She said "yes" :)
WANT
Halo: Uprising comic series(Nevermind, 1st one sucked)Mass Effect (Xbox 360)Canon IXUS 70 (digital camera) + Case + 2Gb SD CardWestern Digital Passport 250Gb (USB hard drive)- Samsung LA40M81 40" 1080p LCD Television
- PC Upgrade: Core 2 Quad, Vista rig!
- World Peace, etc
Halo 3 is done
Finished yesterday at 4:47 PM on Heroic, in three sessions interrupted only by sleep and an errand to diagnose a faulty car engine.
Took me 9 hours and 11 minutes all up (I wrote it all down!). Still trying to sum it all up in my head - trying not to read reviews so I can form my own opinion. My first impressions are that it's "great."
Here's one of my first ever screenshots! The first time a grunt suicides into you is always hi-larious!
12 Hours to go...
Well it's been a long road. Halo 2 was a huge hype machine, but it's nothing compared to the third installment. Halo 3 is everywhere. Still, I have yet to see a single ad on Australian television.
MetaCritic is @ 97% with 15 reviews. The press embargo has lifted, the new version of Bungie.net is live with Campaign stats and there are spoilers all over the net. The final moments of Halo 3 are in YouTube. Before I left for work today, I downloaded a 233Mb GameTrailers video review... it's requiring all my willpower not to watch it. I don't want to see a single cutscene, a single encounter, a single bar of new music that hasn't already been released.
Compared to the lead-up to Halo 2 three years ago, I know nothing.
But I know not to set my expectations too high. This is not a life changing event. It's just an opportunity to geek-out and take two days off work to play what should be an enjoyable video game. I'm a big fan of absurd behaviour like that.
Bungie has tried so very hard not to over-promise this time around. They have only really spoken of multiplayer, Forge and Saved Films. The rest we only know: it's Halo 1 & 2 gameplay mixed together and multiplied - huge battles are promised. We have been somewhat-disappointed, which should help Halo 3's reception.
...oh, and there should be an ending this time around.
One last note: if someone at my midnight launch event yells out any Halo secrets, I'll be the first one to lead a pitchfork-wielding mob in his direction. You have been warned.
Xbox 360 Halo 3 Edition
-Blam!-
My camera's batteries are borked, so this is the only photo I snapped :/ Time to update my WANT list now, methinks.
AWESOME:
- Effectively cost me $20*
- packaging is pretty.
- HDMI (not that I have anything to hook it up to)
- It looks sleek and understated, much better when not in full light (like a camera flash)
- Mfr date: 16-Aug-2007; like only a month ago! NEW!
- Additional heat sink? Yep. I can see it using only a torch.
- Quieter? Yep - at idle at least (my old one would ramp up just in dashboard)
- Drive: BenQ
- Sale Price: $649; price matched K-Mart
- Bonus theme & Gamerpic, so I feel special, and everyone else on XBL knows I'm special...
NOT SO AWESOME:
- Rechargeable battery is black, like an Elite's. WEAKSAUCE. Oh well.
So it's quieter and looks... okay. Definitely different! Hopefully it will never overheat, RROD or crap out in any other way.
Now... bring on Halo 3!!!
*after trade-in: my 6mth old 360 + 4 x games + 8xXBox1 games. Sold Xbox 1 + accessories. 10% trade-in bonus with EB card.
Halo 7uesday Schedule
Yes, indeed I am certifiable. Next week, Halo 3 comes out. Here's my plan:
Sunday 23rd | |
|---|---|
| 1400 | buy supplies (fruit, chips, beer, eye-drops for tired eyes, heat packs for tired arms) |
| 2300+ | bedtime... need to skew my sleeping patterns to be later! |
Monday 24th | |
| 1300 | Flex off an hour of work; bring home my awesome new (ATH-A700) headphones |
| 1330 | get a few hours sleep |
| 1830 | Dinner with girlfriend; farewell hugs etc :) |
| 2200 | set up Xbox 360 rig - 21" monitor on the coffee table, bean bag, handy snacks! |
| 2300 | Drive to local EB and line up @ midnight launch event |
7uesday 25th | |
| 0000 | Get Halo 3 |
| 0005 | Hoot, holler. |
| 0015 | drive home |
| 0030 | Make coffee, get comfy, don headphones play teh haloz |
| 0400 | reluctantly fall asleep on couch |
| 0700 | breakfast; review some of my campaign saved films |
| 0900 | curtain off windows; fire up 5.1 home theatre; play more teh haloz |
| 1300 | lunch; review campaign saved films |
| 1400 | play more teh haloz - final stint? |
| 1700 | finished the fight? |
Wednesday 26th | |
| Recoup, relax, and replay some campaign, try some XBL online, play around in Forge! |
...and then of course the weekend will roll around, and it will be time for some campaign co-op!
I'm such a fanboi!
Well I just pre-ordered the Halo 3 Special Edition Xbox 360. I'm a Halo tragic. At least it will go well with my Halo 3 Legendary Edition helmet.
I bought my Xbox 360 in April this year, so I will have had it for not quite six months before giving the girl away (actually, trading it in for a poultry $300!). It's performed flawlessly, except for a few hiccups; but I wanted to get a recently manufactured model - and that meant getting either an Xbox 360 Elite, or the Halo 3 Edition. Both have HDMI, which I have no (immediate) use for, and - apparently - a better cooling solution.
I wanted a recently manufactured 360 based on the belief that newer models will be less prone to overheating. That's the sensible, left brain decision. The rest of me wants a cool, custom Xbox 360 and to play with a differently-coloured controller. Oh, and to be the envy of other fan-boys.
Tragic.
WANT - Updated
Xbox 360 - Halo 3 EditionPre-orderedHalo 3 Legendary EditionGot it!Mass Effect(Xbox 360 game)BioShockGot it!Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare(Xbox 360 game)Western Digital Passport 250GbUSB hard drive- Samsung M-series 40" 1080p LCD Television
Halo: Uprising (comic series)Got #1! (Sucked)Halo: Contact Harvest (novel)Got it!Mass Effect: Revelation (novel)Got it!Creative GigaWorks T-20stereo speakers
What can I say? I'm a consumer whore. I think I need to go buy a lotto ticket/scratchie.
BioShock Demo (360)
Well that was fun.
I took the plunge a few months ago and bought an Xbox 360; primarily to play Gears of War - but, ultimately for Halo 3. There was a lot of promise in lots of other upcoming games aswell, though. Games like Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed and... BioShock.
Since then, only Mass Effect has jumped from my list of "interesting" games to my "must have at all costs" list. Assassin's Creed and BioShock were yet to show their true colours. But BEHOLD! A BioShock demo descends from the heavens Xbox Live Marketplace!
I try not to get too invested in unproven games before release; sequels are the exception, because you'll generally know what you're getting into. But I've been burned by the hype machine far too often - a lot of games just don't live up to the hype surrounding them.
For BioShock, I was worried about the control scheme and the complexity of combat. The videos released showed how many different ways there were available to approach every encounter - and while that's great on paper, I didn't know if I was going to enjoy "modding" my weapons - and character!, hacking and the combo effects of the physics and AI. I see the possibility for a lot of "gamesmanship" - say, playing it safe and building up an army of loyal hovering kill-bots (hacking the security droids), or just luring enemies into water and zapping them (with your Electroshock Plasmid). Also - I generally abhor mini-games.
All this said, I had a damn good time in the demo. Played through it twice so far, and there's still more things I want to try out!
It starts in a style reminiscent of Half-Life; except the train ride is replaced with a crashed plane, and a submersible elevator. The same, dystopian vibe awaits on arrival to Rapture, the underwater city. More zombies, though! There's a rock-paper-scissors feel to the combat - there's always a "right way" to go about each encounter; but at the same time, there's enough variety in the environments of the limited demo that offers some minor variations here and there. An experienced player doing a speed-run through BioShock would be quite something - dispatching rooms full of enemies in the most efficient way possible, using all of the devices at their disposal (guns, plasmids, hacking, environment, AI).
I'm still a little worried that the nature of BioShock is open to gamesmanship, and may end up having very contrived environments - where each encounter has an "obvious," less efficient way to victory, and providing limited ways to the "perfect" solution (least ammo, money & health spent).
In the end, the only real justification to get BioShock, is that I will soon finish Marathon: Durandal, and it is still a tortuously long 40 days until "Halo 7eusday." Well it's better than Cartman's idea of freezing himself until the Wii was released!
"Tell him something pretty"
Reading this user review on TV.com of the HBO show Deadwood just makes me want to go back and watch all three seasons.
That show stuck in my head in the same way as the Lord of the Rings novels did. I found that I would word things differently, perhaps a little more poetically, when I was involved with them. No the cussing, mind (of which there is plenty to go around in Deadwood).
I used to love writing short stories in my high school days, just for my own entertainment. There was always some fantastical tale I wanted to tell (the bulk of each usually plagiarised from whatever popular movies or TV shows where showing at the time). Unfortunately I'm very bad at finishing my own projects (stories, programs, web sites... conversations!), so I'd never think to take it up again; but I love the idea or writing in verse or other interesting ways.
I learned a new noun today: iambic pentameter. It's the poetic style that Deadwood has been written in. It is (by some definitions) poetry, literally. For me, it triggers those brain centres that just capture my attention and inspire me - like something as simple as the rhythm of a beat or clever song lyrics. It just sticks with me - and I used to find myself trying emulate the pattern of speech (again, minus the cussing!).
...Even if I didn't understand half of the meaning of what is being spoke. Then again, the same could be said of most people's understanding Shakespeare.
Halo 3 E3 2007 "Montage"
Usually I'm beyond hyped when I get a new Halo trailer... Not so much this time. It's a Campaign montage, instead of a cinematic trailer. Like the Halo 2/3 announcement trailers, or the recent Digital Domain-created Halo 3 TV Spot. They were all non-gameplay though.
This new "montage" is just a collection of 3-second chunks of combat strung together. Didn't help that the encoding quality of this new video was pants. Looked like it had been upscaled from VHS.
Okay now I can comment on the good stuff in the trailer:
- Yes some of the scenes look detailed
- the Pelicans ducking between battlecruisers
- scenes with Arbiter/Master Chief/343 Guilty Spark/Cortana in the same room...
- new Scarab looks cool! might be boardable/destroyable...?
- Covenant drop-ships now seem to be destructable too
- levels DO look laterally huge
- MC putting a pistol to Arby's throat :)
There's too many scenes that show muddy textures and goofy, cartoon-style animation. Brutes are huge! They shouldn't be moving like ninjas.
Other people like Transformers, too
I've seen it a second time now, and I have to amend my review. It improved. The more I think about it, the more the "bad" melts away. This is a film that's really stuck in my head.
Now I must go and drum up interest for people to go see it a 3rd time :)
Review: Transformers
It was depressing leaving the theatre last night. For the most part, I enjoyed the hell out of Transformers, but the third act brought up the notion to me that they could have hit a home run with this film (for general audiences, geeks, TF nostalgic persons, and TF faithful).
I've been following this movie's development for three years; last night I finally got to see Transformers is all it's Michael Bay-influenced glory.
Quick shot: Plot holes everywhere, muddy quick-cut camera work, busy designs... Lots of humour and heart, lots of references to the original, LOTS of asplosions. The good and the bad.
Quicker shot: Best movie I've seen this year... (of it's genre, at least)
You can really tell the way Bay made this film. Sure there was a script, but it looks like he filmed it how he wanted and the bots were added almost as an afterthought. Their dialog was, more often then not, one-sided. Either Sam was talking at them, or the bots were giving some form of soliloquy (or in the case of Bumblebee, nothing at all). There was no back-and forth or development of relationships other then with Bumblebee.
What gets me is that they could have fleshed out the bots so much more with so little effort. There were a few scenes where it was just robots on a relatively static background - here they could have expounded on, say, Starscream's rivalry with Megatron (there's only a single "you have failed me again" line from Megatron in the movie; in fact Starscream only has one line in total). I wanted more banter between Autobots and Decepticons; I wanted to hear their hatred of each other.
I thought we left quick-cutting action like that behind a few years ago. The camera was always so close to the action, where a wide shot would have suited so much better. We're lead to believe that each frame of CGI took 38 hours to render... and then they go and add a metric tonne of motion blur. I say: what's the point? When we DID get wide shots, the images were flawless.
Huh?
It's confusing to me: I liked a lot of the things I thought wouldn't like, and vice versa. Frenzy was funny and vicious; I'd have to check, but I think he actually got the most screen time - definitely the most number of appearances.
The love story mostly worked; don't see what's so special about Mikaela other than her obvious hotness. She got a bit of development early-on, but then she was just along for the ride.
Autobots sneaking around Sam's parent's backyard is classic. Bumblebee peeing on someone... no so much.
The "essence," if you will, of Transformers is in there somewhere.
"WTF" Moments
- Where's Barricade when all his buddies are being blown up?
- Bumblebee can talk all of a sudden? (Ratchet did hit him with a red beam of light at one point, though)
- Optimus Prime and Megatron are brothers? Red Herring. Needed some setup and more pay-off than a single line.
So what would you have done, tough guy?
- Ditch the Qatar base survivors thread (irrelevant);
- ditch the virus/hackers thread (not overly significant) OR have them face-off with some Decepticons of their own;
- spend more time introducing the Autobots when they first arrive and meet up
- show Starscream leading the other Decepticons in the Allspark search (Barricade/Frenzy & Blackout/Skorponok did all the hunting). That would lead to more development of the 'Cons and let them be differentiated more.
Where to from here?
Well I'm going to have to see it another time (or two) for a start. I need to see if the annoying bits are as terrible as I first thought.
All told, it was a nice Introduction Movie. It was a glimpse, a taster. A sequel should have Sam (if Shia LaBouf isn't a supamegastar by then), but actually centre on the 'bots - show us some motivation, character and actually build up the mythos (for the third film!). Mikaela is an optional accessory, of course.
DON'T have our military being so damn tough. We need to be scared of these robots!
They left open little doors to things like the Matrix of Leadership (Allspark & Chest Cavities), Megatron's "spark"/soul may be contained within the remaining fragment of the Allspark...
They need to clarify the whole "scanning" thing. The seem to be able to transmogrify themselves instantaneously into any (similarly-massed) object; why not just do that instead of transforming?
I thank Michael Bay for helping to re-shape Transformers for the big screen, but he's not welcome back for a second run. A Sequel needs to tone it down, take it's time, flesh things out, and leave room for a stomping great third film.
I'm starting the clock now; I want Transformers 2 in June, 2009. Get on it! :)
Sweet Jebus, it's a fine time to be a geek
I've been playing quite a bit of the Halo 3 Beta; not constantly, but enough. Mostly Team Skirmish and Big Team Battle modes - I don't have to be a hero, I just like having players on the map who aren't shooting at me! (Mostly)
I even found playing split-screen with a mate quite good. Going to be sad when Bungie hits the "off" button and nukes the Beta on my console, including all my Saved Films... ah well, I didn't really want to see how crap I was in that first ever game I played...
The full version will be all kinds of awesome, I'm sure. Just need to recruit more of my friends into the Xbox 360 fanboys club so I have more people on my friends list! Maybe I'll be too busy finishing the campaign for the nth time?
Transformers.
My god; the new footage out there is really building up. Lots of new stuff from the MTV Movie Awards... and I have to say I've had enough at this point. My excitement's already at 99% capacity, so anything else to get me going is probably wasted. So I'm locking myself down, not viewing any more online forums, no more YouTube; and I'll just have to close my eyes if an ad comes on TV ;)Check these out...Prime vs BonecrusherPrime Transforms and does some comedy with Sarah Silverman :)
Edit - Okay so those videos got nuked :(
There's also a hell of a lot of good stuff at www.autobotsrollout.com but I can't bring myself to watch any of it... If the bots don't end up getting much screen time, I wanna wait to be blown away in Gold Class!
All in all, I'm over-geeked. Halo, Transformers and... The War of the Worlds even! So many childhood and recent obsessions getting releases. If the Halo Movie hadn't derailed and was on track to come out this year, I think my head would just asplode.
H3-Minus 30 Hours
The Halo 3 Beta becomes available for download in 30 hours! Then I get three weeks of being taunted by American 13-year-olds who like asserted that they are better than me and that I am a homosexual. Somewhere in amongst that I'd like to think I'll be playing lots of games on Snowbound, Valhalla and High Ground (the three available maps).
My previous post was about how my Xbox 360 has started to overheat sometimes... it hasn't played up since then. But the weather's been cooler, too. I'll just hold off for a few weeks...
Oh, I ordered the Halo 3 "Cat Helmet" Edition (a.ka. "Legendary Edition")... AUD$200! I am like putty in Bungie's hands. At least I'll be putty with a cool Spartan II helmet come November. Looking forward to the midnight launch, and the ensuing two days locked up playing through the single-player campaign!
Flatmate situation: no change. Tobi's in Bali for two weeks, so I doubt he'll be researching new digs until he gets back.
Burninating!
Well, my Labor day weekend didn't go so well for my Xbox 360. Less than a month old, and it's started locking up, showing two red lights after a few hours playing Halo 2. After a few hours, I tried again - same thing. Did it again the next day after an hour in Crackdown. The rumours are true!
It runs okay at night, when the ambient temperature is lower. I've requested a repair from Xbox Support, and the process is underway... but the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta is in 6 days! I'm going to delay sending it in until I absolutely have to.
Getting a 360 is a bit of a lucky dip. I wasn't so lucky... I got a console with a build date of October 2006; so it's got an older, noisier DVD drive and seems to have problems dispersing heat. Nothing I can do, except:
- Put up with it
- Get it repaired (now or after the H3 Beta)
- Trade it for a 360 Elite!
The Elite idea isn't SO crazy. It should be $750 RRP when it gets released in Aus, some time before October. Random-EB-Games-Guy told me that 360's get a trade-in value of $400. If I trade in a few games aswell, I should be able to get a brand new, recently manufactured, better console. Then mine can be someone else's problem!
Whatever I do, I'm going to ensure I get my value out of the Halo 3 Beta first! :)
Xbox 360 in da house!
My Xbox 360 fund finally ticked over the target amount! I've only been whinging about it for 15 months.
Now I only have the intolerable wait for Halo 3 to go; made more difficult by the fact my girlfriend is in danger of being addicted to Hexic HD.
I got a fairly good deal from JB Hi-Fi for the Xbox Gears of War bundle, PGR3, DOA4 and Crackdown. Instant games library! (Er... plus a VGA cable and Play'n'Charge kit... that pushed it toward $800... ahem...).
So, Microsoft? Now is your cue to announce a huge price cut, or add features to your console.
What a week
It's almost over... I haven't felt this crap in ages. This week has been a doozy. Short version, in no particular order:
- My cousin, David McCabe, died of cancer; aged 31
- Almost failed yet another rental application
- Current flatmate is giving me grief for leaving
- Work is impossibly busy
Next week can't come fast enough - I need a fresh start. The best possible news would be a call from the estate agent, letting me know we've been approved for the Indooroopilly property; then at least I can put my troublesome flatmate out of my mind, and just get to the task of packing up my life! :)
Crossing fingers... now.
Video card ho!
My 7600GT just arrived - tonight, I play restore my PC to it's former glory! Oh wait, I'm playing "tactical boardgames" with mates. Should be interesting (and insanely geeky!).
Rentalwars 2: The Search for Another Crib, is on-going. On-going-badly, actually. We almost lost the 3rd person we were going to move in with. And one of our current flatmates' girlfiend is now going to be living with us for... I guess an undisclosed amount of time. This makes the our plan of Lou moving in for a while seem a bit far out.
The search continues
Lou and I, along with Megan (another recently-graduated Vet) are trying very hard to find a rental property together. I've been in the same place in Taringa for almost 7 years now - and it's time to move on (and to see what living with Lou full-time is like!).
Unfortunately, I get constant reminders why I've decided to stay in this one place so long - looking for properties sucks big time. We've been at it for months now; properties often appear on realestate.com.au and are snapped up that same day. Several inspections I've been to have had in excess of 30 people there, all vying for a 2 or 3 bdr unit.
The worst bit is when you get very attached to a particular property. You start picturing living there; where you're going to put your couch, where you're going to flake out and read a book on Sunday arvo's...
We have (unofficially) lost a place we were extremely keen on. It seemed to be a rare find - 3bdr/3bath/DLUG. Perfect for a couple + 1. You're flat out finding a place with TWO ensuites, let alone a double lock-up garage.
Anyway we've apparently lost it - though a freak chance we learned that the current tenants have just decided to re-sign their lease. SURELY once you've informed the estate agent that you're leaving, that starts an irreversible process??? I guess not. If Megan finds a place on her own now, we're going to have to go back to looking for sub-$300, 2bdr places again.
Gah!
Anyway, Aus PC Market says my replacement video card is on it's way back to me. At least I can get my website back up, and take out my frustrations in Battlefield 2142.
geordie.is-a-geek.net is down, not out
...and has been for a few weeks. My 'puter was "bricked" for a while there. It's back up and running now, but it's basically just an overqualified web-browsing terminal. This is a good reason why I should just pay up and get a commercial host for my little hobby site!
TECH-TALK ALERT:
My Leadtek A7600GT video card I bought in Nov '06 was dying a slow death. It's spent weeks back at Aus PC Market & their distributor; should be back soon. That should have been a trivial thing to remove from the computer and return, except Windows decided to crap out and lose all it's security information (after a while lot of driver conflicts/problems). Even Microsoft's Knowledge Base article said I was stuffed (can't do a repair install, can't log onto recovery console, must re-install). So I did a clean nuke - which isn't to be taken lightly with Media Center... It is a harsh mistress.
So now I'm on Integrated Graphics - the nForce2 IGP in fact, which is roughly equivilent to a GeForce2MX. Bonus annoyances: my CPU is now acting like a Athlon XP 2500+ instead of a 3200+, due to the vaugarities of Shuttle mobos... can't play HD video coz the graphics are so slow... can't play Battlefield 2142, can't even RUN Media Center or my HDTV tuner card (video card isn't compatible)...
So I'm gimped until my 7600GT returns. Here's hoping for a smooth installation.
Transformers - slightly sooner...
According to the Birch, Carrol & Coyle cinemas Coming Soon page, the Transformers movie is out two days before the US (well, three days, if you ignore the whole timezone thing...).
Awesome!
Mandatory mortarboard hurling
(Long time no post...)
Well Lou's a Vet now - she's even got a job! Here's a photo of everyone going nuts throwing their expensive hats around.
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