I haven't been online much and haven't had much time for video games recently. I have been able to find some time to read. Mostly because I can do it while at work online, or while traveling on my cell phone. On a reccomendation from a friend I picked up Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged. I read through the whole thing over the course of a couple weeks.

I'm actually fairly impressed with myself for finishing it. It isn't a bad read its just a pretty long book. According to wikepedia, "at approximately 645,000 words, Atlas Shrugged is one of the longest novels ever written in any European language". I wouldn't say that all of those words are necessary, Rand has a tendancy to rant (a lot), but it is a very likeable novel.

I would like to emphasis that it is worth reading as a novel, not a book on philosophy. The philosophy that Rand really pushes in the book works in her fictional realm, but is only somewhat applicaple to the real world. Her ideas on people not willing to sacrifice themselves for their fellow man are pretty easy to accept, but when she tries to apply that logic to every other aspect of life, that is when he ideas go a little crazy. While reading this book, I was inspired to work harder at my job, but that is the extent of which I'm willing to apply Rand's philosophy to my life.

What I like most about Atlas Shrugged is the absolute determination of the main characters in spite of HEAVY opposition. In some ways, I relate to them and their struggle, but I also admire their single-minded determination and their refusal to let anything get in their way. If you were to just read the end of the book, you probably wouldn't want to accept it, but by reading it all the way through you could not desire any other conclusion. While the characters could be accused of being one demensional, the book itself is dynamic, because it is written in a way to promote change in the readers' thinking. In what capacity the main characters do change, you find yourself wanting to change right along with them. In that regard this book is a unique experience and that is main reason I would reccomend it.

Despite the ammount I enjoyed reading the book, I'm not sure it is for everyone. It makes a lot of philosopical leaps, and you'll either have to be willing to skim through the ranting or skip it entirely. The worst part is that it seems like Ayn Rand wrote this book for people who would take it seriously and think about it, but then assumed they did not have the capacity to understand what she was saying. Ayn Rand spells out very clearly what ideas she is trying to promote in/with this book. I appriciate her being frank, I don't appriciate her being wordy. I do like the characters and the plot, a lot, so if you can take the trade off it is worth reading.

You can check it out from your local library or you can read it here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/5490801/Ayn-Rand-Atlas-Shrugged

You can also download a PDF version here:

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3958095/Ayn_Rand_-_Atlas_Shrugged

If anyone else out there has read this novel and would like to discuss it, I'm always up for it.

Not for you, but for me. :P

I've been asking around for spare computer parts with the objective of maybe piecing together a working computer I could use as a spare for internet. I had gotten some old stuff for free that was 10 years or more old and that wouldn't work becaus ethose computers don't even know what the internet is. It turns out my Dad must know some fairly rich people because when he asked, they were willing to give away some "old" stuff they weren't using. One thing they didn't need was a 17" flat panel monitor. I was happy to take it off their hands.

Heres of pic of it:

Here's a pic of me on Gamespot using it:

So cool!

Since I was using a 17" CRT this is a pretty big step up for me. On another note I also got a free computer running XP. It has wireless networking on it, butI'm not sure what else because I haven't hooked it up and only looked inside it briefly. It was free too. You have permission to be jealous now.

The lesson from this is that if you want something asks your friends and see if you can find someone giving it away. It worked for me and I'm totally suprised. Maybe someone will give you alienware. :shock:

This isn't really a retraction of my last blog, more like an addition. Spore for me made a great first impression that faded pretty quickly and the had somewhat of a resugence recently. The main reason is that I've gotten a lot better at making creatures and other in game items.

All the people who have normally played video games at my house have really gotten into the game. That by itself would up my excitement over a game, but it goes beyond that. We will end up fighting against each others creatures in the game, and that is really neat. I was kind of happy to get opportunity to slaughter a world of my brothers first creation, and next, he took him turn wiping out a population of my creature creations. This collaboration, plus the extensive options for creating, make a game that has the highest replay value of any game I can remember.

So, maybe I was a little harsh at first. There are still a lot of things about the game not to like, but in many ways it lives up to its hype. I think anyone who is still playing the Sims 2, owe it to themselves to go out and get something new. Spore is a worthy succesor in the Sim series (Sim City, Sim Tower, The Sims). No, it doesn't have infinite gameplay in each game, but it does have a seemingly infinite ammount of replay. I personally don't expect to be playing it forever, but I still will be for a while, and I'm enjoying it (for the most part).

BTW, I'm just mostly focusing on the creature phase over and over.I'm enjoying the space phase more, but I still don't like the Civ phase.

Spore has been one of my most anticipated titles for a while now, and while it still isn't out officially I've been playing for the past two days straight. That SHOULD testify to how great it is, but there has been a great share of frustation in it. The game isn't like Sim City or the Sims, it really more like the Sim City 2000 Urban renewal kit. The game should always be about your creature, but its not.

The game is devided into different phases, and everything starts well. You start out, as promised, with your single celled creature and have very few options for developing your creature. You'll get six different cell parts, but thats it. That is not bad really, because the gameplay in this section is incredibly simple and wouldn't be well suited for hours upon hours of play.

The second phase is the best in the game, hands down. The reason is because this is where you'll do the entirety of the "evolving". In the creature phase you start with barely having legs to being the biggest and baddest beast in the land. This can be pretty difficult, if you play the game on hard, but its a lot of fun working and reworking your creature until you find the rihgt combination of looks and skills using your availible DNA points. When the creature phase ends, your unfortunatly locked into whatever you choose as your final form for the remaining three portions of the game. That is the incredibly stupid part of spore.

The tribe phase is next and it is tollerable. It plays like a very simple RTS. As you defeate or befriend rival tribes you gain more tribes members up to a maximum of 12 (yes, only 12). The only reason this section of the game bothers be is because it is so ridiculously easy. I think you could beat the whole thing in just about 20 minutes. The only custimization you do in this mode is changing your tribes clothes. That is still pretty weak because you can beat it easily on hard ever messing with your tribal clothes. Another thing that bothers me about this section is that if you befriend the rival tribes you haven't really proven dominance, but for some reason you're the only sentient species left on the planet in the next section. Thats really just me being picky though, I would have like a multiracial army to take over the world with. It would have been more Politically Correct too.

So anyway, the next phase is a bad rip off of Civilization, and not so suprisingly its call the civilization phase. This is really where the game gets stupid. At this point your created species controlls the planet, and once again you can't change anything about them. The game also does the favor of giving your beloved creation a horribly annoying voice and then having them attack you. It makes me wish I really were God over this game so I could smite them all there and get it over with. Anyway, at this point all you're doing is making houses and vehicles. The game gives some good pieces to choose from, but being creative isn't really my specialty. For houses I just throw some pieces together, pick one of the default color schemes, and give it a name like "house" (see creative genius). For the vehicles I jus pick the biggest body, give it some wheels and a cockpit, and then set to attacing every single gun in the game to the thing. Those tanks are ugly, but suprisingly they're extremely effective. The rest of the civ phase consists of waiting for enough ticks to get your next patch of money and then just building more and more ugly vehicles until everyone else is dead. Seriously, I hate this part of the game.

There's still more though. Once you've conquered the world you set your sight on the stars. This would be great if your race had anything to do with your possibilities of success. It doesn't. This mode is all about building the best spaceship. Thats it. I've played to this section of the game twice and quite both times because it is exceptionally boring.

So, in the end Spore is a building game. Some have said that spore is all about the creatures. Well, if only that were true. Two fifths of the game are about your creature and those parts are really pretty good. The rest of the game is a bad rip of existing genres. If you like bulding spaceships though, you'll probably really like this game. Sadly I don't. So, I think I've wasted my time with this title. For me, Spore did not live up to the hype.

I downloaded Perfect World International that has been "advertised" on this site for a while. It is a free MMORPG, and really I'm not a fan of the genre, but its free. I figured, "what the heck".

I actually got to play a little. Last night I was watching my 3 week old. Since the game has very simple controlls it can be played with only the mouse. I appriciated that because I only had one hand free anyway. The player review on this site talked about the great graphics, and that was one of the reasons I downloaded it. Well, if there are some good graphics, I'm not seeing them, and I'm running everything on max settings. Another problem is limited race/class selection. There are 3 races which each have two race specific jobs, one male only and one female only. So, in reality there are just six jobs to choose from and your gender is decided by which job you want to play. Also, I tried for a few minutes to make an individual looking character and when I started playing I realized I still looked just like everyone else. I was kind of sad about that.

The game actually plays well though. I was afraid I would have a lot of trouble figuring out what to do, but I didn't. The quest are pretty easy to find, since the game give you a quest finder. The first few easy quest reward you with equipment, which is nice. I hope the quest rewards continue to be good. If there is any problem with the gameplay it might be that it is too simple. I have yet to find an enemy that even poses a mild challenge. For some reason, I'm not really bothered by that. I'm pretty sure there are harder enemies out there. There are also a lot of crafting skills, but I haven't quite figured those out yet.

Another thing I noticed is that there is the lack of community. The only other MMO game I played was Final Fantasy XI, and you need help to do almost anything on there. It could be that I'm too early in the game, but honestly I hated that in XI you NEED a party to do anything. It would actually be a welcomed change for me. It isn't that I don't like people, but sometimes I do get sick of them.

So far the game semes adequate. I wouldn't say the game is super entertaining, but its decent. With all the games I have to play, I would say I don't plan to spend much time on this, but I'm not sure. The game is an exremly easy way to waste a few minutes, and since there is no fee, I don't see any reason to uninstall it. I like it, but I'm not going to reccomend it.

I'm a sucker for digital distribution, but I'm more of a sucker for great games. Based on the Demo, I was willing to fork over the, once again, higher than normal price for an Arcade game. I'm, once again, pretty happy I did.

Castle Crashers isn't the innovate masterpiece the Braid is, but it has more value for other reasons. The component that I enjoy the most is the multiplayer co-op. Since I first got my 360 I've always spent more time playing with other people that I have playing on my own (thats including all my time in Mass Effect btw). For someone like me, Castle Crashers is everything you could hope it to be.

The game is a modern 2-D adventure game with some RPG elements thrown in. Like its predecessor, Alien Hominid, has an intriguing look. It also doesn't take itself too seriously and has some very funny moments. The game could get boring on your own as it would just be the running through the stages beating up the baddies over and over. With more people, the game really shines. For instance, after rescuing a princess, a player is forced to fight with his team mates to see who wins a kiss. Players also have their own gold so there is always a little bit of competition in the cooperation. On the RPG side your characters level up, learn new moves, and get new weapons. You also get an animal helpers who do all sorts of weird stuff.

If you liked old arcade brawlers, Castle Crashers will bring that joy to the modern era. If you have a lot of friends who come over you'll like it even more. I have yet to try online, and have only played through some of the game. There is still more left to do and I'm going to be playing this game a lot over the holiday weekend coming up.

Today three children, around 8, were loitering on my property and I insisted they leave. After several attempts to persuade them they were intent on not only staying but totally destroying the place the first moment I leave. I called the police and waiting for something to happen but it didn't.

So, while I was waiting inside my house on of their firends, a perticulay huligan who lives on my block, decided to take matters into his own hands and broke one of my windows. I went out to see what was going on only to find these three children outside my house throwing rocks. I could only assume it was them who broke it so I demanded once again they leave. They refused... again.

After a while one of them go ballsy enough to try to run into my house. In my haste to see what was going on I had mistakenly left the door open. I got in his way but he shoved me so I kicked him, pretty hard. He walked out into the street and cried about it for a while. Finally him and his friends left because too many people were walking around in the street (concerned because of all the trouble).

Well, that young kid's mom came and talked to me about the problem and she was actually quite reasonable. However, she suggested that should I have a problem with her child in the future I should just call the police. Meanwhile he implicated the older boy who lives on my street in breaking my window. This was my initial suspicion as I knew he was the only one strong enough to do it. The young boys mom told him he should not be hanging out with this bad kid and took him home.

Right now, I'm still siting waiting for the police to show up. I called them twice, the first time at 7:30p, and the second time around 8:00p. Now, it is 11:30p, and there hasn't even been a patrol car through our neighborhood. I hate to say that law enforcement has failed me. I'm sure they have other important things to deal with, but I know that these kids only do what they do because they know they can get away with it. If I want a new window I'm going to have to pay for it myself. I will have to pay for it with money I earned myself working a job. That is somethin that these children know nothing about.

I want to do something about the whole thing, but I don't know what the best option is. I'm not worried about this young kid and his two friends, but I've always had resevations about this other, older, kid living on my street. Obviously I can't rely on the police to help me, and I've got a wife and two kids to be concerned about (not to mention all my cool stuff). Any advice or condolences would be appriciated.

Something new and unique on XBLA that everyone should take a look at.

Difficulty:Hard

Time Spent:10 Hours or LessThe

Bottom Line:"Amazing"

Braid is a higher priced game on XBLA, 1200 MSP or $15, and it is worth every point of the price. The quality of the work shows through in every aspect. From the graphics to the music to the story to the gameplay, everything comes together to make a unique video game masterpiece.

Braid is a puzzle game that plays like a platformer. Through the six world you'll be forced to jump and bounce of enemies heads in effort to reach puzzle pieces placed throughout each level. Of course you'll be scratching your head trying to get them because each puzzle uses the game's time mechanics in different ways. They can be difficult to solve, but completing them is rewarding and a big part in what makes Braid so fun.

Beyond just the gameplay, Braid is excellent from an artistic standpoint. The art and music are spectacular. Then there's the story which is not only very intriguing, but integrates the time elements from the gameplay. All of this works together to elevate Braid over any other downloadable game on Xbox live.

As an Indie Game, it is amazing that Braid being made available through Xbox Live Arcade. One might consider the developer, Jonathan Blow, lucky to be getting his product published at all, however that is not true, in fact its the opposite. XBLA is lucky to have such a quality game available through its service and anyone who has access should download it right away. It is that good.

I haven't had much time to spend with my beloved 360, for several reasons recently, but last night I got to sit down and play what I wanted to when I wanted to. It was pretty sweet.

Right now I'm playing Army of Two and CSI: Hard Evidence on the 360. If you check my Gamertag you'll probably see Rock Band and Halo 3 on there. I don't play those, my brother plays Halo 3 and my sister plays Rock Band. I'm sick of both but being the generous person I am, I will let them play when they can. If you see the Arcade games on the list those are usually me, but I'm often distracted by my son, or don't have much time to play when I turn those on.

So Army of Two... I put this on my Gamefly right after it came out and moved it up because a friend of mine at worked said he loved it. Well he is not me, so far I think it is stupid. There are a lot of really cool things in it. Mostly I enjoy upgrading my weapons and armor. Even that feature is hindered though because some options are arbitraily locked until you reach a certain point in the game, even though I have enough money now. The main reason I don't like it is because it is in 3rd person and is a horrible 3rd person at that. In single player, or online co-op, it isn't so bad, but in split-screen you can barely see around your own charater on the scree. I personally feel this game was better suited for a 1st person perspective. Another problem that bothers me is close combat. If you run up at a guy there is no button to melee them. If you time a trigger press just right your character will hit them, but normally you just end up shooting (and not killing them even though you're point blank) and then they hit you to the floor. Its annoying. I'll keep playing this game, but it doesn't live up to the fun my friends were hyping it up to be.

Then there is CSI. You might find it strange but I actually like this game. It is horribly easy and has the simplest gameplay I've ever seen on the 360. Mostly you just visit crim schenes and look around for evidence then click on them using the thumbstich like a mouse. While it is simple the game feels like playing through different episodes of CSI. Now, I never watch CSI, but I like a little TV now and then, and really what more can you ask for in a TV show based game? I plan to complete it today and send it back to Gamefly. As a renta, I think CSI:Hard Evidence is a big success. If you don't like CSI or Gamerscore then you might not share my opinions.

On a final note I downloaded the demo of Galage Legions and loved it. I'm thinking of getting the full game, but not sure quite yet.

I finally was able to figure out all those puzzles last night. On the Giant Bomb review they talk about how you feel like a genius when you solve a puzzle you once thought impossible. I actually felt like an idiot for not seeing the solutions the first time I played. I had the most trouble with world 4 and the least with world 6. It could have something to do with the fact that last night was the first time I played the game without drinking something alocoholic. Seriously, Braid goes well with a good merlot.

So the ending confused me. I've got a good idea now that I looked it up online, but I thought I had solved all the puzzles in the game. I was ready to let my mind rest a little and the game overloads me with information. My mind struggled to process it, failed, and then I went to bed still trying to sort it all out. I'll probably give the game some more time as I reread some of the story and form my own theories as to what happened and why.