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Weekend PC digital deals: strategy-o-rama
38 Studios, Harry Potter Kinect - Shacknews Daily: May 25, 2012
Weekend Discussion: Ting-a-Ling!
by Chris Faylor, May 29, 2010 8:40am PDTI've been reading a fair bit of Kurt Vonnegut's work lately. I enjoy it. I'm sad he's dead.
Assuming the weather stays somewhat tolerable during this glorious three-day weekend--hooray for Memorial Day--I'll try to intersperse Super Mario Galaxy 2, Red Dead Redemption, Split/Second and whatever else with some light hammock reading.
I may even once again attempt hammock gaming--my Nintendo DSi and the copy of Trajectile in its memory banks have grown lonely--but I make no promises.
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TLDR: Buy Doom 2 for XBL or I will super-shotgun you in your face.
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I have in my collection probably 7 games for my 360 that I play online (Forza 3, MW2, WaW, MW1, BFBC2, etc). Now, seriously, if I had to pay say $5 a month to play each of these games, Id simply not play games anymore. I cant imagine anyone who has a larger collection than I do of online specific games that would be willing to pay potentially $40 or higher because they once in awhile might want to drop a game in and go online once in a while. This is quite possibly the most absurd thing I have ever heard and I cant believe any gamer would support this notion that playing a game online a few times a month warrants a monthly commitment.
Microshaft is happy to take $60 from the gamers a year and even take a rumored 30% off the top for every game purchased, it seems to me that Microshaft could give up some of the money they are making to put into the online costs, considering Microshaft isnt doing anything except creating the hardware and reaping all the benefits of game creators and gamers.
Why did the $15 map packs work for MW2? Well, because they fundamentally break the game if you dont have them. Try deleting the map pack from your hard drive (dont worry, you can redownload it for free) and see what I mean. Whenever you go to play a round, if you dont have the map, you are rudely dumped from the game when the round starts. For those that play MW2 on a regular basis, dont you find it a little interesting that the new maps appear significantly more frequently than the original maps included with the game? In fact, I would say a map from the map pack comes up 50% of the time even tho there are only 5 maps in the map pack (plus the game's original 16). Statistically, the map pack maps should come up 25% of the time but they dont. Why is this? Because if you dont have the map, you constantly are getting kicked out and having to go thru the matchmaking process again. It breaks the game and NO ONE is talking about this. Everyone scratches their head and makes uninformed comments that do not address the fact that the game is now broken? What other industry do we allow someone to sell product A, than 6 months later release product B (which would be an addon for product A) that is now required to make product A function normally again?
The reality is, it fundamentally breaks the multiplayer experience. We would normally pay $10 for a map pack and we will complain about $15 but the extra five dollars allows us to continue to play online without all the hassle and the five dollars isnt worth making a stink about it. We grumble, spend the five extra dollars and its done. Now, if they charged $30 for the same map pack, I guarantee, gamers would have told them to piss off and they would not have been bought. They just simply edged the price up slightly, intentionally broke the game in such a way that you have to make the purchase to fix it again, all the while, the journalists are too stupid to figure this out. And unfortunately, much of what game producers hear is what the journalists have to say, NOT what the gamers are saying.
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Looking at getting a new router. What is the best deal I can get right now? I saw that linksys is doing some new fangled thing with no antennas. Looks kinda cool.
Anyway, please halp!
Thanks!
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Rally New Zealand
I haven't done a highlight video in a while, so here you go.
Video Highlight: http://nearmiss.ca/videos/rally/wrcnewzealand2010hl.avi
The rally was a couple of weeks ago, and there was lots of action.
Also they had lots of helicopter footage and stuff so there is lots of different angles in the video.
Two Citroen C4's were leading (Loeb and Ogier) on the last stage and they manged to spin giving it to Ford's Latavala. Crazy stuff.
I am also working on getting a site up with access to all of the stuff I have done as well as some of the oither great video's in my collection. I will let you guys know.
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Wrote my latest article for the Examiner about breathing exercises for gamer rage. Check it out here!
http://www.examiner.com/x-47556-Tucson-Gaming-Lifestyle-Examiner~y2010m5d29-Gamer-health-Breathing-exercises
Since I'm curious, and I might write an article about it, What are your worst moments in gamer rage? Throw a controller? Scream like a banshee? Slap a friend or your monitor?
I embedded a great video of some prime gamer rage moments in the article, but here's the link to it anyways.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2WH9J5n3sE
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Watching this after some Shackhype. Skipping filler episodes based on a googled fan list. First couple seasons are kinda crap but its getting pretty good in 3.
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Any tips for a first-time buyer (besides start slowly)? I'm looking at getting a pair.
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..I like tying people up, sticking them on the back of my horse, riding to the highest nearby point and throwing them off.
http://i45.tinypic.com/2rvyali.jpg
http://i46.tinypic.com/1jqbrd.jpg
http://i50.tinypic.com/29qms5d.jpg
I sometimes throw them into rivers too :(
http://i45.tinypic.com/necin9.jpg
do you have any guilty pleasures in RDR?
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Will there ever be another film as influential as the Matrix?
Will there ever be another band as well loved as the beatles?
It seems to me that things are far more itterative than before. Nothing seems to be miles ahead of the curve. I don't know if it's the Internet making so much more available or things reaching a certain level of fidelity or sophistication. I suppose my point is that even the biggest bands don't have the 'beatles mania'. The most tripple a titles barely raise the bar, films are just sequels or remakes.
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:(
First it gets put on hold, now this
From Peter Jackson: “The bottom line is that Guillermo just didn’t feel he could commit six years to living in New Zealand, exclusively making these films, when his original commitment was for three years."
http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2010/05/30/36920-guillermo-del-toro-departs-the-hobbit/
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It looks like World War Zero is breaking out in Alpha. Early reports indicate a five-way standoff between superpowers with active military engagement between Egypt and Mongolia. How will this play out? Will a victor emerge? Will one or more civilizations be shoveled into the waste bin of forgotten history? Will the conquered become the conquerors? Is there still a chance for peace?
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You can't skip the tiresome skinning animation, lots of worthless animations in the mini games that you can't skip, indefensible limitations on initiating fast travel. Forcing you to drive the horse while listening to the terribly written entirely shouted conversations on horseback.
If you can only come up with six hours of story for a game, don't stretch it out with these anti-player bullshit tactics.
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After reformatting with a SSD in a new ([well, old] much cooler running, but LOUD and bright case) case, and a new CPU heatsink, I still locked up.
If my issue was heat before, I'm pretty sure I fixed it.
http://www.shackpics.com/viewer.x?file=droidUpload_e4iwewhek156xux366dj.jpg
http://www.shackpics.com/viewer.x?file=droidUpload_36d6ixenv7ys6zj6qy53.jpg
http://www.shackpics.com/viewer.x?file=20100530155409_edvofzihyzhfj0s5ba4o.jpg
http://www.shackpics.com/viewer.x?file=20100530162249_iuha7txain3lsw0wgw58.jpg
Success
http://www.shackpics.com/viewer.x?file=CoretempsvstimeJPG_nkckgsfsk51f2yjphyp0.jpg
Going to stress test the shit out of this beast tonight. If it still locks up.. i think I'll cry.
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http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/scottpilgrimvstheworld/
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_deemed_inappropriate_by_Clear_Channel_following_the_September_11,_2001_attacks
So basically everything that mentions flying objects, fire, smoke, martyrdom or being unpatriotic. Some just don't make sense even after consulting the lyrics.
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I thought it was great! I had no idea going into it that it was about his origin story and not just another regular Rob Hood movie (like the Kevin Costner one for example).
Some people thought it was a bit slow in parts but a lot of it was justified to show the buildup of the end and the character's motivations. This movie doesn't get enough credit but I think Ridley did a great job.
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The hatch implodes, and after such an epic event Charlie just strolls back to the beach and hangs with Claire like nothing happened not wondering about Locke, Eko or Desmond? WTF?
Locke builds a goddamn Native American sweatlodge and eats some random ass shit in order to have visions? Then he goes into the woods hunting the shittiest god damn CG polar bear I have ever seen.
Is it just me or has the quality level of this show just dropped from amazing to total crap in the matter of a single episode? It seems like suddenly consistency has gone from a few of the characters and major plot holes are being formed. I've loved it so much up to this point so I sort of want to keep going, but I'm a little worried now that it'll get even worse than this.
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i have a shit ton of old xbox, ps2 and snes games here, many of which came from my white elephant from overloadUT. i won't play any of them, so if you want them, they're yours -- you just pay for shipping + $5 to cover my time of bundling all this shit up for you.
i don't want to have to send 50 different games to 50 different people -- you have to take at least 5 of them as a bundle, otherwise i'll spend hours at the post office.
http://www.shackpics.com/files/games_cvukjyyunrg1w8hqphwa.jpg
http://www.shackpics.com/files/snes_vcjdv0bseybgxd6915ch.jpg
as you can see in the 2nd picture, there is also a 2nd box. it has a few original xbox controllers, a 2 NES advantages, 1 SNES super advantage, a bunch of NES games, an NES four score, etc.
if no one takes these, i may just dump them or list them for a few dollars on craigslist - they've sat in my condo for long enough.
full list of games in reply [and no i haven't typed them out yet so you'll just have to look at the pictures or wait]
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I was never a huge Star Wars fan. When I was a kid, the only thing I liked was the space battles. Heck, I thought that Empire Strikes Back was the most boring of the three. I haven't watched the original trilogy for a very long time and the movies from the prequel trilogy were the last Star Wars movies I've watched. I've played KOTOR and really liked it but it wasn't directly related to the movies.
But after watching them all again, I've changed my mind on some things. Thoughts in reply.
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God, this show is so fucking awesome. The writing just keeps getting better and better with each and every episode, and the series has never been a slouch in the writing department to begin with. I find myself once again beginning to grow attached to a set of characters in a TV show and genuinely rooting for Raylan to get his shit done. Also, Ava and his ex wife are two gorgeous women. I love those southern belle types, woowee!
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Man, that'd be a neat collection piece.
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URL says it all.
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http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/hollywood/thundercats-cartoon-murder
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10187248.stm
paging Toraz
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Don't update your googlemail account to a gmail one if you want to be able to download / update your apps It seems to totally fuck it up :(
(In Reply:)
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I bought the collection of the first three books, Chronicles Of The Black Company, and I just finished the first book. It was incredible. I've never read fantasy like it before. My main problem with most fantasy novels is usually the author putting in way too much filler, too many characters, names and places to remember or care about. The Black Company is the opposite. It's one tight knit group, in one perfectly paced storyline that doesn't drag for a single page. It's so concise in it's description of this one company of mercenaries and their moves from one spectacular battle to the next. Like I said I've never read a fantasy novel like it.
Needless to say I very strongly recommend checking it out. One of the blurbs on the back of the book summed up the general tone of the book quite well: "Like reading Vietnam war fiction on peyote". It really is.
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