I can't tell you how happy I am that I am almost done with this game. I can't wait to play something else. It's not because there is something newer and fresher on my plate (though I do have Super Street Fighter 4), it's because I'm tired of this game. I can't stop now, though, because I am, what they would call in poker, pot-committed. I've put well over 40 hours into this game, and I'm pretty sure it's almost over. Doing some approximation math, I've got less than 10 percent of this game to play, so I have to finish.
Honestly, I'm quite amazed that I've slugged it out this far. Almost from the word "GO", I was disappointed. Even though it was well over 40 hours ago, weeks in the past, I still remember how this game started out.
I was bouncing from team to team. 5 of the games 6 protagonists, separated into 3 different teams, slugging it out in a frantic series of battles against a strange government military. I was struggling to come to grips with the game's vocabulary: l'Cie, Fal'Cie, Pulse, Cocoon, Cieth. Basically, I was dropped into a world I knew nothing about and expected to know it all. It was alright, though, because the characters didn't REALLY know about these things either. They only knew what they were told. Stories. So as the game slowly progressed, everything became incredibly clear.
But for the first whole chapter, I wasn't earning experience. I was flabbergasted. How in the hell could I NOT be earning experience! There sure wasn't a shortage of battles, though. Many of them I couldn't avoid. If you hadn't heard before, this game trashes the whole random battles idea, placing enemies on the map, meandering about. You engage them by running into them. At least I was strong enough to make short work of all of them. Battles rarely last more than a minute. If you manage to engage the enemy before they know you're there, you get a preemptive strike. This increases their stagger meter to nearly it's max. You normally build it by successive attacks. Once staggered, all of your attacks do a greater amount of damage.
By the way, once you do end up beating the enemy, you're graded on a five-star scale! How ridiculous is that? Time is the deciding factor in this rating, so be sure to kick their ass quickly. If you do, you'll get better spoils from them. It also give you a score for the battle, which I haven't the foggiest idea how it's determined. I used to think it was simply how much damage you dealt over the battle, which would be pretty simple, but repetitive. In the end it was just a bunch of number garbage that I would skip through.
Speaking of number garbage, I haven't seen as much in a long time. I get it that RPGs show numbers based on how much damage or healing you do. I know that health is represented by a number. After figuring out that CP is interexchangable with EXP, I was then left with TP. This number is sort of like your MP, but you need significantly less. You'll only get to use this for a select few spells, and you'll never get more than 5. It costs 3 for a summon, 1 for a couple of spells. But I didn't really use it, so it stuck at 5 for the most part.
Since I brought it up, let's talk about summons. Each character only gets 1. You only control your "leader" character, so it makes sense. But through the first 20 hours of gameplay, the game forces your party and leaders. So while you might come across your first summon after 5-10 hours, You won't be able to use it because you won't be using that character as a leader for a really long time.
This party switching really burned by buns as well. Getting stuck with a couple of characters who couldn't sustain a combo resulted in some really long, zero-star batttles. It became incredibly frustrating getting stuck with certain characters that I didn't want to play with. Characters that I didn't like which direction they were leveling.
Leveling, by the way, is similar to Final Fantasy 10. I say similar, because it seems like it was built on top of it. Using the CP you get from battles, you move around a personalized grid for each class of each character. It's got the basic stats: Strength, Magic, HP. Yep, that's it. Throw in some abilities and perks like an additional bar for your ATB gauge, and more accessories, and you've got yourself the Crystarium.
Big problem with it? (besides not advancing in it until a couple of hours into the game) It becomes incredibly easy to fill the Crystarium. Without going back and fighting extra battles for the sake of leveling, I easily filled the Crystarium before it expanded again. It wasn't until after 30 hours did this trend stop.
Speaking of things that take a crazy amount of hours to do. I wasn't able to change my party members for myself until 20 hours into the game. I would say that this was because the party wasn't big enough, but multiple times before that point there were more than 3 members of my party running around together with the computer forcing my team.
But the computer isn't completely bad. When you are battling, you have an Auto Attack option. This lets the computer figure out what you should be attacking with. After you've learned what type of immunities/weaknesses the enemy has, the computer will use the best case attacks for you. All you have to do is change classes when you want to, and you could basically hit Auto Attack the entire time. It really lends to the strength of this game.
It's really pretty. I can't argue it. This game looks good. It's all wrapped up in a pretty package. The battles are fast and frantic, and quite the wonder to watch. The presentation is all there. The menus are crisp and clean. Everything seems to be in a wonderful position. It even becomes hard to tell the difference between cut scenes and real-time graphics. It's all smooth and precise.
However, in the end, I think the game is a bit too much presentation and not enough gameplay. The gameplay doesn't get interesting until 20+ hours in, when you get to pick your team and start taking on missions in what seems like a free-roam environment. Until then (and after 10 hours past that point until the finish) it seems like the game is just a movie on rails. After you walk down a couple of corridors, there is another cut scene of varying length. At some points, you'll play a handful of battles and put the controller down for an equal or even longer time.
It feels like I've been watching a movie with minimal input. Even the bosses don't seem hard, just longer versions of the same battles. Like I said earlier, I'm so happy I'm almost done with this game. I'm ready to move on.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
Welcome Back
Thanks.
Every so often, I tool around with the idea of restarting The Next Level. At it's peak, it was 10 of the most fun months I had. Playing new games and sharing my thoughts on them with anyone would would wander my way. I had some help from my good friends, but for the most part it was really just a way for me to push my favorite pastime to new heights.
Over the past 5 years I've tried to rekindle the flame, but never to the success of the initial run. I've grown tired of attempting to write full-fledged reviews and previews for the sake of the Next Level. Like any idea that was good in it's time, it wouldn't be the same I could do it again.
5 years ago I could rent games for 2.50 at Schnucks. They didn't cost as much as they do now. There are only 3 places I could rent games now. Schnucks video department went under. Blockbuster's prices are insane, and require me to register a credit card. I can't remember the last new game that Dave's received. Even my new favorite venue, Hollywood Video, where I have been using free rentals to get new games, have gone belly up. To get my old standard of 4 games a month, that would require a $200 plus investment. That's just not worth it. I've spent that muchin a month on video games before, but even then I didn't play all of the games in a responsible time to have reviews for them.
So instead, I'm going to do things differently. I'm not going to wait until I'm fully done with a game to start talking about it. Right now, I'm 40+ hours into Final Fantasy 13. I'm not really sure how much I have left, but I'm thinking it's 2-5 hours more. By now, I could have written up at least 3 blogs about this game. In fact, I'm going to write one right after I'm done with this post.
That's how it's going to be. Writing a traditional review is too cumbersome. Being the perfectionist that I am, it takes me far too long to write a good review. For something that I do in my spare time, it takes way to long without any sort of pay off. Most of the time, I'm not even sure that anybody is reading. (That's why I love comments, even simple ones like "good post") If I just do blog posts dedicated to what I'm thinking, you'll get a more direct route to my opinions on the game. I don't have to hold myself to some grammatical standard while writing. It just becomes a stream of conscience onto the internet.
To help me get into it, I'm going to retry my "blog a day" idea. Not with the same rigidity, it's just more of a recommended dose. Much like the last time, the idea is just to get my writing again. Much like the last time, we'll just see how it goes.
Wish me luck, and enjoy the upcoming rants.
Every so often, I tool around with the idea of restarting The Next Level. At it's peak, it was 10 of the most fun months I had. Playing new games and sharing my thoughts on them with anyone would would wander my way. I had some help from my good friends, but for the most part it was really just a way for me to push my favorite pastime to new heights.
Over the past 5 years I've tried to rekindle the flame, but never to the success of the initial run. I've grown tired of attempting to write full-fledged reviews and previews for the sake of the Next Level. Like any idea that was good in it's time, it wouldn't be the same I could do it again.
5 years ago I could rent games for 2.50 at Schnucks. They didn't cost as much as they do now. There are only 3 places I could rent games now. Schnucks video department went under. Blockbuster's prices are insane, and require me to register a credit card. I can't remember the last new game that Dave's received. Even my new favorite venue, Hollywood Video, where I have been using free rentals to get new games, have gone belly up. To get my old standard of 4 games a month, that would require a $200 plus investment. That's just not worth it. I've spent that muchin a month on video games before, but even then I didn't play all of the games in a responsible time to have reviews for them.
So instead, I'm going to do things differently. I'm not going to wait until I'm fully done with a game to start talking about it. Right now, I'm 40+ hours into Final Fantasy 13. I'm not really sure how much I have left, but I'm thinking it's 2-5 hours more. By now, I could have written up at least 3 blogs about this game. In fact, I'm going to write one right after I'm done with this post.
That's how it's going to be. Writing a traditional review is too cumbersome. Being the perfectionist that I am, it takes me far too long to write a good review. For something that I do in my spare time, it takes way to long without any sort of pay off. Most of the time, I'm not even sure that anybody is reading. (That's why I love comments, even simple ones like "good post") If I just do blog posts dedicated to what I'm thinking, you'll get a more direct route to my opinions on the game. I don't have to hold myself to some grammatical standard while writing. It just becomes a stream of conscience onto the internet.
To help me get into it, I'm going to retry my "blog a day" idea. Not with the same rigidity, it's just more of a recommended dose. Much like the last time, the idea is just to get my writing again. Much like the last time, we'll just see how it goes.
Wish me luck, and enjoy the upcoming rants.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Bayonetta Preview
2010 will start off fast with Bayonetta. Set for release on the 5th (tomorrow!) this game will draw immediate comparisons to Devil May Cry. The gameplay is fast and furious, with the lead character (I don't remember her name) zooming around the screen with ninja-like skills, shooting the enemies whenever she pleases.
The controls are incredibly tight, which is needed when there is so much action on the screen. There are two attack buttons that are easily linked together by combos and typically bookmarked by flashy magical attacks. When certain enemies have been significantly weakened, they can be finished with a spectacularly excessive finishing magic move. The one I kept doing was encasing the enemy is a humongous iron maiden. It wasn't as showy as the other moves that I've seen, but it still got the job done and made me feel good.
I'd like to be able to tell you a little bit about the story, but I wasn't able to pick up on much. There is story there, but it's pretty confusing. I believe it involved a demonic woman who had a child with an angel, the offspring being our (anti?) hero. The first stage I was able to play pitted the lead against a slew of angelic-looking slayers many times the size of our heroine. She battled these creatures on the remnants of a church that was falling down. After finishing off a group of them, she would athleticly vault herself from rubble to rubble until landing on another falling slab that served as my next area to do battle upon. After an abrupt ending, I was scored for the stage.
The next scene opened up in a train which left me off at this station. After some further investigating by curiously hitting a button near select pieces of interest, I learned it was a station serving the heavens. After meandering around the lush environment I was assaulted in front of a fountain by creepy creatures sporting an odd cherub face. The game took the time out to teach me how to initiate Witch Time (slowing down time) by blocking an attack just before impact. It was a good time to teach me this new tactic, as I was joined in battle by a massive creature that served as a boss. Utilizing this new technique I was able to bring down this beast, and with it, bring an end to the demo.
Before I played this demo, I had anticipated giving Bayonetta a rental. The screenshots made it look interesting, but I hadn't seen the game in action. Having already drawn a comparison to Devil May Cry from the pictures, I thought it would be a good game to try. After slashing my way through the demo, I will be purchasing this game tomorrow. The crisp controls combined with the smooth combo system are just too tempting to deny. Add in the flashy kill moves (I'm a sucker for shiny things) and an attractive, albeit demonic, female lead with bookworm appeal (I am a man, after all), I can't wait.
The controls are incredibly tight, which is needed when there is so much action on the screen. There are two attack buttons that are easily linked together by combos and typically bookmarked by flashy magical attacks. When certain enemies have been significantly weakened, they can be finished with a spectacularly excessive finishing magic move. The one I kept doing was encasing the enemy is a humongous iron maiden. It wasn't as showy as the other moves that I've seen, but it still got the job done and made me feel good.
I'd like to be able to tell you a little bit about the story, but I wasn't able to pick up on much. There is story there, but it's pretty confusing. I believe it involved a demonic woman who had a child with an angel, the offspring being our (anti?) hero. The first stage I was able to play pitted the lead against a slew of angelic-looking slayers many times the size of our heroine. She battled these creatures on the remnants of a church that was falling down. After finishing off a group of them, she would athleticly vault herself from rubble to rubble until landing on another falling slab that served as my next area to do battle upon. After an abrupt ending, I was scored for the stage.
The next scene opened up in a train which left me off at this station. After some further investigating by curiously hitting a button near select pieces of interest, I learned it was a station serving the heavens. After meandering around the lush environment I was assaulted in front of a fountain by creepy creatures sporting an odd cherub face. The game took the time out to teach me how to initiate Witch Time (slowing down time) by blocking an attack just before impact. It was a good time to teach me this new tactic, as I was joined in battle by a massive creature that served as a boss. Utilizing this new technique I was able to bring down this beast, and with it, bring an end to the demo.
Before I played this demo, I had anticipated giving Bayonetta a rental. The screenshots made it look interesting, but I hadn't seen the game in action. Having already drawn a comparison to Devil May Cry from the pictures, I thought it would be a good game to try. After slashing my way through the demo, I will be purchasing this game tomorrow. The crisp controls combined with the smooth combo system are just too tempting to deny. Add in the flashy kill moves (I'm a sucker for shiny things) and an attractive, albeit demonic, female lead with bookworm appeal (I am a man, after all), I can't wait.
Welcome to the year of the future
With all of the great games that were released in the last few months, you might be thinking it's time for your wallet to have a well-earned rest. In the past few years, you would have been right. The New Year Holiday typically marks the end of major publishers release schedule as they go into cruise control well past spring.
2010 is not one of those years.
With such a cornacopia of games coming out this spring, it's hard not to make a double take to the calendar. Gamers as a whole have been clamoring for a wallet relief schedule and our cries have finally been answered. However, it's not as much of a blessing as it might seem.
There are still Triple-A titles being thrown at you in quick succession. You most likely won't have any more money to spend on them either. If you were lucky enough to recieve a Christmas bonus, it was probably spent on other people's gifts, and hours are probably not as plentiful as they were before the holiday. Face it, you need to make smart decisions. Being impulsive will most likely lead to disappointment and lost opportunities.
Making an informed decision isn't about following a score at the end of an article or television segment. As popular as Xplay is, in my opinion, it's a much better source of entertainment than information. I'm not saying avoid Xplay, but you need to be able to use the resources out there to the fullest. Laughing at a couple of jokes and listening for a number is not the way to make an informed decision. Sessler and Webb give out pros and cons for a game they review, most tend not to listen unless there is a joke.
It's time for you to do some actual research, look at a few different reviews for a game. What one person finds contrived, another may find brilliant. Games are similar to music, each person has a different taste. Your taste may be similar to others, like IGN or GamePro; there's nothing wrong with that. If you can rely on a source to find new games and valuable opinions on the ones you want, then you've hit the gaming Mecca.
For those still on your quest, I hope that I will be very servicable to your needs. I am one person, one mind, in a cloud of companies. To ammend a popular phrase, I work hard for my money, and I want it to work hard for me. And if myself and my money can put in a couple of miles for your needs, all the better.
I am Daniel Woodson, and this is The Next Level. I'm glad you could level up with me.
2010 is not one of those years.
With such a cornacopia of games coming out this spring, it's hard not to make a double take to the calendar. Gamers as a whole have been clamoring for a wallet relief schedule and our cries have finally been answered. However, it's not as much of a blessing as it might seem.
There are still Triple-A titles being thrown at you in quick succession. You most likely won't have any more money to spend on them either. If you were lucky enough to recieve a Christmas bonus, it was probably spent on other people's gifts, and hours are probably not as plentiful as they were before the holiday. Face it, you need to make smart decisions. Being impulsive will most likely lead to disappointment and lost opportunities.
Making an informed decision isn't about following a score at the end of an article or television segment. As popular as Xplay is, in my opinion, it's a much better source of entertainment than information. I'm not saying avoid Xplay, but you need to be able to use the resources out there to the fullest. Laughing at a couple of jokes and listening for a number is not the way to make an informed decision. Sessler and Webb give out pros and cons for a game they review, most tend not to listen unless there is a joke.
It's time for you to do some actual research, look at a few different reviews for a game. What one person finds contrived, another may find brilliant. Games are similar to music, each person has a different taste. Your taste may be similar to others, like IGN or GamePro; there's nothing wrong with that. If you can rely on a source to find new games and valuable opinions on the ones you want, then you've hit the gaming Mecca.
For those still on your quest, I hope that I will be very servicable to your needs. I am one person, one mind, in a cloud of companies. To ammend a popular phrase, I work hard for my money, and I want it to work hard for me. And if myself and my money can put in a couple of miles for your needs, all the better.
I am Daniel Woodson, and this is The Next Level. I'm glad you could level up with me.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Sick and tired of being sick and tired OR I want you to help me
I suppose it's time to put this here laptop to good use. One of the things I thought that I'd use it for was blogging. It's so much easier to blog when I'm upstairs where it's moderately warmer. In the basement I'd be shivering while my fingers turn blue. Let's do this.
Things have been getting better. If you've been keeping track of me through Facebook, Twitter, and possibly MySpace (I've been having issues with MySpace), then you'd know that I've been feeling like crap recently. Last week I was doing the Santa gig, and I must've caught some bug from one of the little buggers. It all started Saturday when my throat starting hurting. Sunday it moved into a small cough. Monday I lost my voice. Great stuff, right?
Tuesday and Wednesday I was off. Tuesday was pretty much the worst of it. I had virtually no voice and was coughing. I barely takled at all to save what little voice I had left. The good news was that the sore throat went away. I took that as a sign that I was on the upswing. I kept on coughing throughout Friday and Saturday. Work had to find replacements for Santa, because I was not willing to put myself back in front of the kids while I was hacking up mucus. That wouldn't look good for the store, and I didn't want to catch any flack from angry parents. Donning the red, I probably wouldn't have had to take anything from the parents (have you ever seen a parent do anything to Santa?) but it's better this way.
The good thing about not going in for Big Red is that I get my third day off this week. Sunday is, as it has always been intended, a day of rest. I helped my dad BBQ some chicken, and I've watched football. Oh, and I've put my new laptop to use keeping track of my team while the games were going on. (I'm down 116-102) My brother is giving me crap for writing a blog right now. Typical! (lol)
I think I'm starting to get better. The cough is starting to fade and it doesn't seem like something else is taking it's place. Hopefully I'll be all better by tomorrow or Tuesday.
Tomorrow I actually have a small plan, the next phase of my DJ Hero debacle. Allow me to give you the background.
When I first got Rock Band, my guitars were iffy at best. After a couple weeks of playing with the guitars, the whammy bar broke. I followed the instructions that came with the game and was able to get a new guitar. The whammy bar on that one broke, and then I went to their message board and found someone in charge to explain my plight. She shipped me a new guitar right then, no more questions asked. Happily Ever After.
Now for Activision. When Guitar Hero 3 came out, my guitar was busted. Since the store I bought it at had plenty of them, I returned it and got a new one. No need to wait for a claim service if I can get a new one the next day. Besides, it came out of the box bad, that's what most consumers would do. Guitar Hero World Tour. I bought a dual guitar pack that was returned at Walmart. Since it had no box, I got a sweet discount on it. One of those guitars was bad as well, but I didn't want it because it felt akward and paled in comparison to my good ol' Rock Band guitar. I traded those in at GameCrazy and made a good amount of coin on the deal.
Then a month or so back I bought DJ Hero, that really fancy, extra expensive version that came with a carrying case and other things. I enjoyed the game, though the legs for the stand were pretty stuck inside themselves and I made soem cosmetic flaws to it by getting them loose. When I get about halfway through the game, I notice that it seems I'm screwing up without actually screwing up. I track my own actions and determined that I was not at fault. After playing a little more, I realized that the DJ Hero deck was actually faulty and pressing buttons at random times. I confirmed this by spinning the deck on the menu screen and had the controller start advancing me through the menus on it's own.
Now I know I have a busted deck. Since I bought the rare special edition, there aren't any left where I bought it. Only option, warranty claim. It wasn't even a month after I bought it, they are responsible. I look through the manual and see that I need to log onto their website to submit a claim. I go through all their bullcrap and it tells me what I already knew, I needed to make a warranty claim. "Click Next to make a claim." Okay. "You need to call a local service representative, consult your manual for the number." What?
I double check the manual and it only has the website listed for warranty information. I'm getting a little adgitated. But there's got to be some sort of support forum where I can voice my concern and get this ball rolling. I log back onto their website, but get no luck. No message board at all. Not a fan board or anything similar. So I get the bright idea that they might have a Twitter. I've heard of companies patrolling the Twitterverse to try and keep customers happy. I log onto Twitter and actually find an official DJ Hero account! Success! Send out an SOS tweet @ them and I'm bound to get ,at the very least, pointed in the right direction.
A couple of days later, no such luck. So the website tells me to consult my manual for a number, the manual tells me to go to the website. Without any other source, I'm pretty much boned. Time to start asking for help. I go back to the point of sale, GameCrazy, and ask them if they know what to do. He prints out a paper for starting Guitar Hero warranty claims for drums, guitars and the like. "Don't worry, they'll help you out." Alright, cool. I didn't have any time to call them until Wednesday. So I knock out the number and get them on the horn. I tell this guy exactly what the problem is and I'll give you one guess on his response.
"What you need to do is go to (this website) and start a warranty claim." Thanks Captain Obvious, that's what I've been trying to do for the past 2 weeks. I explain to him that the website is not working right and finally, some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. He sets me up with an RMA number and tells me what I'll need to do. Print a shipping label, supply my own box, and ship half of the unit, along with a copy of my reciept, to their claims center.
Awesome, EA didn't need me to ship them a copy of my reciept, and they actually shipped me a box with prepaid (and printed) shipping label on it. But hey, at least I'm getting places. Hopefully, I won't have to pay to get this thing out and on it's way. If I do, then I'm going to be insanely pissed off. And you better bet that I'll fire off an angry letter to some important people.
I just really hope this all works out. I'm hopeful that I can get my replacement before the New Year. You never know, it might make a fun game to play while counting down to 2010.
We shall see.
P.S. Tied up my fantasy football 119-119. GO MERCS!!
Things have been getting better. If you've been keeping track of me through Facebook, Twitter, and possibly MySpace (I've been having issues with MySpace), then you'd know that I've been feeling like crap recently. Last week I was doing the Santa gig, and I must've caught some bug from one of the little buggers. It all started Saturday when my throat starting hurting. Sunday it moved into a small cough. Monday I lost my voice. Great stuff, right?
Tuesday and Wednesday I was off. Tuesday was pretty much the worst of it. I had virtually no voice and was coughing. I barely takled at all to save what little voice I had left. The good news was that the sore throat went away. I took that as a sign that I was on the upswing. I kept on coughing throughout Friday and Saturday. Work had to find replacements for Santa, because I was not willing to put myself back in front of the kids while I was hacking up mucus. That wouldn't look good for the store, and I didn't want to catch any flack from angry parents. Donning the red, I probably wouldn't have had to take anything from the parents (have you ever seen a parent do anything to Santa?) but it's better this way.
The good thing about not going in for Big Red is that I get my third day off this week. Sunday is, as it has always been intended, a day of rest. I helped my dad BBQ some chicken, and I've watched football. Oh, and I've put my new laptop to use keeping track of my team while the games were going on. (I'm down 116-102) My brother is giving me crap for writing a blog right now. Typical! (lol)
I think I'm starting to get better. The cough is starting to fade and it doesn't seem like something else is taking it's place. Hopefully I'll be all better by tomorrow or Tuesday.
Tomorrow I actually have a small plan, the next phase of my DJ Hero debacle. Allow me to give you the background.
When I first got Rock Band, my guitars were iffy at best. After a couple weeks of playing with the guitars, the whammy bar broke. I followed the instructions that came with the game and was able to get a new guitar. The whammy bar on that one broke, and then I went to their message board and found someone in charge to explain my plight. She shipped me a new guitar right then, no more questions asked. Happily Ever After.
Now for Activision. When Guitar Hero 3 came out, my guitar was busted. Since the store I bought it at had plenty of them, I returned it and got a new one. No need to wait for a claim service if I can get a new one the next day. Besides, it came out of the box bad, that's what most consumers would do. Guitar Hero World Tour. I bought a dual guitar pack that was returned at Walmart. Since it had no box, I got a sweet discount on it. One of those guitars was bad as well, but I didn't want it because it felt akward and paled in comparison to my good ol' Rock Band guitar. I traded those in at GameCrazy and made a good amount of coin on the deal.
Then a month or so back I bought DJ Hero, that really fancy, extra expensive version that came with a carrying case and other things. I enjoyed the game, though the legs for the stand were pretty stuck inside themselves and I made soem cosmetic flaws to it by getting them loose. When I get about halfway through the game, I notice that it seems I'm screwing up without actually screwing up. I track my own actions and determined that I was not at fault. After playing a little more, I realized that the DJ Hero deck was actually faulty and pressing buttons at random times. I confirmed this by spinning the deck on the menu screen and had the controller start advancing me through the menus on it's own.
Now I know I have a busted deck. Since I bought the rare special edition, there aren't any left where I bought it. Only option, warranty claim. It wasn't even a month after I bought it, they are responsible. I look through the manual and see that I need to log onto their website to submit a claim. I go through all their bullcrap and it tells me what I already knew, I needed to make a warranty claim. "Click Next to make a claim." Okay. "You need to call a local service representative, consult your manual for the number." What?
I double check the manual and it only has the website listed for warranty information. I'm getting a little adgitated. But there's got to be some sort of support forum where I can voice my concern and get this ball rolling. I log back onto their website, but get no luck. No message board at all. Not a fan board or anything similar. So I get the bright idea that they might have a Twitter. I've heard of companies patrolling the Twitterverse to try and keep customers happy. I log onto Twitter and actually find an official DJ Hero account! Success! Send out an SOS tweet @ them and I'm bound to get ,at the very least, pointed in the right direction.
A couple of days later, no such luck. So the website tells me to consult my manual for a number, the manual tells me to go to the website. Without any other source, I'm pretty much boned. Time to start asking for help. I go back to the point of sale, GameCrazy, and ask them if they know what to do. He prints out a paper for starting Guitar Hero warranty claims for drums, guitars and the like. "Don't worry, they'll help you out." Alright, cool. I didn't have any time to call them until Wednesday. So I knock out the number and get them on the horn. I tell this guy exactly what the problem is and I'll give you one guess on his response.
"What you need to do is go to (this website) and start a warranty claim." Thanks Captain Obvious, that's what I've been trying to do for the past 2 weeks. I explain to him that the website is not working right and finally, some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. He sets me up with an RMA number and tells me what I'll need to do. Print a shipping label, supply my own box, and ship half of the unit, along with a copy of my reciept, to their claims center.
Awesome, EA didn't need me to ship them a copy of my reciept, and they actually shipped me a box with prepaid (and printed) shipping label on it. But hey, at least I'm getting places. Hopefully, I won't have to pay to get this thing out and on it's way. If I do, then I'm going to be insanely pissed off. And you better bet that I'll fire off an angry letter to some important people.
I just really hope this all works out. I'm hopeful that I can get my replacement before the New Year. You never know, it might make a fun game to play while counting down to 2010.
We shall see.
P.S. Tied up my fantasy football 119-119. GO MERCS!!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Who You Gonna Call?
What's up everybody. I'm currently taking a slight break between gaming sessions. I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to play next. I've been playing plenty of LEGO Rock Band recently, and I'm getting slightly burnt out. Time for something different. While I was doing this, I figured I might as well give you all a little blog to read up on.
As you should have known, Halloween was about a week and a half ago. I always love Halloween. At my work, they let you dress up for the holiday. Never one to let an opportunity like that pass me by, I made sure I had a costume ready to go.
It took a lot of work, but I was able to put something together on Thursday night. I stuffed some white scrubs and sweatshirt with portions of a mattress pad. Together with some face paint, and a severely doctored white cotton hat, I had made myself into the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man! Truly an epic feat. It wasn't supremely awesome, but I'm on a budget here. I think for 50 bucks I did DAMN well.
Everyone who saw me that day thought so too. Unfortunately, there was a bunch of confusion about who I was. Seems people can't figure out for themselves the difference between Stay Puft, the Dough Boy, and Michelin Man. Kinda sad, but at least everybody was loving the costume. It felt good to bring that much joy to everyone that day. People were smiling and complimenting on the costume every time they saw it.
It wasn't without it's own price though (besides the price tag). The costume was incredibly hot. With an inch of pad surrounding my upper body inside of a sweatshirt, it's understandable that it became my own personal sauna. I actually thought I was gonna pass out for a bit during work, but it must've just been a bit of panic attack. I even broke out on my chest from it! It was real rough and red for a while, but it's almost completely back to it's normal, pale self now.
In spite of the fact that everybody loved my costume, I still couldn't pull first place at the costume contest we hold. Lunacy, I know. None of you will really get to see the pictures, so you'll just have to take my word for it. They say that we're supposed to judge our voting based on originality and such, but like everything at that store, it's all about your circle of friends. I do have many friends, but apparently not enough to place in the competition. I can understand getting beat by the Amish, because that was actually kinda cool. But I got beat by a witch (just a basic witch), and a person who wore a bald cap to call themselves one of our managers. Once again, I guess it's about being topical, and I'd rather have fun. A poor Joe the Plummer (that's how he spelled it) last year, a poor excuse for a manager this time.
Like I said in my Twitter, I'd love to say it doesn't bother me, but it does. It's really disappointing. Last year he bought a penguin outfit and placed third, this year he just buys a bald cap and places first. And really, a witch? A black outfit and pointy hat is all it takes for third? I worked my ass off and I can't get anything beyond a couple of pats on the back and "attaboy"s? People at work keep saying that it's rigged. Every year they tell me that, and I'm starting to believe them. I guess I found another area of life where hard work doesn't pay off in the end.
But, like I said, I had a lot of fun doing it. I wish that I could've run into some of you guys (preferably while the makeup still looked good), because I'm sure you would have gotten a kick out of it. I've still got the hat that I went through so much trouble to make, so who knows. All I know is that I'm already anxious for next year. I'm actually going to try and get the costume ready ridiculously early to prevent any last minute runs for ideas. Sure, it paid off this time, but I really wanted to be Dan from Street Fighter. I'm not even sure if I'm going to be in the same job next year. I hope not, but you can always bet that I'll dress up for Halloween.
... and any other time I get the opportunity.
As you should have known, Halloween was about a week and a half ago. I always love Halloween. At my work, they let you dress up for the holiday. Never one to let an opportunity like that pass me by, I made sure I had a costume ready to go.
It took a lot of work, but I was able to put something together on Thursday night. I stuffed some white scrubs and sweatshirt with portions of a mattress pad. Together with some face paint, and a severely doctored white cotton hat, I had made myself into the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man! Truly an epic feat. It wasn't supremely awesome, but I'm on a budget here. I think for 50 bucks I did DAMN well.
Everyone who saw me that day thought so too. Unfortunately, there was a bunch of confusion about who I was. Seems people can't figure out for themselves the difference between Stay Puft, the Dough Boy, and Michelin Man. Kinda sad, but at least everybody was loving the costume. It felt good to bring that much joy to everyone that day. People were smiling and complimenting on the costume every time they saw it.
It wasn't without it's own price though (besides the price tag). The costume was incredibly hot. With an inch of pad surrounding my upper body inside of a sweatshirt, it's understandable that it became my own personal sauna. I actually thought I was gonna pass out for a bit during work, but it must've just been a bit of panic attack. I even broke out on my chest from it! It was real rough and red for a while, but it's almost completely back to it's normal, pale self now.
In spite of the fact that everybody loved my costume, I still couldn't pull first place at the costume contest we hold. Lunacy, I know. None of you will really get to see the pictures, so you'll just have to take my word for it. They say that we're supposed to judge our voting based on originality and such, but like everything at that store, it's all about your circle of friends. I do have many friends, but apparently not enough to place in the competition. I can understand getting beat by the Amish, because that was actually kinda cool. But I got beat by a witch (just a basic witch), and a person who wore a bald cap to call themselves one of our managers. Once again, I guess it's about being topical, and I'd rather have fun. A poor Joe the Plummer (that's how he spelled it) last year, a poor excuse for a manager this time.
Like I said in my Twitter, I'd love to say it doesn't bother me, but it does. It's really disappointing. Last year he bought a penguin outfit and placed third, this year he just buys a bald cap and places first. And really, a witch? A black outfit and pointy hat is all it takes for third? I worked my ass off and I can't get anything beyond a couple of pats on the back and "attaboy"s? People at work keep saying that it's rigged. Every year they tell me that, and I'm starting to believe them. I guess I found another area of life where hard work doesn't pay off in the end.
But, like I said, I had a lot of fun doing it. I wish that I could've run into some of you guys (preferably while the makeup still looked good), because I'm sure you would have gotten a kick out of it. I've still got the hat that I went through so much trouble to make, so who knows. All I know is that I'm already anxious for next year. I'm actually going to try and get the costume ready ridiculously early to prevent any last minute runs for ideas. Sure, it paid off this time, but I really wanted to be Dan from Street Fighter. I'm not even sure if I'm going to be in the same job next year. I hope not, but you can always bet that I'll dress up for Halloween.
... and any other time I get the opportunity.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Sometimes it just works like that.
I realize that I haven't blogged for over a week. I knew something bad was going to happen to this thing when I came back. I wanted to try and avoid skipping a beat, but I determined that blogging while in Chicago on Patrick's iPhone was just too pathetic. It just happens sometimes, you don't have enough time to do what you want. I couldn't even tell you what I've been doing exactly for the past week, but it's felt like non-stop stuff. I've kept myself busy.
I'm actually surprised that Greg didn't blog about the Chi-town trip we took to celebrate his birthday. Although he might have blogged about it somewhere that I don't have access to or a place I just don't know about.
We went into the Chicago trip completely blind. All we knew was that there were Halloween fireworks (weird, eh?) and that we wanted some deep dish pizza that you can't get anywhere else but Chicago. The way up was pretty good. Miles and time just melted away as we all thought it would. After you have been in a car from sunrise to well past sunset, a 4-5 hour drive seems like nothing. I think we only stopped once, kinda impressive considering I was in the car. I tend to slow down road trips, but I think I'm getting better at them now.
On the way down we basically shot the breeze having casual conversation most of the way. Closer to Chicago, Greg ended up telling us how his Kansas City trip went. It sounded like a blast, and I really wish I could have went with him, although the majority of it wouldn't have been privy to my eyes. It isn't that much of an interesting drive going up to Chicago, but the cities seemed more memorable than the endless pastures. I remember seeing a field that was absolutely full of windmills. Not old school ones, high tech, energy making ones. I actually thought that was kinda cool. There was also a mosque on the way too. I'm not sure I spelled that right, or called it the right thing. It seemed like a religious place, that had Arabic looking writing on it. It was the first time I've ever seen Arabic writing outside of the news on TV. I thought it was a neat thing to see.
When we pulled into the Embassy we checked into our hotel and quickly realized that our lack of planning might come back to bite us. We had no idea what we were going to do, but it wasn't much of a problem. We kept looking at what was right in front of us. At that time, that was hunger. Patrick had brought up a place called Gino's East that was only a couple of blocks away from the Embassy. He said it was featured on Man vs. Food. Frankly, I'd love to go to any place that they go on that show. I'm all about trying new things these days, and what better way to do it than by following a show on Food Network?
We walked down there and ordered what they actually told us to on Man vs Food, some Super Meat Deep Dish Pizza. They told us that it would take 45 minutes to make the pizza. That shocked me. I'm sure that my mom has cooked cakes in that time. Turkey dinners have been prepared in that kinda time. I think we just completed a drive to Chicago in that time! Well, those last ones might've been lies ... but that's a lot of time for pizza. About 3 times how long it takes for one of the pizzas I cook in my oven. In all fairness though, it's about 3 times as big and infinitely better. Well worth the wait.
While we were waiting, we took in the scenery from our seat. Quite the interesting place. I noticed when we walked in that there was a sign saying you could write on the walls, but NOT on ... and lists a bunch of things to keep pens off of. We looked around and noticed all the different markings people had left. Tags, symbols of love, sports logos, slurs, the place was just loaded. Patrick actually took a photo of one of the better ones. It had a picture of somebody (I forgot who it was), and above it in a quote bubble was "I'm wacked out on Scientology." Awesome. Signature of the Shop right there.
Anyway, time passed by, about half of required to make the trip, and we headed out. Again, we had nothing planned until nightfall, and it was something like 4 or 5 by this time. To burn some time and enjoy ourselves in the process, we then went over to the ESPN Zone in Chicago. I have wanted to go into one of these for a long time. It's basically a sports haven. Televisions everywhere, all tuned into sports. Sure, you may have been in a sports bar that had a lot of TV's, but I'm sure it pails in comparison.
We actually weren't there to watch TV, though, we were there to play games. On the second floor of this Sports Haven, is an arcade akin to Dave & Buster's (a favorite of mine). Sure, it had pretty much sport related machines, but still plenty for me to have a blast with. There was a mini-bowling alley in there, which we played a game or two on. It's pretty fun, even if it's hard to get in a bowling groove with 5 feet to throw from and a ball I can palm. It was an interesting experience though. I pretty much followed Greg's lead as he went to all the big ticket items. There was a hockey thing in there. You get a stick and a bunch of room to run around and shoot pucks no a moving, wooden goalie. I ended up slaughtering his score on there by two-fold. There was also a QB Challenge type thing in there. Two moving wide outs to throw to as (dated) references are spewed out by ESPN personalities. Greg smashed me by more than two-fold here. Just sayin. I'm not good at basketball either. If you were wondering.
After getting our heart rate going, we headed out to burn more time. Again, without anything to do, we ended up wandering a bit. Harley Davidson shop here, Michigan Drive there. With a bit of luck, we ended up finding a big map that had tourist destinations on it. We noticed a bunch of stuff we might have wanted to see were pretty far away from where we were, and some we were willing to drive to were also closed. (Fancy Pat's iPhone told us about those). We noticed the NBC Studios was listed on there and thought it would be cool to get a tour in there. After a quick pit at the hotel to gain coats suitable for the chilly Chicago night, we set off.
When we got a bit past Michigan Avenue, the city did something weird in my eyes. We kept going with the road, but there were a bunch of crossings above us, and as we kept going it seemed like an entire bridge structure was above us. The area we were walking through kept seeming to get seedier as well. Kinda like Midgar in FF7 (Yea, I went there), it was like the Chicago slums down there. Weird that there were two different cities on top of each other. Puts new meaning to the term "Second City" (though I know that's not where it comes from).
After we got to the NBC Studios, we saw that it was closed, but we were only an hour or two from fireworks, so we decided to hand out on the Navy Pier until then. Since the fireworks show was going to be from the pier, it seems like a logical choice. After browsing all the neat stuff down there, we grabbed a bit to eat at the Billy Goat place. It is apparently famous, though for two different reasons. They keep mentioning that it is from SNL with the Cheezeborger Cheezeborger Cheezeborger skit, though I have no idea where that's from. I saw on the walls that it was also home to the Billy Goat that ended up getting tossed out of a game in Wrigley Field (even though he had a ticket). I thought that was awesome. The place that is believed to have cursed the Cubs is still alive and well respected in Chicago. That really puts how messed up Chicago is into perspective.
With our bellies full of Cheezeborgers, we wandered a bit more around Navy Pier. They were having some sort of side show going on. A bunch of people were dressed up like freaks and walking around. Some neat stuff realy. It provided an interesting backdrop for our mini golf game. That, and the wet leaves around the entire course. I hadn't played for a long time, and it was nice to release some competitive juices.
After the game it was only a couple of minutes to the firework show. It was nothing to really write home about. It lasted about 10 minutes and was set to some Halloween music. It did have a clip from Rocky Horror Picture Show in it. So now I have a strong desire to see that movie again. I need to borrow that from Patrick soon before I forget about it. I wanted to watch it before Halloween, but obviously that didn't work out too well.
The trip was fun, although short, and it left me a bit drained. But I've gotten over that in the week after it. It was a great time, and now it will live on in the halls of the interweb ... FOREVER!
I'm actually surprised that Greg didn't blog about the Chi-town trip we took to celebrate his birthday. Although he might have blogged about it somewhere that I don't have access to or a place I just don't know about.
We went into the Chicago trip completely blind. All we knew was that there were Halloween fireworks (weird, eh?) and that we wanted some deep dish pizza that you can't get anywhere else but Chicago. The way up was pretty good. Miles and time just melted away as we all thought it would. After you have been in a car from sunrise to well past sunset, a 4-5 hour drive seems like nothing. I think we only stopped once, kinda impressive considering I was in the car. I tend to slow down road trips, but I think I'm getting better at them now.
On the way down we basically shot the breeze having casual conversation most of the way. Closer to Chicago, Greg ended up telling us how his Kansas City trip went. It sounded like a blast, and I really wish I could have went with him, although the majority of it wouldn't have been privy to my eyes. It isn't that much of an interesting drive going up to Chicago, but the cities seemed more memorable than the endless pastures. I remember seeing a field that was absolutely full of windmills. Not old school ones, high tech, energy making ones. I actually thought that was kinda cool. There was also a mosque on the way too. I'm not sure I spelled that right, or called it the right thing. It seemed like a religious place, that had Arabic looking writing on it. It was the first time I've ever seen Arabic writing outside of the news on TV. I thought it was a neat thing to see.
When we pulled into the Embassy we checked into our hotel and quickly realized that our lack of planning might come back to bite us. We had no idea what we were going to do, but it wasn't much of a problem. We kept looking at what was right in front of us. At that time, that was hunger. Patrick had brought up a place called Gino's East that was only a couple of blocks away from the Embassy. He said it was featured on Man vs. Food. Frankly, I'd love to go to any place that they go on that show. I'm all about trying new things these days, and what better way to do it than by following a show on Food Network?
We walked down there and ordered what they actually told us to on Man vs Food, some Super Meat Deep Dish Pizza. They told us that it would take 45 minutes to make the pizza. That shocked me. I'm sure that my mom has cooked cakes in that time. Turkey dinners have been prepared in that kinda time. I think we just completed a drive to Chicago in that time! Well, those last ones might've been lies ... but that's a lot of time for pizza. About 3 times how long it takes for one of the pizzas I cook in my oven. In all fairness though, it's about 3 times as big and infinitely better. Well worth the wait.
While we were waiting, we took in the scenery from our seat. Quite the interesting place. I noticed when we walked in that there was a sign saying you could write on the walls, but NOT on ... and lists a bunch of things to keep pens off of. We looked around and noticed all the different markings people had left. Tags, symbols of love, sports logos, slurs, the place was just loaded. Patrick actually took a photo of one of the better ones. It had a picture of somebody (I forgot who it was), and above it in a quote bubble was "I'm wacked out on Scientology." Awesome. Signature of the Shop right there.
Anyway, time passed by, about half of required to make the trip, and we headed out. Again, we had nothing planned until nightfall, and it was something like 4 or 5 by this time. To burn some time and enjoy ourselves in the process, we then went over to the ESPN Zone in Chicago. I have wanted to go into one of these for a long time. It's basically a sports haven. Televisions everywhere, all tuned into sports. Sure, you may have been in a sports bar that had a lot of TV's, but I'm sure it pails in comparison.
We actually weren't there to watch TV, though, we were there to play games. On the second floor of this Sports Haven, is an arcade akin to Dave & Buster's (a favorite of mine). Sure, it had pretty much sport related machines, but still plenty for me to have a blast with. There was a mini-bowling alley in there, which we played a game or two on. It's pretty fun, even if it's hard to get in a bowling groove with 5 feet to throw from and a ball I can palm. It was an interesting experience though. I pretty much followed Greg's lead as he went to all the big ticket items. There was a hockey thing in there. You get a stick and a bunch of room to run around and shoot pucks no a moving, wooden goalie. I ended up slaughtering his score on there by two-fold. There was also a QB Challenge type thing in there. Two moving wide outs to throw to as (dated) references are spewed out by ESPN personalities. Greg smashed me by more than two-fold here. Just sayin. I'm not good at basketball either. If you were wondering.
After getting our heart rate going, we headed out to burn more time. Again, without anything to do, we ended up wandering a bit. Harley Davidson shop here, Michigan Drive there. With a bit of luck, we ended up finding a big map that had tourist destinations on it. We noticed a bunch of stuff we might have wanted to see were pretty far away from where we were, and some we were willing to drive to were also closed. (Fancy Pat's iPhone told us about those). We noticed the NBC Studios was listed on there and thought it would be cool to get a tour in there. After a quick pit at the hotel to gain coats suitable for the chilly Chicago night, we set off.
When we got a bit past Michigan Avenue, the city did something weird in my eyes. We kept going with the road, but there were a bunch of crossings above us, and as we kept going it seemed like an entire bridge structure was above us. The area we were walking through kept seeming to get seedier as well. Kinda like Midgar in FF7 (Yea, I went there), it was like the Chicago slums down there. Weird that there were two different cities on top of each other. Puts new meaning to the term "Second City" (though I know that's not where it comes from).
After we got to the NBC Studios, we saw that it was closed, but we were only an hour or two from fireworks, so we decided to hand out on the Navy Pier until then. Since the fireworks show was going to be from the pier, it seems like a logical choice. After browsing all the neat stuff down there, we grabbed a bit to eat at the Billy Goat place. It is apparently famous, though for two different reasons. They keep mentioning that it is from SNL with the Cheezeborger Cheezeborger Cheezeborger skit, though I have no idea where that's from. I saw on the walls that it was also home to the Billy Goat that ended up getting tossed out of a game in Wrigley Field (even though he had a ticket). I thought that was awesome. The place that is believed to have cursed the Cubs is still alive and well respected in Chicago. That really puts how messed up Chicago is into perspective.
With our bellies full of Cheezeborgers, we wandered a bit more around Navy Pier. They were having some sort of side show going on. A bunch of people were dressed up like freaks and walking around. Some neat stuff realy. It provided an interesting backdrop for our mini golf game. That, and the wet leaves around the entire course. I hadn't played for a long time, and it was nice to release some competitive juices.
After the game it was only a couple of minutes to the firework show. It was nothing to really write home about. It lasted about 10 minutes and was set to some Halloween music. It did have a clip from Rocky Horror Picture Show in it. So now I have a strong desire to see that movie again. I need to borrow that from Patrick soon before I forget about it. I wanted to watch it before Halloween, but obviously that didn't work out too well.
The trip was fun, although short, and it left me a bit drained. But I've gotten over that in the week after it. It was a great time, and now it will live on in the halls of the interweb ... FOREVER!
Friday, October 23, 2009
All I Want Is Just One More Day
Note: Blogger was having some issues last night, so here is yesterday's blog.
I got back a bit ago from an absolutely AMAZING show. It was Ludo's Broken Bride Tour. As soon as I saw that the tour was named for the Broken Bride, I had to go. Broken Bride is a considerable stand out in my library. The epic rock opera is something that I have wanted to hear live ever since I first played the entire disc. Prior to tonight, I've heard every song on the cd played live, except Morning in May. But to hear them all played as if it were one extended song? Simply amazing. I loved every second of it and didn't want it to end. When we reached the end of the story, I wanted them to go back to the beginning and do it again. I actually had goosebumps while they were playing in places I've never had goosebumps before. Seriously! Have you ever had goosebumps on your thigh? I hadn't had it either until tonight!! I wasn't even aware it could happen. Boy was I wrong.
Ludo wasn't the only band that took the stage tonight. I met a guy Without A Face. He was pretty entertaining. I don't think Greg, Patrick, or Tommy liked him, but I did. I find it kind of weird, because he sounded a lot like Stephen Lynch to me. Those guys LOVE Stephen Lynch, but when somebody does his shtick outside of a comedy show all of the sudden you don't like it? I can't understand that. After him was Meese. They weren't exactly my cup of tea. Sounded a lot like Coldplay, and I'm not a fan of them for some reason. I couldn't tell you exactly what was wrong with it, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. Their last song was pretty good though, shame I couldn't recognize it if I heard it again.
Then there was Ha Ha Tonka. I didn't know anything about these guys when I showed up, but I left wanting to get their stuff. They sound a lot like a Lynyrd Skynyrd or some other country like rock band. It was very righteous. They had a bunch of energy up there and I really enjoyed the whole experience with them. There was a portion where they ditched the instruments and just did an a capella song, and it was fantastic. They were pretty unassuming looking guys, but they could definitely belt out a tune.
That's really about it. I played a bit of Smackdown vs RAW 2010, but it's been pretty uneventful. That'll change this weekend. I'll be leaving early Saturday for Chicago and not coming home until Sunday afternoon. We'll see how that effects this nice writing gig I'm reestablishing for myself.
Later folks!
-Daniel
I got back a bit ago from an absolutely AMAZING show. It was Ludo's Broken Bride Tour. As soon as I saw that the tour was named for the Broken Bride, I had to go. Broken Bride is a considerable stand out in my library. The epic rock opera is something that I have wanted to hear live ever since I first played the entire disc. Prior to tonight, I've heard every song on the cd played live, except Morning in May. But to hear them all played as if it were one extended song? Simply amazing. I loved every second of it and didn't want it to end. When we reached the end of the story, I wanted them to go back to the beginning and do it again. I actually had goosebumps while they were playing in places I've never had goosebumps before. Seriously! Have you ever had goosebumps on your thigh? I hadn't had it either until tonight!! I wasn't even aware it could happen. Boy was I wrong.
Ludo wasn't the only band that took the stage tonight. I met a guy Without A Face. He was pretty entertaining. I don't think Greg, Patrick, or Tommy liked him, but I did. I find it kind of weird, because he sounded a lot like Stephen Lynch to me. Those guys LOVE Stephen Lynch, but when somebody does his shtick outside of a comedy show all of the sudden you don't like it? I can't understand that. After him was Meese. They weren't exactly my cup of tea. Sounded a lot like Coldplay, and I'm not a fan of them for some reason. I couldn't tell you exactly what was wrong with it, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. Their last song was pretty good though, shame I couldn't recognize it if I heard it again.
Then there was Ha Ha Tonka. I didn't know anything about these guys when I showed up, but I left wanting to get their stuff. They sound a lot like a Lynyrd Skynyrd or some other country like rock band. It was very righteous. They had a bunch of energy up there and I really enjoyed the whole experience with them. There was a portion where they ditched the instruments and just did an a capella song, and it was fantastic. They were pretty unassuming looking guys, but they could definitely belt out a tune.
That's really about it. I played a bit of Smackdown vs RAW 2010, but it's been pretty uneventful. That'll change this weekend. I'll be leaving early Saturday for Chicago and not coming home until Sunday afternoon. We'll see how that effects this nice writing gig I'm reestablishing for myself.
Later folks!
-Daniel
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Mini-cation Here I Come!
Once again, I'm up later than I'd like to be, and I'm doing something that's only going to make it worse. But I need to keep doing this so I get in the habit, and I get better. The ball keeps on rolling kids!
I finished up Brutal Legend last night. ... AND I CAN'T WAIT to play it again. I actually wanted to reboot it and hit New Game, but it was 2:30 AM by the time I finished the finale (and a nice little achievement gem). I'm serious too, all I want to do is play this game again but I'm going to hold off. As promised, I rented Smackdown 2010 last night, and I need to be playing some of that.
...
After I get my memory card back from Patrick. Ah hell, I just realized that. I went over to his house today to do a nice trade of Rock Band Metal Track Pack for a 1600 Point card. I brought along my memory card because I thought we would end up playing some Rock Band. I wanted to show off a creation of mine that is still in progress. We didn't play Rock Band, but we did play Smackdown. He bought a copy. I put my memory card in there, presumably to save some sort of data to it, and I totally left it there.
Just in case you were wondering, we only played two matches. A Backstage brawl where John Morisson (Pat) knocked out Evan Bourne (Me). Then there was a Championship scramble that ended with a successful defense by time out. We didn't do an actual one on one match, sorry folks.
I will have plenty of time tomorrow to get better at this game though. For some reason, my skills lack at the beginning of every new game. Presumably because of lack of practice. I'm sure when 2011 comes out I'll suck again though. But I've got plenty of stuff to keep my interest tomorrow. I was going to do some comic organizing and make sure that what I haven't read is everything that I want to read. In other words, I want to fill potential holes in the series that I regularly read. But it doesn't look too likely that will happen since it's supposed to rain tomorrow. I ain't walking to Kyle's and back with comics and a cardboard box in the rain. That's just be a complete waste. At least I'll be able to figure out what I might need and order them to my liking.
Tomorrow night should be great though, even if it is raining. LUDO is going to rock the crap out of the Pagaent tomorrow. I know it's only been about 5 months, but it feels like I haven't seen them in a really long time. I guess when you like a band that much and have seen them so many times that it feels longer. They also don't have a Christmas show planned this year, so it'll be longer before I see them again. I think ditching the Christmas show is for the best. When I went to the show in 2007 it was a whole big deal. There was a chair on the side of the stage for Santa Claus, who sat there the entire set. The set looked completely awesome. They had people handing out hot cocoa to people waiting in line. It just felt so much better. Last year it seemed like they bought a couple blow up Christmas stuff from Wal-Mart and had a space to get a picture with Santa. It just wasn't as special last year. Maybe I just had high hopes from the awesome experience I had the prior year.
But this concert will be held to some high expectations as well. They're going to be doing the entire CD Broken Bride on stage. I really love the crap out of this CD. It's like a 30-minute movie for your ears, and it's just such an awesome disc! I could go into detail, since I thought up a bunch of points of why I like it during my morning walk, but I'm way too tired to stay up that long singing their praises. If you have one of these shows coming close to you, I suggest you go. Plus, I hear you can pick up Broken Bride in stores. That'd be so much more convenient than having to pick one up at the show. Then you can listen ahead of time and be prepared for the epic tale that you'll be hearing.
Seriously, it's going to be great. And the best thing is that it's basically how I officially kick off my mini-cation! I've got the next four days off. FOUR DAYS! I'm jacked about that alone. But it's only a good vacation if you go somewhere, so we're gonna head up to Chicago and hob-nob around there for a day. Catch some Halloween fireworks, which still doesn't make a lick of sense to me, but whatever the hell works for them I guess. I need to do some searching online and see if there's a good Halloween store in downtown Chi-town. I'm still costume-less, and I can't stand it. At least last year at this time I knew what I was going to be.
We'll see what happens though. I'm sure it'll be great.
-Daniel
I finished up Brutal Legend last night. ... AND I CAN'T WAIT to play it again. I actually wanted to reboot it and hit New Game, but it was 2:30 AM by the time I finished the finale (and a nice little achievement gem). I'm serious too, all I want to do is play this game again but I'm going to hold off. As promised, I rented Smackdown 2010 last night, and I need to be playing some of that.
...
After I get my memory card back from Patrick. Ah hell, I just realized that. I went over to his house today to do a nice trade of Rock Band Metal Track Pack for a 1600 Point card. I brought along my memory card because I thought we would end up playing some Rock Band. I wanted to show off a creation of mine that is still in progress. We didn't play Rock Band, but we did play Smackdown. He bought a copy. I put my memory card in there, presumably to save some sort of data to it, and I totally left it there.
Just in case you were wondering, we only played two matches. A Backstage brawl where John Morisson (Pat) knocked out Evan Bourne (Me). Then there was a Championship scramble that ended with a successful defense by time out. We didn't do an actual one on one match, sorry folks.
I will have plenty of time tomorrow to get better at this game though. For some reason, my skills lack at the beginning of every new game. Presumably because of lack of practice. I'm sure when 2011 comes out I'll suck again though. But I've got plenty of stuff to keep my interest tomorrow. I was going to do some comic organizing and make sure that what I haven't read is everything that I want to read. In other words, I want to fill potential holes in the series that I regularly read. But it doesn't look too likely that will happen since it's supposed to rain tomorrow. I ain't walking to Kyle's and back with comics and a cardboard box in the rain. That's just be a complete waste. At least I'll be able to figure out what I might need and order them to my liking.
Tomorrow night should be great though, even if it is raining. LUDO is going to rock the crap out of the Pagaent tomorrow. I know it's only been about 5 months, but it feels like I haven't seen them in a really long time. I guess when you like a band that much and have seen them so many times that it feels longer. They also don't have a Christmas show planned this year, so it'll be longer before I see them again. I think ditching the Christmas show is for the best. When I went to the show in 2007 it was a whole big deal. There was a chair on the side of the stage for Santa Claus, who sat there the entire set. The set looked completely awesome. They had people handing out hot cocoa to people waiting in line. It just felt so much better. Last year it seemed like they bought a couple blow up Christmas stuff from Wal-Mart and had a space to get a picture with Santa. It just wasn't as special last year. Maybe I just had high hopes from the awesome experience I had the prior year.
But this concert will be held to some high expectations as well. They're going to be doing the entire CD Broken Bride on stage. I really love the crap out of this CD. It's like a 30-minute movie for your ears, and it's just such an awesome disc! I could go into detail, since I thought up a bunch of points of why I like it during my morning walk, but I'm way too tired to stay up that long singing their praises. If you have one of these shows coming close to you, I suggest you go. Plus, I hear you can pick up Broken Bride in stores. That'd be so much more convenient than having to pick one up at the show. Then you can listen ahead of time and be prepared for the epic tale that you'll be hearing.
Seriously, it's going to be great. And the best thing is that it's basically how I officially kick off my mini-cation! I've got the next four days off. FOUR DAYS! I'm jacked about that alone. But it's only a good vacation if you go somewhere, so we're gonna head up to Chicago and hob-nob around there for a day. Catch some Halloween fireworks, which still doesn't make a lick of sense to me, but whatever the hell works for them I guess. I need to do some searching online and see if there's a good Halloween store in downtown Chi-town. I'm still costume-less, and I can't stand it. At least last year at this time I knew what I was going to be.
We'll see what happens though. I'm sure it'll be great.
-Daniel
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
You give me that funny feeling in my hand
Word up everyone! Those who came back from yesterday, good to see you again. Those who are just coming around ... you haven't missed much.
I'll let you know, my fingers are still in pain from yesterday. I had to redo the flags on the entire bike rack. That meant clipping off approximately 200 zip ties and moving all of the tags contained inside into NEW holders, then zip tie-ing (don't think that's a word) them. And cutting off the excess. Using the piece of crap cutters we have, it hurt my hands. In the middle of the palm, and the middle joint in the finger. It's still in a bit of pain and tender. Really sucks. My precious trigger fingers.
I was able to finish up that bike rack project today, and got moved onto a different project right after. That's what I'm good for, projects. Point me in a direction and stuff gets DONE! They want to redesign the entire lawn & garden area into Christmas. I should say VIRTUALLY all of the area. There is a small portion already done. Oh, and they want to do it by 7 AM tomorrow. So by my clock right now, they have 10 hours. When I left 2 hours ago, they hadn't made much progress.
I wouldn't be holding my breath that they get it done.
I took back my Futurama Vol 1 DVD that I bought Sunday. It's one of those crappy cases that tries to hold 2 discs on a flimsy insert. Naturally, the insert was broken and laying inside the DVD case. When I got the new one, I shook it a bit to make sure it wasn't in the same condition. It wouldn't' really matter in the long or short term, because it was also the only one they had left. So when I get home today, I open it up, same damn deal. I'll just suck it up. It's not a big deal, the discs aren't rattling around, the insert is rattling around with the discs securely inside it. They'll be fine ... I think.
I just got the e-mail fro Patrick, and it seems the Wrestle Mania 26 trip is one it's last leg, and about to be amputated. I try not to covet things that I'm not going to get, so if the trip gets redesigned into a PPV-viewing party at somebodies house, I'll be fine with it. After all, I do get my mini-cation with the KLiQ this weekend. Should be fun.
I'm gonna get some game on right now. I rented Smackdown 2010, but I'm gonna finish Brutal Legend first. Just got to.
Later
-Daniel
I'll let you know, my fingers are still in pain from yesterday. I had to redo the flags on the entire bike rack. That meant clipping off approximately 200 zip ties and moving all of the tags contained inside into NEW holders, then zip tie-ing (don't think that's a word) them. And cutting off the excess. Using the piece of crap cutters we have, it hurt my hands. In the middle of the palm, and the middle joint in the finger. It's still in a bit of pain and tender. Really sucks. My precious trigger fingers.
I was able to finish up that bike rack project today, and got moved onto a different project right after. That's what I'm good for, projects. Point me in a direction and stuff gets DONE! They want to redesign the entire lawn & garden area into Christmas. I should say VIRTUALLY all of the area. There is a small portion already done. Oh, and they want to do it by 7 AM tomorrow. So by my clock right now, they have 10 hours. When I left 2 hours ago, they hadn't made much progress.
I wouldn't be holding my breath that they get it done.
I took back my Futurama Vol 1 DVD that I bought Sunday. It's one of those crappy cases that tries to hold 2 discs on a flimsy insert. Naturally, the insert was broken and laying inside the DVD case. When I got the new one, I shook it a bit to make sure it wasn't in the same condition. It wouldn't' really matter in the long or short term, because it was also the only one they had left. So when I get home today, I open it up, same damn deal. I'll just suck it up. It's not a big deal, the discs aren't rattling around, the insert is rattling around with the discs securely inside it. They'll be fine ... I think.
I just got the e-mail fro Patrick, and it seems the Wrestle Mania 26 trip is one it's last leg, and about to be amputated. I try not to covet things that I'm not going to get, so if the trip gets redesigned into a PPV-viewing party at somebodies house, I'll be fine with it. After all, I do get my mini-cation with the KLiQ this weekend. Should be fun.
I'm gonna get some game on right now. I rented Smackdown 2010, but I'm gonna finish Brutal Legend first. Just got to.
Later
-Daniel
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