Computer gaming enthusiasts are an interesting lot.

Case in point was a comment I found on this post on Engadget about how people are still flocking to Windows XP, even though time is running out. One commenter mentions how he’s skipped Vista as he prefers a more stable OS to work with. He then received the following reply from another poster that said “Let me know how that works out for you when all games require DX10 in the next year or two.”

The original poster came back and stated that he doesn’t game on his computer, and there was no reply, so I imagine the issue is dead. Still, this is a common attitude I run into all over the web from computer gamers that they simply can’t comprehend how anyone can be satisfied with a computer that is anything below a top end gaming rig.

I’ve played my fair share of computer games back “in the day”: Master of Orion II, Civilization 1, 2, and 3, several Star Wars games, I loved the Mechwarrior series and so on. What stopped me was a combination of things, but namely my unwillingness to purchase a new video card every time I turned around. The games constantly expect you to be upgrading and upgrading to keep up with them, and, I’m sorry, but I’m not made of money. Mind you, this was several years ago, and from what I know of the current crop of games, it’s only gotten worse.

As I’ve gotten older (ugh), I prefer the simplicity of console gaming. Sure I have to buy a new console every few years, but when I buy a game for a specific system, I know it’s going to work. I’m not going to put it in, fire it up and be told I need a more powerful video card… or more RAM… or a new sound card… you get the picture.  I just prefer the ease of enjoyment that a console gives me over finding out I can’t buy a game because I don’t have the WillyWooly 256X Video Card with the Slushee attachment in my PC.

So, I have nothing against computer gamers, knock yourselves out, have a ball and enjoy it if that’s your hobby, but why is their this attitude that those of us who don’t are somehow lesser? I have had many conversations with one gamer in particular who just can not comprehend how I am satisfied with run-of-the-mill video cards, he can’t understand how I enjoy any games with my current computer. No matter how many times I tell him I don’t do computer games, he still doesn’t get it.

To each their own I say, just remember, now all of us are using our computers for gaming, some of us actually use them for work!… and porn… can’t forget the porn.

While playing a quick game of Halo 3 (you can see my lousy service record here) the other night before bed, I somehow ended up with seven teenagers on my team. Considering the hours I play, that was fairly odd, but no big deal. The problem was 2 of them were female, and that just made it that much more difficult to play.

See, when you stick 5 teenage boys in a “room” with 2 teenage girls, all that gets accomplished is flirting. And let me tell you, there was plenty of that! I tuned out listening to them when one boy kept insisting the girls prove they were really girls by sending him pictures of thmselves, which they refused to do. As the game progressed though, and we were getting our asses kicked, I finally started listening to them again and… they were discussing where they would like to be raped.

Yes… rape.

“I think I’d want to be raped in a hot tub!”

And I thought, “Okay, they just don’t know what the word means. It’s disgusting, but they don’t know what they’re discussing,” but then one of the two girls says, “I think I’d want to be raped in the bathroom… it’s already dirty.”

After I picked myself up off the floor, though my jaw was still down there, I couldn’t help but finally make some comments to them about it.

“DEAR GOD! Do you all know what you’re talking about?!? Rape is not something to be joked about! Wait until you get older and you’ve known people who have been raped and then see how funny you think it it is!”

To which one of the boys said, “… you’ve been raped? What was that like?”

Cue sound of me repeatedly slamming my head against my controller.

I think I have finally reached that point in my life where I have to wonder, “These kids today, what are they thinking?!?” Which, I guess officially makes me ‘old’, but I’m okay with that in this situation because I don’t think I would be mentally right to not wonder this time.

Hopefully none of these kids will ever suffer such a fate, but I certainly wish they get a clue about what it they’re saying, and soon.

I know I said just yesterday that I hadn’t had time to start playing Halo 3 yet, but I ecided shortly after I wrote that to give it a try.

And I’m done.

What the hell? I already played all the way through it. How is that even possible? I remember the first two games taking me days, but this one took maybe 8 – 10 hours. I think the answer is fairly simple: Bungie, the maker of the game, got scared.

Where Halo 2 had actual improvements over the original, this one could only really boast better graphics and lots of new superfluous crap.  And that’s exactly what it was, crap.

The game is awash in new weapons and vehicles, but the gameplay is just nothing new.  Some of the levels were repetitive of past levels (the big escape at the end… won’t say more so as not to spoil), and even inside this game it was repetitive!  Three levels that end in fights with Scarab tanks?  You had to be so unoriginal that you ripped off yourself… in the same game?  Wow.

While I loved the single player campaigns in the first two games, this one just felt like it was just phoned in.    I haven’t had time to play the multi-player portion yet, but my gut tells me not to get my hopes too high for it.

Someday I should really learn how to say “no”.

This seemed like such a simple idea when I started: Find some blogging work, earn a couple hundred bucks a month.  Well, it seemed like a good idea, but, apparently I’m good at it.

I got approached by a company to ghost write a corporate blog (hence why I can’t link it) from them following my work on the other blogs I was working on.  I had actually approached this company early on, but we hadn’t been able to find a fit for me.  They had a project come up I seemed suited to, so now I’m blogging there once a day now.  I have also been asked to be a guest blogger on another site about blogging and social media, and since they offered a link to this site (what a concept, actually getting to promote my own site!), I agreed to it.  They have no requirements as to frequency, so I can  just write for that one when it strikes my fancy.

I’ve finally gotten in to a groove with balancing my day job and my “night job”, as I call it, but finding time to do any side projects is at zero.  My plan to start a novel this year?  Totally shelved.  My nearly 3-year long fan fiction project is at a crawl.  I finally popped Halo 3 in my Xbox for the first time today, even though I’ve had it since release day.

So, yes, if I could ever learn the ability to say “no” to a project, it would be nice.  The drawback is, if you do say no, and you need them down the road, they’ll remember you said it.

Oh well… back to blogging.

I’ve always seemed to have very sudden revelations about various aspects of my life. I will be extremely into something for what seems like forever, and the next day, I could care less about it. Well, I had several of them this weekend.

I think I’m done with video games. The games are getting way too long, the systems too expensive, and I simply don’t have the time for them anymore. As much as I would love to play Halo 3, I am not buying an Xbox 360 just to do that. And the PS3? Forget about it. No way I’m dropping the necessary money for that monstrosity.

So all this gets me thinking and… I think I’m done with video games. I simply don’t have the time for them anymore. I’m going to keep most of what I have, sell off some excess, but I have more than enough games in my possession to keep me entertained for years. And heck, if you wait long enough, you can pick up old games on eBay for a couple bucks. Heck, I bought a Super Nintendo game cartridge a few months ago for $.99 (yes, I still have my SNES, and I still play it).

Then I started sorting through my DVDs… why do I have half of these? Like I ever have time to watch them! And if I want to see an episode of Family Guy or The Simpsons, all I have to do is turn on the TV, so… I listed all those on Amazon and sold them off and will be purging more of my DVD collection this week.

I think I’m just realizing I simply don’t have time for the 5,000 ways I have to entertain myself, and especially those that require no human interaction. I’ve made a lot of new friends over the past year, and it is far more interesting talking to them then hacking through a demon in a video game or watching Bart Simpson get in trouble… again.

Engadget is reporting that a new version of the XBox 360, codenamed ‘Zephyr’, is starting to appear in some pictures. Two big differences are an HDMI output, for high-def video, and possibly a 120gb hard drive. Rumor is this will sell for the price they are currently charging. Sounds good to me.

Then out come the idiots in the comments.

they better come out with a new hdmi adapter- i’m not buying a new xbox 360 with add on’s that should have already been there. this is BS, and what happens when you rush to market.
I am not happy.

they should run a discount where its only like $100 when you trade in your old xbox 360

Okay that is complete BULL_ _ _ _!!!!!!!! So what about us Bill…you know the 7 million folks who bought the first 360. You know the true fans and supporters of your console…You know the ones you told 1080p was irrelevant…Seeing as we can’t get HDMI into our boxes without it being taken apart do we all get new boxes for free? How about a free 120 gb hard drive? Somehow I doubt it.

I usually don’t mind product redesigns as long as the early adopters aren’t left out in the cold…right now I’m shivering! This is great for those who haven’t purchased a 360 yet but I think this will anger the current user base more than it excites them.

You know what folks? When the next year’s car models come out, do you scream foul? Do you talk about how they screwed you? Technology changes, get over it, grow up.

Here’s my (somewhat rhetorical) question…is this just because it’s a video game, or is this yet another example of how childish our country has become about the most trivial of matters?

Over on Amazon today they had 1,000 Xbox 360 Core Systems at an amazing price of $100, normally $299.99. You had to go to a certain page at 11:00 AM PST to login, answer a question, get the gift certificate for it. Well, big surprise, the site was overwhelmed and when I got in at 2 minutes after, the deal was sold out. I shrugged, said “Oh well” and went on with my day.

Well, just for grins, I went back later to see what people were saying on the message boards Amazon had set up. Best.Laughs.EVER! Some of the gems included:

“Link to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.”

“Amazon should drop the price of Xbox 360 due to screw up!”

“Amazon really should have limited these contests to accounts that have been active for over 6 months…”

“Do you think this was a scam?”

“Amazon unfair”

“F*CK AMAZON !!!!!!!!@!@!@!”

Pages and pages of this stuff…it’s HILARIOUS! Everyone knew there would only be 1,000 of the 360s, but yet, they seem to think because they didn’t get one, this was obviously a scam and Amazon should be reported to the Better Business Bureau (note to self:write entry someday about why that is a total waste of time as the BBB is a private organization with no real power) Thankfully this was done online! Can you imagine these same people let loose in the real world in a store? Why, people might get trampled, robbed, shot…oh wait…that was the PS3 launch this week. Silly me. Lots of people claiming they will never shop Amazon again, but yeah, I’m so sure they will live up to that.

By the way…Happy Thanksgiving everyone…doesn’t this sort of mentality from your fellow man just put you in a holiday spirit?

You know I sure was more excited about all the new video game systems like a year ago? So why not now? General lack of funds for all the new systems…over-pricing of systems (sorry, but $600 for a PS3, if I’m lucky, is just flippin’ insane)…too many games for the older systems I still haven’t finished…and any number of small technical aspects that just annoy me.

When I unpack a PS3, why should I have to immediately install an update? Why at launch time is it not fully backward compatiable, and is actually failing on some of the PS2’s most famous titles?

Is it just Sony annoying me? Nope! Nintendo decided it was a good idea before the Wii even launched to tell everyone “Oh hey, there will be an upgraded model next year with DVD playback capabilities, but please go ahead and buy this one because we all know you are silly little fanboys!” Never mind you have to put a stupid sensor in front of your TV, beyond the game system, to make the bizarre Wiimote work. (the device in front of the TV is circled in red below)

Then comes the question of the Xbox 360…a year old and no price drop? Thanks Microsoft!

About 2 weeks ago I did some Super Nintendo shopping on eBay for grins…I spent $.49 on an Animaniacs game and $9.99 on an unopened copy of Super Return of the Jedi. Think I will stick with the systems I have for now, thanks!

A recent study conducted by the Oxygen Network shows women are getting more in to gadgets. According to this study, men owned an average of 6.9 gadgets to women owning 6.6. The same study showed that 77% of women wanted a plasma television instead of a diamond solitaire necklace, but 56% would only make the same choice over a weekend in Florida. (I would still take the plasma TV)

I am thrilled to see women getting more with gadgets and electronics, but would someone explain to me why gadget makers think the way to tap this market is just to make their devices in pink?

The pink PS2 coming out in England.

Pink PSP coming out in all of Europe.

Samsung Q40 coming out in Europe

The pink Razr sold just about everywhere.

I know there are some women who will be thrilled by these (calm down Rachel), but in general, well…I think it’s kind of insulting. Can’t you just imagine these product meetings?

Executive 1 “We need to tap this growing female consumer market for gadgets. How do we do it?”

Executive 2 “Make our existing products pink?”

Executive 1 “BRILLIANT!”

What’s even more insulting is when they not only make the device pink, they think they can UNDER POWER IT! The Samsung Q40 pictured above is a perfect example of that. With the blossoming of the dual-core age, releasing a laptop with a single core only running 1.2GHz is, well, insulting. A 60gb hard drive? But let’s not forget…it’s pink! For the price of $2,460, it’s a rip-off is what it is.

If pink is your thing (again, calm down Rachel…we all know you love pink), more power to you, enjoy. If, however, you are serious about your gadgets at the same time, don’t be lulled in to being jipped in power or performance just because it has a pretty cover.

Random link, check out ShinyShiny for all your female gadget news.

E3, The Electronic Entertainment Expo, is going on in Los Angeles right now. As was expected, the video game console war is stepping up with Sony announcing the pricing of the Playstation 3, Microsoft announcing add-ons to the XBox 360 and Nintendo changing the Revolution in to the Wii.

First up, XBox 360 is adding an external HD-DVD player priced at around $100. If you already have a 360, this is a steal. An HD-DVD player is going to set you back around $800 if you buy a stand alone unit.

They are also making some big changes to XBox Live. Once Windows Vista is released (whenever that will be) they will launch “Live Anywhere and you will be able to play games cross platform, and also see where your friends are. They will also cross over to cell phones, but how that’s going to work, I have NO clue.

Halo 3 has a trailer being shown, but it’s not due until 2007.

Nintendo has changed the name of the Revolution to the Wii…why, I have no idea. They say they want a name that can be used in any language, but still…uck. They are keeping the motion control controller, but it has been modified since last year.

Still not sure how much I like this thing. Your not going to want to play any game for too long because your arms will wear out.

Wii Connect 24 interests me though. The Wii (UGH!) will be connected to the internet all the time, but when you put the system on stand-by, Wii Connect will check with Nintendo to see if any of your games need updating. The next day when you turn on your system, you may discover new levels, weapons, vehicles and so on for games you own. I like this idea.

And Sony…oh Sony. They’ve announced early November for the world wide release of the PS3.

The system will either $500 for the base system, or $600 for the loaded system. Now, with either one you get the Blu-Ray player (a bargain at either price), but if you want WiFi and high-def video output, you will have to go for the $600 model. You will also get a larger hard drive, but who knows if that will be important yet or not.

Do note though, last years stupid controller is GONE! *does a happy dance*. The new controller will be wireless and will feature some motion control, but will not rely on it like Wii’s does.

So, what to do? Well, it would seem you will need to be saving up tons of pay checks to pay for any of these systems. I’m sorry, but I will not be shelling out $500 – $600 this November for a game system. I’m not even sure I’m that in to gaming anymore to be honest. I haven’t had time play a game in months, and frankly, I’m not missing them much. I have so many other things going on, I just don’t see the point. Even if I do feel like playing, I have tons of games built up over the years to entertain me. I am just not sure what these companies are thinking by pricing the systems at these prices.

All info thanks to Engadget.com

So, Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo Revolution controller.

Need I really say anything?

I’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth bringing up again…why are online gamers, for the most part, jerks? It’s a game, it’s meant to be fun, it is not a life or death situation.

The occurances of idiots on Halo 2 seems to be getting worse and worse, especially since the recent rank resets. The new tendancy, since everyone is working on new ranks anyway, if you don’t like the map you are on, or the gametype on the map, to just leave the game, deserting your team and possibly leaving them vastly outnumbered.

Last night I ended up in a game of Assault on Headlong in Halo 2 where my team ended up being outnumbered 8-to-3. Ok, fine, Blue team was going to win, but they couldn’t be sporting about it. No, they had to come racing over and started spawn camping us. To me, this is just poor sportsmanship. You know your going to win, just let the players at least try. There is no reason to just constantly pound on them.

Of course, I’m not to happy with the team members who quit either. To me, joining a game is like a social contract. You are agreeing to play this game with this group of people. Leaving by choice is just bad manners in my opinion.

You know, as much as I complain about online gaming, it is amazing I still enjoy it.