Cue the tumble weeds...

Ugh! This truly is the "Dry Season". I can't find anything news worthy out there. The only thing really talked about is how bad the VGA's were last night on Spike. I will find out for myself tonight. I figured recording them on my DVR then having the ability to fast forward the horrible celebrity banter was the best option. 

There aren't any new games coming out that are worth even mentioning. The Christmas season sucks as far as new releases, especially if you can afford to buy things when they come out the month before. Then you don't even have something to look forward to in your stocking. 

I don't even think i can come up with something interesting that i saw/thought about on the highway today. Other than the fact that it is 70° today and Christmas is a week and a half away.

Home Delay

This is why people have lost faith in Playstation home.

From PS3Fanboy.com

Did you hear? The Home open beta starts today. The client has been patched up to version 1.03 and the servers are down while Sony does various jiggerypokery behind the scenes. TedTheDog states that the service should be back up, along with the launch of open beta, "early PM UK time," though he adds that he can't be more specific than that, thanks to the nature of the global updates.

Ted also confirms that the Home icon will appear on the XMB as soon as the final switch is pulled, though people who are using their PS3s at the time will need to restart. In case you're wondering, it's already past Midday in the UK, so it could go live at any minute. We'll update this post as soon as that happens.

[UPDATE] TedTheDog has updated with the current situation, as of 3pm GMT (10am EST): "Still progressing nicely, now on the testing stage. No eta still as I wouldnt want to guess how long it will take for each region to verify its elements are working but we're getting there." Shouldn't be too long now ...

More updates after the break[UPDATE 2] Rut roh! "Testing complete and a couple of technical problems have been found. We need to iron these issues out first and I'm waiting to hear how long that might take (I'm not qualified to even guess, its very technical). Apologies, I know you all want to get in but we must get these things right. And please remember, this is a beta and today is our first step into the Open Beta environment and what we're doing today is part of the beta process itself."

Also, it appears that the Far Cry 2 and Uncharted spaces won't be available in the European beta today. Likewise the new Diesel and Ligne Roset stores, along with the Red Bull Air Race, won't be available til next week. The American beta should include all these things today. Feel free to say mean things about SCEE in the comments below.

[UPDATE 3] Things don't seem to be going brilliantly over at Sony HQ. TedTheDog writes: "Apologies for the delay in an update, you may have noticed a PSN outage in the last hour. Things seem back on track now although the outage delayed us a little we are moving again. Hope to have another update soon."

According to the Twitter post of both PS3Fanboy and PSHomeCentral, the Home servers are now live. At least until they crash from all the people trying to get in. The time is 4:40pm Est

Random thoughts

So i am driving down the road today (where i do some of my best and most random thinking) and two things came to my mind.

One if you want a quick trip to the mental hospital, here is a Pro-Tip. Sit on the side of a major highway in just your underwear and pet a dead animal like it is your best friend. 

Second, why hasn't Uno Rush come out for LIVE Arcade? They tease us with this new game like a year ago (ok more like 6 months i guess). How long can it possibly take to craft an Uno game? I mean, you already had all the foundation laid with the first one. Slap on a new coat of paint, drop in the new gimmick, and push it out to the public. Now the official write up on the Xbox home page has a date of TBD. Which means either they aren't doing it anymore and don't want to tell us. Or they have no earthly idea when it will either be done or through certification.  Well poop on you. I'll go back to shooting Nazis...

Thank you Anonymous

Mr. Anonymous that posted on my blog. I only have this to say to you, Thanks. 

You bring up a good point. I DO need an editor. I never pretended to do this on a professional level. I write posts b/c i enjoy doing so. I have a love for gaming and gaming culture.Because of that love i have taken it upon myself to write this blog. It may not be what you like, it may not be what a lot of people like, but oh well. Some people don't like Opera, some people don't like math, that's up to the individual to decide. 

If you are giving me actual constructive criticism then, thanks again. As i said before i am not a professional. I do this in my spare time, and i do it so that i have a place to keep my thoughts. Even if no one out there read a single word of any of this i would still write it. I realize that i need someone to edit my thoughts, however doing this guerrilla style isn't exactly conducive to having someone look over my stuff. I do my best to check my spelling, punctuation, and such, but i am not perfect and don't have a degree in English (which is probably painfully obvious to some).

If you just hate my blog, well then don't come back. This is the same issue that comes up with parents. They complain that their kids are watching filth on TV and Movies, and they pick up bad habits. Well the solution to that problem is simple don't let them watch it. If you don't like my blog, don't read it. Simple as that.  

So in closing, if you are an editor that would like to take on the job of helping me out (for free mind you) then let me know. If you know of a better way to get my posts edited let me know. If you don't care what my grammar is like, and just enjoy the fact that i tend to ramble sometimes let me know.

Thank you for caring.

That strange sucking sound...

That strange sucking sound you hear, oh that's just all the good games being sucked out of the market. Welcome to the doldrums of the Holidays. 

Now is the time when most publishers and distributors just sick back and wait for the profits to roll in. They don't release any games worth a damn really anymore until spring. I have mixed feelings about this years slow period. On the one hand i want the party to never end, keep the Triple A games coming to me and i will keep buying them, or at least renting them. On the other hand i am glad that the train has finally come to a screeching halt. My wallet and calendar can't take much more of this schedule. 

I just realized that the 3 games that have been at my house from Gamefly, are the same ones that i rented at the beginning of November. After a very steady rotation of at least 2 games a week, the well has run dry. I finally have time to go back and play more of Fallout 3 and Fable 2. Oh yeah and some game on my PS3... what was it, oh yeah LittleBigPlanet. How soon we forget things when the tidal wave of media crashes on our heads, and we can't come up for air. 

I haven't written a "current" review for a game in weeks b/c i have had to much on my plate. One thing is for certain, I am ready to start taking games off my "Pile of Shame" instead of adding to it. 

Old School

So I am a self professed "Old School" gamer. I grew up playing Atari 2600, and NES. I had more than my fair share of games for each, more so for the NES than anything. 

One of my favorite games of all time was Mega Man II. Actually I was always a big fan of the Mega Man series in general (up until it started to lose all cred, which was about MM4). I recently downloaded the first three Mega Man games for the Virtual Console on the Wii. They all held such fond memories for me, and i had some left over Wii Points to spend, so I figured why not.

Today i sat down and decided to take a run at Mega Man III. For the life of me i can't remember the best way to go about beating the bosses so i just started with Snake Man. Two things quickly came to my attention. 

One, the trick from back in the day where you would hold right on the second controller to do super jumps and keep you from dying in pits, it still works. 

Second, this game is hard. I don't mean hard like Mega Man 9 hard but hard like I used to go through this game no problem when i was a kid and now, I Suck!

This brings me to my point. I am getting old... yes i realize it happens to everyone, and no one is exempt. It's not that i didn't realize i was thirty, trust me, the back pain i have almost constantly reminds me. The shocker is that my skills as a gamer are slowly going away. I guess deep down i already knew they were when i regularly get my ass handed to me in COD4 and W@W. My "twitch" skills are almost non existent now. Which explains why i am just as happy to play a game like Rainbow 6 Vegas or GRAW where you can take your time and think your way through a battle. I also enjoy a good thinking mans game too, like BUZZ Quiz TV or Scene-It. It's like my brain still functions just as it always did but the time response between my head and my hands just isn't as fast anymore.

This may not seem like much to the average everyday person, but to a guy that is totally addicted to games that down right require you to be able to react with split second timing, it's a HUGE deal. I am hoping that over time, like physical therapy i can recondition my muscles to do what i want them to.

Listen to the song in my play list called "This Old Man" by MC Frontalot... it will make this post more funny, and relevant. 

Oh well such is life i guess. Now get off my damn lawn before i have to turn the hose on you!

Wrath of the Lich King

I have avoided a post like this for a while now, but I guess I can no longer ignore it.

I... Have never and WILL never play WOW... There I said it. 

Here is the thing, I absolutely LOVE RPGs. I have owned every Final Fantasy game since the original NES version (including original Gameboy, and Mystic Quest versions). As well as countless other RPG's spanning several different systems.  I also have played all of Blizzards previous games like Diablo one and two, Warcraft, and it's sequels (excluding WOW). 

The reason I don't play is I think due to the fact that I have an addictive personality when it comes to games (no, really I do) and I know that should I try the game out, I may not return. It's like the alcoholic that has been sober for 15 years and doesn't go to parties or Bars where there is booze b/c he knows he may just slip and fall back into old habits. I don't play the game b/c I know that I may like it and not be able to stop myself. 

I have several friends that play WOW on a regular basis. They tell me how much fun it is, and how amazing the game as a whole is. I just agree, and sip my ginger ale. I only bring this up b/c of course the newest expansion for the game "Wrath of the Lich King" just dropped and most people that were sucked in before are back into it and talking about the game again. 

Also the more I think about it, the longer I go without playing the game the better. By this point i would be so far behind the rest of the herd that in order for me to try and close the level gap between myself and my friends i would have to "poop-sock" this game for about 2 months in order to get anywhere close. 

I don't talk down to my friends that play the game, they do what they want it is their own business. However when several of them talked about getting the new expansion, I did try to convince them that they didn't need it, and they were better off in their lives not having it. Much like a long sober friend tries to talk a buddy out of that shot of Jager they just got from some chick at the bar. 

So play on my friends that have been sucked back into the Realm of Azeroth. Enjoy leveling up till you can't get any higher, Say hi to the Lich King for me, Have fun storming the castles. I shall never join your ranks on the hills of Northrend, but it is for the best, trust me.

Booooooo!!!

No that is not inreferance to the fact that Halloween is coming soon...

more toward this... from pretty much the internet.

"That little, er, BIG delay that we reported earlier today? Yeah, it's now effective for the entire ... planet! In a statement published on semi-official site Three Speech, SCEE confirms that the worldwide delay is indeed due to "one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game," which references "two expressions that can be found in the Qur'an." (We've posted the full statement after the break.)

No word yet on the new release date for any territory. And we're still awaiting SCEA's response to the matter, which we hope to update with shortly.

Update: Media Molecule has released a statement noting that they have anofficial patch ready for day one, but "a decision was made within Sony that the right thing to do for quality and support of people with no on-line was to replace existing disks." The patch is still ready and the post suggests it will likely "go live at the same time as the game," which still has no new release date."

This is me pissed that i have to wait till WHENEVER to play this game now. Can i have the Beta back then please??