Thanksgiving Week

My, what a week it's been. Two Thanksgivings, Black Friday, more shopping, movies, etc. It was balls to the wall all week long. I feel like I was in constant 'entertain me' mode. Complaints? None. This is what I did this week, entertainment wise -

Dead Space 2 - This game is already becoming one of my favorites that I've played in the last year. The story isn't very fully fleshed out yet, but the pacing of the game keeps me coming back for more. Dead Space is everything that I've been looking for in a survival horror game. Example - My plasma cutter can cut spikes off the necromorphs, at which point I pick them up with telepathy, launch them at their owner, and pin them to the wall. There aren't very many games that can offer that kind of innovation.

Tower Heist - I went and saw it on Black Friday with my wife and mother. Eddie Murphy was back in classic mode. He was straight out of Beverly Hills Cop, as far as demeanor and fluency goes. The movie was too intense for mom. On separate occasions, I caught her pulling up her collar and hiding behind it. ROFLcopter. Heyo. Overall, the movie surprised me with its cheer and comedic performances.

Black Friday - We didn't get a TV like we did last year. That was about the only difference. Jasmine and I hopped from store to store and picked up some sweet things. Best Buy has music equipment cheaper than internet prices. I have no idea how they do it, but I approve. It was one of the best buys I've had ina while.

Dexter - Season 4 - I haven't started watching it yet. On Friday, I'm clearing my whole schedule, sitting down on my couch, getting some beers, and watching this beast start to finish. I'm more excited for that than anything else this entire week.

Final Fantasy XIII-2

As you all know, FF XIII-2 (FF) comes out in January in America. FF releases are always a big deal for people, and my life is no different. The franchise has been a mainstay in my house since I began gaming at the age of... 4? 5? Who knows? Square Enix releases a new game every 2 years or so, and to my happiness, I have very few complaints about each iteration.

So what's wrong with this next release?

Merchant pre-order bonuses.

Merchants are now paying companies additional money to give them a hand up on other retailers. In the past, publishers would have a blanket bonus for every gamer who bought the title new. That makes sense to me. Rewarding a customer for being an early adopter to your game is a win-win for everyone involved. Publishers get more money for the release and we get a 'trophy' addition to whatever game we chose to buy.

With FF XIII-2, there are 3 seperate pre-order bonuses. Amazon, Gamestop, and Best Buy each have something to offer whoever purchases from their store. Gamestop has an additional costume pack. Best Buy is offering a limited edition art booklet. Amazon will have an additional boss battle against Omega. Unless I buy the game three times, I won't get the whole experience. With a limited budget, this scheme is forcing me to sacrifice one bonus for another.

Well, a costume pack is stupid and the book I might pick up on eBay. I might not though, just in spite. That leaves me with Amazon. A bonus battle sounds perfect to me. There is concern that the battle won't be worth it, but I have to go for it. No one knows if it will pay off until we get there.

I hope this is as drastic as the pre-order bonuses are pushed, but knowing EA, they will do WHATEVER they can to capitalize and change this already frustrating formula into something I hate even more. I guess we'll have to see. So, there's a 2 month wait for FF. I'll be sure to let you know what I think about it when it gets here.

Magic: The Gathering

Last week, I bought a few booster packs of the new expansion, Innistrad. The store I go to sells packs for $3.50, so I buy three. The first packs don't have a lot to offer, but the 3rd pack gives me my first ever mythic rare pull. Stoooookedalicious. Here's the eBay value and layout of the card

What does that mean for me? Time to build a vampire deck. Traditionally, the decks I lean towards are White and incredibly defensive. I've won most of my games with Felidor Soveriegn getting me over 40 life. This will be a whole new direction for me and how I plan my deck.

Jasmine had to go on a shopping trip today. Where did I suggest she go? Target. Why, you ask? Because I can get my cards there as well. Two birds. One stone. Infinite victory. Perusing through the decks, I found what I was looking for. Innistrad has a starter black/red deck, centered around vampires.

I'll start building the deck this week. There isn't a lot of competition for me around here. The higher ups in my life do not approve of Magic, so I have to go outside of my normal circle to find opponents. The shop I go to has Friday Night Magic. Hopefully I can make to a night or two in the next couple weeks.

Magic 2012 on PS3 also had expansion decks come out this week. PSN is down today (of-freaking-course.) Purchasing tomorrow. Owning shortly after. theMAYFLOWA is my PSNid. Add me if you would like to play.

PS3 Trilogies of Doom.

Black Friday is just around the corner. Retailers have already leaked their ads for the viewing pleasure of the internet, and there are some deals to be had. In PS3 land, it's an extremely cheap period to get my hands on the games I've wanted for a while. Industry wise, as a whole, people will not be paying $60 for ANY games this season. (Especially not me.)

Best Buy has Borderlands GOTY edition for $20. Must buy. Gamestop will have Metal Gear Solid 4 for $10. What does that make MGS4? You guessed it, a must buy. Compile that with Dead Space 2 ($25), and we're in for some gaming gold for the next few months. Buying those new, plus DLC prices, it would've cost me $220. No thank you. I would rather spend $55.

Due to my limited amount of time to play, I'll be making a pretty frugal schedule to get through the games I want before Diablo III and Borderlands 2 come out. Here's the order that I plan to play through over the next year.

-Diablo II
-Dead Space 2
-Borderlands GOTY
-Metal Gear Solid 4
-Skyrim
-Final Fantasy VII-X
-Diablo III and Borderlands 2

I'm pretty giddy just looking at that list. I owned MGS4, but got rid of it due to its lack of trophies. That's how bad I was hooked on them. A classic game was completely overlooked due to the non-inclusion of an absolutely unimportant achievement system. There's still time. I shall conquer it.

It's time to read Game Informer and listen to some tunes. I love you all. Talk to you soon.

(I will not be counting my words from here on out. On December 1st, I'll tally them all up. Here's to 10,000. )

A Week In My Life

Finally, I can sit down and relax. This week has had some fun times stacked together. Reeecaaaap!

Monday - Diablo II came in the mail. There are some forces in my life that didn't allow me to play this game when it was released in 2001. You know who you are. Premise of the game? Kill Satan. Sounds pretty anti-Christian to me. The joy I hold in my heart for this game is nearly unrivaled. It has it all. RPG elements. Skill Trees. Funny death graphics. And replayability like a mofo. I've already put about 10 hours into it this week. Diablo II is a game that I will play right up to the release of Diablo III.

Tuesday - Inheritance came out. Inheritance came out. INHERITANCE CAME OUT!! I've waited for this book like nobody's business. Finally, the series ends. Unfortunately, Guy hasn't read the book yet, because he sucks. I'll wait to post my review until he comes out of Gaylandia and gets it finished. Also, my Sabian china arrived on Tuesday. Retail, the cymbal goes for about $230, but I picked up on eBay for $78. That was my steal of the week. Music has been an incredibly efficient stress relief for the past few weeks. Over the past year, I've slowly built my drum set up to a level that I'm really happy with. With a little purchase here and there, it has really turned into my baby.--- Guy, read he book ASAP---

Wednesday - Most of Wednesday was spent catching up on sleep. Jasmine and I went shopping, Diablo was played, then I slept. Not a whole lot going on here. Jasmine and I got our tickets for California for Christmas. Sweet.

Thursday - Thursday was the beginning of a master plan. More will be revealed on Friday's entry. Another package arrived in the mail on Thursday. More drum gear. Ben had a game on Thursday, as well. Even though his team got smoked, he still scored a season high of 8 points. That's huge, considering that his friends are about as tall as me.

FRIDAY!!! - So. There was a concert in Canada that I had given up hope on. BUT. Our tickets to California cost less than we thought they would. So, Joshua Benjamin Kaplan and I loaded up and drove to Calgary. Snowstorms. Flipped over cars. Desolate landscape. Canada sucks. then we made it to the show. SO. MUCH. METAL. I know I've I've used a lot of capitals. Excitement of this level can't be hidden though. Just go YouTube one video of the Devil Wears Prada. I had 70 minutes of that to sit/stand/throat chop/karate kick/hair pull/give knees-to-the-face to.

On a side note - We drove up for a band called Enter Shikari, as well. Unfortunately, we arrived as the were pulling their gear off of the stage. My heart was shattered. The band after them wasn't really my jam, so I stood in the back. Luck was upon me in Canada. Chris and Rob, the drummer and bass player from Enter Shikari, were walking around, and they talked to us. Coolest British dudes I've ever met. After hearing our story of our drive and missing them play, they hugged us and told us to keep our chins up. They'll be back in April, and they're now my best friends.

Ten hours in a car with Josh Kaplan + concert = One of the best days I've had this year.

Saturday - All R and R. I slept a lot today. Then we did some shopping. Jasmine needed yarn. I needed Magic cards. Mythic rares. Heyo. That leads up to me sitting at my house with my wife, getting ready for bed, as I have to be up at 5 am. So. Signing off for today. You all rule.

Uhhh.. What do I write about now?

Well. My Xbox is gone. It has been 2 weeks since I popped an achievement. That may not seem like a long time. Well, considering that I was averaging 3 a day (3 a DAY!!!) it's taking some getting used to.

What do I do now to fill my time? Seriously. After spending a whole year, 40 plus hours a week, day in and day out, I didn't know what to do. Well - Here are my new found hobbies -

A) Uhhhh... talking to people. Arguably, 80% of my communication was coming from headsets or texting. Is that ok? Really? C'mon America, that isn't ok. My participation in conversations with living, breathing humans had hit an all time low. Nowadays, I can at least say that I'm working on it. Gamers naturally are socially awkward. We all hate stereotypes, but it's freaking true. SO. I'm relearning how to talk to adults-that-actually-talk-to-people.

B) Wife time. Now that I'm not holed up in the spare room for 4 hours a day, I see my wife more. Does that mean I suck? No. Does that mean I sucked pretty hard in the past year? You bet your ass it does. Technology (in any form) is not more important than my wife. The amount of Xbox that I was playing clouded that, though. Not ok. Not ok at all. Just so we have this clear, technology < wife.

C) Gym membership / eating healthier. During Xbox, these were non- existent. Since purchasing an xbox, my weight has increased by 15 pounds. Once again, not ok. That's 52,000 calories that my body has to burn now. Fifty. Two. Thousand. Average male bodies burn 130 calories per mile. 52,000 / 130 = 400 miles. 1 year of Xbox added up to 400 miles (roughly) that I have to make up now. Here we go.

D) Survival. This past week, the Northeast got hit pretty hard with a storm. The storm still has power out for some people. That's a whole week without heat/running water/showers/hot meals, etc. Sucky. Are you ready if an emergency happens? I'm not talking the end of the world here, but I live in Montana. Realistically, we can get hit with a similar storm that shuts the city off for a few days. So, I'm getting a minor survival setup at my house going. It's a fun hobby. I want to be prepared.

E) And I still play video games. PS3. Not a lot. Not even a little. Less than an hour a day. I have to limit myself. It's too easy for me to get sucked in to big days of gaming. I put a halt to it. I've cut from 40 hours a week to about 4-5 hours. I can deal with that.

Now that I'm being more active and participating in society, I'm hoping to have a better, more fulfilling 2012. The path I was on was pretty sketchy, and I'm glad to be rid of it. So. Cheers.

Healthy time. (2,224 words for November. I'll be stoked if I hit 10,000)

Today, I sold my Xbox 360

Today I sold my Xbox 360. I NEVER. NEVER. EVER. Evereverever. Eeeeever. Thought that would happen. How did we get to this point, you ask? Read on.

-I paid $300 dollars for my console. That's standard these days. With the current generation, consumers are getting what they pay for as far as a console goes. I have very few gripes with the console itself. I knew what I was buying. It delivered.

-Xbox Live runs a few different ways. Some people choose $8 charged monthly. I, on the other hand, paid $50 up front. It pretty much cut the price in half for Live. As far as features go, Xbox Live rarely let me down. Netflix, updates, party chat, and Last.fm were regularly used at my house. My Internet always kept me connected, which is another plus. Having router/modem/speed issues would be the death of entertainment in my house. Gripes - ESPN was not included on my Xbox due to my region of the U.S. How gay is that? Super ultra gay. People who play video games in Montana still enjoy sports. Seriously.

The console and Live were about half of my total investment. I can deal with those parts of the Microsoft plan. Now, we have games/publishers/developers. Let me tell you what I think about those D-bags.

- Games. Ef. Where do I start? Games. I'll start with a list: Winners and losers. Then I'll tell you why they win/lose.

Winners. Or money that I felt was well spent.

1. Final Fantasy XIII - Why this game won - Square Enix delivered, plain and simple. Have you played it? You should. This game had a clear direction (Focus, eh??) that kept me hooked and wanting more. Plus, cut scenes in FFXIII were out of this world. Square Enix filled this beast full of cinematic beauty, a story that actually made sense (which is hard for Final Fantasy games to achieve all over the board,) and a gripping story. I hope that this game gets back in my PS3, which I'll talk about later.

2. Borderlands. - Why this game won - Borderlands. Border. Freakin. Ass. Lands. Magnificence. In every sense of the word. Borderlands is a hack and slash, but with guns/levels/skill trees. I will forever and ever sing the praises of this game. I've played through your wondrous land of Pandora, and will gladly jump back in when you release your sequel in the fiscal year of 2013. Borderlands, I love you. With DLC included, this game cost $100 if you bought everything as it was released. I had no problem that. The content that I received was immense and always felt worth it. General Knoxx will always be a legendary gaming chapter in my life.

3. Magic: The Gathering on XBLA - Why this game won - First off, I really enjoy card games. Growing up, Star Wars CCG was a mainstay in my household. The cards are still in my room, ready to duel again at a moment's notice. Magic is my current love, as far as cards go. Collecting cards is a killer hobby. Wizards of the Coast blew me away with their ability to translate the game over to consoles. I purchased this on both PS3 and 360, because I loved it that much.

4. HD rereleases - Why this wins - Through the wonders of the internet, we can now get improved versions of games from the past with decent price tags. Resident Evil, Crysis, Metal Gear Solid and Halo: Anniversary are/have all been rereleased to mostly positive praise. For some, the mechanics didn't translate well into the current gaming styles. I haven't had any problems yet. I'll gladly step into Resident Evil 4 day in and day out and never complain. Since the games are mostly just a graphics overhaul, there are very few issues reported with the gameplay itself. That's a concept I can stand by.


Sadly, I'm going to enter the section of games that lost. Games that failed. And concepts that suck serious, serious D. Once again, sadly, this is why my console had to go. I will include my qualms with developers at the end.

1.Dead Island - Why this game lost - Dead Island had a ton of unique features going for it. The developers took great parts out of stellar games to make an amalgam of awesome. Or so I thought. From launch, this game was very near to unplayable. There was no save feature. The game relied on an extremely unreliable auto-save system that often made gamers repeat chapters of the game that were extremely difficult. There were freezing issues, as well. Enter a certain door. Freeze. Jump to the wrong place. Freeze. Try to pick up two items at once. Freeze. Still, we saw past that. Through means I don't understand, I made it to the end of the game. And how was I rewarded? SAVE DATA CORRUPTED. UNABLE TO LOAD GAME. That is all. I sold it immediately after.

2. Battlefield 3 - Why this game lost - Battlefield 3 will still be fun. Millions and millions and millions (Happy, EA?) will enjoy this for years to come. Why couldn't I? Seriously. What the hell's wrong with me? I was so excited to play it. You remember that. I told you 10,000 times how excited I was. DICE is amazing. EA is huge. Between them, they wouldn't let me down. That's what my naive, young, innocent brain thought last week. Then once again, launch day came. Ef you, launch day. You suck ass. DICE didn't anticipate server use, which caused the servers to crash, resulting in NO multiplayer. How could they not anticipate server use? Come on, guys. You full well knew you had 3+ million preorders, which resulted in you earning 180 million on launch day. And you still couldn't build servers. I never played a single match of multiplayer. 1 year of anticipation down the toilet. Thanks, bros.

3. Online passes - Why this concept loses - Developers are now complaining at how much money they don't receive from games being sold second hand. Look at how much EA made on launch day, posted above, and ask yourself, 'Is that enough money for 1 day?' Obviously, it isn't. Mortal Kombat, Gears of War, The Sims 3, and Battlefield 3 are among games that now charge players additional fees to play if the game isn't purchased new. Supposedly, this is supposed to be used to keep servers up and running. Well, in Battlefield's case, the servers never worked in the first place, so why would I pay more to get what a game should do at launch? I won't do it. I say no. You can keep your broken games. I'll keep my money.

4. Post release patches - Now, this doesn't lose entirely. Many times, patches/updates can be used to re-balance a game, add weapons, raise a level cap, etc. There are a large amount of companies who use these for the greater good. They use patches to update their dedicated clientele, many times free of charge. Other companies, though, rush to get a buggy game released, knowing that they can put a patch out (hopefully) right after release to get a game going. Well, it doesn't always work out. Fallout: New Vegas, Dead Island, and Battlefield all had HUGE problems at launch that were not fixed immediately upon the game being released. I would love if Microsoft put a rule out to govern post release patches. Think about it, if a company was blocked from releasing an update for 3 months from release date, companies would make sure that they had a final finished product before they could sell a game to a customer.

5. The ever increasing price/frequency of DLC - Why this loses - Paying $60 is a lot of money up front for games. A movie is $10 dollars. An album is about the same. I can't always say that I would $30 for most games that are released. In my world, it does actually make sense to buy into a game for $30 and pay ~$10 for each additional DLC that is released. i'm not saying that the micro transaction revenue stream should be cut and copied from Facebook. We aren't all millionaires. Look at the all line up this year. There are 10+ games that will leave a large footprint on the gaming industry. If games stay at the price tag they're at, you can easily pay $800+ if you plan on playing each of those games start to finish. Incredibly, there are people who will do that. Good for them. If I could, I'd be in the same boat with you, but it's an impossibility. The season passes aren't making this any easier, even if you do save a few bucks in the end. Purchasing the passes for Forza and Gears, after buying the games, would put me at $180 for two games. Plus, we just got news today that the first Gears DLC is delayed...



Summary - I am not allowing myself to buy a $60 game that does not function as it's supposed to. I will no longer dump money into Microsoft only to recieve garbage. I do not care about release dates anymore. I will gladly take a delay than play a broken game. Publishers do not understand this, and will do anything to get a game out for financial gain, without regards to the quality of their product.

------------

Because of that, I no longer support Microsoft. They can continue to play catch up with every game released. Think about owning a pre-Internet console. They had to have games perfect by launch. You bought a whole game in a box. There were no redos. If you made a game that didn't work, your company shut down. Period.

For the foreseeable future, I will be playing PS3. By no means is it a perfect console, as there are none, but it keeps my frustration at a lower level, allowing me to enjoy what I'm playing. So, for now -

Microsoft, go ef yourself.

Favorite Achievement of All Time.

Hey dudes. I'm back form Helena and starting back up my normal life/routine. My roommate in Helena is actually a killer COD player. We rocked out some Ops while we were down there. He had a person by person plan for Sniper Fi. It only took us 3 minutes to complete. Out of control awesome.

Before I left, I played a lot of Rock Band 3. Man, I really love that game right now. I got my drums in and spent a huge ammount of time getting them set up, tweaking, tuning, etc. In Rock Band, there's a drum trainer mode. If done properly, you can practice the modes it gives you and actually learn a few solid things on drums. I know I'm not the best drummer in the world, but the Trainer beast gave me a run for my money. It took me 5-6 hours to get the achievement, and it was hard work. But alas, meet my favorite achievement of all time, Drum Trainer Graduate -


While the achievement itself is only worth 30 points, its True Achievement score is 271. 9X THE SCORE! That might not mean a lot to you, but out of 15,000 people who tracked Rock Band on True Achievements, only 187 have unlocked it. I feel like a conquered a serious piece of awesome with this guy. Way pumped.

So, with that done, I'm now focusing on completing Borderlands and Getting as much done as possible in The Force Unleashed. I'm still aiming for 60 percent. Cheers.

The end of the contest.

Well, the contest is now over. We made it through. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. At the same time, I had some really frustrating gaming moments. I hate collection games with a passion now. (I'm talking to you, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.) If you read throughout, you can see I am the victor. Ultimately, I beat Joe by 10K+, which is what I said I would do.



If I remember correctly, I heard a lot of this - "Gamefly is gay. My name's Joe. I'm super gay. I'm going to win the contest. Blah blah blah."



As we can see, this was not the case. Joe didn't show up. Here's the stats, person by person, for the contest.



Joseph - 3rd place

- Starting score - 12053

- Ending score - 19339

- Total gain - 7286



Joshua - 2nd place

- Starting score - 11370

- Ending score - 20610

- Total gain - 9240



And last but not least...



Jesse - 1st place

- Starting score - 6988

- Ending score - 30902

- Total gain - 23914

- Total Achievements gained - 746



This was the most concentrated span of gaming I've ever gone through. What next? I'm taking things slow. I'm doing one game at a time. That doesn't include Rock Band. I'm going to play that game to death. I'll probably only be posting on here when I do fun achievements/complete big games. First up is Borderlands. 4 Achievements left in that beast.



Thanks for reading up to this point. I'll talk to you soon.

Game completion time.

I set up new gamer goals on True Achievements. I've had games sitting around, collecting dust, waiting for their chance to shine. It's also been a goal of mine to complete a game worth more than 1,000 gs. Well, Borderlands, you're my next target. The hours I have accumulated into that game are immense. I really think we owe each other the favor of a full completion. Yesterday I played MINAC for about 2 hours to get all of the collection achievements. (I still really hate those, but understand they will always be a necessity.)


Up next, I have to do Moxxi's Underdome. Luckily, I found a little gem that will help me get through the whole thing in a fairly easy manner. 375 waves of baddies is a lot, though. I'm guessing it will take me around 6 hours to get the last 4 achievements, but Borderlands will be my most proud completed game.


Once that is completed, I'm going to finish off Reach. I've talked about doing that a lot, but it just hasn't happened. It's going to be a beast to pull off. I have Star Wars: The Force Unleashed coming in the mail today. I'm pretty excited to play that. I haven't had a legit Star Wars game in my hands since.... since... Well, you know how they make Star Wars games.

Gone again.

I WON AN ION DRUM SET FOR ROCK BAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EBAY RULES!!!!!!!!!!! I GOT IT FOR HALF OFF!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't type that myself. I turned the speech-to-text gadget on my computer. So. Life is shredding so hard in my face right now. Rock Band 3 = Gaming perfection. <3

I have Star Wars: The Force Unleashed coming soon. That's going to be a rager. Yes. Yes Yes. Yes Yes Yes.

Currently listening - Re(Mission) by YBF. Steven Colyer is super nice. bee tee dub.

Rock Band 3

I've played RB3 almost exclusively the last week. It's the funnest music/rhythm game I've ever played. I have a bid on eBay for the Ion drum set that you play pro drums with. If I win that, it's game over for my social life. I'll hole up in my music room and won't come out until I conquer everything in the game.

There are a ton of good games coming out right now, but I can't keep up with them. Next up will probably be Mass Effect. Rage Cage.

.

Played some NHL 2K6. Solid. 20 minutes for 750 points. I didn't even try for the last achievement. It was stupid. Also, the best way to get a penalty in that game was to punch the goalie in the face. Victory.

I've been jamming tons of Rock Band lately. I popped a few bass achievements yesterday. I'm number 6 in the world on "I Will Possess Your Heart." 100%. Woo.

I'm bummed that I found out I have until 5/3 with 3 games. That means I have to play a few more junkers. There's no point in having 3 AAA titles at the same time. I couldn't make any headway on more than 1 at a time, anyway.

Also, Rock Band went down to 20 dollars. Go buy it.

Hi Blog.

I'm back. Way back. Super back. It's been a big week. 1) I saw Mike Pedicone play drums. 2) 1,200 miles. 3) I've also worked near 40 hours in 3 days. 4) I thought about Mike Pedicone playing drums. With those activities, there wasn't a lot of room for games. I had 2 games in my mail box when I arrived. NHL 2k6 and Backyard Football '10. I haven't had a chance to play them until today. Backyard Football '10 was a quickie. 10 achievements. 20 minutes. Boom. Done. I'm less than 500 away from 30k now. I'll try to go home and do NHL 2k6 tonight. That brings me to my next point. I'm done with filler games. I'm done playing for achievements. It's been a good ride. I've rocked a ton so far. I don't see Josh or Joseph coming back from 10k down in two weeks. Who knows? I could be wrong. Maybe a rally of doom will happen. Either way, I'm not going to be playing games solely for achievements anymore. However, that doesn't mean that I won't still try to complete games. I want to do Reach on Legendary. I don't mind if I get the achievement anymore. I just want to do it. So, personal Everest gaming goals are still going to happen. Victory. I want to beat the hardest enemies in FF XIII. I want to beat the hardest songs on RB3. So. I'll still keep updated. I'll still have Gamefly. I'll still play. But I'm moving other activites into the spot that has occupied gaming for the last 3 months. Also, Mike Pedicone is a beast. He is beast master. Beast master of beasts. Just saying. Until next time--

Portland.

Hayo. I'll be headed out to Portland tomorrow. No xbox for 4 days. Wow. That seems like an eternity. I have my Gamefly games coming in the mail. I'll let y'alls know how they go. I'll break 30k next Monday. Also, new Mass Effect DLC is out today. I'll get that on Monday, as well. Peace out, guys. See you in a few days. You stay classy San Diego.

Night Shift.

Well, here we are again. Night shift. I love it.

I got Fight Night Round 3 in the mail from Gamefly. Yes. So much fun. The first step in the achievement guide is, "Buy low blow and elbow to the face." It's going to be a good night.

10:00 pm - Arrive at work. Clean stuff. Kids in bed. Check some beds. Do laundry. Make coffee.

10:30 - Catch up with old co-worker who is returning to work. She's rad. Checka da beds.

11:00 - Hey guys, I got to play some xbox. Are you leaving yet? I think to myself... (bed checks.)

11:30 - Xbox. Engage. Fight Night time.

11:45 - Bed checks. E'eryone's safe.

12:03 am - Read achievement guide. It says a lot. I condense down to 'make a giant and rain ball punches.'

12:04 - I'm correct. I need to write a guide sometime.

12:05 - Wow. 21 ball punches before that guy threw in the towel. Good for him.

12:07 - Announcer - "Wow! I didn't know a boxer could throw up like that!"

12:10 - Bed checks. I'm tooth fairy tonight. She has strategically placed her hand under the pillow. Must wait for her to change her sleeping position before I can swap dollar for tooth. My my, she is smart.

12:15 - Achievements start rolling in. Ball punch. Ball punch.

12:19 - I've now perfected the art of ball punch > knockdown > elbow to the face on the way down. I knock dudes out in 45 seconds.

12:25 - I'm single handedly pseudo castrating a generation of boxers.

12:45 - Bed checks. Hand's still there. I'm 16-0 and I've yet to throw a legal punch.

1:15 - Announcer - 'Wow. With the elbow to the face, not only did Evander's eye socket get shattered, but also his dignity.'

1:20 - Bed checks. Still no tooth exchange.

1:27 - If only Frazier knew Ali's only weakness: 27 strategically placed groin shots.

1:44 - Despite this game being called Fight Night Round 3, I have yet to see the third round.

1:50 - Whatevs. I didn't want to be the tooth fairy anyway.

1:56 - Apparently, at some point in a fighter's heavyweight career, he no longer throws ball punches. I just knee people now. I just won that fight throwing ZERO punches. Fun times.

2:03 - Burger King just gave me a million dollars. Yes. 4 achievements so far for 500 g.

2:21 - Roy Jones Jr. You don't stand a chance.

2:22 - Yes. Roy Jones was the perfect height. I could knee him in the head while he was knocked down. 37 Second KO.

2:25 - 26-0-0 with 26 KO's.

2:32 - Chex on bedz.

2:39 - 80,000 dollars and a chance at the title!!

2:45 - 6 of 8 achievements. 750 g.

2:57 - Whilst on bed checks, I saw opportunity. I struck. Tooth fairy = accomplished. Now, the question is, what do I do with this bloody tooth? I got ripped off. I definitely would never pay a buck for a bloody tooth.

2:58 - 30,000 is getting really close. I'm at 28,156 right now.

3:10 - So far tonight, I've listened to full albums by Your Best Friend, Say Anything, The Sound of Animals Fighting, and City Light Thief. Victory.

3:18 - There was a fluke. 31-1-0 with 31 KO's.

3:21 - Boom. Heavyweight Title. My opponent threw 2 punches in that fight. 0 landed. Also, he looke like the villain off of Ghostbusters II. He deserved it. 1 Achievement left for 100 g. 900 so far.

3:45 - Oh Circa. You are too good to me.

3:58 - Boom. Game done. 4 hours. 1,000 g. Pumped. 28,406. That's a solid number. Getting come work done, then I'm going to Rock Band. Yes. Rock Band 3. With a keyboard. Yes.

4:49 - Wow. Keys are hard. Way hard. I'm having a tough time with medium. Well, got to get some work done before the 6 am shift comes on. I'm 1,000 points richer. Way pumped. Very close to 30 k. Bye dudez.

Big day.

So, Blogspot decided to put links in my text. I'm not happy about this. I may be buying my own domain soon and just shifting everything over. This is bull crap.

Also, I made a new page, titled Game Creation. Check it out.

Inferno Hell Death Mode.

Joe and I champed through Gears of War today. Wooooooooo. Super fun. Hardcore is quite tough on that game. Now we're onto insane.

The last boss in Gears is super lame. Not a fun fight. He can kill you on will, at any time, for no reason. Nonetheless, we triumphed. Way cool.

I like achievements that have you play games at higher difficulties. They make you work for your money. But they have to stack. If they don't, it's dumb. No one wants to beat a game on Very Easy, Easy, Medium, Medium-Hard, Hard, Super Hard, Way Tough Hard, Hell Mode, Inferno Hell Mode, and Inferno Hell Death Mode to get the achievements for each. Thanks, Guitar Hero. You suck.

I'm so close to 60%. So close. (Calculates.) I'm just under 57% right now. 53 more achievements on current games. That's all I need. I'll probably start the countdown soon.

ALSO. Big one. I broke 20,000 for the contest today. In 3 months, I've scored 20,200 points. I feel like a champ. Now, with me playing real games more often, this makes me feel even cooler.

Holy crap. The more I think about today, the more I realize happened. I bought Mass Effect today. It was an accident, actually. I bid $7 on it about 2 weeks ago, and just today the auction ended. That was a fun e-mail. Congratulations! I want $7 dollars! You get Mass Effect!

Today was a victory. Fa sho.

Boom.

The contest may or may not have changed. We're not sure yet. More on that around my b-day.

I hit over 1,000 achievements and also have a total of 20 completed games now. Pretty stoked on that. 16,000 points from 20 games (15 retail, 5 XBLA.)

I'm really glad I have a big buffer on Joshua and Joe right now, because I've reached my limit on playing crappy games. Don't get me wrong, I can enjoy easy thousand pointers like Disney games and certain sports games, but online forums are a pretty solid indicator of game quality, and I shant partake in garbage anymore. That being said, I'm getting a list together of games that I want to play.

- Mass Effect 1 and 2
- Dead Space 2
- Red Dead Redemption

- Plus I want to finish Final Fantasy and Reach.

Here we go. I got a solid few weeks ahead of me. Boom.

One month left.

Day One.

Man. What a good photo. Today, I beat Modern Warfare 2 on veteran. Wowza. What a task. Now, beating stories is more important than 1,000 pointing games. I had a great time beating this one. Epic story.

Also, I got my Star Wars game. It sucked. I played it for 20 minutes, died 60932 times, and wrapped it back up. It's going back to Gamefly. Can't do it.

I'm 5300 up on Joshua. 8500 up on Joe. I can taste victory.

Statistics.

I found out today that the average gamer has 11,000 gamerscore. Xbox released statistics for achievements yesterday. 6.3 billion achievements have been popped, total, by all Xbox 360 owners. As for the score, we're all above that. In fact, Joseph and Joshua both started the competition higher than the average gamer. *applause*

Can you tell I love stats?

Moving on. Today starts my 4 ish days off. Big points. Coming in hot. I'll break 25,000 today. I may get to 26,000. I have big plans.

Wednesday = Check new Warped Tour bands. Hopefully they don't suck today. A bunch of crappy bands are getting announced each week. Play Star Wars: Republic Heroes. Work meeting. More Star Wars. Drug testing. Pick up drum gear. Go to game night schnockered. Well, not really. Heh.

Thursday = Call of Duty campaign. Hopefully get drum things in the mail. Joe will be coming over around 3. Ilomilo run through. Fresh Life Group. More Ilomilo. Maybe some Rock Band.

Friday = I should be getting Fable II in the mail. We'll see. Either Fable II or Final Fantasy XIII. Today is Roman Numeral game day. Band meeting deal. Then we head to Joe's house for...

SUPER GEARS WEEKEND!!

Saturday = Wake up early. Get Gears of War Triple Pack. Play all day. Eat junk food. Play more. Drink some Dew. Joe does a keg stand. We start throwing things off of the balcony. Did I mention we'll be at my parents' house? No? Hopefully they're too busy to read this. Hire somebody to come wipe Joe's butt. Play more. Save the world from the Locust. Find Joe passed out in kitchen, naked, face down, with Mountain Dew cans everywhere. Joe still has a controller in his hand. Laugh and take pictures for future blackmail. Forget future blackmail. We (Zak and I) post photos on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and Myspace. We then pix message the photos to everyone in Joe's phone. Call cops on Joe and try to make cops believe he's a trespasser and we've never met him before. Call mom and tell her Joe's been arrested, but is at the hospital with a film crew there to document the first ever Mountain Dew overdose. Tell her everything's fine, they wipe butts. Drive home. Zak and I work on SpecOps. Gotta complete MW2. Contemplate not answering Joe's only phone call from jail. Decide to pick up and pretend he has reached a chinese restaurant. Sleep knowing I made the world a safer place.

Wow. What a busy couple days. Sounds like a blast.

30,000, here I come. Watch yourself.

Earthbound.

First off, someone has broke a milestone. Joseph, congratulations on getting 5,000 points since this competition started. I got that many last week.

Heh.

I've spent a long time ruminating on this post. I didn't want to rush it. I want to convey the feelings that I felt in the most readable way possible. The game that spawned this, of course, is the legendary Earthbound. Get some coffee. Turn on some 8-bit SNES music. This will be long winded, I assure you.


Earthbound was developed by APE software and released in 1995 for SNES. I was 6 when this game came out. Joe, in retrospect, was still getting his butt wiped by adults/older siblings, even though he no longer was in daipers. Happy times for Jesse. Sad times for Joe. I remember this game being rented from our local store (Yeah, back when grocery stores rented games out to people) and I chose it for my week. Being six, I remember getting thwarted early on. I couldn't get more than 2 hours into the game. Also, I didn't know what saving was. My, my, how far I've come.

Not Joe. In case you didn't know, he still was incapable of basic hygiene. To this day, he still craps his pants at the slightest scare. Here is a direct quote from a recent blog post: "A tank is rolling towards me, I shart."

With my parents being in Hawaii and all older siblings out of the house, this caused me tremendous worry for Joseph. I doubt he is clean at this very moment.

Earthbound. Recently, I purchased a phone. Not just any phone, mind you. The HTC Incredible. The phone, as a phone, sucks. I can never hear people. That is far overshadowed by one basic fact: in the marketplace you can download an app and have access to EVERY Super Nintendo AND GameBoy Advance game, regardless of language, that has ever been released. Immediately I ran through the list of games. Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasies, Chrono Trigger, then booooom...

Earthbound. Downloaded. Loaded up. Playing.

The very essence of this game is magical. It was written be Shigesato Itoi, and draws hugely on his own life experiences. (More on that later.) There's no dragons, spells, or medieval anything. It's just a boy and his baseball bat out to save the world. The character's name is Ness and he wakes up to find a meteor has landed right outside his house. Ness' mother sends him out with his dog to investigate. Ness' neighbor is named Pokey. He's bad. He sucks.

After fighting some dogs and crows, I make it to the meteor. I'm alerted by an alien that I have to stop Giygas from destroying the world. The alien is a little bee that follows you for the next five minutes. Then Pokey's mother kills him with a flyswatter.

Pokey's family is evil incarnate.

I get the Sound Stone and learn that I have to record melodies of magical places around the world. Once you gather all eight, Giygas can be defeated. The world can be saved.

The game is most difficult in the very beginning. Money is gained when you defeat enemies. Ness' dad just deposits money into the bank account at save points. Problem is, dogs and crows don't carry a lot of money on them. Plus, when there's only one character, the battle system can take Ness out in no time. I took my time leveling up. I was patient. I bought cheeseburgers and a new bat. Then I faced the first boss and recorded the Giant Step melody.

Just getting this far in, I realize a writer of my caliber simply can't explain this game as it should be explained, but I'll keep trying. It's just too good. It's just. Too. Awesome.

I team up with Paula on the next town. There I find a cult of painter's all wearing blue KKK outfits. Not kidding. They want to paint the world blue. Easily dispatched. They're not fighters, they're painters. I'm saving the world and they can't stop me.

Then I meet Jeffrey. He's my favorite. He possesses no magic. He's the only one in the game made that way. But still. He fixes everyone's gear, and when the characters stay in hotels he invents new things. With Jeff's help, I solve the zombie threat in Threed with some fly paper and a jar of honey. Ingenuity at it's finest.

(Joe's pants are still soiled.)

Pu, a ninja prince of Dalaam, is then contacted via telepathy from Paula. He leaves his royal lineage behind because he has to save the world. He also lives on a floating island over a pink cloud. Shigesato Itoi rules. He just throws tons of random ideas together and parades a group of four preteens around, saving the world and kicking the butts of aliens, dogs, piles of puke, angry pedestrians, taxis, U.F.O.s, butterflies, and literally whatever else you can think of.

Once my party was assembled, I guess that about halfway through the game. I've fought gang members, snakes, mummies, and Krakens now. From here on the game gets funky. You think it's already funky? You're wrong. I enter a magical illusion made by an evil statue. I fight through a pyramid to battle a General Mummy. I ride around in a yellow submarine (Beatles??) I fight dinosaurs in a mystic underworld. One of the battles leading up to the end is Ness battling himself in a nightmare world that he's lost in, all projected from his own subconscious.

Despite everything sounding so random, Itoi's ability to keep everything cohesive is unparalleled. I was hooked so hard on this game.

Once you obtain all 8 Sound Stone melodies, you get access to the final area. This is the coolest/freakiest dungeon I've ever been in.

Jeffrey (the fixer upper) has a father who is an inventor. It's discovered that all the evil that has been happening is due to Pokey teaming up with Giygas. Once again, Pokey sucks. They discover that Pokey and Giygas have traveled back in time at the very spot you're located (convenient?) and are ready to destroy the world.

Jeffrey's father, Dr. Andonuts, built a Phase Distorter that can take you anywhere, at any time period. But there's a catch. No living creature can go. The plan seems thwarted. The world will fall into disarray. Joe craps his pants...

Alas! Dr. Andonuts hatches a plan. Guess what? He's also a brain surgeon. Seriously? This guy had to go to school for 50+ plus years to get his degrees. I mean, a brain surgeon aaaaand time machine inventor. Brilliant.

His plan is to take everyone's brain out and put them into robots. Going into the last dungeon, you have four identical robots, except Ness has a hat on. Battle. Battle. Battle.

Remember the 'more on that later' part. Well, I read up on the game before I played it. You just need to read this.

"In an interview on his website, Itoi describes how his inspiration for the final battle with Giygas resulted from a traumatic childhood event. When Itoi was a young boy, he accidentally viewed the wrong movie at a theater, a Shintōhō film entitled The Military Policeman and the Dismembered Beauty. According to Itoi the film featured a graphic rape scene near a river that traumatized Itoi so much that his parents began to worry about his wellbeing. Years later, Itoi integrated the experience into Giygas' dialogue for the final battle.^"

Tell me you've faced a final battle of that magnitude. Don't even try. Nothing can top a battle that was written by a man who used the event as a catharsis from a traumatic childhood event. Giygas doesn't even have a form. He just has a scrolling red/black template of screaming faces that you have to fight. This guy was jacked up. More so, he made Giygas freaking hard.

Giygas can only be defeated by the prayers of people that I've encountered over the journey.

Pray.

250 damage.

Pray.

567 damage.

Pray.

1404 damage.

Pray.

3523 damage.

Pray.

VICTORY! Cue battle win music. Cue credits. Cue save the world speech!

I win. The game ends with me at my house, getting ready for bed. World saved? Check.

Earthbound was a pure gem. I've never played a game like it, and I'm sure that I will never play a game like it again. This game was good enough that I took 30+ hours out of my time while in the competition to play it. I just couldn't stop. I don't know if there's a way to get this game in the original cartridge anymore, but you can download it. Find a ROM. Find an emulator. Go get it. It was so rewarding to get to the final scene and watch the credits.

Trust me.

You'll thank me later.

Now someone, please, go help Joe wipe his butt.

Battlefield freakin Bad freakin Company freakin 2

First off, I love anniversaries.

My girlfriend BreeAnn and I just celebrated 3 years together and for my gift she got me a $50 dollar gift card to game stop and some body wash.

Body wash?!

I instantly throw it away, and even though my girlfriend also surprised me with a home cooked dinner when she gave me these gifts, I insisted we go to Gamestop.

Now.

8:30 pm. I convince her to go to Gamestop, but it closes in 30 minutes. Pedal to the medal.

8:30.5 pm She wants to drive... HER DODGE CALIBER! crap.

8:31 pm. Were just about to pull out when my mom's friend Carianne pulls in the driveway.

8:32 pm. Small talk, Small talk, small talk, look at time... cut her off. Time to go.

8:38 pm. Finally on the highway, Breeann suggests listening to music to calm me down.

8:42 pm. Not only is Breeann NOT speeding she is going UNDER the speed limit

8:45 pm. PA-PA-PA-POKER FACE PA-PA-POKER FACE!

8:50 pm. Breeann regrets getting me the gift card.

8:56 pm. We're here! Jett (Manager, yes I know and am known by my first name here) jokingly locks the door. I almost throw up. Door unlocks. YES!

8:59 pm. Buy Battlefield, Start singing the Sound of Music in celebration.

9:00 pm. Get in the car, Breeann asks to go to Petco (PETCO?!) It's hard to say no after how nice she was to me. Crap.

9:01 pm. Ever been to Petco at 9 pm? Don't do it.

9:03 pm. We get goldfish. She makes me hold them, making me put down Battlefield. I'm sorry battlefield

9:10 pm. Almost home.... almost home... What Breeann? You want to hit up the CoinStar at Rosauers? (Grumble, grumble, grumble) Sounds great honey!!

9:15 pm. This women just cashed in $50 in change, geez.

9:20 pm. HOME! Breeann says she has to go home... BATTLEFIELD TIME!!!!

9:30 pm. I pop it in. I love life.


9:40 pm. I can't join any multiplayer matches... Download update? okay that should be fine.... 2.5 GIGABYTES!?!?! Throw up everywhere.


The Next day.


Xbox left on all night. Internet sucks. Update downloaded. YES!

10:23 am. First multiplayer match, everything is amazing. Battlefield owns.

10:54 am. A tank is rolling towards me, I shart. Run into a building. It shoots the building and the building comes down, it comes down, IT COMES DOWN!!!

12:00 pm. finally started to get my stride going.. then something amazing happened--

Ace Pin: Be the highest scoring player in a multiplayer match.

Yes. Score the highest in the game. That's 23 people I just did better then. suck it

So now I'm rocking Battlefield. I still plan to win this competition. To quote what Jesse said last night--

"Its not over yet Joseph. Did I tell you I'm gay?"

Joseph out.

...

I got to work at 10 today. There were too many staff on, so I got to take most of the day off. Victory. I drove home. Postman is just leaving. Boom. Gamefly game. Up. Yes. I walk inside.

I put Up in at 10:30 am. I loved the movie. The jokes/comedy value of it was my favorite by a Disney movie to day. I see the game is collection based. I am wary. I give the envelope the stink eye.

The game has simple levels. You can tell it's targeted for younger children. My wife helps me kill the Anaconda (Teamwork badge!!111!) I beat the game in 3 hours. It gives me about 30 minutes of mopping up. Somewhere in there I eat.

I've discussed this with people. My couch has time warping properties. You sit down. 4 hours pass. No idea what happened. I pop the game out at 2:30 pm. I have 1000 more gamerscore now.

I'm at 53.6% completion. My 1,000th achievement is nigh. I need to make that a special one. I'm starting to feel like I have this sealed up. We have about 5 weeks left. I want 5,200 more points and 6.4% more completion. Right now, that's still 114 achievements on current games.

Gear up.

Friday.

Today was a day off. Excellence. I played through a ton of FF XIII mark missions. I have about 20 to go, but they're in puzzle format in a labyrinth type map. Kinda messed up. I don't like how they designed it.

I've been playing through a ton of games to get my completion percentage up. I've played MW2, Rock Band, and FFXIII. I need to get a bunch of achievements on those games. I need 130 more on past games to get up to 60 percent.

RIGHT NOW I'M AT 52.5%!!!!!!!

I set some goals up on True Achievements to track my progress. I love gaming stats. Total nerd.

Also, I have Disney's Up and Star Wars Republic Heroes coming in the mail around Monday.

Josh. It's time to bury you.

With love.

Growth Egg.

Iz my foto az kul az Joze? O no, he sukz 2 harrd.

I got the growth egg and 5 starred Neochu. Suck it, Guy.

Your Best Friend.

Go listen to Your Best Friend. Then come read.

XBL just put out an app that tests network connection and then gives you sweet Einstein avatar awards. I might put mine on for a few days, just for kicks. You just have to leave your xbox on for 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 6 hours, respectively. I'll just leave mine on all night to get it going.

I broke 900 achievements. Woot. Also, I'm at 51.5% now. I need 150 more achievements on my current games to get up to 60%. I'm really excited for that point.

Grind time in FF XIII coming up. Bring the thunda. Go listen to Your Best Friend.

-- Oh yeah, I finished Pimp My Ride. The last achievement I got was 'Speed of the Pimp.' Fml --

Pimp City Stories.

Hope's gay. I'm sticking with Sazh.

Today I got to work on Pimp My Ride. This game has made me realize a few things about video games.

1) Some games just aren't worth getting 1,000 points on. This is one of them. I was frustrated with Cabela's, but this really put the nail in the coffin.

2) Almost every crappy game I've played so far is collection based. This is included. Somewhere, some dude cranks out 12 collection based games and makes a killing. Please stop. They suck. You suck. Move on.

3)Pimp needs to be taken out of the dictionary. It needs to be an unforgivable word, because...

4)When a game tells me to "Get Pimpin'!!!" I'm under the impression I need to go slap some women and force them into prostitution for money. That's not the case. I guess that means you go break an ungodly amount of parking meters and billboards. So frustrating.

I'm about halfway through the game. I just broke 23,000. Here's my logs.

9:00 am - Put the game in.

9:01 - Bombarded by the word 'Pimp.'

9:01:05 - Contemplate atheism/suicide/disc snap/any combination of said items.

9:05 - Begin to forget English.

9:40 - 4 Achievements for 100 points. They all come at one time when you Pimp (ahem... complete) cars.

10:50 - This games like GTA without guns/helicopters/Mafia/any sort of fun.

11:30 - Getting quite tired. Need a hot pocket.

11:35 - Didn't realize my microwave has a 'magma cheese' setting. Mouth = Destroyed.

12:00 pm - Break 23,000. W()()T.

12:29 - More hot pocket. I let it cool down.

12:40 - Something is wrong with the cheese. It refuses to disapate heat. Mouth = 2x destroyed.

12:45 - The quality of this game is astonishingly low. They waypoints aren't fixed on the map, as they should be. It's more a hot/cold view. They move around until you go in the direction they're in. Oh, and I'm driving a Pimped out VW van 100+ mph. Wtf.

12:46 - Achievement unlocked - Industrial Pimpin. 40 g

12:50 - Dear Lord, who gave this guy a TV show?

12:56 - When Ryan gets back from Hawaii, I'm punching him in the throat. I don't care if he's 10 years old.

Pimp:Pimp - Pimp Pimp Pimp.

1:03 - Awesome. The cars get harder to control. That's how they increase difficulty.

1:20 - I can't handle more of this game right now. I think we're halfway done. Time to put Pro Tools on my computer.

1:24 - I get a text from Josh. I'm not kidding. This is what it says.

- theMAYFLOWA - Pimp My Ride Mad Pimping in Pimp mode.

That's my status when people look at me on xbox. I. Hate. Everything.

2:16 - I was gone for an hour. I got it all set up. Then I found out I have no 9V batteries. No recording today.

3:19 - Hip Hop Pimpin'. 40 g. I hate this game.

4:13 - Nearing my goal for this game. I want 700 g. The big ones in this game aren't reasonable, and I feel sorry for anyone who has this game 1k. Dinner's coming up. I'll try to complete this tonight.

6:14 - I played some Bulletstorm. Man, that games fun, mang.

Here we go.

Today is the day. I'm fully committed to victory. I'm sorry Josh, but losing is not an option. I will hit 30,000 and have 60 % completion by the time this is over. Period. I have 4 days off, kind of, starting tomorrow.

Today I got Pimp My Ride in the mail. The game opens up with, "Welcome to Pimp City."

Well, I guess I'm in the right place.

Let's get some points this week. Gear up.


UPDATE: Actual conversation, while playing Halo-

---Begin Transmission----

Jesse- "Well, Joe, I gotta go."

Joseph- "Do what?"

Jesse- (Tries to think of lie. Can't) "I have to go play Pimp My Ride."

Joseph- "Why?! What?!? Do you have a gun to your head?!"

---End Transmission---

Hope.

Well, I'm hope now. I'm not happy about that. He's the worst character in any Final Fantasy game to date. Go listen to a 5 year old whine about dropping ice cream for 40 hours.

That's Hope in a nut shell.

I'll work on getting a new photo. I have 4 left to go. Oh, bee-tee-dub, I beat XIII today. Legendary ending. Yesterday I beat Earthbound. I'll talk more about that later. I 'm still decompressing from what happened in Earthbound. It had some really strange events in it.

I'm really proud of myself. You may think it's gay, and you have every right to, but I think I had a cool gamer milestone today. I beat The Favor House Atlantic by Coheed on Rock Band. That may seem simple, but here's the little twist: I played guitar on expert and used my headset for singing at the same time. The singing was on easy, so that wasn't a huge feat, but it really opens up Rock Band for a whole new level of challenging. In all reality, I can do multiplayer by myself. I'll be really proud of those achievements. Legitimately playing two objectives in one game is not anything I've done before.

So. I'm pumped.

Also, Josh broke 20 K today. That's a big deal. Josh, you're way awesome.

46 days to go.

It's time to get back to business. We have 46 days left. Joe's not in the competition anymore. He hasn't showed up, period. I'm pretty sure my wife has a higher gamerscore than you, Joe.

That leaves me and Josh. Once upon a time, we were best friends. Now, we are the worst of enemies. We shan't stand down. We both want the same thing. Josh, I'm here to deny you victory. Boom. I said it.

Gauntlet. Tiz layd.

Recap on scores--

Jesse - 22472
(3495)
Joshua - 18977
(Joe is Gamefly points behind.)
Joseph - (Insert number for poop. That's what his score is.)


UPDATE: I tried really hard to play Alaskan Hunts. I even found a work around for some achievements. Then I wounded a beaver with a .500 magnum, tracked it, and got mauled by a moose in the process. Not even joking. So, I got 19 achievements in the game. It's going back. I can't do it anymore. Up next: Pimp My Ride. God help me.

Version 2.0

So, I changed everything. I still kept it simple, but not as bleak. Let me know if something sucks and should be changed. (That means you, Guy.) I'm still quite naive to the world of Blogz0rz.

Also, I'm adding pages. This competition will be over soon. I plan on running this bad boy for many moons to come. Gaming goals. Gamefly winners. Stuff like that should all be up in the near future. But. BUT. Even I have a limit, and refuse to spend to much time on the blog itself. I would rather be playing Cabela's Alaskan Hunts and getting raped by wild bears, lynx, red foxes, caribou, wolverines, etc. Serious. Every animal in that game will charge at you. For real.

So. Here's to version 2.0.

Gear up.

Still Hunting.

Well, this post won't look pretty. They moved the easy click photo button device somewhere else. I had a fun night hunting last night.....

What do all of these have in common, you ask? Check the impact zone. Boom.

Cabela's.

So. Sometime, somewhere, years ago, my younger brother played Cabela's Alaskan Adventures on my profile. He got 4 out of 46 achievements. I have to clean it up now. It just showed up in the mail. I wasn't going to blog about it, because I'm not happy I have to play this game.

Then I shot a polar bear in the face.



Today effing rules. Hunting: Engage.

UPDATE: I had fun playing hunting, but I needed to game for more entertainment, and not just achievements. So, I bought Pac-Man CE DX Pt. II: The Rise of Pac-man. (Or something like that.) It actually was a bunch of fun. Plus, it took less than an hour to 200 pt. So, I ended up getting 12 achievements anyway.

In Honor of FF XIII.

In honor of FF XIII, I will be changing my gamer photo to each of the new photos I unlock in the game as they progress. Last night I unlocked Sazh's photo. I think it's fitting. We look exactly alike.

Day Five.

Today was a really solid day. I took my Wii in to Gamestop. They're running a promo right now and I got an extra $50 dollars for it. When it was all said and done, I got $150 on my PowerUps card. I can deal with that. I promptly bought FF XIII. I've been sharing Joe's with him for too long. Plus, I'll want to come back to this game. I'm sure of it.

Over the course of this week, I've got around 2500 points. I'm proud of that. Final Fantasy XIII. Then Mass Effect One and Two. I pre-ordered ME3 today. I can already feel how awesome it will be.

OH YEAH... Joshua. Thank you for the music today. I'll be happy for months.

Day Four.

I have to start with this: I'm heartbroken. MyGamerCard.net shut down today. That what I've been using for badges over here. ---->

Ef word. I used that site to check all of my progress/info/make plans for future achievements. Regardless, they're gone. It's time to find a new site that will do that. I can collectively get the info from a few other sites. We'll see.

That all being said, today has been a great day for gaming. I was up at 7:30 and immediately started grinding in FF XIII. That game is perfection. I played the same 5 battles for 3 hours. I loaded up 51k in CP, and maxed out my current stats. It was way fun. Then I played my wife in Madden.

Madden. Is. Gay.

The series sucks. They're making it easy to settle for the casual gamer. And it has Chris Collinsworth. Those two factors alone make it the worst game that can ever be made. Ever.

I'm off to go check for a Gamefly game.

R.I.P MGC.

Update: 1:27 PM: I found a workaround. Instead of going to MGC when you click on gamer photos, you'll now go to Xbox.com. Not a huge difference, but it's not as comprehensive with information. Oh well. I'll be leaving the top MGC badge up for as long as I feel like, as an homage. Also, Gamefly game is here.

Update: 6:30 PM: I 1000-ed Night at the Museum. It took 4 hours. It was a pain. Collecting is dumb. (Rethinking life...)

Day Three.

Today started off slow. I had to get some work done. Unfortunately, I can't quit the world for five days. Blehg. Now I get to sit down and play. I asked my wife, "What should I start with? Final Fantasy or Bulletstorm?" Her response?

"Bulletstorm. That way you can get more achievements before Josh wants it back."

Gamer-wife-who-understands-achievements ftw.

Day Two.

She was a beaut. I woke up and played FF XIII for 8 hours to start my day. Really, does it get better than that? That game is legendary. I'm glad I'm playing it, but achievements DO NOT HAPPEN. It takes forever. Foreeeever. Soooo....

I played some Madden 10 online. This was my first foray into online matches with a partner to get achievements. I posted my plight on xbox360a and Bobalue1 from Vermont responded. He set the game up (All-Pro, 5 min quarters) and we went to town. We got the first 2 easy. Then it got rough. You have to complete a pass, user to user, which scores, while playing against an All-Pro defense. Some people can do that with ease.

I am not one of those people.

We tried everything. Fake punts on first down. Fake field goals. Posts. Slants. Curls. Straights. Everything. We got lucky on a fake field goal pass. Boom. Touchdown.

No achievement.

Dismayed, but not crushed, we pressed on. We got nowhere. We were down 52-7. Then it happened.

Philip Rivers to Antonio Gates. 42 yards. Hall of Fame moment. Boom. We got it. When the game was over, you get the last achievement. He sends me a message. "100% bro! Thanks for the help. See you later!"

The achievement didn't work for me. Ef. Word. Now I have to go back online and do another game.

Today, we have Madden, Bulletstorm, Final Fantasy XIII, and hopefully a Gamefly game en route. Gear up. It's going to be a good day.

Day One.

Holy butt. I'm so excited for this week. I have 5 days off, starting today. Gamefly game came in the mail. I rationed up. Out of the $110 of groceries I bought, I got --

-8 Powerades
-12 Fat Tires
-1 Rotisserie Chicken

What more does a man need?

I'll update when I 1k my game. I'll break 20k today. So. Pumped. For this week. Games games games games.

And Joseph sucks. Get ready to be in last, Joe. Josh is coming for you.

UPDATE: 2:10 PM: I'm down one bottle of gatorade, one rotisserie chicken, but up 520 gamerscore. I can taste 20k. Also, Backyard Sandlot Sluggers is more entertaining than Madden. That makes me laugh. Loalwlal.

UUUUPDATE: 2:18 PM: I started story mode. Of course, I tried to name my character Butt Face (Who wouldn't?) This is what happened.


"BAD WORD USED. PLEASE ENTER A DIFFERENT NAME"

- What?!?? A profanity filter?!? I tricked the game by naming my guy Butthol. I'm such a child.

UPDAIT: 3:52 PM: I, Jesse Wayne McDonald, have broke 20k. I'm the best at anything, ever, of all time.

UP DATE: 4:34 PM: Butthol Player has an astonishing career. 23/25, 14 HR, 18 RBI, and 0 losses. Hall of Fame numbers? You tell me. 3 Achievements left. I'll mop up after drug testing.

Final Update: 11:13 PM: I got it completed. I did some Halo with the bros. I think Sluggers took about 4 hours of gameplay to 1k. Some of the final achievements were tricky, and had to be done in the bottom of the 9th inning, which made things suck if you messed up. (Which I did.) Today was a big day. I broke 20k. I'm now the highest gamerscored person out of my friends. I passed Sam up today. Also, last but not least...

Josh is THIRTY points behind Joe. Joe, prepare to eat last place. It doesn't taste good.

Way last update: 12:35 AM: Josh is now in second. Boom

The Oracle

So it begins.

Seeing Jesse pick up Final Fantasy 13 and start playing it reignited my interest for the game, So I picked up disc two (Jesse and I are using the same copy, he's on disc 1, Im now on Disc 2, Thank you Square Enix)and started playing again

It was a rough start.

Not remembering any guys abilities, or paradigms or anything I was overtaken by the easiest of foes, but fight after fight, try after try I finally started to regain my stride and dominate enemies again. But another problem arose

Barthandulus

The reason that I quit the game in the first time was the impossible boss I got stuck on in the next room, so I set my feet, and grinded.

And grinded and grinded and grinded.

Soon after hours of grinding I decided to fight the boss again

Killed after 5 minutes

Grind, Grind, Grind, Cry, Grind Grind, Lunch, Grind, Grind

2nd fight success.

But it was too close. I knew that if I was going to be successful in this game I was going to have to get help, I was going to have to see an expert, I was going to have to see

The Oracle

He hails from Portland, Oregon with his wife and 3 kids, and Has put over 7 millon hours into Final Fantasy games since the first one came out.

So I climbed the highest mountain to get cell phone service, and called him

After hours of talking and debating and comparing and laughing, and consolidating we came to an agreement

Everything I was doing was wrong.

Now with a new team, new set of paradigms, and a new battle plan I now am fully equipped to take on this game,

Jesse you suck


here we go.



P.S Jesses tattoo ideas are gay, in fact I came up with one of my own, so picture this, after you read Jesses half baked Idea about some not funny tattoo, you read mine that says

"At least Im not a wanted animal rapist"

Boom

Heyo.

So, I'm in my 40 hours in 3 days again. I may even work more than that. There's simply no room for xbox in that frame. But. BUT. I have 5 days off next week. I'm hoping to get 3000+ points next week. I really think I can make that happen. Final Fantasy XIII is such a beauty of a game.

Josh is back on track. He's 1500 points up in the last few days. Watch out, Joe. He's coming for you. I've said it before. I'll say it again.

"Joseph, you will get last without Gamefly."

Sports Games.

I found Madden 2010 at my parent's house. I've been house sitting for them. Joe was sitting on a gold mine of gamerscore but didn't capitalize. I've popped 2000 g in the last 20 hours. I'm feeling good. The other 1000 came from College Hoops 2k6. Super easy. It took about 20 minutes.

Joe's playing Soul Calibur with his girlfriend right now. He is getting 0 achievements as we speak. Almost at 20 k.

New Tattoo Ideas.

So I've been kicking around ideas for a new tattoo lately. I want it to involve video games, but not be gay. That's a very tough thing to do. There's nothing that screams "I live in my parents basement and will never contribute to society" as well a poorly placed Mario/Mega-Man/WoW tattoo. Serious. We've all been there. This was my first idea-- Picture a Final Fantasy scene, with these words in fancy writing--

I don't blink. I simply rail Joe's gamerscore.

Let it simmer. Think about it. Thoughts? What does it make you feel like? Anything? Hmmm...

Well. I had to kick that one out. The thought was too absolute. Seriously, who doesn't blink? That's just preposterous. Everyone blinks at least once. So I came up with this-- Once again, picture a beautiful scenery. (i.e. Valhalla from Halo 3, The Normandy from Mass Effect, Laguna Seca from various racing games.)

When you have the gaming Nirvana in your head, slowly imagine these words--

I have blinked once. There's precious little time to blink when you rail Joseph's gamerscore as hard as I do. I know, we can't all be legends. But someday, we will all look back at Joseph's small, measly, pitiful gamerscore, and realize that I took a nasty dump on it.

There. That's more like it.

Final Fantasy Ex-Eye-Eye-Eye.

I'm finally starting FFXIII. It came out almost a year ago. I've been afraid of it. I didn't want it to suck, so I kept it in the corner with hopes that someone would make me play it. My brother bought it for his PS3 and has praised it up and down for the last week. So, finally, FINALLY, I put it in.

So far, it's everything I love about anything. Flawless. I have 100 hours that I get to put into it now. Way pumped.

You don't really see how awesome games can be until you play 5 generic ones in a row. XIII is outside the mold. Gear up.

Oh, guys, I'm like a jillion points ahead of you, just so you know.

Aegis Wing.

Aegis Wing on Insane tonight. This one's personal. Joseph, Jasmine, and I had a good run going last night. But that last boss was a jerk, time and time again. Tonight. Here we go.

Set phasers to funky.

UPDATE: Also, this is my favorite badge for an achievement that I've seen. Ever.



Its 4 myootant tirtle team-upz lawl.

UPDATE: We beat it on Insane on our first try. It was really fun to finally get it done. I have 1 achievement left on it now. I want to get it tomorrow. It would bring me up to 14 completed games.

Platforming.

All these cheapo games I'm playing are honing my platforming skills to CIA/KGB degree. I'm a freaking puzzle/jump/attack/run away from falling things master. I played TMNT today. I. Freaking. Love. Ninja. Turtles. I had a lot of fun with that one.

Oh yeah, and it's 1k-ed. I believe that brings my total completed games up to 13 now. I want to do Limbo and Aegis Wing next. Those both have hard achievements left. I'm safely in first right now. I have College Hoops 2k6 coming next. That's going to be a cakewalk.

Guy. FF13 will commence soon. Hopefully on Wednesday I can start it. I work 15 hours tomorrow. No room for video games in there.

Joseph. Act like you know how to play Xbox. Get some points already, girl.

Today I broke the 10k mark since the competition started. COMBINED, Josh and Joe have about 6k. I am champion.

Way sick.

Not fun. I'm waiting on a my Gamefly games to come in. Shipping is dreadful for them. Fingers crossed for today. I could use a thousand points. I have 40 games on my GameQ. When the contest is over, I'll switch down to 1 game at a time, instead of 2. I have my whole next year in gaming planned out.

Also, I just found out about TrueAchievements.com. It gives you credit for each achievement based on how difficult it was instead of how many gamerscore you get. It's a really neat system.

For all of you PS3 players out there, you can't use this system because your console is gay/sub-par/for girls. But I still love you and hope to play FF13 soon.

The goal.

I want to hit 28,000 before this competition is over. That means that I will have to complete 12 more Xbox titles. I may do a few arcade games in that span. We'll see.

28k. Gotta earn 12k in the next 2 months. Gear up.

I have pleurisy.

Boom. Lego Batman is done. I now hate everything about Lego games. I will continue to hate everything about Lego games. Then I will play Lego Star Wars III. It will erase past wrongdoings that this company has done to my mind, body, and soul.

I don't know what to play now. I have Mass Effect. I have Final Fantasy 13. I just don't know. I'm quite tired. Maybe I'll take a break...?

Ha. No. Effing. Way. Breaks are what Joe takes. Do I look like Joe? Do I ever get confused for Abe Lincoln? Nay, I say.

Nay. Joseph, I have passed you. Now I must destroy you.

UPDATE: I just put Mass Effect in. The case only contained the bonus disc. I didn't save the receipt from the pawn shop I bought it from. I guess that's on me, but serious, some jackwad sold them the bonus disc on purpose. And I bought it. So, my Mass Effect bonus disc is now in the garbage.

Harm's Way.

So, Doritos made a video game. You drive cars and shoot things. Kinda fun. Most importantly, I 200 pointed it in 26 minutes. Boom. Just broke 16k.

UPDATE: I like doing little updates throughout the day. 1 full post a day is good for me. I'm almost done with Lego Batman. Holy crap. It had waaaaaaaaaaaay more collectibles than I thought. 80 left. Here we go. Gotta 1k it today.