I have wonderful friends!

Just when I think everything has gone to crap I'm reminded that I have wonderful friends.  Since I had to go "silver" on Xbox Live due to some severe financial constraints (that hopefully will get fixed within the next couple of weeks) I've had 3 friends step up and offer me codes to go "Gold" for a total of 4 months.  That will definitely help and I CAN PLAY ONLINE AGAIN!!!!!!

Their kindness and generosity will not go unnoticed as I have a "thank you" planned for each of them.  It won't be much but it will be heartfelt and hopefully worth it to them.  Stay tuned for more on that later.  Even though my mother doesn't think I can be friends with people I've never met, I'm reminded that it's not their face that makes them a friend . . . but their hearts.  Thank you!

My priorities are messed up

Despite what I'd like to think my priorities are messed up.  Instead of buying all the cool games coming out or renewing my Xbox Live membership, I'm spending money to buy a new water heater for my house, radiator for my car and paying hospital bills for my health.  That just doesn't seem fair.

And just when I need to go online and blow off some steam with what is turning out to be a VERY crappy 2013, my Xbox Live subscription expires and I don't have the money currently to renew it.  So I'm left to sit and brew about my troubles without the endorphin release of blowing some one's head off.  Man, I miss that.

The good news is that I finally got to level 100 in Gears of War 3 and re-uped just before my account went silver.  I'm now a level 36 green.  There was a time when I didn't think that would ever happen but I finally got there and I'm proud of it. 

Hopefully this disruption in my priorities will only be minor and temporary but I have to say 2013 is not treating my kindly so far.  What else could go wrong.  Wait, I don't want to know.  I want to hold on to a little hope that my priorities will gel in the correct (and head-popping) order that they should be.  Until then I guess I'll spend some time on those single player games I've always been meaning to get to.

Call of Pokemon Duty and the quest for 1.0

So I got Call of Duty: Black Ops II for xmas and I've been playing it a lot with some friends.  I've really tried to be aware of my kill/death ratio without it interfering with my game play.  After all, the less I die the more it helps my time.  I was stuck at .65 for the longest time before I really started to focus on what I was doing.  I go through the map much slower and I'm very cautious.  It's a little different that how everyone else seems to play the game.  People are running around like chickens with their heads cut off.  So far I've got my kill/death ratio up to .81.  It's getting harder to inch it upwards but I think that's a much more respectable number than what I had before.

While playing Black Ops I've also noticed something.  The player has the chance to design his own emblem that other plays can see on the menu screens and when someone kills you.  Apparently you can also put the emblem on your gun as well.  (I haven't unlocked that yet.)  What I've noticed is that a lot of the emblems being created are Pokemon related (or porn related but that's a whole nother issue). 

Are the players creating the emblems 8 and 9 year old kids playing an M-rated game?  Or is Pokemon to this generation like Star Wars to mine?  I am a Jedi.  I will always be a Jedi.  Are there 20something adults running around with a secret Pikachu in the pocket?  Should I be bothered . . . or maybe disturbed by this?

At least it's better than the other pics I've seen created.

Going Insane (almost) all on my own

I went "Insane" and I did it on my own.  Okay, not exactly but I didn't really get a whole lot of help from my friends either.  Until I begged.

I've been working on playing Gears of War 3 on insane.  I tried the standard campaign but couldn't do it by myself.  So I tried it in Arcade.  I figured it was better to play with strangers than to play alone.  Instead of hosting a public match, I jumped into strangers rooms.  At least that way I knew there was one other person there to help me out.  Unfortunately that meant playing the story out of order (not a big deal since I've already finished it on normal) but also having to deal with idiots.

When it got too much I started hosting my own room and just hoping someone would jump in.  Eventually they would but I had to play a lot of mission over again so I would get credit for 4-player co-op (which I was also trying to work towards). 

But once again I was dealing with idiots.  People who spend all their time running around picking up ammo.  If they're gun is full they'd shoot a few rounds then pick up more ammo.  Of course this meant that when it came time for me to pick up ammo there wasn't any left.  Yeah me.

I also had players follow me around trying to swap weapons.  There's nothing more annoying than to be crouched between cover trying to shoot someone when you're own teammate is standing behind you, not firing at the enemy, and their character keeps saying "swap weapons".  So even though someone was in the room "playing" with me I was basically doing Insane on my own a lot of the time.

When it came to the last mission on Act 5 it was even harder to get anyone to join and those that did didn't seem to know what they were doing.  Once a couple of guys picked up the Hammer of Dawn, but never used it on the Queen when she was down.  Another group stole all the ammo but wouldn't shoot the Queen when the bug was on the tower.  If you don't shoot her, she won't come off.  Another group would hide on the other side of the building when the Queen was in the air shooting her laser.  It wasn't bad until the Theron Guards starting climbing up the building.  Because they were on the other side of the building they couldn't do anything about them.  That left me to battle the Queen, and to dodge her laser AND pick off the locust that came up.

And don't get me started on the guy who came in the room and somehow glitched the game so we couldn't knock the Queen down so we could hammer her.  After fighting for 30 minutes and not getting her to drop I shut the room down.  It's never taken more than 5 minutes before even if I had to do it myself.

I eventually got Genghis to join me in a standard co-cop game.  I picked Insane for difficulty and he picked casual.  He did all the heavy shooting . . . I just tried to stay alive.  The Queen was defeated (rather easily) and I got my insane achievement.  Unfortunately I didn't get the Onyx medal for completing the game on Insane in 4-player co-op.

So I begged my friends for help.

When no one responded I thought I would be doomed to never get it.  So close, yet so far.  But Sand Dog came to my rescue.  He booted up Gears 3 and we started the last mission on Arcade Insane.  We also got lucky.  Two other players joined my room and they actually knew what they were doing.  It didn't take long to finish the queen off and for me to get my 4-player co-op Onyx medal.  Thank you Sand Dog!  I also made a new friend.

I still had to go back and find some missing mission I didn't get 4-player credit for but that didn't take long either.  I would much have preferred to play with friends than the hassle I went through playing with strangers but at least I got it done.  It only took several months and over week just for that last mission but I can cross that off my "to do" list.

And speaking of lists I went through and deleted a bunch of people from my friends list on my Xbox.  I took off people I don't play with (or will probably never play with again) and people who are just down right annoying (I'm looking at you Pogue).  I just didn't want to be reminded of all the people I could be playing with but wasn't. 

There are still people on my friend list for sentimental reasons.  Those people will never be deleted.  And Sand Dog has earned his place on that list. He will always be on my list because he helped me go Insane.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that and whole lot of boredom

I've been playing a bunch of things lately.  I got bored trying to learn things in FFTactics so I switched to Final Fantasy II.  I finished the first one on the PSP but I honestly can't remember anything about the game.  FF2 is different and I'm having a hard time getting the hang of it.  If you attack physically those stats go up (but magical stats go down) and the reverse is true.  My problem is I get into dungeons and I don't want to use up my magic points because Ether is so damn expensive so I use a lot of physical attacks.  I know I'm going to be screwed later on in the game when I need that powerful mage and I don't have one.

I also dusted off the old Xbox system and hooked it up for awhile.  I restarted Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.  It was one of the games dain and I decided to "finished" a long time ago.  Actually since 7/16/2006 to be exact.  I could have played it on the 360 but I didn't want to.  I know the exact date that started all this because I printed the email and apparently I've been using it as a page marker for the strategy guide.  I stopped playing because I got lost in the game and the guide was no help.  Strategy guides have come a long way since then.  I figured the best thing to do was start over (with the cheat code BUBBLE entered - - I don't take any damage).  I played for awhile . . . and got bored.

So, I reconnected my PS2 and put in Summoner.  That's another one of those "let's finish them this year [2006] games.  This time the guide helped and I feel better about how to play the game.  But I got bored because I'm just replaying the stuff I had already done since my stuff was stolen.

So, I went back to my 360.  I tired some zombies in the Dr. Ned DLC for Borderlands since I've finished the game (I'll do a review of it later).  But the zombies don't make any noises when they come up on you and I got tired of being jumped when I'm trying to do something.  Although those flying things are more annoying.

So, I decided to play some online stuff by myself.  It's really hard to find friends to play with these days.  But that's okay I play better without them.  It's true.  It doesn't matter what game we play but when I play with friends I end up sub 500 on my kill/death ratio.  I'll die 2x at least for every kill I get.  I don't know why this happens but it does.  Because I've been playing solo mostly (except when Natra sends me an invite) I've noticed that my skills are getting better.  I've only had one match with a 1/2 kill/death ratio; everything else has been much better than that.  I've even gone positive once or twice.  I'll usually finish with about 10 kills to 12 deaths or something like that.  Just over this weekend alone my kill/death ratio went from .551 to .571.  Not bad considering I've got a lot of deaths under my belt in that game.  I'm also finding the game more fun to play now that I'm doing better.  I don't get frustrated as much and I don't let a death discourage me.  I do have moments of panic when I'm under that .500 threshold but I always seem to find a way to do better before the match is over.  And I'm finally getting some of those maps.  I guess I now need to try playing with friends to see if I can translate this success when I play with them.  Any volunteers?

So that's about it.   A little PSP, Xbox, PS2, and 360 gaming all in the same week or two.  I've even been tempted to pull out my GameCube to work on that "let's finish" game (Super Mario Sunshine).  And I've got an itch to play my old N64 as well.  I've either got too little of an attention span or too much boredom.  You decide.

I'm still gaming

Just for the record, I'm still gaming.  Just not in the place where I use to be for the most part.  Since I've had a hard time getting friends to play with me on Xbox360 I've started getting back into my PSP.  Specifically Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions.

I've been playing this game on both the PS and PSP but I seemed to be a little further ahead on the PSP so that's where I decided to focus my time into playing the game.  I like the game because I can pick it up and play it for a half hour at a time and actually feel like I'm making progress.  In that half and hour I can win 2 battles and maybe 3 if I get to strike first with some of my heavy hitters.

One of the things I realized after I picked this game up again was that I had duplicates of some of the Zodiac symbols with some of the characters and not having characters with some of the other symbols.  Since I wanted a full and complete and balanced team that meant dismissing some of my characters that I worked hard to level up and learn things and then hiring complete noobies. 

I charted out which characters/symbols I had and which ones I needed and then make the sad choice to let some of them go.  I had spent many hours leveling those characters up and learning skills but some of them had to go.  I also spent a lot of time looking at all the options in the Warrior's Guild to find just the right Brave/Faith level character with just the right Zodiac symbol to join my team.  Once that was done I was left with a big problem.

THEY WERE ALL LEVEL ONE NOOBIES!!!!

It doesn't matter what level the other characters are on your team whenever you hire a new warrior they start out at level 1.  That means when you take them into battle you'll be fighting level 22 baddies with level 1 characters.  Do you know how many times my characters died.  Were revived.  Then promptly killed again before they could even take a turn to run away.  And if they don't fight they don't level up.  I can't tell you how many Phoenix Downs and Potions/Hi-Potions I went through just in one battle alone.  And because I had about 6 noobies to level up I had to go through this a lot. 

I didn't take them all into battle at the same time (learned that the hard way).  I would take 2 noobies, one really good healer and 2 heavy hitters.  The heavy hitters would knock the HP down to a reasonable level and the noobies would move in to finish them off (you get an EXP bonus for finishing off a character).  If anyone got in trouble my healer would step in and help out (a healer with a long range weapon is wonderful).  Even though this method worked it took a lot of grinding away at battle after battle just to get these new characters up to a level where they could hold their own in a battle and not have a healer hold their hand all the time. 

I did have to replace one of my noobies because there was something about them that wasn't working.  I don't know if it was their power or speed or whatever, but I didn't like it and it wasn't helping me.  Because I got rid of them I had to find another Zodiac of the same symbol to replace them.  Which meant another level 1 noobie.  While this last noobie is now a level 17 and the rest of my characters are in the 30-40 level range at least he can hold his own in battle.  He can take a couple of hits before he has to retreat and heal, but that means he can give a couple of hits too.  And he's not bad.  And a lot better than the wimp I let go to get him.

But during all that grinding I was getting bored.  I knew it would be for the better in the long run but fighting battle after battle just to increase the level of one characters didn't seem worth it.  So what did I do?

I started a new game.

Just to see if it would be worth it to stock my roster with the perfect team of a variety of Zodiacs right from the outset of the game I started over from the beginning.  When you finally get a squad a characters to play with I was disappointed.  I don't remember my other game starts to be witch such low Brave/Faith levels for all the characters.  Unfortunately in order to hiring better characters I need to win battles and earn money.  By winning battles and earning money I was leveling up characters I knew I wasn't going to keep.  Once I had the money to buy new and better warriors I had win battles and earn money to buy even more warriors and equipment and potions and such before I could finally get a decent team together.  And since it was the beginning of the game there was only one map point where I could get into a battle.

So in order to avoid grinding on my main game to level up characters I started a new game so I could grind and win battles to buy different characters so I could grind and level those up.  It made sense to me at the time.  Once I figured things out though, I went back to my main game.

So anyway, I'm still gaming.  Just not always on the Xbox360.  Oh, every now and then I get back on the Xbox360 to play some Borderlands and recently I've been playing some Modern Warfare 3 just for the social aspect (hell, if my friends won't play with me then maybe strangers will).  I might even turn it on to play something silly like Peggle or Rock Bank Blitz while I'm eating dinner.  Once dinner's done I'll turn it off and pull out the PSP.  Who knows, maybe once I'm done with my PSP game I might dust off my Nintendo DS Lite.  It's still gaming.

Poll Results - How much of a game do you finish?

Wow, guys.  I hadn't realized how long it's been since my last post and poll.  Sorry about that.  Some things in life got in the way.  Hopefully I'll do better from now on.  If not, you can harass me about it.

How much of a game do you finish?

I play out everything 100% = 1 vote

I play to get to the end credits, nothing more = 2 votes

I play until I can't beat a boss/challenge = 1 votes

I play as long as I like the game = 3 votes

It's sad to say that I don't think I voted in my own poll when it was open.  I added my vote now (and a friend's who missed the deadline).

I play out everything 100%
I wish I could say that.  I try to play out everything 100% but sometimes things don't work out that way.  Take Chromehounds for example.  I would have loved to have gotten some of those team achievements/awards but there were always squads online boosting for them so you wouldn't stand a chance unless you boosted too.  With that game you would have to devote 24 hours a day for several days just to make it worth it and even then you might not be the overall winning squad or get the special weapon to come out so you could defeat it.  There were too many achievements and/or aspects of the game that were contingent on what everybody else was doing in the game.  You could have worked all night to set the world up just like you (and your squad) wanted it, only to find out that the Japanese fanboys (and there are lot of them) messed everything up while you were sleeping.  This is one game that was nearly impossible to get all the achievements unless you totally devoted your life to the game and who has that kind of time for a commitment?

I play to get to the end credits, nothing more
If a game has "collectibles" or specific things you need to do in game to get achievements or different ends to the story I'm all up for doing that.  I plunk down good money for games and DLC that if the developer put something into the game specifically for me to play then I'm going to play it.  It just might take me a long time to play it all.  I recently restarted Final Fantasy VII for the last time and another friend restarted as well.  He made a list of all the things he hasn't done or is not going to try to do and I was wondering why.  Why go through the whole experience of a game (especially one that is/can be very long) and not do everything there is to do in the game?  Unless you're planing on setting a world record for the fastest play-through what's the point.  Yes, the shortest lines between two places (start screen and end credits) is a straight line but a game (especially one as good as FFVII) should be savored and enjoyed.  At least that's how I feel.  Now, I don't have a problem playing to the end credits so you can concentrate on the story and then going back to do all the hoopla that's extra.  But to get to the end credits without having experienced the game, and having no desire to play it again to experience those extras, doesn't seem right to me.  I've had several friends tell me that's how they play the game and I just don't get it.

I play until I can't beat a boss/challenge
This was my vote.  I should have also included "until I get bored, or have to go to bed, or have to go to work, or have to whatever" and that would sum up my whole playing experience.  I play a game until I have to stop for whatever reason.  It just might be that I have to go to bed.  By the time I get back to a time where I can play again I might be in the mood for something else.  Yesterday was a cutesy platformer . . . today I might need to blow someone's head off.  And because I've got so many games to choose from it might be awhile before I get back to that cutesy platformer (or shooter).  That's why I have a hard time finishing games.  I  play what my mood inspires me to play.  I am working on focusing on a game or two (or three or four) and working on playing just those.  I've managed to finish Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 even though I haven't played any of the other CoD games.  Now, I'm working on Borderlands and Gears of War on insane and Gears of War 3 on insane.  Gyromancer is the arcade game I throw in there if I'm not interested in shooters.

I play as long as I like the game
I usually know rather quickly if I"m going to like or dislike a game.  There are a few games that I've bought that I've turned back in.  Siphen Filter (or something or other) for the PS, Grand Theft Auto (I can't remember which one) for the PS2 and Ghost Recon for Xbox 360 are all games that I didn't make it through the first 30 minutes of game play before I decided it wasn't for me.  Unfortunately when I sold them back I lost money.  That's why I really like the game demos I can get on Xbox Live.  There are a few that I played and I was glad that I didn't waste any money on.  There's also been others that I've picked up because of the game demo.  Getting halfway through a game and then deciding I don't like it and would rather not have if just isn't me.  By that point I've already invested a lot of time into the game and I want to see my investment pay off.  So even if I don't like it by then I would still play it to get to the end and (hopefully) get my money's worth.  I've been lucky (or maybe careful) because I haven't just gone out and gotten every new games that comes out.  I've picked and chosen my games carefully.  I've done my research and played my demos.  When I started playing video games I didn't have a lot of extra money to spend on them so I had to be choosy.  Now, many years later I think it's payed off.  I don't consider any games that I've purchased to be a waste of my money or time.  I've enjoyed every one of them even if I haven't played them very long.  There are games that I want to get so I can play with my friends but I know that's the only reason why I would get those games and for me it's not worth it.

So, there you have it.  I promise to be more on the ball from now on and post more.  And like I said, feel free to harass me if I'm not.