The Kitchen Sink

The news has not been lacking, I've just been lazy. Lets get rolling with the updates...

Naruto: Rise of a Ninja

I started playing this one Sunday morning and plowed through about 6 hours of gameplay. I can't say I was enjoying myself too much, but there is definitely some merit to the title. The graphics and sound for example (not including the English dub, which isn't as bad as the AC6 dub surprisingly) are two of its finer qualities. It captures the essence of Naruto as well and manages to combine elements from the anime into a passable fighting/action/adventure game. It's an impressive effort as far as licensed games go. Despite that though, the game is loaded with fail.

For starters, there's a game breaking glitch that completely killed my game roughly one hour from completion and it has affected quite a few people on message boards and such. Who knows how many who don't use message boards have encountered this error, but it's enough to really piss you off. I remember a day when console gaming was the last bastion of complete software. Console games were meticulously tested for bugs and errors because if one was found, there was no quick fix. Only option was to replace the whole lot shipped and that's just completely unacceptable financially for a company. Nowadays, with patching, ship it now, collect cash, fix it later. Some people think this is fine with the advent of downloadable content, but I do not.

So, in vein of Naruto and his pension for sloshing down gobs of Ramen, I rate it based on empty Ramen boxes and give it...

1/10.

Fix your games Ubisoft. Seriously. Sick of your crap.

Logitech is Amazing

I've touted the praises for Logitech for years now and they have reaffirmed my faith in them once again. My G5 gaming mouse started to perform under specification and I wanted a new one. Called up Logitech, told them my issue and they shipped me a brand new G5 mouse in retail packaging. Not only did they ship it to me at no cost to myself, they also upgraded me to their latest G5 model which includes additional buttons and even better sensitivity.

If you have a Logitech product and find it's underwhelming performance wise be it battery life or functionality, give em a call. Number is on their website. If it's in the three year warranty, they'll hook you up. Great company.

Call of Duty 4 = WOW

As Mavrixx said yesterday, I have been playing Call of Duty 4 quite a bit. I'm not quite done with the single player campaign (though I know I am extremely close), but I just wanted to say it is wow. If wow could be quantified in some tangible source, say, as 5 tons of licorice red rope candy per WOW, Call of Duty 4 is worth 10 WOW's or 50 tons of licorice red rope candy.

I definitely do have some issues with the game, but I'll save that for my final review. I want to finish it on the next hardest difficulty and play some multiplayer before committing to anything final.


Are You Game Enough?!

I remember a few years ago when Blockbuster or some company was trying to push videogame rental passes or some such onto people and used the title tag line, "Are you game enough?!" for its ad campaign. When I think of hardcore gamers, or people who claim to be just that, it always goes back to that person doing the ad who was this portly fellow in a headband, wearing a basketball jersey, wristbands, and jumping around like an idiot as if this was some symbol for gaming culture. A fat guy in a jersey. It wasn't there, it isn't today.

However, hardcore gamers are indeed a rare breed. You can find plenty if you search for videogame forums on the web, but finding them in public or identifying them on the street based on their apparel isn't exactly easy. I don't consider myself hardcore, but even gaming journalists who play this stuff for a living, look like me at work - jeans, polo, unrelated to gaming t-shirt, etc and we'd be nigh indistinguishable from the non-gamer variety. Our actions do speak louder than words.

I remember a few years ago... I guess it was 1997 or thereabouts... wow, 10 years ago. I'm old. Anyways, Final Fantasy VII was on the cusp of its US release. It was my most hotly anticipated title at the time and it was something I looked forward to with great relish and enthusiasm. I had played the demo dozens of times and could not wait to get my grubby mitts on the final game. I even re-ordered the game before it came out, something that was actually pretty new back then and not shoved down your throat like it is now.

On the day of its release, I got out of High School and took the Samtrans Bus down at my local Electronics Boutique (which is now owned by Gamestop) at the nearby mall known as Tanforan. Picked up my copy and ran home, non stop, which is about a mile from my house (this is after already running a mile in school during PE). When I got home, I tore the packaging off and marveled at the glorious white discs inside. Disk 1, disk 3, disk 3. ... Wait, what? 1, 3, and... 3... Huh. Maybe it's a typo I thought, but wanted to be sure and called the game store. They told me to bring it back and exchange it.

Dropping the phone on my bed, I put everything back in the case, closed it up, grabbed my receipt, and raced back to the store running the whole way. Now we're up to 3 miles of running on the day. The clerk looked it over and promptly gave me a replacement copy. I took that copy and ran home. 4 miles.

After my mini marathon, I grabbed a sprite, chugged it down, and played the entirety of disk one in one play through sleeping only one hour that night before school the next day. I never fell asleep in class though because I was too excited to get home and continue my play through. Two days later, the game was finished and I was content.

I was reminded of this story because on Monday night, I was told at least, I should have had my copy of CoD4 and yet Gamestop refused to sell it to me despite having it in stock. Lucky for me, the local Gamecrazy had plenty of copies and sold me one the day of and I found myself, yet again, traveling some distance for my habit. It wasn't the 4-mile marathon of old, I actually walked and listened to my iPod to and fro, but its still me going all out for my habit. Probably not as hardcore as the FFVII story, but the dedication is still there.

I know no one comments on these yet. Heck, there probably isn't many people who read this stuff as it is, but do you have any hardcore gaming stories? Any examples of your idiocy for your habit? A story you're too ashamed to tell a friend in real life, but wouldn't mind sharing with other dorks anonymously? Drop it in the comments. Good times for all.

That's it for this installment. I'll be back with a CoD4 review later this week.