Scenario Paintball Match

Its been a long day(sat) battling in the work of Scenario Paintball in the NASPBL league. Keg O War, my Self and the rest of our team were playing for the Pennsylvania team (yes I am from New York, but I was recruited) against New Jersey.

The day had us doing the role of defender of most areas and on offense when we need to either get a flag marker or get back lost area. At times is was like playing seige on Ghost Recon and other like defend but with out all the disconnects lol.

The weather was great not to hot, I got to use my new Tach vest From Flurry Industries, it really save my back from the old utility belt style I used before. My Tipmann A5 with flatline barrel system, was dead at the beginning of the match, I got myself in a nice sniper position and with Keg covering me I was taking down the blue team, well till I took on in the face... Damn flatline. lol.

Playing for 2+ hours straight is such a rush, you get hit either find a medic to stay in the game or go back to the referee who will take you number down for the kill recorded then re-insert you at the correct spot.

I was chosen for, or took on my own accord to go with a 2 or 3 man team to flank a position of take back high point areas; walk crouching or crawling in the turf is a test at some point since stealth is a must. But the reaction of the Blue team as you got behind them and are lighting them up from behind is priceless... I live for the thrill of the snipe and the covert movement just makes it 1000x better.

If you never played paintball you need to, if you play but never played Scenario, you need to. yes you get shot at and have to crawl in mud or at least the grass, but its a rush you cant imagine.

PSP: Death Jr.

From the first video of this game I was like wow what a great concept, you play as Death's son. This looked to be the start of a new character mascot that would give a face (ab-it a bone one) to the PSP, because that system is hurting for quality games and especially ones that are not ports from the big dad PS2.

Boy was I wrong; I have had this pre-ordered for ages it seemed this game was going to save the PSP for me (note: Lumines is a fantastic game, but not a system maker or worth speeding $250 for the system), even with the bad reviews I still was optimistic. oh well...

Where to start... even though the game took so long to develop it still has that we need 3 more months feel. The games looks good, but its not pushing the system. The character designs for the enemies are boring and feel off, they all react the same. The Levels are standard platformer, though they did give DJ some nice moves to navigate the levels, they are a bit repetitive ( not as repetitive as the library in Halo, but almost).

The Story is there, but it get lost since you have to save your friends it blows its load during the first movie, which is cool, creepy and does make you care. But too bad, after a while of playing you don't and get tough to say I will keep going just to see whats next. After 20 min of hacking, slashing, jumping, shooting over and over again, that start button to save then exit is looking appealing.

The controls, the PSP analog stick sucks, no easy way to put it, can't blame the game for that but it hurts the play. This is why you need that wrist strap, when you have to hold the towards the edge of the finger and hand to play comfortable (I do care about my fingers health) the unit is in a dangerous position especially when commuting and have to stand on a train. (note: Yes SONY, when you price a handheld to working people, remember to make the unit with that in mind!!!)

Now to the camera, the bane of all platformer's, which is bad and the lack of a secondary analog stick (listen up SONY) makes it even worse. Having to push the shoulder button to re align the camera is OK, but it needs to work alot better, the wall should fade so you can get behind DJ to see the danger not move a little and leave you blind. Sure he can see it, and if I was watching the AI play the whole game that would be fine, but I NEED TO SEE TO PLAY!!!!!

I am almost done with it, I think a few more levels well get me to the story conclusion and I will drudge on.... but my advice

if you can get it used for half price, get it other wise save the $$$ and get a DS to play Advanced Wars DS.

I love the Character and I hope that the sequel if any will be all that the first should of been.

Xbox 360, and all things J.

Unless you like under a rock, or don't give to shits about the video game industry, there has been a buzz about Microsoft's Xbox 360. Both good and bad, people are up in arms about the 2 price points $299 "core" and $399 "premium" but the fact that the $299 does not come standard with the 20GB Hard drive has gamers debating and worrying.

But thats not the point here... I am getting the $399 edition

What really grinds my gears (on September 27 most will get this) is that every gamer on a forum knows better and would of been better on the focus group used to make decisions. The simple fact is NO YOU DON'T!!! Unless you have 100% knowledge of the business strategy you know Dick!!!! While reading the post back on Major Nelsons blog some said "I hope your plane crashes on the way home" WTF people is a game system, they did not say tommy is happy and wants this, lets kick him in the nuts and take his money... For every decent opinion there is an ASS who is 30 years old, but acts like he is 10.

Then you get the post, "you need to do X" Again No they do whats fitting to the over all business strategy. I am not happy with all the news, no one should be but acting like a Fucking Ass, just help justify the stereo type that Gamers are dumb and violent.

So J and the gang decide to have a live chat to ease fears, and I commend them for this a great way to interact with the community. This has been the Xbox teams mantra since the inception and its a great gesture. On a side not, when I was @ E32005 I was on Hollywood Blvd heading back to the rent-a-car and who do I see walk by me, J Allard returning from the Sunday night Party to announce the Time Cover will Bill Gates on it. So we said hi and he was really cool, took time to talk to us showed us the cover and was a real genuine guy. Back on track now; So when I read this I was like, make sense I will check it out.

I hate to say it but a gesture only get you so far, the chat had 2000 people in it and was laggy and just un-useable. I could not see the answers just the questions, and 80% of the people talking were acting like dicks, spamming the board, asking stupid questions, etc... So I went to Major Nelsons blog to read the transcript and like I said I this it was a great gesture, but it because normal PR bullshit plain and simple answers I knew already, and can get from various places. Do I look differently at the Xbox team, not a chance, but like I said a gesture goes so far and what this did shows they are at lease watching what gamers think. (to a point of course)

and thats what grinds my gears.

It's Here....

Ok; I now you all have been waiting for it, you can read all I have to say.

Thrilling I know.....