Big Fat Ostrich

When I got my PSP, the dude who sold it to me was all proud to tell me that I’d be “getting FIFA 2008 with it for free!” I tried my best to look happy about it. Then I ran to the store to buy something else. A game that kept popping here and there in PSP discussions was Capcom’s Monster Hunter. Best selling in Japan? Got monsters AND hunting in it? Got big guns and even bigger swords? Costs 40 bucks? HOW COULD I RESIST!??!?!? So I went and bought the “Freedom Unite” version,  because a bunch of nonsensical words at the end of a game title always makes me giggle.

I won’t lie to you, at first I was a bit disoriented. The interface is a little dry, the font they use feels amateurish, and I’m not sure at all about the haircuts. But I persevered. I equipped my dude, picked a quest and went on my merry way. And that’s when I got raped by a posse of mammoth-like creatures. Then I learned about time limits, armor crafting and enhancing, fishing, bug catching, mushroom gathering, etc. The game is complex, the learning curve is somewhat steep, but man it’s rewarding. AND addicting! I’m now working toward killing my first “real” monster. I almost got him the last time, but I think I’m gonna have to use traps and lures and a sniper bowgun. A big sword just doesn’t cut it. Ha ha. Cut it. Oh and they say the game really comes alive when you play online with friends. I haven’t tried that mode yet but I will soon. I have a feeling this could easily become like a real MMO experience all in the palm of my hand! And I can totally dig the idea…

So if you’re looking for a deep, rich RPG experience full of danger and action, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP might just be it.

Peace.

Dan

Ok, I’ve got serious issues with the word ‘Addicting‘ and it’s rampant use on ye olde internete (plus it’s a slow blogging night)

I know, I know, the debate over addictive and addicting has been raging on for what seems like decades (in internet time). And really, how seriously must we debate language on the net when so much of it is bastardized anyway? Most of the Internet is made up of bad writing, porn, and well, that’s pretty much it.

The thing is, it gets under my skin EVERY TIME the word Addicting pops up in a search, an ad, or a blog, so something must be done about it. Common examples are as such:

A quote: “That game is so addicting!”
An advert: “Free addicting games!”

The worst though, is when you start typing addictive in Google’s search window and the auto-complete gives you “addicting games” after you’ve only typed the letters “ad”. This tells us that we, those who fight for Addictive‘s contextual supremacy, are losing the battle. Why? Because when the majority of people are wrong, then advertisers must stoop to their level to reach them. At this point, I must digress.

Apparently, Addicting actually is a word (yet I haven’t actually found concrete proof in Websters online dictionary) but it’s a transitive verb. Addictive however, is an adjective, and we don’t replace adjectives with verbs. Why? Because those are the rules. If we break the rules, we end up like this and destroy the human race. So based on those rules, addicting does not mean addictive.

Man, I even checked Wikipedia for addicting and came up with nothing. And the internet never ever lies. There’s an article about Addiction and addictive comes up in the text. No addicting though, so maybe there is hope after all.

Bah. I’ve said all I care to say about this. I’m going to stick in some Google ads just to annoy myself further. Trust me. They’ll say addicting.

That’s right folks. I woke up in a dumpster after weeks of binging, and the first thing I noticed as I came to, was this giant, disgusting painting of ostrich kama sutra on a building:

I… I don’t know what to say. Man, that male… He’s looking at the chick all like “Ima sex you good, bitch”. It’s fucking gross.

In other news, I got a PSP all because of this game. I can’t wait. I CAN NOT WAIT! At last a good handheld fighting game. Up until now I had been trying to enjoy the fucking Naruto fighter on the DS. It’s an alright game but man, cell shading is evil. And the dudes have waaaaay too much health. Anyway. I was just passing by. Going back to my dumpster now.

Months ago I did a couple of posts about Amarok 2 and Songbird and had come to this non-commital conclusion: Amarok 2 sucked, Songbird was excellent, but I was willing to give Amarok 2 a chance. Well, no more chances Amarok 2. You had your day in the sun, but you forgot the sunscreen (fine, worst metaphor/analogy ever). You get the point.

Songbird has been trouble free on my Ubuntu system. Updates, no updates, no problems. No crashing, a multitude of add-ons, no clutter, etc, etc, etc.

Amarok 2…such a disappointment. Clunky, non-intuitive, a complete redesign that tries to be something it’s not. Actually, it succeeded in that department: It went from being a music player/organizer, to a lumbering animal that no one had ever seen before. Amarok 2 is that thing that stumbled out of the woods, injured, waiting to be shot.

The final decision for me came with the beta release of Amarok 2.2 aka Crystal Clear. It doesn’t feel like an improvement at all. It just feels extremely overpackaged.

Thankfully, I found the all encompassing solution to all of Amarok 2′s woes in one simple command:

sudo apt-get remove amarok –purge

Line Rider is highly addictive and can really tap into your creativity. It’s like this: You’re given a blank slate and you start to draw with a pencil tool. When you’re done, press the Play button, and see if the little man on a sled can “Ride The Lines” without crashing or falling into infinity. What you draw essentially becomes the map.

If you’re unclear on the whole concept, your first drawing/map will suck, but probably still be better than my best map. You definitely need to spend some time with this game to get a feel for the physics of the game which really is a great concept with infinite possibilities.

I won’t be adding any of my works of art here, so just trust me on this one when I say that they’re not worth seeing. Just check out this video for an example of just how much you can do with Line Rider when the creative juices start flowing. The only limit is your creativity. Insane.

Two Words: Quake Live

I only recently discovered it since I haven’t been in a gaming mood at all for months. Truth be told, I’m not much of a gamer, but I get an itchy trigger finger every so often. Maybe it’s the caffeine. Maybe it’s because I played paintball for the first time in my life 2 weeks ago.

Quake Live is based on Quake III Arena and essentially grew out of the Quake family of First Person Shooters. The thing about Quake Live is that it runs entirely within a web browser. No small feat, but the guys at Id are practically immortal in that thing that they do. After all, this is the company that brought us Commander Keen and Doom (which scared the crap out of me when I first played the demo off of a diskette on my old i386). Coming from someone who doesn’t know a lot about the gaming industry (Me), I think they’re pretty well respected all around.

Quake Live is also entirely free and would be so much fun to play if my computer could actually support it. It’s my video card which is really the problem. I just can’t render anything fast enough so I have to live vicariously through my friends who can actually play it. And the recommended system requirements are not all that far fetched either:

Intel CPU- Pentium 4 1.4GHz
AMD CPU- Athlon XP 1800+
Nvidia Graphics Card- Geforce 6500
ATI & Intel Graphics Card- Radeon X1270
RAM- 256M
Hard Disk Space- 1G
Direct X- 9

Needless to say, I meet all the requirements except the graphics card and I’m not even going to divulge what I have since it’s just too embarrassing and painful to talk about.

But trust me when I say that Quake Live looks awesome. My friends were having such a great time playing while I watched and longed for the day when I too could get in on that sweet, sweet frag action on the 25 or so maps that Quake Live offers. On a Core 2 Duo with a respectable graphics card, the game play is snappy. Stats for your character are also maintained online, which is pretty cool. Sadly, I don’t have any stats yet but when I do, they’ll be attached to ‘pwnz0rze’. The ‘o’ is actually a zero!

Oh yeah, one last thing. Quake Live can be played on Linux, Windows and yes, on a Mac. That’s the beauty of in-browser game play. I have yet to see it played on a Mac (if you have, let me know how it went), but Windows and Linux (Ubuntu and Fedora 11) were flawless.

Lata

M.