Whats up with this weather?

Yes, I really am blogging about the weather right now. It's weird enough that I want to dedicate about 1 minute to writing this. Its sunny and nice out, but its COLD. Or, its sunny outside, BUT EXTREMELY WINDY!

Whats up with that, Earth?

Trying to blind me with your brightness? Sunglasses.

Trying to freeze me by making me think its nice and warm outside because it's all sunny and stuff? SWEATSHIRT!

Your move Earth, your move.

Hello Blog, It's been awhile...

Well, things have been rather crazy, busy, hectic, and exciting lately which is why I've neglected my blog but I'm going to try and summarize everything up as best as I can.

Worked with a lot of amazing people over the past few months. Tim Schafer, Gordon Van Dyke, Kevin O'leary, and a few other people who's names have left me for the time being. Working with Tim Schafer is always fun, so every time I do I just hope that time goes slow because who knows when the next time will be when I get to work with him, no homo. The guy is just so funny, it sucks that I never got to beat him at his own game though. Whatever, someday I will.

My iPhone game is finally coming together, as in it's FINALLY almost done. Just waiting for my OFFICIAL business license to arrive in the mail, and then it goes straight into the fax machine and off to Apple for approval; then the app gets sent off for certification. I seriously can't wait to get this game out there, it's going to be so EPIC. My friend Steven and I have been working our asses off on the game for a full year now, so this is some truly exciting shit going down right now, Steven and I we are making history. When I have kids, I can officially tell them that I was a game developer. Okay okay, enough with the dramatics.

So far I've kept my acting career on hold. My latest film, "The Four Twenty-One" was awesome, but school and work have taken priorities for right now. I'm hoping my company, Bitwork Games, will make enough money off of iPhone games that I will be able to pursue a real acting career in Hollywood but we'll see (because it's difficult if not impossible to have a job when you have an agent who expects you to make it to every audition he finds at a moments notice, so you have to find ways to keep yourself afloat). I love the games industry, so working at EA is somewhat of a dream job too.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 finally released, it is an amazing game that will definitely be around for years to come. It's extremely competitive and it runs off of dedicated servers so you know it's amazing online. Truth be told this has been an extremely rough release for the DICE team. Hardly anyone can play online on the PC version, there are PS3 store issues, and the list goes on. But people never remember the negative experiences with the new release of a game, they only remember the great memories they have playing an amazing game. I bet everyone remembers the rough Battlefield 2 launch, but you have to remind people about it. When you bring up Battlefield 2 in conversations with people, they instantly remember all the amazing battlefield moments they had playing with friends, and all the epic battles they had playing a genre defining FPS game. As of right now, Bad Company 2's online access is not working very well at all and DICE is well aware of this, but it can only get better from here on out. I won't even sugar coat it, it's bad and I'm going to be honest about it, that would be like me lieing to someone asking me if Megan Fox was hot; I would look like a tool if I lied and said no. Regardless, I have complete faith in Bad Company 2's multiplayer, this is because I've played it the way it was intended many many times, and every moment of it was amazing; it's like crack. I always found myself losing many hours of the day playing it because time just flies out the window. Oh and all those kids on the BC2 forums need to simmer the fuck down, we know the game isn't working online right now! JESUS!

Another perfect example of rough launches for amazing games would have to be World of Warcraft. When you mention the words World of Warcraft around people, their reactions are typically either "OMG what an amazing game which I spent far too much time on!" or "MMO's ruin lives, you're a nerd! Only losers play WoW", etc etc. Regardless, WoW had a horrible launch, and the devs would often compensate by giving everyone full rested XP for a few days, free items, etc. Too bad they don't do stuff like that anymore though, they've gotten too popular for their own good.

Anyway, that about covers things for right now. I'll be writing more because I know I've left some shit out, but I have to pace myself. LOL! Btw, what is the deal with Activision? I don't give a fuck who you think you are Bobby Kotick, you're not the "rebel dude flying the millenium falcon", you're definitely the fucking Emperor.

My glorious weekend

Has been filled with lots of tea, vitamins and other junk. I'm so sick that it's sort of funny. blehh, at least I got to play lots of dragon age, lol. YEAH!

I almost forgot why petitions are a joke

Thanks real world internet for reminding me. Go ahead and sign a petition, but don't even follow through on it. What a bunch of wankers! But i suppose the joke is on them. Activision/IW are just laughing their asses off in their offices right now at these guys.

Well...That's just a lucky guess, but I know I would be doing it. Actually I am laughing! It's pretty funny! In a sad sad terrible kind of way....

Of the 86 members that I counted actually playing a game, 44 of them were playing MW2. Thats more then half of the members playing a game that they swore they wouldn't purchase, as of 1:40pm.

Although I don't think it matters when I take a snapshot.

Ohhhhh the irony! It hurts!

Why I game on the PC

This isn't a spontaneous lash out to platform preferences, this is just my opinion on each platforms ability to bring me real entertainment.

I'll arrive at my point in a moment, but first I want to explain why I don't game on any other platform unless necessary.

PLAYSTATION 3

This one is the longest because I think it deserves the most discussion. When I first got my playstation 3, I thought it was the most amazing console in the world, and I was admittedly a little fanyboyish about it...But, The last platform I would ever play a game on is the Playstation 3. I think the title of "ignored stepchild" is most appropriate when it comes to this console. While hyped up to the be the most powerful console technically, realistically it just falls flat as the worst console, with the occasional exception to the rule being games like Killzone2, Uncharted2, and Ratchet and Clank. I once attended a presentation regarding the games industry by Paul Barnett from Warhammer online and he talked about Truths over Facts. A good example of this would be Fact: The Playstation 3 is technically more powerful then the Xbox360. Truth: Almost always games look and play better on the Xbox360 compared to the Playstation 3. It's so important in this industry to recognize that facts are far less important then the truths.

Personally, my experience with the Playstation 3 has always been a negative one and I think the fault lies with Sony themselves and not the game developers. Since the beginning of the Playstation 3's infant hood they have been marketing it as a BluRay HD movie player, with gaming less of its goal as the HD movie market (which, by all means, is huge and worth fighting to win). At that time HDDVD was still around, once HDDVD died they began to be like, "oh hey, we do games too" and they were less pushy with the Blu-Ray Movie ads and just sort of indifferent on everything... which i just remembered is something they seem to have finally realized.

I think the Playstation 3 was more like a confused teenager then anything, and it didnt help that Sony played the role of "overly embracing parent" who thought their kid(console) should do everything. It read every type of memory stick, it had 4 USB ports, it had a built in PS2, it did blu-ray, it had WiFi, it had built in HDMI, bluetooth, it had free online multiplayer and the PSN. It was too much for its own good and it didn't want to focus on one thing: games. For some reason, it just wanted to be the center of attention; complete with it's own music and photos folder which has no reason to be on a gaming console, and a web browser that I can only equate to as "using a PC web broswer with both hands tied behind your back". It was also expensive as hell, and apparently all these features, including a pathetically small hard drive, were the driving force behind the insanely high price of the console so people felt as if they were getting their money's worth.

Now my experience with the Playstation 3 and new game titles has always been this.

*Turns on PS3*

"Your system requires a firmware update" [something I believe Sony does FAR too often]
No, screw that I just want to play the game.

*clicks on game*

*In order to play this game you must do a firmware update on your system. Please do so now*

Umm, fine. Ill come back in half an hour.

The update finishes.

*Please reboot the system for the changes to take effect*

I will reboot then!

*System reboots and I click on the game*

*You must install this game to play it. This install will require 4GB. You do not have enough storage because you play too many damn games, you loser, and you must free up some space in order to install this game*

BAH HAMBUG! *Reluctantly deletes other games to free up space. Retries the install*

*You must install this game to play it. This install will require 4GB. Continue?*

( The playstation 3 at this point just comes off at about as nerdy as a gaming PC.)
YES!

*Comes back in another 30 minutes when it finishes it's slow install*

HELLO GAME!

Although at this point i have typically lost all interest in playing and I beg to ask myself, why didnt I just play this on the PC or xbox 360? The install on the PC would have taken 5 minutes tops, and the xbox 360 would have been instant but definitely a different experience.

Compare this PS3 process to the xbox new title game playing process.

*Insert DVD of new game. Game instantly loads.*

This game requires an update to play online. Would you like to update? Remember, you don't have to do this if you don't want to, it just keeps you signed in to XboxLive if you do"

Sure.

*10 seconds later: Install is done*

Alright! Lets play this game! *invites friends to party chat*

XBOX360

The xbox360 is the most well supported of the 3 platforms from both Microsoft and developers (this probably has to do with the fact that it's easier to develop games on the xbox among other things I'm not at liberty to say), followed by a constantly strong marketing campaign with the budget to back it up. Deals like timed exclusives come to mind, as well as consistently better gaming experiences just in general. It's as if Sony and Apple made a baby. On the one hand you have an easily accessible interface, including socially, which is something only apple pushes in each official piece of software, and on the other hand you have the social acceptance of the system that Sony dreamed the PS3 would have(college frat boys EVERYWHERE!).

Anyway I digress, the xbox360 has the best online experiance through XboxLive, even though it costs $50 a year, I'm not complaining. It's a good investment, period. The games on it are consistently top notch, with the framerate and graphics always being smoother and subtly "prettier" (AA) then it's competitor.

Oh and did I mention XboxLive?

PC

PC will forever be my platform of choice for games. Although it only has as much room to breathe as the developer will allow (Splinter Cell Double Agent anyone? GTA4?). The PC is simply downright the best tech, and PC's no matter how nerdy they may seem, will always give the end user the best real entertainment. Games like World of Warcraft and Dragon Age Origins come to mind as the best games on earth, and they were meant to be played on a PC (you see what I did there, Mac?). If something doesn't work on the PC, I know how to fix it or someone out there already knows and he shares it with the community. That said, the PC community is the strongest community in the gaming history of mankind.

The reason PC's work for me is because I have the wallet to support it, it's my only hobby, really, aside from wooing women with my supreme intellect. Even then, my cost equivalent is maybe $200 every other year for parts on my PC, and since I work at Electronic Arts, my gaming budget vastly opens up since I get free games all the time.

Plus, I can easily multitask on my PC. I can talk on ventrilo, chat on IM, surf the web, maybe play music if i wanted to...all while playing a game with all my friends. My PC stares me in the down everyday and says "bring it on". My PC always wins when it comes to me multitasking, I just can't kill it.

Well, there you have it. My personal preference to my gaming life. I honestly don't care if you disagree with me, because chances are you're a PS3 fanboy, and theres as much a chance for me to reason with you as there is to teach a monkey how to do math. I won't game on the PS3 unless someone gave me a free copy of Uncharted 2 and forced me to take a day off to play it, I have other games I can play on my PC, and if need be, xbox360 so i can play Battlefield Bad Company.

The cake is a lie.

People are so damn stupid

I come back to my car after class, and this is what I see! What the FUCK people! My car was PARKED and you STILL HIT IT! I f*cking hate the world right now. Atleast $700 in repairs or more. So much for my new rims. F*cking college students need to stop smoking weed and stop running late to class. Assholes!!11! This is AFTER i cleaned it up, you should have seen it before!

Wow, today was amazing

Two amazing things happened today. Well actually a lot more then just two things happened, but today just rocked. With all the awesome April Fools jokes out there, and the amazing presentation i saw today from Paul Barnett (the Creative Director of Warhammer Online), I can just say today was pure awesomeness.

Here is a photo from blizzards best april fools joke ever, Role Playing the forums. GG blizzard. That was a good one.  BTW, the inside joke is (if ou can read the text on the photo) that Paladins suck in WoW (they don't really anymore, but people still QQ about it). Well the opening line with the RP'ed paladin forums welcoming thread is "A single tear rolled down Eyonix's face as he mournfully intoned, “Welcome to the World of Warcraft discussion forums!" Oh yes, the joke is on them now. It went on to end like this "And so Eyonix continued on his fateful journey, sliding perilously down the dripping, gaping maw of fate as if it were a waterslide". Again, that can be interpreted as an inside joke since a couple years ago Eyonix refused to play a Pally and tried to tell everyone that they were crazy and that Pally's were fine (they were terrible back then).

And in case you missed Battlefields awesome April Fools joke written by me, you can find it here! It was the headlines for www.n4g.com which was amazing since my April Fools joke spread from mere word-of-mouth alone, and within the first 12 hours of joke going live, it had over 1 thousand views. 

Word of mouth people, on the forums. Not even the main webpage for battlefield. I dont even think the mainpage gets that many views in 12 hours.