Decided I needed an ongoing list to keep track of what I have in my game library for when I loan/borrow games or just for people who are curious and want to compare. This does not include games I've had before that I've sold. Click the read link to see the list.
SO...yes I've been absent from here for a while. I'll get back in the swing of things and start making full posts on what's been goin on, games I've played, football I've watched, etc etc, but for now, I'll summarize.
Tech pwns the big XII, except OU. Nov. 1st was one of the happiest days of my life, Nov. 22nd was one of the saddest, most depressing days of my life. Yes, I was in Norman.
The Cowboys are a massive disappointment.
Dead space was all it was cracked up to be, and one of my favorite titles on the 360.
Gears 2 was all it was cracked up to be. I still need to get to the 50th wave in Horde...I'm on 27.
Fallout 3 has made me think that maybe I AM a fan of RPGs, just not of the "knights, spells, dragons, blah" setting. I did love Mass Effect after all. I'm 46 hours into Fallout so far, with much much more to go. I love it. Most bang for buck out of a game I've gotten since The Orange Box.
I still have yet to finish Turok and Dark Sector. They got mediocre reviews, but they're still fun.
GTA IV just didn't do it for me.
You've gotta hear this: Damiera, Before Their Eyes, The Urgency, We Are The Ocean, A Skylit Drive, Burden of a Day, All That Remains: Overcome; more to come...
The title is a reference to the post I made back after the E3 presentation of Dead Space where I said Dead Space LOOKS to be scary good. Well, it's confirmed, it is both genuinely scary, and very very good. Granted I'm only through 2 (almost 3) of the 12 total chapters, but I don't see how I could be let down at this point. Game mechanics are awesome; Textures, backgrounds, and lighting are all gorgeous; sounds do EXACTLY what they're intended to do, and that's bring about everything from feelings of tension, stress and paranoia to just downright disturbed. You have to expect to be startled here and there in a game like this, but I've already had several instances that startled me to the point that I literally yelled out loud (and probably let out a curse word or two immediately after). They seriously should include an official pair of "Dead Space" underwear with the game for all shit-your-pants moments this game provides.
The campaign also is looking like it's going to be a very respectable length as well, for me anyway. The first 2 3/4 chapters have taken me close to 4 hrs, meaning this could be a 20+ hr campaign from start to finish (and that's just gameplay time not counting dying and replaying areas). It may not take that long for most, however, since I'm particularly maticulous when it comes to games like this. I'm pretty anal about leaving no stone unturned and if I find an item that gives me access to a storage room or something I couldn't access previously, I won't think twice about backtracking 5 min. to access that area. (case in point: I've already found a supply room that's blocked by some sort of organic mass, which won't go away with any gun or even the flamethrower, but I'll be damned if I don't make it in there eventually)
Anyway, I still have a lot of game to get through before I make my final assessment, but up to this point, this one's up there in one of my top 360 games I've played. I'll post my final review of the game once I get through it.
Ok, so I've been a little lazy on the posts lately, especially with so much goin on, but last nights Cowboys game inspired me to come talk about the last 3 weeks of sports I've witnessed, live or otherwise.
I got to make the trip for this game and couldn't have been more excited for the start of the season. Tech played pretty well but not quite as well as some would have hoped, but only by first glance. We still won handily and Harrel racked up a ton of yards, but there was a point that EWU pulled within 11 and many thought the defense gave up way too many yards for the hype they'd been getting, especially against an FCS team.
However, the rub here is that EWU is not your typical FCS team, and is actually pretty damn good. Not world-beaters, mind you. I mean they'd probably be top 30 or 40 in D1-a, but a decent team none-the-less that will probably be contending for the FCS nat. title this year. Just ask Colorado, a week later they had to get a late fourth quarter pick-six at home against the Eagles to pull off the win.
Texas Tech 49 - Eastern Washington 24
For this game, my Red Raiders traveled to Reno to take on a very tough Nevada Wolfpack team. They run the pistol offence which some say is one of the most complex offensive schemes in college football, plus Leach made the comment that their 6' 6" quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, may be the best QB we face all season, which is a pretty bold statement considering we have yet to face Josh Freeman of K-State, Todd Reesing of Kansas, Colt McCoy of Texas, and of course heisman candidate, Sam Bradford of OU.
We were forced to catch the game via web feed, which I suppose is better than nothing at all, but was still a little annoying to finally arrange somewhere where we could watch it. We started out at the game watching party at Blackfinn in Addison, but soon realized there were a LOT of Tech fans with the same idea, and only one small room with too many big tables that featured the web feed. After that we just migrated to my house and I set up my PC with my 61" DLP, which was better anyway once all was said and done.
The game was mediocre at best. There were good and bad things that could be taken from it, but optimistically, in the past, it was probably a game we would have pulled a "typical Tech" and lost. Harrel had the worst game of his career, performance-wise and statistically, but the defense showed glimmers of promise holding Nevada to only field goals until late in the fourth quarter. Crabtree had a decent game with some big plays that kept us out in front, but they were too few and far between. Regardless of the positive aspects of this game, it was evident we really should have beaten them much much worse after this week, when Mizzou absolutely obliterated them at home, 69-17. Yes it was a home game for Missouri, and we probably would have done similarly if we were at the Jones, but we probably should have at least hung 40-50 on them.
Texas Tech 35 - Nevada 19
Almost made the trip to LBK for this one, but after a long week and the weather issues all over the state, I decided to stay put in Dallas since the game was on FSSW. This was primed to be a blood bath from the start. SMU had givin up an avg. of 46 points per game in their first two games, and that was to Rice and Texas State!
Tech, for the MOST part, did what they were supposed to do, and dominated the Ponies. There were some sputters here and there, particularly on some uncalled for dropped balls which Leach has had much to say about, but overall, an acceptible performance producing 693 yds of total offense. Harrel threw for over 400 yds in just over 3 quarters. Crabtree had another dominating game with 163yds and 3 tds. One of the more refreshing points of the offense was our 180 yards total rushing. Woods was great in the game, but the most impressive running performance came from Baron Batch who ran for 98 yards. Man that guy is fast.
If it's possible, the defense may have even overshadowed the offense. They pulled in five interceptions, FIVE! With three getting snagged by Daniel Charbonnet, who alllmost had a 4th that went right off the tip of his fingers, and the one Jamar wall pulled down was actually in fact heading right to Charbonnet until Wall jumped across. On top of all the glorious turnovers, Tech held SMEW scoreless until 3 min left in the game they squeaked in a touchdown, and THAT was even almost thwarted by a near-interception by Anthony Hines that prooobably would have gone the other way. I mean, ugh, it hit him right in the hands.
Anyway, a great, entertaining game that has somewhat calmed a lot of Tech fans nerves that the offense had lost its "spark" this year for some reason. Even though we probably should have scored even more, we did blow a TD opportunity at the end of the first half due to the refs and a Crabtree drop, and we kinda got screwed out of a Shannon Woods TD at the end of the game. So it almost would have been 57 instead of 43 pts on the board.
Another note, our kicking is downright scarily awful. Another missed XP in this game and a downright ugly missed FG. Corona did make his first FG of the year, but that's a long way from making me not think our kicking will cost us a game sometime this season.
Texas Tech 43 - SMU 7
OK, I was gonna comment on the Cowboy game but I'll have to postpone that to a later date...I need to get some work done. Those Tech recaps took longer than I thought. :)
So it's finally here. It's finally arrived. Football season. And just a little more than 24hrs from now I'll be on my way to watchin Tech's first home game. Words cannot describe the anticipation.
Then after driving back to Breckenridge (my home town) immediately following the game, we'll be goin to Dia De Los Toadies at Possom Kingdom lake on Sunday afternoon, then campin out that night somewhere around the lake. I saw the Toadies last Friday at Palladium here in Dallas, and it is about what you'd expect. A badass show. The new CD is "ok"...it's not quite up there with rubberneck or hell below stars above, but it's pretty good. They play a bunch of classic stuff though, so it makes for a great show. I'm also very interested to see what this venue is like. My bro, who interns for Kirtland Records (the Toadies record label) was tellin me that the idea is, if this show does well, they're wanting to make it a yearly event.
Some may ask, "Why Possom Kingdom Lake?". Well, ok, take a minute now. What is the name of one of their most popular songs from Rubberneck? Exactly.
Anyway, gonna be a busy weekend, but in a good way. I'm pretty pumped about it.
I figured it was only a matter of time before Yahtzee Croshaw decided to feature Braid in his weekly reviews. I mean after all, the game he gives highest acclaim for is Portal, and Braid and Portal share some of the same revolutionary characteristics. Not only did he review it, he pretty much put it up there on his list with Portal and had very little to say about it negatively, which is why I decided to post his review since I also raved about braid in a post earlier this month. For those of you unfamiliar with Yahtzee, I give you his bio:
"Yahtzee is a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder. When he isn't talking very fast into a headset mic he also designs freeware adventure games and writes the back page column for PC Gamer, who are too important to mention us. His personal site is www.fullyramblomatic.com"
He is the voice behind Zero Punctuation: the weekly non-descrimitive, non-apologetic game review video with unique animation, clever one-liners and incredibly fast brit-speak. Oh yeah, and it's freakin hilarious. He's known for his particularly unforgiving reviews, which is why I'm posting his review of Braid, one of the few good reviews he gives. After watching this one, browse through and watch some of the others he's done. They're all funny as hell. Make sure you put your headphones on though, it's NSFW.
Anyway, here ya go.
Once again, this movie gets my "effin hilarious" stamp of approval. I mean right from the get-go...a random, authentic-looking "commercial" comes up without a break in the normal previews for Booty Sweat energy drink and the Bust-a-nut Bar, which by the way had my bro and I lookin at each other laughing hysterically, but at the same time goin "wtf??". It quickly becomes evident that it's part of the movie when it follows that with "previews" of each of the main characters big movies (Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr.). Those guys weren't the only ones who were hilarious in this though. Two weeks ago, I had no idea who Danny McBride was, but now he's cracked me up in two movies in a row (he was Red in Pineapple Express, aka the dude who so poignantly says "Thug liiife" just before cockin his shotgun). Another thing I wasn't aware of goin into this movie, Tom Cruise was in it. I usually hate that guy, but he was pretty damn funny in this one. Done up with makeup and fake hair (that would be arm and chest, not head) in a Fat Bastard sort of way to look like George Costanza with a short scruffy beard, you can't help but laugh lookin at him. Oh and Robert Downy, hahaha, that "dude playin a dude disguised as another dude" was funny as hell. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the point is, go see it. You won't be dissappointed.
So yesterday I was driving through the parking lot at my office avoiding running over pigeons scampering around here and there, and it occurred to me, why don't we eat pigeons? I mean, really, is there something inherently wrong with them? Are humans by default allergic to them? Think about it, they're freakin huge, like twice the size of a dove or a quail, they're eeverywhere, and it seems they're pretty dumb (like I said, almost ran over like 3 of them). Should be a no brainer right? Maybe it's cause they make that cute "coo" sound. That's stupid though cause doves kinda do that and on top of it, they're like the symbol for peace but we eat the hell outta them. What are pigeons the symbol for? Bird-shit-covered windshields?
All I know is, if I were a homeless dude, and were in need of a meal, I wouldn't think twice about goin Bear Grylls on a pigeon or two and cookin them over one of those bum-community fire barrels. I mean all ya gotta do is post up next to an old person with some bread crumbs on a park bench and they come right to ya! I'm sure just like everything else, it tastes like chicken. Who knows, maybe in 50 yrs or so that saying will change and everyone will be sayin, "Yeah it's pretty good...tastes like pigeon".
Oh man, and they can't go by quickly enough. If you don't know what I'm referring to, well then, you have no business reading this post. It's the ever-climactic start of the college football season, and probably my most favorite time of year. This year, I'm even more excited to the point of hysteria due to the massive promise this year has for my Red Raiders. Most of you, if not all of you, that happen to read this will be able to relate. If you're unaware of the hype surrounding Texas Tech football, just take a gander at ESPN College Football Home, and while you're there take a look at the preseason and the coaches polls. Tech is all over the place on there, and every other college football focused site/site section, and I couldn't be more ecstatic.
Not only are we getting more attention than any year in recent memory and being touted as a real contender for the Big 12 South AND the Big 12 Championship, Crabtree and Harrell are getting TONS of press and respect. I mean, I'm sure most have seen the cover of Dave Campbells Texas Football Mag, but just look at the caption to an excellent article on Michael Crabtree that's linked on ESPN College Football Home:
"If you get a chance to see Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree play this season, take it. He might just be the best college wideout ever."
EVER! Wow. Just wow. Press like this just makes me even more pumped up for this season. I just hope they can back up all the hype!
In the almost two years that I've had my 360, I've only purchased like two XBLA titles, and rraaarely even play those. Up until this point I just hadn't seen any that peaked my interest enough to fork over $5-$10 for em. I've come close, just never committed. I always had a regular release title that I was more interested in playing at the time. Until now.
I had seen a few posts on Braid coming out on XBLA a week ago or so, but it just looked like another bland platformer at first glance. Then earlier this week I saw a post on X3F acclaiming it for it's beauty, originality and sheer addictiveness. After playing the demo, and then almost immediately forking over the 1200 ms points for it, I have to say I concur.
Braid is a puzzle platformer for Xbox Live Arcade, but not your normal puzzle platformer. There are several parallels with this platformer and super mario brothers, but only on the very basic level. They're both platformers and they both have levels, worlds, castles and princesses, but other than that Braid goes off in a very different direction. You have no "lives", only an intuitive ability to rewind time. If you die, you rewind time and avoid the obstacle. The ability to rewind time is heavily incorporated into the game and how you solve the puzzles. When I say puzzles, I mean them in both senses of the word. Each "level" is a puzzle figuring out how to collect actual puzzle pieces located in various spots. You collect all the pieces, and put them together, you complete the "world".
For an XBLA game, Braid is gorgeous. Not in the usual 3d graphics, textures, physics sort of mentality, but in the standard sense of the word. Backgrounds look painted, and fit very well with the feel of the game. The music is also great and completes the game atmosphere. With the music and art involved in the game, think "renaissance platformer". Yes, it sounds "different" to say the least, but it works.
Long story short, if you have a 360, Braid is a highly addictive, entertaining XBLA title that should not be missed. At the very least, download the demo and check it out for yourself.
Update: Hilarious penny arcade comic for any of you bitchin about it costing 1200 pts.
Update: X3F (xbox360fanboy.com) further goes on to acclaim Braid one of the rare gems in gaming.
Update: Gamespot says, "A moving story, serene visuals, and brilliant puzzles make Braid an adventure that you absolutely should experience."
Click the "read more" link below to check out some of the gameplay footage:
