work. The same face is used for white and black generic players, so you do get some very odd looking players. The weather is awesome, with snow zigzagging and rain splashing off of helmets. You can alsosee injuries as they happen, which is a really nice touch.

Madden: The uniforms shine and get dirty and a very realistic way. The fields really start to get torn up as the game goes on, and it's great. The face models are outstanding as well, the coaches in particular are insanely detailed. I'm not sure I want to see every age spot on Rod Marinelli's face though...

Edge: APF has the details, Madden has the polish. Tie

ANIMATIONS

APF: Some of the best animations I've ever seen. It seems like every play is different, and you'll constantly be noticing little animations that help immerse you into the game. Still the occasional rough animation though, we can't be perfect can we?

Madden: I'm really amazed at how much Madden has improved their animations. Some look better than APFs, and the hard hits are absolutely brutal. The only problem is that there will occasionally be a missed animation, so a player will make a catch and instantly start running off towards the endzone, no transition at all.

Edge: APF wins by a little bit

OVERALL GAMEPLAY

APF: Something about the gameplay here just feels so right, it's almost hard to explain. Wait, no it's not, it'sthat the players actually have weight, and will shift weight when changing direction, so it's very realistic. The playbooks are kind of lacking though.

Madden: A better kicking system, thats for sure. The gameplay is far better than last year, but still not up to APF standards. It's still very enjoyable to play, and is more accessible to non-gamers, such as dads and little brothers. My hope next year is that they give more weight to the players.

Edge: APF

So APF wins overall, but Madden still has a very good football game this year, and I am really surprised by that. Sure, this is just a vague comparison that's missing a lot of details, but my hands are starting to get tired, so cut me some slack ok? Geez...

Now on to the next point of my blog, which I actually forgot what it was going to be about since I rambled on about football games so long, but I think it was me listing some of my favorite songs of all time in no particular order...

Cult of Personality-Living Colour

Achilles Last Stand-Led Zeppelin

Whole Lotta Love-Led Zeppelin-sorry about the talking in the beginning, and this is an edited version without the deadzone in the middle of the song

November Rain-Guns N' Roses-this might just be my favorite song of all time

Turn Up the Radio-Autograph-not bad when it comes to 80s hair metal

Fade to Black-Metallica

Of course I have more favorite songs, but this is all I'll post for now. I'll include more in my next blog... maybe.

Now I'll include some funny videos that you should definitley check out:

Link -it's actually a music video, but the first couple of minutes are absolutely hilarious... bad acting FTW!

Another link - a montage of clips from the most hilariously bad movie I've ever seen... Troll 2- you have to see this... At least watch the ending

Well, that's all I feel like writing for know (arms...going...to fall....off :( ) I know I still haven'tanswered your questions, maybe next time. Please leave comments, maybe some ofyour favorite songs, any good videos, what you think of Madden or APF, or what you think of the two funny videosI linked. Thanks for reading all of this, please comment, I'd really appreciate it since this blog took forever.

Also, I preordered Bioshock. It may become one of my favorite games of all time. Who knows, but it'll be awesome.

GO LIONS!!!!

-zelda450

Yup, pretty random blog title that you see up there. So let me explain a little bit (this is really pretty boring, but bare with me here) I was at Westborn, which for anybody that doesn't know is a produce/deli store, and is a very nice place, not a rundown dump to be sure. So I was in line at the checkout, and my mom was going to pay with her credit card. So the put it in the ATM, and the thing nearly fell apart. You see, EVERY button on the dang thing was held in place by an intricate network of rubberbands. Seriously, this thing was a sight to behold. It still boggles my mind how it was able to stay together, and even work for that matter. There must have been at least 20 rubberbands on that bad boy. My mom asked the cashier what the deal with it was, and she said, "Yeah, it's a ghetto-rigged ATM" I really liked that phrase, hence the title of this blog.

Yesterday was my birthday (YAY!) so that's why I wasn't on yesterday at all. We went to a water park, and I nearly killed myself on several occasions. First off, let me say that last Friday, I went golfing with albedos_shadow. Being the smart and incredibly mature people that we are, we found some walnuts and had a contest to see who could hit them the farthest. I think I went a tad overboard on one of my swings, and I hurt my back pretty badly. So, back to the story, I went down one of the many waterslides at the park. I had a little mishap on one of the turns (no, I will NOT go into details) of the slide, and ended up hurting my back even more. Luckily, I brought some asprin so I took a few of those and was able to get through the rest of the day. Um, I don't remember what the point of this little story was going to be, but uh, yeah. I got some nice presents of course, not the least of which were Eternal Darkness for GC and Panzer Dragoon Orta for Xbox. My dad also randomly got me a knife which I guess is pretty dang cool, but I'm not exactly sure why I needed one. It does have acolor schemepretty similar to Eddy Van Halen's Frankenstrat, though

So yup, that's all that I remembered to write for this blog, I'll answer your questions next blog, as I didn't get very many last time, so ask some more questions, even if you already did, I don't really care because I'm bored.

Now that you're through reading this, you're probably saying to yourself, "dang zelda, that was the most pointless blog I've ever laid my eyes on." Well,you're right about that.

Thanks for reading and peace out

-zelda450

It seems like everybody I know on GS (or maybe it's just two people... we may never know) is doing one of those blogs where you ask me questions and I answer them in very elaborate ways that skillfully avoids answering your questions but still manages to sound like a good answer. So yeah, ask me your questions, any subject, just try not to make them stupid on purpose, even though some of you still will. I'll answer them within the next day or two once the comments die off.

In other gaming related news, I recently found two rather rare used games, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, and Panzer Dragoon Orta. If you read my last blog, you know that I don't have any money leftover, so I can't buy them. Thankfully, my birthday's in a couple of days, so maybe I'll be able to get them with some of the money I get. A note to Homes and albedos_shadow: if you ever need to find a rare game, go to the Gamestop in Livonia Mall, they seriously have just about any game you could possibly think of. (These two guys live close by to me, so that's why I'm letting them know)

[video=KiNlwWD95b8OvzbZ]

This here's a compilation of three plays I found to be quite interesting from APF 2K8. Let me know what you think about it. I'm sorry for the all around poor quality, I'm no good with editing and this is my first try at anything like this. Maybe I'll do a vblog soon, but I have to wait for my little brother and sister to not be home, because they would find a way to ruin it. So we'll see how that goes.

So, yeah, ask me some questions, limit four percustomer, thank you, please come again:D

Thanks for reading and peace out

-zelda450

Yup, it's true. All 160ish dollars of it. Now you may be saying to yourself, zelda450, learn to save some money man! But be not quick to scorn, as I HAVE saved money, my young grasshoppers. Ok, that was a wierd sentence, and I promise to never ever try to write something like that again. But anyways, I do have more money than $160, but some of it ($100) is being saved up to help buy the boatload of new games coming out this fall, and the rest ($200) is going towards my school books. That left me with $160, which I completely used up in only two days. So here's what I bought:

Serious Sam (Xbox)

Serious Sam 2 (Xbox)

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox)

Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)

XIII (PS2)

NFL Blitz 2003 (PS2)

Each of these games was under $10, so I really couldn't afford not to buy them (well I could, actually, according to my mom, who didn't seem very happy with the fact that I bought six new videogames in one day. She thinks that if I don't buy the game for a current gen system, then it's just a waste of money because according to her, "those things aren't made anymore for a reason: nobody likes them" Uh, whatever mom.

OOOOkay, so yeah, my last purchase was a pair of Bose In-Ear Headphones for $120 with the extended warranty. Let me just say this: if you're still using the earbuds that came with your iPod, you don't know what you're missing. I heard so many things that I didn't even know were in the songs with these headphones. Seriously, they're incredible. Although they may be pricey (heck, they cost as much as my 2 gig Nano) they are definitely worth it. The clarity and quality of the audio is amazing, and they have some reeeaaallly good bass as well.

Some songs, more than others, have been greatly enhanced with these new headphones. Here's some awesome music experiences that I experienced for the first time:

1. The solo to "Freebird" holy crap, it sounds way cooler than I ever thought

2. "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin. You can never really appreciate this song until you listen to it with the bass cranked all the way up.

3. "YYZ" by Rush. Pretty much the same as above.

4. Any song by Metallica. The bass lines in their songs are rather intricate (compared to the other stuff I listen to) and sound awesome on these headphones

5. Jordan. Holy. Freaking. Crap. This song nearly blew up my ears when I listened to it. 'Nuff said

So their you go, just what's been goin on with me as far as videogames/music lately. If you have any comments about the games I bought, any tips, thoughts, or comments such as "Wow zelda, good buy! You're an awesome guy with a great taste for awesome bargain games!" or "zelda, you dip**** why did you buy that, you should go re-examine your life you foolish bastard".....-_-

Whoops, I forgot todo my first impressions of my new games. Since I'm too lazy to go put these in their proper spot, we'll just leave them right here:

Serious Sam:More like Serious Awesomeness! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHSTFU Yes sir.... Good co-op, just no-nonsense shooting action that is actually quite fun

Serious Sam 2: Well, its not backwards compatable yet, so I would have no idea, so if one of you guys could tell me how it is, that would be nice

KOTOR: I really like the Star Wars universe that the game puts you in, and the gameplay is a very unique mix of.... uh.... something of a mix between turnbased RPG's and action games

Ninja Gaiden: "Oh look, it's a miniboss. Hmm, this is kind of hard for a mini boss, maybe it's the first boss. Oh, you mean these are just normal enemies that will keep on getting harder andI'll have to fight swarms of themuntil the end of the game!?!?!? AAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHH!!!!

XIII: Really cool comic book presentation, but the gunplay is nothing special

Blitz: Just what a Blitz game should be: fun

So again, please let me know what you think about the games, any advice or comments are appreciated.

Thanks for reading and peace out

-zelda450

For those of you who read my last blog, you'll know I was pretty happy that APF 2K8 was being released today. At 2:00 this afternoon, I went with my dad to the local Gamecrazy and bought myself a copy. I've been playing it non-stop, and wow. What a great follow up to 2K5. (Let me just state that this blog is meant mainly towards Wootex and albedos_shadow, two fellow 2K5 enthusiasts, but I still hope everyone else reads it.) The whole legends feature adds a really nice strategy aspect to the game. It's best to pick a balanced roster of legends, but you can pretty much pick an entire team suited to your play-style (long, medium, short range passes, running, etc.) You can only have 11 legends, so the rest of your team is composed of generic players. This may sound really lame at first, but these no-namers actually do a decent job of playing the game. You'll definitely notice a difference when controlling a legend however, be it his speed, evasiveness or throwing abilities.

Not having the NFL license of course means that there are no real life stadiums. 2K does a good job making their own stadiums, each with a very cool theme to it that reflects the name of the team that plays there. There are a large number of teams to choose from, and each one can have their uniform completely customized to your liking.

Now for the gameplay... sweet, sweet 2K gameplay. Let's just say this: it's better than 2K5. Now that's saying alot. The number of sacks per game has greatly been reduced (thank God) and there's just an overall improved tightness to the gameplay. No more throwing 50 yard bombs while scrambling. Now you have to set your feet if you expect to throw a hail mary. The game has made many huge steps toward becoming a more realistic football sim. All the good stuff from 2K5 remains intact for the gameplay, and some has even been tweaked. Good luck with kicking though, that's one thing that sucks.

The graphics... hermmmmm..... wellllll.... uh, they're better than 2k5's. That's all I have to say on this matter.

There are also a nice amount of online modes, such as leagues (sweet!). Offline, season mode, that's about it. I know there's more, but I haven't spent enought time with the game to write about them, so... yeah. No dynasty mode, however.

The cool part of playing as a legend is that it actually feels like your controlling that particular player. Take Barry Sanders for example (I'm way too obsessed with him... for good reason though. Check out the vids of him in yesterdays blog if you haven't already. Friggin' sweet!) You'll break tackles and pull off insane acrobatic moves with the ball.

So, those are my first thoughts on the game. I'm sure I have much more to discover, and I'll post any additional info that I find important in future blogs.

My message to albedos_shadow: Buy a 360 NOW... so many good games coming out this year, and this beaut of a football sim

My message to Wootex: Pretty much the same as above, but instead of buying one, just bum your friend's... NOW! :P

My message to everybody else: sorry that probably bored you. Also, if you liked the NCAA 08 demo, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

People Removed From Friends List

If you want to stay on, post on this blog.... please :D

gameman_500

Gamespoting

HandstaKingame

lilhawkkid182

specialedpal

Yes, I know, it's a very small list... I don't have many friends :cry: There's a good reason for that though.

Thanks for reading everybody. Wootex, I hope you get this game and the 360 from your bud soon so we can play some MP together.

Peace out

-zelda450

Ok, so APF 2K8 comes out tomorrow, and I can never remember being this excited about a game for a long time. For those of you who don't know, ESPN 2K5 was the predecessor to this game before EA bought the NFL license (current players only). With APF, you get to play with NFL legends, not the least of which include Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice, Reggie White, Dan Marino, and plenty others. 2K5 had some of the best gameplay imaginable, and from what I've read, it's mainly the same in APF, so I'm really happy about that. Whenever you ran the ball, it felt like your player had some weight to him - not like Madden where the players seem to be running on ice- if you made a sharp turn, the player would dig his feet into the turf and shift is weight in the other direction. Those of you that haven't yet played it should definitely check it out. I can't imagine it would be more than $5, and its for PS2 and Xbox. I'm not even that big a football game fan, but I still LOVEthis game.

If you plan on getting APF, give me your gamertag so we can play some time.

And even though this is pretty cliched, I will now present you with my gaming collection. Actually, no I won't since I don't know how to post pics in my blog :( If you know how to do this, please let me know, maybe I'll fix my blog up later to include pics.) But for now, you'll have to click on my Images tab. Please comment on my collection if you wish. If you notice any games I'm missing that I shouldn't please let me know (please forgive my SNES collection, I'm working on it) Also, my DS/PSP games aren't included, just console games.

EDIT: I couldn't get the pics uploaded, so I need someone to tell me how to put them in my blog. Thanks

DOUBLE EDIT: I still couldn't get them in the blog, buy now they're in my images

Maybe I'll post a follow up to this blog with my systems and setup, we'll see how that goes.

Here's another Barry Sanders link just cause I think he's so damn awesome. :P

Well, that's about it, sorry this blog was pretty boring and didn't really have a point, but here it is anyway.

Peace out

-zelda450