This is actually way overdue since I was originally planning to post this over a week ago. Better late then never I suppose.
Thanks ZenesisX! So I guess I say ten things about myself. Hmm...
1. I'm currently attending DeVry University in Austin, Texas. I'm majoring in GSP (Game and Simulation Programming). A lot of colleges still don't offer courses specific to the gaming industry. This is one of the few that do.
2. I'm a hardcore female gamer which many guys I meet are surprised about. Are they really that rare?
3. I'm very open mindedwhen it comes to games. I therefore have a large variety of games in my library everything from the obvious like Mario, Zelda, Halo, and God of War to the weird, bizarre,or niche games like Killer7, Katamari Damacy, Touhou, God Hand, and the commonly overlooked Hotel Dusk.
4. I HATE lisenced games. It makes me mad that they are almost all crappy and still sell well while games like Psychonauts, Hotel Dusk, Okami and Viewtiful Joe are forgotten (at least Viewtiful Joe sold enough to get a sequel and Okami got a second chance on the Wii). There a few exceptions like Batman Arkam Asylum and Ghostbusters. I also hate anime games though Legacy of Goku 2 for the GBA was quite good.
5. I also hate celebrities. I don't care if everyone knows who they are and that they're famous. Don't you have something better to do than looking up who had what for breakfast or who had the best dress? It's not like they're important. They're just snobby rich people. Most of them, not all.
6. I was a Nintendo fangirl when I was younger, but always open minded. Now I'm just a gamerwho is neutral. My loyalty is with no one. I still defend Nintendo time to time when it comes to arguments with close-minded fanboys though. Speaking of which...
7. I don't like arguing with people. I try never to get involved in flame wars or disscusions with close-minded gamers, but it happens anyway. I do, however,enjoy an intelligent and friendly debate over gaming related topics with other open minded gamers.
8. I don't have many other interests besides gaming. I have no interest in fashion, drinking, sex, hanging out with friends, or partying like most people my age. I don't watch TV much either though I enjoy House, Burn Notice, and anime. I spend most of my time in my room playing games only leaving to obtain foodor go to DeVry to attend my classes. I do socialize quite abit in class which is the only time I socialize with others.
9. It was only over the last couple of years that I've become quite interested in horror. Started in Resident Evil, which then grew to Silent Hill when RE wasn't scaring meenough and after playing Eternal Darkness over a year ago, I'vebecome interested in Lovecraft's novels of which I haven't read any yet.I've only been a fan of SH for a couple of years and I'm already really into it. I've also taken an interest in Korean and Japanese horror because, quite frankly, as much as I love blood and gore, American horror movies just aren't scary.
10. It was also in the last couple of years thatI discovered the awesomeness that is speed running. Castlevania SotN in little over 30 minutes, Morrowind in 7, Diablo in 3! MGS2 on Extremein less than two hours in one sitting!Your mind will be blown!
11.I've always been obsessed over the condition of my games. Is it OCD?Maybe. Scratches drive me nuts. Oh, how they drive me nuts. As such, I do not buy used games except from eBay. At least there you have a chance of getting a mint condition game from another like-minded gamer or collector.Oh, and it must be complete. Manual, case, everything or no deal. Took me two damn years to get a copy of FFVII for a reasonable price in a condition that met my standards. Two years! Victory dance!Does that make me a collector of sorts?
12. I'm collecting video game soundtracks. It's kinda expensive and as such, my collection is growing very, very slowly. Hopefully, if I get a job I can focus on this more before the CDs on my wish list are no longer available.
13. I don't have a favorite console. I am playing my PS2 a lot as I've only had it for two years so I still have a lot to do. The consoles I own are: GBA, GBC, N64, PS1 (bought it on eBay for 25 bucks because Super Puzzle Fighter II is not compatible with a slim model PS2. Yes, I bought it just to play one game.), PS2, and two GameCubes.
14. I don't have any of the current gen consoles though I'm buying current gen games. It still baffles people when I say how many 360 games I have even though I don't have a 360. Hey, when I do get a 360, at least I'll have plenty of games to play.
15. I know quite a bit about video game history. I find it fascinating. I surprise many hardcore gamers by my wealth of knowledge.
16. I have a major fangirl crush on Wesker. He's so cool, with his power and his awesome clothes and the fact that not only does he wear cool sunglasses, but the fact that he wears them at night!
17. Nathan Drake from Uncharted is a descendant of Sir Francis Drake which blew me away because I am too! That means we're distant relatives! Unfortuantly, I think I'm developing a crush on him too even though I haven't played either of the games.
I will not tag anyone for I am feeling merciful.
A couple days ago I decided to wander around 4 chan which I don't do very often. I was on the video game board. One of the posts had a link to another thread which apparently was SH related. I was unaware that it took me to the yaoi board. There my mind was corrupted. Three words: Pyramid Head pr0n. PH and James, Walter and Henry. It was the most hardcore stuff possible. I have forever been scarred. God help me...
A couple weeks ago, I decided to play Metal Gear Solid 2 for no reason in particular. I had stopped playing when I could never get past the Metal Gear RAY battle on Extreme. I hadn't played it in over a year according to my save file. When I started playing again two weeks ago, I happened to not only get past that battle, but beat the game as well. Of course, I was on cloud nine. Bascially, I looked like this.
Now I had unlocked everything and have gotten every dog tag in the game...or so I thought. There are two sets of dog tags. The 2001 dog tags and the 2002 dog tags. I finished the 2002 dog tags. So if I wanted to truly complete the game like the hardcore complete freak I am, I had to start another file and get all the 2001 dog tags. It went quite well. I need to revisit the game on Normal difficulty since I missed one dog tag. I'm on Extreme right now and have gotten all the dog tags on that difficulty. I just have to beat the same and save. The other difficulties are complete.
But I'm stuck again on Extreme. The Metal Gear RAY battle and Solidus will not be a problem as I'm now used to it. I'm stuck on that section of Arsenal Gear when you have to fight wave after wave of enemies with Snake. I'm sure I'll get past it after a few tries. (Stop dying, Snake!)
My second time through Extreme after over a year of not playing the game went well. For me the hardest boss on Extreme is Fatman. Running into me with those darn skates of his. Fortune is easy if you use the box trick. Those familiar with the "no damage, no kill, extreme" speed run by Takeshi will know that trick. Vamp was also easy due to Takeshi's run though I first saw the Vamp battle strategy on a different speed run on Speed Demos Archive.
The Harrier Jet was always a pain on the higher difficulties, but I totally went ballistic when I beat it without taking any damage! That's right. NO DAMAGE! ON EXTREME! Made that jet my b****! Hell, yeah!
Takeshi's speed run and the one from SDA use different strategies for going through those two battles on Arsenal Gear. I'll try both and see how things turn out. One thing's for sure, coolent FTW!
Lately, I've been addicted to wating videos by a group known as 4PlayerPodcast. I've only learned of them recently. The most popular player is named Brad who is famous for his screams when playing games like Fatal Frame and Silent Hill. Here are a few of my favorite ones.
Fatal Frame 2 - You shoulcn't have looked into the window, but you did it anyway.
Fatal Frame 2 (Dolls are scary)
Fatal Frame 2 again and yes, they're more dolls.
Fatal Frame 4 - watch this one all the way to the end
SH4 - Walter Sullivan encounter
SH5 - You..um...Got Something on Your Face
Some of the clips are slow at first, but watch them all the way though. You will be amused.
First things first. I said I was going to post my opinion on a movie I saw over a month ago. I was thinking about a review, but I'm not much of a movie person anyway so just f*ck it!
Long story short...
I saw Gamer. It wasn't incredibly terrible. It's mediocre at best. There is little to no character development so in the end you really don't care about anybody. Of course, with all the games I play where you spend up to 40+ hours with the same characters, it feels as though every movie haslittle character development.
This movie is really explicit. It's on the higher end of the R-rated spectrum. Lots of gore and lots of topless chicks and since the two friends I went with were both guys, I assumed that they enjoyed that segment much more than I possibly could. Also, this movie has quite a few "Holy, sh*t!" moments, but not in the "Wow! That was awesome!" kind, except during the battle sequences. More like "Oh, no! My eyes! That image has forever been burned into my retinas!" Basically, the bad kind. One involves a really, REALLY fat guy. The other is a gross and intriguiging way of fuelling a car.
The main character, or more accurately, the one who is supposed to be the main character, is played my Gerard Butler aka Leonidus. This in turn will result in you muttering 300 jokes.
If you know someone who is paranoid about the future of technology, it's best not to let them see this movie. The story involves some frightening uses of nano technology and makes you wonder who will really be in control in the future. Also interesting is the role of youth. Most of the people look no older than 30 and the biggest celebrity is a gamer a yearyounger than I am. It's thought provoking, but forgettable after a few days.
The battle sequences were pretty cool and were the real highlight as well as the only entertaining part of the movie.
Enough of that.
I might get a job. Yay! I'm kinda nervous and excited cause it will be my first job. I'm hoping to get a job at a nearby Gamestop. Why? I don't know anything except about games, so I couldn't really work elsewhere. There are three in the area I live in, but I usually go to just one of them. About a week ago,I turned in my application and said that I was sorry thatI had no work references. The employee was like, "First job, huh?" I just said, "Yeah."He responded, "Everyone's got to start somewhere." The only interesting feature of my application was thatI have an extensive knowledge of most, if not all, current and last gen games and consoles. I wasalso at Gamestop to preorder a couple games. COD: Modern Warfare 2 Prestege Edition and Assassin's Creed II Collector'sEdition. I wanted to preorder Dragon Age Origins Collector's Edition,but apparently Gamestop is doing the collector's edition. I preordered the collector's edition on the EA website the next day. A nice thing that happended while I was at Gamestop was that I noticed that they had a stack of those SGT Johnson pre-order codes behind the counter. I asked the employee about it and he said that they have to practically give them away. He then asked if I wanted one, so I got one. As I left, I said that I would call in a week about my job application. Another employee in charge of the register chuckled and said that that was the only way to get a job.
A week later (last Friday) I called about my application. After saying a few things, the employee that answered said, "Oh, it's you." Turns out that it was the same employee I saw the previous week. We chatted about my application also saying that my schedule availablility is alwayschanging as I have college classes. The employee noted this and he even said that whatI put down on my application was pretty good. I wanted to express how much I wanted a job and said that I would buy everyone lunch when I got my first paycheck. The employee laughed and was like, "You really want this job, huh?" He even put a star next to my name on the application. He then said that I should ask for the manager on Monday (today!) sometime after ten (at the time of this writing, less than two hours) which is when the store opens. I don't plan on calling right when the store opens. I'll probably waittill 10:30before calling.
Here's comes the main story. The "Looks like I got caught!" part.
In the mail...came a letter...from my ISP...about...copyright infringment?! Yeah, great...
Attached was a letter from a company called BayTSP, which after doing a little research, I learned that this particular company is infamous in the P2P/pirate community. They are known for being quite aggressive. It said that I was illegally downloading copyrighted material. I went on forums on various sites through Google and read what others did when they got such a letter. Most just did nothing or called the ISP and pretended that they didn't know it was illegal and that they were sorry and blah, blah, blah.
(One of the threads was quite funny. http://forums.phoenixlabs.org/showthread.php?t=17963)
The letter is really nothing more than a warning. Some said that they got multiple letters over a few years and simply ignored them. Apparently, all bark and no bite.
What did they catch me downloading? Naruto Shippuuden 126 off a fansub website. Dattebayo was the original group, but they dropped it. One thing I noticed about Dattebayo was that when you download their torrents was that DHT, Local Peer Discovery, and Peer Exchange were "not allowed."The new fansub group, Taka, that now subs Naruto doesn't do that. Also I downloaded the latest episode not long after it was posted. Usually, I just wait a few days or so. I guess that's how I got caught. Now I downloaded some IP blockers and whatnot.
Whatever. I'm not doing anything about it. I'm still gonna download what I want. I'll just do what I did before and wait a week or so. That way, those that are monitering will track those on the latest episode while I will be downloading the previous one.
Speaking of downloading, I downloaded Typing of the Dead (my typing skills suck), as well as the House of the Dead triliogy. As far asI know, these games are not easy to find in retailers. You can get the PC version of House of the Dead 3 on Amazon for less than $20 though. House of the Dead 3 doesn't run smoothly on my PC. When you can't run a rail shooter smoothly and can't play Halo 1 on the highest res without horrendous lag, you know you need an upgrade.*sigh*
My brother wanted me to download Call of Duty 2 on the PC. No, because 1) I'll just save up $30 and buy the CoD Battle Chest for the PC which has CoD 1, its expansion, and CoD 2 and 2) I only download games that are A) out of print and therefore difficult or impossible to find in retailers new, unless it's a console game or you want the console version in which case it can be a nightmare getting a copy in like new shape (*cough* FFVII *cough*) though finding sealed copies of out of print PS2 games are strangely easy to find...most of the time.Main examples of this were Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem 3D and Doom. B) Games not availbale in English or I want the English version (Touhou is an example. Actually, I think downloading the games off the Internet is the only way to get Touhou games. Also, you might want to download the English fan translation patch as well. I also downloaded Puyo Pop Fever. The PC version never made it to the states (we got it on GCN and DS only) so it was in Japanese though finding an English patch wasn't difficult and it was included with the download. I got it off some Puyo Pop fan site in the form of a zip file. Geometry Wars was given to me by a friend.
That's all for know.
I haven't gotten any sleep for almost 20 hours. I couldn't sleep at all. I going to stop typing now now since this blog has gotten quite long. Also, I really need to go to the bathroom... lol
