I’ve been playing way too much baseball on Wii Sports. In doing that, I’ve picked up a few tricks.
I’ve been dealing with the red ring of death for the last 2 months. “Dealing with it?” you ask. Yes, dealing with it. I’ve been overheating my 360 (as shown here,) which somehow temporarily fixes the problem. Usually I can get 4-5 days out of the box without needing to lovingly suffocate it back to life.
Unfortunately, I found myself suffocating it for the third day in a row today. Thoughts of facing Microsoft tech support (which I have nothing bad to say about…yet) and sending my loyal 360 in for repairs have begun. It kills me to send it in for many reasons:
a) There aren’t any Wii or DS games I have much of an itch to get from GameFly.
b) Seeing my 360 complain about what a jerk of an owner I am on its own fake blog makes me sad (which in itself is horribly sad.)
c) I spend roughly 4 hours a day on my 360.
d) GTA4 is out in 2 weeks.
On the other hand, it might lead to a neat experiment in trying questionable Wii titles. Probably not.
Filed under: DS | Tags: arkanoid, guitar hero, nintedo ds, peripheral, space invaders, taito paddle
We’ve seen the Guitar Hero DS peripheral that uses the GBA port on the DS. The prospect of using the GBA port for peripherals didn’t initially light my fire, but after watching the latest “Import Friendly,” color me ignited.
If you haven’t seen Taito’s paddle peripheral, pay better attention. There’s a picture of it literally a centimeter above this paragraph. It’s compatible with the future US releases Arkanoid DS, Space Invaders Extreme, and presumably with any imminent paddle-controlled arcade releases for the DS. Though I haven’t used the paddle myself, Chris Kohler over at Wired.com has. He writes:
“…It’s fantastic. It’s not just a little plastic dial. It’s sitting on ball bearings or something, and it’s got momentum and a little bit of kickback to it. That means that it spins incredibly smoothly — if you spin it and let go, it’ll keep whizzing for a good five seconds or so. The response time is perfect.”
Very exciting. What’s sad to me is that the rumored/inevitable DS redesign won’t have a GBA port. This translates to the paddle (and Guitar Hero fret board) not working with everyone’s third DS. Fortunately the redesign has not been announced yet, so there is still hope that Nintendo will reconsider AXING (Hi-oh! Axe…guita-…nevermind) the port. Regardless, the paddle and Arkanoid DS bundle can be imported now, as can Space Invaders Extreme. If importing isn’t your thing, Arkanoid DS, Space Invaders Extreme, and Taito’s paddle will be released in the US on June 17.
Recorded about a month ago, when I believed a new site would be coming sooner than later.
I was originally recording that night to show the prevalence of those that quit early during ranked matches of Rock Band. Clearly better content was destined. Enjoy.
Filed under: RPG, xbox 360 | Tags: MMO, MMORPG, Oblivion, RPG, The Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
I finally played through The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion this weekend. I know, two years late, BUT I TOTALLY BOUGHT IT THE DAY IT RELEASED, SO BACK OFF. I originally bought it to last me the 3 weeks between the free beta and retail release of Final Fantasy XI on the Xbox 360. I didn’t even close an Oblivion gate before I decided the game wasn’t for me.
I was wrong. I played Oblivion for the entirety of this past weekend. No really, the entire weekend. Even so, I think my RPG elders would be aghast by how I played Oblivion. I put the difficulty slider all the way to the easiest position.
At first I told myself “I’ll put it back up when I get into the swing of things.” Didn’t happen. I happily slaughtered everything in my path, rarely going below 75% health. It was almost like playing a book in that the story progressed with little effort from me. I was truly mesmerized by how vast the world was, and how many options I had. I could bust out some Fighters Guild quests if I wanted to, or I could screw up a bunch of Dark Brotherhood quests. From time to time I thought about how I should probably be playing something more difficult than breathing, but I was enjoying the book+freedom experience I was having. I was doing it wrong and liking it.
I’m sure those that have experienced the game with a greater degree of difficulty feel something for the game that I come nowhere near feeling, but I became my avatar while I was playing nonetheless. Much like an MMO, the experiences my character was having were my own. Every conversation, while not always fluid, was genuine. Every action had a consequence! That was probably the most amazing thing to me. If I screwed up real bad, perhaps I went through the Imperial City’s market district and just mauled everyone, the Fighter’s Guild would kick me out! That may seem petty, but the usual punishment in a video game is death, not expulsion from a group you’re a part of.
The last place you would think to find comedy is in an RPG called The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but some serious funny can happen in this game. The funniest thing I’ve seen for a while actually happened last night while I was dicking around in the game. Here’s the situation: A boy called my “Adoring Fan” is following me everywhere. He loves me, because I am the Grand Champion of the Imperial City’s arena. Basically, I kick ass. This boy is always following me. At any time I can tell him to leave me be, or to wait somewhere, but I don’t have the heart to do it. He’s so pathetic, the least I can do is let him watch someone as great as me. I’m on my way to a cave to kill some things for a quest. Usually when I have to run to a far away place I switch the point of view to the third person, then I jump around and swing my weapon because it looks ridiculous and robotic, and that’s funny to me. To be cool I decided to try 360’s and 540’s while jumping around like an asshole. I accomplish looking like an asshole, and continue to do so while flailing my gigantic weapon around. I smash the pathetic little boy in the face with my Fine Steel Warhammer while I’m in mid-540. My jaw drops and my eyes widen. His body ragdolls, and the torch he was holding spins and falls to the ground where he was standing. “This game is the best,” I thought to myself.
The game certainly isn’t without issues however. There are a lot of weird little problems with the character to NPC interactions. The most notable of which is how angry everyone looks at you when you’ve just saved the entire land of Cyrodiil. I’m sure this isn’t a problem for everyone, but it’s really off-putting when right after giving the land a chance at life, the Emperor is gritting his teeth at me like I just told him that I booked Fergie for his birthday party. I can ignore this, and the few other problems the game has (frame rate issues, collision detection, etc.) seeing that the game is almost on an MMO scale on every front.
This raises the idea of an Elder Scrolls MMO. Could it work? I won’t go crazy in-dept, but I sure think so. The pieces of any Elder Scrolls game’s story are so distinct and separate from one another that the same sort of saga could be blown into an MMO fairly easily. Seeing that Oblivion was one of 2006’s most critically acclaimed video games while never relating your work in the main story to your side quests, I think most would find it difficult to be disappointed if some sort of quest relationship system isn’t implemented when the game is in MMO form.
Whether or not an Elder Scrolls MMO comes out, play Oblivion. If you really want to read a fantasy book this weekend, don’t. Just play Oblivion for 40 hours. You won’t regret it, unless you’re a jerk.
