Sunday, May 31, 2015

Weekend Blog Log (May 31, 2015)

Here I sit amidst a storm. It is dark outside, and rumbles of thunder can be heard in the distance. Why hast thou forsaken me O sunlight!? It has been a dark, and gloomy week here in Georgia. There's been rain, and storms every damn day. The real sh*t kicker is that there's another week's worth of it on the way. I personally have not, in the years I've lived here known of rain, and storms being so constant, and severe. I had expected a bad spring, and summer because of the lack of a disastrous winter, but Mother Nature has really been out to punish the people of the US this year. Did we invoke some sort of biblical wrath, or something??? It sure seems that way. I wouldn't be surprised if a news forecast popped up saying California is now a floating island due to an earthquake, seriously. Anyways I'm not here to babble on about my misery amidst the maelstrom. I'm here to give you an update on my week, and weekend as usual.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Zen Pinball 2 - "Portal Pinball" (PS3/PS4/PS VITA)

Working in collaboration with the development team at Valve, Zen Studios has designed a pinball table that is more or less a tribute to the events that occurred in "Portal 2". For those of you who are unaware of the events that happened in said plot you'll find that the main protagonist, 'Chell' (a female Aperture Science Lab employee) awoke from a deeply induced sleep only to find Aperture labs abandoned, and in disrepair. Realizing that Chell was now awake the resident A.I., 'GLaDOS' ran Chell through the virtual ringer like a lab rat in order to test her logic skills. In order to escape, and make it to the surface Chell had to solve a series of mind bending puzzles using a portal gun which functioned as it's name suggests. The portal gun effectively opened up portals of a blue, and orange color allowing entry, and exit points through walls and other structures. With this tool Chell was ultimately able to trip switches, and guide lasers to activate once useless mechanisms as well as pass through said portals herself. In the midst of her trials Chell also met a seemingly friendly A.I. bot known as Wheatley who intervened trying to help her through the massive maze by giving her hints, and assisting her with some problem solving. Eventually though Wheatley became an opposing force himself, and posed threat alongside GLaDOS. Chell eventually made it to the surface only to find herself in a vast desert-like environment with only a companion cube to accompany her. Thus ending the sequel to the stellar first game.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Memorial Day Weekend Blog Log (May 2015)

Here I sit at my dinosaur of a PC sipping on some Dr.Pepper, which apparently confirms a certain westerner stereotype about all of us soda guzzling, candy bar gobbling, and fast food munching Americans. To hell with that stereotype! I eat healthy, and treat myself to the occasional soda pop. What of it!? I even drink tea, water, and milk (which is probably no good due to all the steroids, and sh*t put into cows) ... Anyways, I digress. I'm here today to talk about my week, and my weekend. This week has been interesting, bothersome at times, but interesting nonetheless. I've had the usual family drama, and crisis arise. My Grandmother is still not doing well at all, and still seems to be on a health decline. My family also continues to invade my personal, and private space by spying on me. I've always been the black sheep of my family, and everyone in said family seems to think they know what's best for me. Buncha control freaks are what they are. Aside from that my week has been nothing, but a gaming grindfest.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Destiny - House of Wolves (PS4)

It has been a while since I even bothered to touch Destiny, or dedicate any amount of serious time to it. To me it had lost it's appeal long ago when my fireteam members sought other friends to game with, especially when they had left me in the dark during the Crota raid expansion. To be fair though it was also partially my fault as I slowly, but surely drifted away from the game, because of the stress it caused as well as the late nights spending 5 hours trying to defeat a raid boss. Looking back through my articles I realize that the game made my yearly "Top 10" list shortly after launch, but in seeing that I know that's when the friendly co-op was going strong, and when the social aspect of the game was at it's funnest. What you have to realize is that Destiny made my yearly 'Top 10' list, because it was the perfect social experience, at the time. It got friends together, and helped people form online relationships with people they'd never known before. I actually met some Awesome friends through it. For that reason I'll always have a soft spot for the game's social features ...

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Conspiracy Corner - "Hacktivists, Activists & the Common People"

Welcome to the premiere article of a series discussion I like to call "Conspiracy Corner". I know most return readers will be baffled by the inclusion of such a topic, but bare with me as this does have something to do with gaming, if slightly so ...

As a "Commoner" we all know that hacktivists, and activists are making the front page news of various journalistic outlets more, and more often these days. In fact said individuals mold, and shape the online structure of the internet, gaming, and other online oriented activities through their actions. By this I mean that what they do dictates the laws that go into effect afterwards as a result of their cyber crimes. It's these laws that pull the legal noose ever so tighter with each, and every misdeed for the common people. The odd thing about all of this is that the major hacktivists, and activists rarely ever make the prime time televised news, and for some reason never get caught. With the NS@ in place spying on the "Commoner" why can't they catch a criminal hiding amongst the scripts of the internet? What if I were to say to you that all of this may be a devilish scheme to gain full control of all freedoms? What if I were to also say that it's the world leaders, and governments that are using these hacktivists, and activists pull off such a stealth move. It would explain the fact that the hacktivists, and activists aren't being dealt with, wouldn't it?

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Pre-Orders, Call of Duty & The Gaming Industry

This morning I had the pleasure of carrying on a twitter chat with a like-minded gamer who is also very passionate about what's going on in the gaming industry. We discussed what I, and so many other gaming supporters have said over the years in regards to the business side of gaming. The slogan, "Speak with your wallet" came up as it usually does in such a conversation, and both of us talked about what needs to be done to change things for the better. What one has to understand going into such a debate is that certain marketing ploys that are being put into play via publishers, and the greed driven product pushing that follows suit are ultimately dictating the quality of video games that hit the store shelves as well as the online store listings. One publisher in particular, the one behind the modern-day "Call of Duty" franchise has set the standards that other publishers go by. They think that since the majority of gamers will pre-order the game despite the company's reputation of having released a sub-par game in the past that they can continue to do so, and milk the franchise for what it's worth. This leads to the "Half-Assed" game development that I'm constantly preaching about ...