Jaded Gaming

Watch me do me

2011-11-25T23:01:00.001-08:00

You know ... Like the Lonely Island sketch.

DISCLAIMER: This is real talk.

Somebody asked why I'm not posting the Jaded Gamer Show on Ballsrog.com especially since it's gotten a good response from those who saw it. Well this is my explanation. I dont want to go too far in depth but trust me I'm very disappointed in some people.

Alright. I don't want to start any drama but I fully intend to keep it real. No subliminals but I'm not going to be pointing fingers... Well, maybe a little but I won't wag it... Ok. Maybe some slight waggage. But it stems from disappointment not anger.

Generally I expect my date to look pretty and buy me dinner before they FUCK ME! Wait, back it up.

I used to do a podcast with my crew. It wasnt a smash hit but popular enough to get a few hundred downloads every episode. I was a fan favorite so I spun it off into The Jaded Gamer's Show.

The Jaded Gamer Show was always supposed to be a crew effort. Sure my face would get a lot of time, it's my show. But I wanted my crew involved. Let's start with the intro. You see 3 people other than me in that. It was supposed to be a group effort. Other than one of them appearing on an episode they are nowhere to be found. It was really difficult doing everything myself. I'm no stranger to entertaining people but I tend to have rehearsed material. But for the show other than a concept, I just turn on the camera and go.

I'm surprised every episode turns out the way they do. Even the fan reaction blows my mind. I thought this would amp up my crew like "Boy, I think they like us." But no. It was my girlfriend rubbing the knots out of my shoulders telling me "Good job."

Pause.

I'm not complaining. That's just how it was. It was very time consuming trying to have a life, do a podcast, play games, review them and edit a show all by myself.

Play.

So between episode 2 and 3 I brought it up to them. One said he isn't a gamer. (He was the first to buy the 600 dollar ps3 and bragged on the POS all the time. But he rarely played online with us.) The other said "Anything you need." So I put him in charge of my Facebook group. Everybody in the group is somebody I know personally so I dunno the point of that. I coulda done it myself. Wait... I did..

I'd check to see who posted my videos. I was lucky if any of them watched them when they were hot let alone post them to their wall.

So I just stayed at it. Even though I just wanted to give up. It was too demanding for my schedule. Which was why episode 4 had a ton of reviews and scores attached because I accumulated too much footage and not enough time to edit it.

Even now I have footage for another 2 episodes which might still happen if I can figure out how to apply it.

Anyways. During this time I kicked one member out for being a perverted, disloyal pile of shit who couldn't keep his hands to himself. And I can say that because his actions literally made me sick to my stomach.... And I've eaten live bugs Fear Factor style. (You'll notice I changed the FN2K/Wingman tag at the end of the vids to WTFIJ/FN2K at that point.) And the other dude fell on hard times and just didn't have the time. Fair enough.

Fast forward a year and dude still ain't on the comeback. If I could snap my fingers to end the struggle I would but I just can't. So I put da crew on my back and pushed forward. I delivered little bits of content here and there and posted more entries in this blog. I resumed the podcast too.

Then I ended up on Ballsrog.com not as a writer like I had thought... But as a strong personality and contributor. I've been there a month and I'm finally hitting my stride.

So why keep the last few pre-Ballsrog.com era videos off the site? (at least for now.)

I worked way too hard by myself to get this far. So any face that appears even for a split second in any video I put up will be one that had my back. (Yeah Ron... I'm talking to you.) So... I need to change the current intro vid to reflect the current state I'm in and start fresh. Like a new season. Some characters are gone and some new ones will appear. Since I got a new audience I'm not going to carry over old weight. It's a new day and I look forward to being more active on Ballsrog.com

So yeah. No disrespect to anyone but this is my moment. Watch me do me. Nobody but few key people were there to hoist me on their shoulders. I know some were late to the party but it's better than those that never showed up until they knew I was on the come up... Sorry for the long winded entry. Somebody shit on my chest and I had to get it off.

The Jaded Gamer

Twitter: @IamFN2K

Jaded Gamer’s Show Episode 5

2011-11-24T07:49:00.001-08:00

Ugh. So busy. I can’t believe I forgot to update my blog with this.

Games and relationships part II

2011-11-02T20:08:00.001-07:00

The first part of this entry got me in hot water from the Mrs. Though I'm willing to bet that most gamers understood the point which was she still acts like the typical gamer's girlfriend sometimes regardless of how well we get along.

She was convinced I made her look like a bitch or that gamers would think she was a bitch. Let me reassure you she is most definitely NOT a bitch. Honey can I get some yet? No?

Ok while she calms down a bit longer let me explain to you how good I have it.

When Dead Island came out I tore through it like a 12 inch through a hyman (and twice as bloody). I sat on my ass for 5 days and played it. Not 24/7 mind you. I have a job, but needless to say she didn't complain once. Forget Dead Island, she has never ever complained about my gaming habits. The closest thing I heard to a complaint was that once she felt sad that I chose to play a game instead of watching her change. (It's a nightly ritual. She is really attractive.)

I digress to remind male gamers of something. Since you are a gamer, chances are you were a bit of a nerd and maybe unlucky with the opposite sex in your younger years. If you do have a girlfriend try to remember what it was like before you did. What I'm trying to say is she has boobs. Real boobs. Live and in your face boobies. Remember you used to kill to see some boobosity? Now you just sit in front of the tv night after night while she unleashes the twins. That is so lame. Sure the ladies in games have gotten better rendered but it is no replacement for the real deal. It also doesn't hurt that my girlfriend is built like Bayonetta. And yes she has a sister thats pretty cute too but unless you are a man's man you need not apply.

Anyways. Back to my GF being awesome. She isn't a gamer at all but she tried. She played Fallout 3 all by herself but dropped the twin sticks because she still finds first person control and combat difficult. So her and I played Fable II a few times and when my game is built in Little Big Planet 2, I know she will play. Also Mod Nation Racers got a bunch of play. For somebody that doesn't play games she puts up the effort to try purely to make me happy. She even cameos on my show. Beyond that, her hotness has become one of the gimmicks the show thrives off of.

I objectify her beauty and she lets me exploit it for the purpose of my show. It does help that she is in on the joke but she is well aware of the fact that I'm using her looks and charm to get my product out there. She understands it because (dont jizz, gamers) she was a booth babe for Quake 4. Oooh. Behind the scenes info. Originally I wanted both my girlfriend and her sister to be the hotties on the show because her sister is (how do I say this without creeping out my future in law) a curvy voluptuous lady with a bit of a gothic or hard rock kind of flair. Whereas my girlfriend looks sweet and angelic. Kinda like Two-Face's ladies from Batman Forever. I thought the imagery would look really good on screen. But anyone that knows me knows I have difficulty rationalizing a "good" reason to exploit a woman's looks/body. So I figured the way I do it now was the least objectionable way to capitalize on a pretty girl.

But aside from being gorgeous, she supports my gaming now more than ever. Shes watched as I went from an absolute nobody to an obscure somebody to whatever I'm becoming now thanks to my love of games. She doesn't support it because it's been bringing me some attention, she does it because it makes me happy.

The best thing about her as it relates to gaming is her uncanny ability to get me to stop playing games. I'm not telling how though. I've given you enough spank bank imagery.

Street Prophet aka The Jaded Gamer

Twitter: @IamFN2K

Do or die for the Ps3

2011-10-11T20:57:00.001-07:00

I don't care what anybody says... The Wii lost the console war. Nintendo got a leg cramp 100 yards from the finish and bailed. Besides I value actual real games from developers other than Nintendo and that isn't Nintendo's style.

But, since Microsoft wanted the 360 to leapfrog the Ps3, Sony should really figure out a concrete solution to make the 360 look obsolete enough that they can pick up enough numbers to help them reach a 10 year cycle. Sony had success for a little bit against the 360 but the universe corrected itself and the 360 continues to have good sales.

The problem is that the 360 still looks appealing to the average consumer. I'm stunned to find out they believe the 360 is a more powerful piece of hardware. I don't know if that's Sony or a developer fault. Kinect looks more futuristic than Playstation Move until you realize "Hey. Maybe I need some damn buttons to play this shooter after all!"

Free online should have been a slamdunk for Sony. A lot of analysts thought Microsoft would have to have a free online model, but nope Microsoft stood by it. I still think it's a rip that I'm paying for not only the internet but twitter and facebook also. But playing online on Xbl is honestly . . terrible most of the time. But with friends is a blast. And you don't even have to be playing the same game.

The Ps3 has all that disc storage but I'm installing most games. The 360 doesn't have that issue. In fact my Ps3's fan kicks in a lot faster and more often than it used to.

Look. I love my ps3. I just feel like it isn't getting the right attention. It's such an awesome system but somebody keeps dropping the ball with it. It's become a system that watches what Microsoft does with the 360 and then copies it.

I must say that dollar for dollar PsN plus is a much better value than Xbox live Gold. Sony just needs to figure out how to show that off more. The amount of cash I saved and free games I got was great.

2012 is the last year ps3 can pull a power move else the 360 is going to crush it into tiny meat chunks and serve it raw to the Next gen

Street Prophet aka The Jaded Gamer.

Twitter: @IamFN2K

Silent Hill's last chance

2011-10-06T21:43:00.001-07:00

I wouldn't say I'm an expert on horror games or even explain survival horror to you. For myself a survival horror title didn't really take full form I until Silent Hill. Resident Evil 1 to 3 was less a survival horror title to me. Good games but they never resonated the same way.

Silent Hill 1 and 2 are landmark survival horror games. But then Fatal Frame came along and broke me. Nothing is scary to me anymore. Fatal Frame hit every note correctly. The plot made my skin crawl. The ghosts were more than apparitions of evil. They hunted and stalked you or haunted your dreams when the twin sticks weren't in your flop sweat soaked palms. Every single quality was top notch. The voice acting did however ruin some of the mood. Everything else was so good it just didn't occur how bad the voice acting was in rare spots.

Ever since the fateful night I completed Fatal Frame 2 I just can't get it up for any other horror game since. I enjoy most of them but I don't consider them scary.

So anybody who wants to convince me that Dead Space or it's sequel is scary.. Just stop. I think they are both awesome but seldom if ever did I experience one emotion needed; fear. If you must know I felt it was creepy at best. I was not afraid at any point in the first because they made it possible to complete the first gun with the equivalent of a pistol. As for the second one. I only wish I had the footage of me "calling out the scares". However.. The raptor-like monster from the sequel was one of the best and most intuitive enemies I had the pleasure of encountering. But I was not afraid to advance or face anything.

That goes for Silent Hill 4 up to Homecoming. 4 is by far my least favorite game in the series and I have never beaten it again since. The PSP games were alright. Homecoming was ok. Don't get me started on Saw. I enjoyed the Saw games and wish a real grown up triple A developer would take what was created and run with it. I will go on the record as saying the Saw games aren't terrible. You don't have to like them because their flaws are not hard to spot.

With every iteration of Silent Hill it feels more and more distant from the feeling and emotion of the first two. The imagery has always been excellent but poorly managed since 3.

In truth I think half the problem is me. From the moment they announce a new Survival Horror game, I follow it daily. By the time it gets to my hands I already know what will happen within the first 10 minutes of gameplay.

So with Silent Hill Downpour I stayed in the dark. I know nothing about this game. What I do know is that it better be the next standard of horror or I will thrust myself off the highest building and land in acid because I don't want to live in a world where Dead Space is the standard by which everything is judged. Ew.

Street Prophet aka The Jaded Gamer

Twitter @IamFN2K

Way too many games you guys

2011-10-05T04:57:00.001-07:00

Hey game developers! Could you please just stop and take a breath for one minute and listen to me?

This fall release schedule is insane. Do any of you realize how many sales you are missing out on because you insist on cramming a million releases into three months? There are countless triple A titles I'm forced to skip purely because I'm not spending hundreds of dollars just to pick up every new release.

Some of you publishers seriously are head wounded. Especially Sony coming out with a bunch of ill timed HD remakes. Yes I want Silent Hill, God of War, Team Ico and Metal Gear HD updates. But do you really think I'm going to get them brand new? I'm going for the triple A titles first. Then I'm going to pick up all those HD titles used because their print runs will have expired.

Rage or Silent Hill? Batman or Call of Duty? Assassin's Creed or Skyrim? Resistance or Dead Island? Battlefield 3 or Gears of War? And 10,000 other choices. The industry is cranking out way too much awesome this season and gamers don't want to be rushed. One week isn't enough time to enjoy one game before the next major release.

I don't want to see any game fail but you publishers obviously think gamers are rich so I hope half of these releases tank hard so you learn to stagger these titles.

In particular I hope Assassin's Creed bites it into oblivion! Ubisoft admits to beating a dying horse recently. I can't remember the exact terms three spokesperson said but it was pretty much they didn't expect 2 to be so popular and they decided to milk the idea for a bit before giving gamers the resolution they want.

I hope Rage becomes a sleeper hit for Id soft. They haven't had a new IP in years and this one looks like Id is showing why they rule.

Ugh. Ok I hope every game does well. I'm just a hater. I guess I'll get these games at some point but I just don't like how packed this release schedule is. It's just way too many games you guys.

Street Prophet aka The Jaded Gamer.

Twitter: @IamFN2K

Gamers and relationships

2011-10-04T00:05:00.003-07:00

If there is something I know well it's being in a relationship with non-gamer girls.

In an upcoming episode of The Jaded Gamer's show I talk about co-existing in a functional relationship and keeping the woman in your life off your back. I recommend any gamer in a relationship check it out.

Make no mistake though. I deliberately undersold the amount of work and effort needed to make it work. I have to because if gamers knew the truth they might pass up the right person when they come along.

Let me put it like this. I own almost 200 current gen games between Ps3, 360 and PsP. I invest between 20 and 40 hours a week on games. I only sleep between 3 to 5 hours a night which inevitably leads to exhaustion. The last fit of exhaustion damn near crippled me. My legs would go numb at random. I couldn't think, didn't eat and didn't care about anything or anyone not even myself except for my next gaming session.

I don't have to live this way, I choose to. It keeps me happy and my girlfriend too so I'm happy to do it. But it is not easy. It's more give than take and I need other gamers in relationships to back me up. Nobody other than gamers take games seriously. If a stock broker tells you they are busy, you let them work. But when a gamer tells their partner the same they just don't listen. I'm interrupted all the time.

Let me explain without malice what I endure.

I've politely requested that my field of vision NOT be obscured when I'm playing a game. This is a small rule but is always broken. No matter the reason, if she wants to invade my personal space nothing stops her in spite of the worst time to do it is when the twin sticks are in my hand. I have explained how much I hate it and now I put on a screwface and lean away annoyed but she still does it.

I used to play games with headphones on which I explained was a huge signal to leave me alone. I don't do that anymore. Here's why. She just walks up and starts talking to me oblivious to the fact I can't even hear her. And then I started hearing "I already told you blah blah blah..." It took me a minute to figure out she would tell me this stuff while my headphones were on. So now I play games without them for her... Problem solved.

Or is it? Just the other week my girlfriend who is an actual real actor in the biz, was running lines next to me. By running lines I mean reading them obnoxiously too loud thinking she's cute when all she is accomplishing is pissing me off. So I try to politely interject to tell her to tone it down I can't concentrate or hear what's going on. She doesn't even listen. She does what she always does and.tunes me right out and starts talking LOUDER! So now she can't even hear how aggravated she is making me because she WON'T SHUT UP long enough to hear what I'm saying. She was keen to not only ignore but talk over somebody communicating distress.

And this is minor petty stuff because I don't want to get too deep into it. I have rational ethical issues with some of the choices she makes but I shut up and let her do her thing because well . . Do unto others.

After hearing similar (and worse) stories I decided I had to say to my gaming friends and fans who are in relationships; You are not alone!

I don't know how my relationship works. I don't know how her and I exist when she drives me nuts sometimes. The bastion of hope I cling to is simply she does not understand the conviction and dedication I have towards not just gaming but to the community too. There is nothing I would rather do than entertain/enlighten you readers and viewers. I don't care who's birthday I have to miss to reach a deadline. I don't care how much time I have to put into editing or filming because I live to entertain. This is my passion in life and I'm lucky enough to be able to fuse entertaining and video games.

But let me flip it because here is my point. Chances are you are not like me. You don't game as often or even have the time to. You aren't trying to entertain anybody through games. At worst your partner interferes with a gaming session which let's be honest is remedied by a pause button. Imagine if it was your passion or career. Imagine how irate you would be. My point; if I can make this headache work and be happy at the same time then you as a simple gamer just aren't working hard enough. So shut this webpage and tell your partner you love them and spend time with him/her.

Street Prophet aka The Jaded Gamer

@IamFN2K on Twitter

I'm so lame, dude

2011-10-04T00:05:00.001-07:00

Wow. I don't know where to start. I got a lot to get off my chest so maybe you'd want to skip to the end to see my point.

First off thank you to everybody for your comments and kind words of encouragement. I may not be very popular (yet) but the support has kept me from fading away.

I'm not gonna lie and say life has been hard but it has not been very easy. Juggling life, gaming, the show and a podcast is overwhelming especially because a lot of the responsibility for putting the content out is mine. So if I forget or don't have the time then everything falls apart.

The worst part about this process is that I'm supposed to have a staff of people behind me and I don't. I took on all this responsibility because I did have a team behind me. You may have seen me reference them. We're called FN2K. There are two divisions of it. The one I run sucks. They don't have the ambition, heart, drive or stamina I do to triumph. All but one have copped out, betrayed my trust or made an endless amount of excuses of which I no longer have time for. This is not a jab at any of them. It's just the fact of life. My crew routinely lets me down or doesn't listen. Anything coming out of FN2K now more than ever is all if not mostly my doing.

The Jaded Gamer's show WAS NOT supposed to be just my floating head babbling. It was supposed to be me and FN2K causing a ruckus in gaming. Silly me thought that after my first two episodes were received with appreciation from the gaming community that these other members would love to be a part of it. Nope. We don't even play games together and that is what FN2K is supposed to be about.

So . . Here I am repping a crew of gamers WHO DON'T PLAY GAMES. I'm so lame dude. Ever since episode 2 I've been scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas purely to keep my crew on the map. And for what? They don't watch my show, hear my podcast. In fact the people who promote my show (shout out to Rondell Exclusive) regularly, don't have a stake in FN2K.

Anyways, I digress. I'm just mad. Mad because my passion takes time. Time I can't have to myself. I clear days off my schedule to get things done but every single fucking time I do, my girlfriend hijacks a huge chunk of it. I booked a week off in the summer purely to work on projects and every day I was interrupted. I'm not picking on her just illustrating how difficult it's been to do anything recently. All the while I put everything else first which I admit I shouldn't have done. So when I'm not dealing with slackers or complaints or people who constantly want attention and gold stars for doing their job, all I've been doing is turning off the world and playing video games.

Normally it is not an escape for me. But vegging out in the living room playing Dead Island or isolating myself in the back playing Minecraft is me taking time away from everything that has been getting under my skin. In a sense I'm taking back time that has been taken from me.

But my work and life has been suffering because I've been feeling sorry for myself recently. It took me far too long to get out of this funk but seeing as nobody wants to help me up, it's up to me yet again to pull myself to my feet. Now it's different. In the coming days I'm going to attempt to hitch my wagon to a locomotive that is gaining stream instead of losing it. I don't want to jynx it or leak details yet but this power move might be the smartest decision I made recently. So wish me luck.

Street Prophet aka The Jaded Gamer

Follow me on twitter @IamFN2K

Growing up gamer

2011-08-19T22:02:00.001-07:00

This is for gamers who may be under the impression that they grew up with games but kinda missed a few history classes on their way to college. I'll definitely be providing a visual aid for this in a future episode of The Jaded Gamer's show.

Age is a factor now and just because you are 15 and know everything it doesn't make you king. But seriously wait until the you at 25 looks back at the 10 year old games you used to play. The 10 year jump between 1980 to 1990 was far more drastic and 90 to 2000 was unreal. But now games are aging much better. They age so well that companies are able to polish them a little, add a reward system and knock the price down and people buy them like they are brand new.

Here's a test answer as many as you can honestly.

With the standardized controller we know today, what is the first game you remember playing with it?

Yoda's Revenge.

The Konami code and the first and last place you remember using it.

What do Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and and the first two GTA games have in common?

Final Fantasy ____ was skipped in North America?

Bonus: Final Fantasy 2 and 3 are actually numbered what in Japan.

Xenophobe?

MUDs?

BBS boards and L.O.R.D are what?

Kojima debuted Metal Gear on what system in North America?

Ness, Poo, Paula and Jeff belong to what franchise?

Name a Blizzard games that that doesn't have craft or diablo in it's title.

What system did Ninja Gaiden debut on?

Why did Fred Savage take his little brother to California?

Bonus: Name the peripheral and game that debuted in that movie.

Name a machine that played pong.

Without any peripherals or adaptors what was the first 4 player game you remember playing?

Qix?

Name the 3 game characters Zack Ward has played in his movies based on games.

Greatest line uttered in a movie based on a game?

I'll stop there. Now chances are the 30 and up crowd can get most, if not all of these. The 25 and up probably had to do a bit of retro gaming in the 80s. Between 20 and 24 its a little more spotty but 18 and below start bottoming out real quick.

Here is the key to some of this. It is simply age. Games weren't played at home or online actively for a while even whem consoles got more popular. They were played at arcades. When was the last time you went to an arcade that was just an arcade? No bar, no restaurant, no movie theater... just video games back to front, a pool table, a soccer table and maybe air hockey. (This being Canada the table hockey thing was huge. Not air hockey. I know some Americans call air hockey "table hockey" actual table hockey is a similar concept to the soccer version)

Forget going to the store to buy a new game you have not lived until you walk into an arcade with your friends and the dookie enters your pants the moment you spot the new game machine.

I don't mean to sound like a geezer but you young whippersnappers don't know how good you have it.

IamFN2K aka The Jaded Gamer

I made "Kraft Dinner"™

2011-08-19T06:43:00.001-07:00

Right now you're all "Huh?" So I'll get that outta the way. Kraft Dinner is KD and KD to a competitive gamer usually means Kill/Death ratio. Now it's not as simple as me taking the abbreviation for Kraft Dinner that everybody knows and applying it to gaming. When I say a game is all about Kraft Dinner or it is a Kraft Dinner game... It is an insult. Here is how the phrase evolved.

Kraft Dinner is the standard which most other generic mac & cheese dinners that come in a box are judged by. Kraft Dinner is an instant meal. Instant macaroni, powdered cheese. Simple concept but nothing fancy. There is no "soul" to a kraft dinner meal yet people eat it a lot. Kill Death is Kraft Dinner. They are both generic boxed concepts. But one is food.. The other costs 60 dollars. One is allowed to be generic (and possibly delicious) because it is cheap. The other better have some sort of innovation behind the KD.

So that's "Kraft Dinner".

But since we are on the topic of catch phrasery. .

I'd like to discuss "Ding!Platinum!" Now I wont be arrogant and say I invented the phrase because the "Ding!" Is really a shared experience between all Ps3 users. We may even yell Ding! After a trophy. Putting "ding!" and "platinum" together is practically public mindshare. Those of us with platinum trophies have probably said it. However, when most gamers get the trophy and hit the Twitter and forums to brag how do they describe it? I'll give you an example of the creativity. Some of these I wish I started.

"Went/gone Platinum."

"Platinum status on_____"

"Platinum unlocked"

"Platted/Plat'd"

"Plats/Platz 4"

"Chromed"

"P-bagged"

"Wearing platinum socks"

and on one occasion "Plaqued!"

I pretty much say "Ding! Platinum" or "I dinged platinum" (Even made a youtube video about it.

Yo, most vain and self wanking blog post ever!

IamFN2K aka The JadedGamer

Nintendo, What happened?

2011-08-17T22:34:00.001-07:00

SEPT 12th UPDATE: ZOMG! These updates could be daily at this point. I saw the 3DS bathtub thumb stick. OK, so you're an ambassador with these games you might already own and some of them are ok. Sure. Point taken. But to release a console that is basically in beta for $250 then to release a peripheral that makes your non-ergonomic handheld more clunky and try to pitch it like a good thing is classic Nintendo. It's the Headphone jack for the Gameboy Advance SPCalafragilisticexbealidocious again!

AUG 23 UPDATE: Yet another update on this concept. Nintendo ALREADY rebranding the 3DS next year and adding a 2nd analog stick. And putting LESS emphasis on the reason you want it (3D) ... So now you're dropping cash on a 3D system that isn't stressing the 3 of D. Go on. Buy it. You know you wanna. How many people are going to buy it because they hate it when I'm right?

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Nintendo strips backwards compatibility from Wii redesign!! HAHAHAHAHA *Fart*burp*cough* Before the Nintendo Defense Force gets their heads all spun like it is no big deal and says Sony did the same with PS3 let good ol JG tell you something. Sony did remove backwards compatibility, which sucked for us, very early on. What they didn't do was announce a new system and then remove functions from the current system. Now Nintendo pretty much has placed the Wii U as a must have item for that option. I love it.

How can a handheld that is barely six months old cripple your company's revenue for this quarter so bad that the CEO has to cut his salary by half? Seriously!

Up until now I would swear on anything that Nintendo fans were idiotic and blind sheep who would bend over and buy anything with the Nintendo branding on it. Yet it seems that they're reluctant to purchase this 3DS system which I hope woke Nintendo up a little.

Let's back up a little. Let us analyize how Nintendo only wants one thing, your money. The Wii out sold everything and their first party games destroy any and every third party title. What was the fan's reward for making that thing a sensation? Buy these pieces of plastic at 20 dollars a pop to turn your remote into a steering wheel, a gun or a damn lightsaber then drop some more money on the analog stick they forgot to put on in the first place. If that is not enough they wan you to drop more money on another peripheral to make the motion control what it should have been right out the box. Jeez, just keep upgrading your PC.. It's way cheaper.

Now let's look at the evolution of the DS. It was ugly at first so they came out with the DSL.. Then the DSi ..Then the DS XL. I feel sorry for anyone that bought all 4 iterations only to have Nintendo say "We know a lot of you just go a DS but in few months we are releasing a better version that is 3D sans spectacles. ZOMGJIMP! The thing lost the GBA port .. Who cares right? But wait.. As inscentive to purchase it before the price drop they offer you a wide selection of games for download for free. Now I ask you Nintendo fans this with zero malice or sarcasm? How many of those free games do you already own even if its on other nintendo platforms? It's ok to say "most of them but I got others for free" that's cool. I went through that with Sony's welcome back program. I owned all but two of the Ps3 titles and any title they offered for free on PsP I already owned or didn't want. So I settled for the digital copy of two games I already own. But if any of you early adopters really honestly think those "free" games are only exclusive to you and the rest of the 3DS community wont have a chance to even buy them....Keep dreaming of yourself jumping over that fence.

Nintendo not only wants your money, they now have even more reason to find new ways to get it.

But once again I'm glad the 3DS is not selling wildly with a slew of shovelware and 2 decent games. Maybe next year when the Wii U happens Nintendo will deliver the goods like they used to.

I don't want them to fail but if a system has to sell crazy then they have their minds a little too deep in your pockets guys.

IamFN2K aka The Jaded Gamer

Take a hint from Kojima!

2011-08-13T13:13:00.001-07:00

Do you like the Metal Gear Solid franchise? Not everybody does. It is a tough series to like if it isn't your thing and me explaining it now probably will not spur you to jump out of your seats and play the franchise. But if you do decide to play through it... DO NOT START WITH MGS: TWIN SNAKES! In a nut shell they turned Solid Snake into Neo and have him do the most *R-worded* things. And considering how messed up and absurd the plot gets... That says a lot about how stupid Twin Snakes made the series.

But if there is one indisputable fact about the series... Each game is different in a major way somehow. Kojima productions knows how to do sequels. Each installment brings either a new take on the series or a new convention every time!

Remember the jump from Doom 1 to 2? What changed? 1 New gun.. and a handful of new enemies and everything else was pretty much assets from the last game.

MGS 2 from 1 improves on every aspect of the previous model even if it turned out to be Kojima saying "See.. I CAN make the same game again and you wont know it til I tell you."

Then Metal Gear Solid 3 comes out and shifts what you are used to and adds more meta type stuff. There is a camouflage meter so you know exactly how hidden you are. The sound is much better and realistic so you can now move through bushes in loud environments without the enemy hearing your footsteps. Let's face it. Metal Gear solids "view cone" made the game seem like stealth pac-man at times. Sound didn't matter so much as you being spotted. In 3 you have to stay hidden and quiet.

The gadgets in 3 are also more handy by virtue of the fact they are old school meaning that you cant just simply look at a radar, find your foe, point and shoot. More strategy is involved. The classic boss sniper battle against The End can last 10 minutes or over an hour just by what gadgets you use to track your enemy. The game has a Cabelis game hunter vibe to it as well. You hunt wildlife for food if you are low on rations. The food can even spoil if left untouched which you can now use to poison hungry soldiers when you blow up their food supplies. There is even a boss you can use that strategy against. 3 is arguably the finest entry into the series.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is definitely lip service to fans. It is very well designed but extremely story heavy which has always been a complaint about the series. And the end game cut scene is pretty much an entire movie. But those mild itches aside, it really is a great journey filled with twists and nostalgia. It may not have the meta elements that 3 did but the battlefield is also very different. There are less places to hide but due to Snake's Octocamo he can hide right out in the open. It is difficult to put my finger on what is so different about 4. But I think the return to form is what makes 4 different. It clashes old and new ideas seamlessly. It is just as modern as it is classic.

Then there is Peace Walker. The best thing about Peace Walker is the one thing missing from portable ops... Co-op multiplayer. Standard missions are 2 player but boss fights against heavy artillery are 4 player skirmishes that are Kojima doing his best to capture the intensity of a Monster Hunter fight. The ability to recruit and upgrade soldiers and their weapons adds tremendous amounts of depth to the game. I personally don't just want peace walker in HD... But Peace Walker 2 on Ps3 AND the Vita.

Metal Gear Solid is one of the few franchises that makes every sequel feel like it could be a new game not just a grapically superior version of the last entry in the series.

What say you gameland?

IamFN2K aka The Jaded Gamer

Sorry bout the hostility

2011-08-13T12:49:00.001-07:00

As of late I've been throwing a lot of aggression towards fanboys of all sorts and I just want to take a second to let the dust settle.

This is one of those rare moments where I will apologize for possibly offending any readers of my blog (www.TheJadedGamer.tk just in case you are reading this through an rss import like facebook). So I'm sorry if I got under your skin.

The bottom line for me are the games. I don't care where you play them but just as proof that my head is not up my own ass, allow me to play devil's advocate against myself with regards to other topics.

Pc gaming

So not many people know or remember that during the N64 - Dreamcast era I played PC games mostly and slowed down when I got a ps2/xbox. Truth is I always preferred console gaming but RTS games and FPS games were still pretty clumsy on consoles.

Rather than even try to wrestle with counter-strike online, starcraft on 64 or Red Alert on Playstation... I played them on pc. Also I played anything from Blizzard catalogue, Black & White, Summoner, Evolva, Messiah, Angel Devoid, Some Myst, Doom games, Duke Nukem 2D and 3D, Unreal Tournament, Quake games, Team Fortress, Unreal Gold Co-op, Half Life and some mods, Soldier of Fortune, Noone Lives Forever, Hitman and others that have slipped my mind at the moment.

Obviously I appreciate what PC gaming brings to the table. Consoles hadn't monotized DLC yet so when the developers put out extra content that was not an expansion.. IT WAS FREE. Any gamer born in the mid 90's probably has no clue that DLC used to be free till consoles screwed that up. I know in some cases that fact still stands. Back then the mods and free content was something consoles didn't and still don't have so hell yeah PC gamers have to be stoked about that.

Also since developers get more room to make games on PC the most original titles really began there. I'm referring to the underground indie scene that popped up. Indie devs still thrive because they can put out a game for free and generate a fanbase. That is still a pipe dream on console which is why indie console devs spend a lot of time cracking the system to make underground games to run on it. Those random games made life enjoyable on PC while you were waiting for the next mega hit.

PC gaming has its advantages and people still prefer mouse and keys which is fine. If all of the above is what gives the PC the edge in your eyes, that is great. Just remember it makes pc gaming different not better.

Blizzard makes me shudder

There is nothing I can do to deny how I feel about Blizzard. They make great games regardless of what they put in and take out. My only problem with them is them recycling the same idea over and over. I have played the crappy half assed console clones of their games and even though they don't compare they at least try to advance the genre. In consoleland recycling the same idea happens in much quicker intervals so the genre has to freshen up or die out faster. But since Blizzard works for years on the same concept it always feels new because its been 5 years since you played a new ______ game. There is nothing wrong with that. It's the "If it aint broke don't fix it." and you have to be stupid to think they are not skilled at making the same concept seem fresh. That means the game itself is timeless. That is amazing to have 4 base games and have them all be killer apps.

So you see... I'm not that big of a jerk

IamFN2K aka The Jaded Gamer

Piracy and me

2011-08-12T01:10:00.001-07:00

Don't talk to me about piracy. I am for whatever developers want to do to protect their products. I don't care what it is they want to do to prevent piracy I support it even if I don't like it. If I dont like it then I don't buy it. If there is DRM I do not like then the box stays on the shelf or in the respective console's store and that is one less unit shipped. That sends a bigger message than piracy ever will. Because all you accomplish with piracy is telling developers to spend more time on DRM for the sequel or future projects. If the game gets pirated a ton the developers know it's good and in demand they just need to focus on preventing piracy.

But that isn't what gets me. What gets me is that when people I know personally or purely online tell me they pirate a game or games in general. Stop it. I dont care if you do it but don't tell me. Would you walk up and tell a police officer you have weed on you?

Then why tell a guy who day after day slowly (at a snail pace) embeds himself further and further into the industry and not just simply gaming? Piracy makes what I do (or try to do) moot. I inform the gaming community from a gamer's standpoint. Not a developer or journalist so imagine how pointless piracy makes their profession.

Slowly... very slowly gamers are gravitating towards user generated voices not unlike my own as well as the pros at say... I dunno... Gamepro who may or may not care about what I tweet. As insignificant as being followed on twitter is it is a start for me to build on.

Honestly, I don't care if you pirate all day everyday. I have no interest in confirming you do.

I don't think people are entitled to something because they convert beef and leaves into energy and then excrete them later and go shopping (sorry. I was playing Portal 2) so save whatever justifaction you have for piracy righteous or not.

Just let me add some perspective before I quit whining.

There is a dude that goes by the handle, Ballsrog. I suggest all of you (especially console gamers and specifically 360 owners) go to his site (www.ballsrog.com), follow his twitter (@ballsrog), because him and his crew are all up in the asshole of gaming. I love this guy (no homo) because he puts himself out there time and time again telling you what is hot and what he wouldn't let lick his taint. Anyways, as an inscentive to donate to his cause he offers an autographed copy of one of his games (in addition to other things). I've had an idea similar for when The Jaded Gamer's show picks up steam (think contest give-a-way rather than donation rewards). Either way we're promoting the idea of owning a physical copy of a game and it raises the question of would we still give away our own games that we paid for to a community that doesn't appreciate buying games in general. I can't speak for Ballsrog but I'd rather my game went to somebody who either wants to buy it but cant afford it or wants it but missed the window to buy it.

All I'm saying is that with the effort and money that myself, Ballsrog and hundreds of other gaming personalities pour into informing gamers of what we think they should or shouldn't buy It's a tad insulting to know you pirated something we recommend especially us little guys because we don't get review copies. We had to buy that shit.

IamFN2K aka The Jaded Gamer

PC Gamers

2011-08-12T01:06:00.001-07:00

A gamer is a gamer. Period.

Yet the fanboyism between console and PC gamers constantly rages on. Though I am the Sith lord bringing balance to the force console side between 360 and Ps3 fanboys, I rarely find harmony between console and PC. Despite cross-platform games like Portal 2 being released that allow pc and ps3 users the ability to game together there is still the air of PC superiority. . . and uber sensitivity.

I wont argue that PC games are pretty but so is Heavy Rain and L.A Noire. Two games which are extremely tough sells on PC but run and sell well on console. I wont take the PC stance and say a platform sucks because it doesn't have game "x" because it seems every time pc gamer says "we have _________ and you dont ipso facto vis a vis you haz fail" a month or two game "x" gets ported to console. Crow must taste delicious. Most recently Minecraft has been that game "x" .. And if minecraft comes as a boxed copy of a game I wonder if PC users would be mad because I'm fairly certain console users figure that to be a psn or xbla caliber title unless the scope of it increased dramatically.

Halo was supposed to be a pc game at one point apparently because I've been serving wine and cheese over that for a decade now. Despite halo and halo 2 coming out for pc its still not the juggernaut it is on console nor is it the premier place to play.

The argument can even be made that the 360 versions of many multi-platform games are the focus whether or not they appear on pc. So in that regard I dont see how pc gaming is a compelling argument over a 360.

And at this point unless you want to play an RTS or WOW I cant see the difference in a pc or console unless having slightly more dust particles on screen means that much more to you.

Im not picking on the users of pc, I'm more or less just asking in my own Jaded Gamer way "What the fuck is your problem?"

Look, the mod community is great on PC and consoles probably wont see that type of versatility in the near future but that is one of the few only real undisputed 100% clear cut advantage pc has .. The rest is preference. Im positive there are others but mods thrive on pc... As they should.

I don't have to or even want to list what I consider the advantages over pc because I'm not trying to convert anyone. In fact I'd prefer if the pc snobs and console fanboys stay separate because no gaming would happen... just epic amounts of whining and fighting on both sides because let's face it, we are all jerks in the heat of battle.

Just in case my point is missed... A gamer is a gamer period regardless of platform. Pc or console you bleed red and are no better than eachother. I love you guys so don't think I'm a hater. Just shut the fuck up and celebrate games and not where to play them.

With certain exceptions aside, a lot of PC gamers look like idiots when they tell me what pc games I'll "never experience" on console. Then it shows up a year or two later and it's always fun to watch the pc crowd do the mad scramble for excuses while they dine on crow and sour grapes. (I know the same happens the other way around with console and pc but I spend 360 days reminding my console cohorts they are mindbogglingly immature and stupid sometimes so today for a minute I'm shaking my head in another direction.)

Basically if you guys really were the more refined gameur (not a typo) you wouldn't be acting like arrogant jerks just like the rest of us. Get over yourselves and lets play some games dammit!

JG

DLC and R-words.

2011-08-07T11:11:00.001-07:00

I like blizzard games. Just a reminder.

Anyway. EA. I'm looking right at you now. Sure you publish great games and I would even be so bold as to suggest that any gamer with more than 10 games in all probability has more EA published games than non EA ones. EA and Activision (and more often now take two or (is it 2K?) are popping up more often.

But you EA... Have by far thee WORST and most foul DLC on the planet. Seriously. Sometimes I want to cut your faces off with sharkfists and wear them to your family's house just to see if they notice!

I've witnessed on disc content unlocks for games I've bought used. Fine. You want to prevent piracy and get your cut of the used market. I am on your side. However! When I see a DLC for a "New game mode" it better not be a 100 KB file unlocking Bare Knuckle boxing or cars that are actually in the game. DLC should always be additional content.

LittleBigPlanet has similar problems I dont come down on media molecule as bad because they kinda shot themselves in the foot for DLC because over 3 million levels are availible online.

My biggest peeve is the fact ppl buy this shit enough that EA makes money. Sure I'm guilty of succumbing to the pressures of having to purchase stronger guns to beat Dead Space on impossible. (I'm so fatigued with the franchise I cant do it)

But where does this trend of selling cheat codes stop? Where is the line on selling me content on the disc twice?

What say you gamers? Do you wanna pay 99 cents for the Konami code or 1.99 to unlock an alternate sports jersey that exists on the disc?

I like Blizz games ok

2011-08-06T11:27:00.001-07:00

I've caught a lot of attention recently for what people think is picking on Blizzard. Personally I think some of you are stupid. Especially the person who said Blizzard has a good development cycle because they have a ton of money.

So let me clear the air.

In my eyes a good development cycle has a deadline. You have a project, you look at your team and say it takes X amount of months to make this so the release date is _________. They may not announce the date right away but they can give a time frame I.e Borderlands 2 Q3 2012. Blizzard says... "It will come out when it's done."

This is NOT a good development cycle. This is the opposite extreme of the Duke Nukem Forever release. But at least they would give a date amidst the excuses. (And Mac users get to witness the suck for themselves Aug 18) But guess what? I bet Gearbox or whoever wants the rights to it will make another DN game within 5 years.

Whoops! Where was I? Oh. Dev cycle. But I can hear you now. "But when it's done it's soooooo good?" That's right. They are good. But compared to what? Its purely "fans of the genre" that they specialize in. Fans of the genre will be fans of this genre. Look me in the eye and tell me with a straight face that Diablo 2 is not Diablo 1 with a graphics bump and the standard bigger, badder, harder and longer gameplay enhancements. There were bonuses and cool stuff but essentially you are playing a less ass-tasting version of the previous installment that tasted pretty damn good. The jump to Warcraft 3 from 2 was a bigger leap and stretch for Blizzard but its essentially the same game with different strategies because of new races and units.

They are all well made games. I dont have a problem with their quality. I've played,enough non-blizzard games and clones to have a higher standard of gameplay by now and I hoped most would feel the same.

My beef with WoW is that its way too user friendly for my liking. By no means do I mean its easy. But there is a significant amount of increased simplicity in WoW than say EverQuest. Before I continue... Yes... WoW might be a better product than EQ but it better be when you have years to improve and fans so loyal they follow like lemmings. That is in fact a portion of why WoW is a success regardless of the fact its good. BUT in EQ... There was a moment around level 30 or so that every single time you level up you felt like you had to jump over the flippen moon to do it. The grind! OH MY GOD THE GRIND! It was rare to see a whole bunch of characters in one area at the level cap. In fact.. When you saw a character at the cap it was not uncommon to stop them and ask to pose for a screenshot. You knew most of the top level guys by name because threre were so few. Thats what made it awesome.

But with expansions come balancing issues with new classes and races so naturally characters got buffed, nerfed and invalidated. Exploits were found, leveling became easier due to complaints from growing popularity. Walking around at level 80 doesn't mean much to me cuz its not impossible. Just play.

I don't dislike any Blizzard product. There is alot of care that goes into every game.

Now recently my only actual for real problem with Blizzard is how IMO they are losing touch with their fans... and then act bewildered. "Oh our fans DON'T like us removing functionality from our games?" (Offline/LAN)

THAT is my problem with THEM. I like the games. I'm sure Diablo 3 will be fine. I'm just not going to reward them for removing something that has been pretty much standardized on PC. Their excuse of giving me the best experience when they really mean the best DRM. Just come out and say... The DRM requires you to be online for validation... And I would say "That sucks. But you're just protecting your IP"

Something tells me even those who are mad will still buy the product and Blizzard will keep selling ice to penguins. And more power to them

Sony rides 360’s D AGAIN!

2011-08-05T20:07:00.001-07:00

First Sony put their own spin on the Xbox 360’s Achievement system. (You’re welcome Steam and WoW) Personally I prefer Trophies to the Achievement system. It’s a neater system that doesn’t make your gamerscore look like a phone number. I mean it looks impressive but you don’t really get a sense of how awesome it is. You see somebody with a Platinum trophy… You know exactly what that means.

But then Sony adds Playstation Plus… Which is a slightly better deal that Xbox Live Gold in very small ways but Live Gold is still probably the best “premium price” online service.

But now… Sony talks about PSN Play… If you have a 360 you know PSN play is nothing more than stealing Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade idea. Buy 4 games and get the 5th for free.

Sony. The PS3 is still my favourite system. But the more and more I say “Sony” the worse my breath smells.

Who's dumber?: The media, The parents or The gamers

2011-08-04T22:02:00.001-07:00

As a general disclaimer.. These blog posts are done remotely with a wifi tablet and no keyboard. I use auto spell and slide my finger around the virtual keyboard.

In the upcoming episode of The Jaded Gamer's show you will see me present a different side and much more PG friendly version of this topic. (Dont worry. The episode after will be back to being rated M.)

The next episode in question was filmed primarily in 2009 a year after Brandon Crisp died. (if you dont know or remember Crisp... You will) If you don't believe me then look at the continuity with my hair, gotee and 1up t-shirt.

Anyways. One thing that affects gamers more and more often is addiction. The consequences of this addiction can be tame like maybe you stood up your date or skipped class or work for a day. I myself on several occasions have called in sick for Day 1-Zero Hour releases. (Which means buying the game the day it comes out the moment the store opens) And infamously skipped 88 days of school in my senior year to play EverQuest. Doesn't it sound like I have at least a mild addiction to games? Then how did I graduate? How did I go through college? How do I keep paying my bills on time? It's time for a heart to heart

The average gamer is in their 30's now so for every Daniel Petric (17) there are a million legit responsible gamers who do not act out. Fox News doesn't talk about www.WhatTheyPlay.com ... NBC and CTV do not report about gamers and developers raising relief for Japan through www.PlayForJapan.org. But if there is sideboob, Fox calls it pornography when more titty exists in iCarly (google it) and when a kid runs away and falls out of a tree CBC blames the video game industry.

Tell you what media... instead of asking Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft and the ESRB what they can do to keep violent sexy games out of underage gamers hands, why don't you ask the parents? Would you drop your 15 year old off with a 6 pack of beer at a strip club?

Parents need to be educated on the subject of video games. Personally I thought the media would be doing this but they do more harm than good by trying to educate the public.

Here is my point. The media kinda says "Video games are bad mmkay." But then the parents buy said bad games for their underage kids so they can play it in their room. Don't you parents even care what you just bought for your kid? 9 times out of 10 if I was playing an M rated game, I had a parent close by. Why? My parents obviously liked me.

OK. So what about gamers? Shouldn't they take some blame? Hell yeah!

Daniel Petric murdered his mother and shot his father after they took away his Halo 3 disc. That kid is messed. I'm not picking on Blizzard here but they have fans that take pathetic to new levels of sadness. 99.9% of Blizzard's users are probably decent and live normal lives. But because every game is made to be diverse or immersive or engaging, some users won't stop playing it. And Blizzard couldn't care less (Why should they? They aren't your parents.) Blizzard isnt stupid. They add more to their games to engross the user more. A buddy of mine calls Blizzard products a "completionist nightmare" I agree with him especially with World of Warcraft. Its a huge gaming space with a lot to do. There are even special achievements given out. Dozens if not over a hundred of them to collect. Somebody who wants every last one is going to have to pour a lot of time into the game. But here is the thing.

WoW does have an end game but that doesn't mean you completed it. In fact I would argue that you're not supposed to get every last thing in a Blizzard game. That's why its a nightmare because some gamers cant grasp that the game is that big because you're supposed to have your own adventure and experience it your own way. Additionally I would also say getting everything in a Blizzard game is more a tragedy than an accomplishment.

But here is where I'm going with my Blizzard point. Blizzard makes good games you want to play. Your body isn't really made to be sitting stationary for long periods of time every day. After a while musculoskeletal dystrophy starts killing you. Blot clots might form and hit your heart... Boom ... Death.

This isn't exclusive to hardcore Blizzard gamers. This applies to gamers like me who marathon games on the constant. Its just that Blizzard makes games that you can play for hours or days and that may be only one quest or a really tough skirmish in StarCraft.

So how stupid do you have to be to sit in one place before you realize you're dying or that you are having a heart attack or that your infant stopped crying... because it died... of starvation... during your 3 day boss fight in FF 11.

How dumb do you have to be to send your teen into the freezing Canadian wilderness and expect nothing to happen? (Comments like this are why WTFIJ insisted I edit the hell out of the next episode and watch my mouth. Grrr)

How ignorant are you to blame an interactive medium for "teaching" kids poor morals when the parents endorse it?

Seriously how pathetic is it that nobody can take responsibility for this? It's always the game's fault right?

Gamer vs Game player Part 2: The knowledge

2011-08-03T22:20:00.001-07:00

The Konami code, the Capcom code, Super Mario Brothers: The Lost Levels, Robotron, Final Fantasy numbers, games like True Crime: Hong Kong that get retrofitted and the term retrofit itself is knowledge gamers just know by being gamers.

One of the traits of being a gamer is understanding the industry and being able to explain it beyond your opinions and break aspects down. As an example consider this. Stephen King writes for a publisher like Random House or something. Random house prints the book and it's a great book. Do you buy the next book you see from Random House or the next book from Stephen King? You buy the King book right? Well how about this? Team Bondi made L.A Noire... Rockstar published it in North America. I ran into a friend on the bus who claims to game and know games well but actually argued that L.A Noire is a good game because Rockstar made it. The thing is they didn't make it... Bethesda didnt make Fallout New Vegas... EA didnt make Dead space, Mass Effect or Hot Pursuit and Square-Enix did not make Just Cause 2.

In general everybody should know the difference between the developers and the publishers now because the company's names are all over the box and splash screens. But when gamers themselves say a game is good because a publisher developed it I want nothing more than to break your jaw. Nothing is more infuriating than somebody being completely wrong.

God of War is published by Capcom in japan. Grab your GoW game case and see if it says that. Do Japanese people think Capcom made it and not Santa Monica studios (Owned by Sony I think)?

So if you are the type to read a name off the box and say Gamebryo makes great games you should take a closer look at your gamecase. (Gamebryo ports Bethesdas games to PS3)

Activision bought Blizzard. NOT vice versa. I know you Blizzard fanboys love thinking that Blizzard owns the gaming industry and they are super loaded because WoW gave them more money than God. Shut...the...front...door and read the articles again. All the money Blizzard makes a year wouldnt cover the amount of money Activision needs to make every 3 months. AND consider the fact Blizzard just might have needed the merge to stay in business. Blizzard doesnt have a good development cycle and they spend crazy money on research. The more users playing their games the more server maintenance costs. Yes Blizzard generates money but if you think they make more than EA, Activision or Nintendo as publishers then you are smokin the good stuff.

Seriously... Only gamers can really grasp how wicked stupid you sound.

Gamers dont need instruction manuals for the most part. We figure that shit out in the first hour of the game. Now though you may be a gamer there is no shame to RTFM but if you think you don't need a manual and your first question about the game starts with "How do I...?" then just RTFM you obviously are new to this type of game. Since most games start with tutorials that should quell any questions.

The PS3 doesn't use letters for it's face buttons... Its not an X or O its a cross and circle. Now you can call the cross button X, thats fine. Dont call the circle an O. Its like outting yourself as a noob. In short, gamers know every button on the controller to the point we can say stuff like "Hit cancel and ready up for the match" and we know "hitting cancel" means hitting circle or B and to ready up we hit cross or A. Game players still need time to learn what buttons do in each genre.. Gamers know what button does what we just need to know what to do... Not what to press to do it.

Being a gamer is much more of a hobby than it ever was. And just like anyone who is good at any craft, we take exceptions with people wearinbg the title

Gamer vs. Game player Part 1: The swagger

2011-08-02T16:29:00.001-07:00

I'm drawing the line in the sand for all us actual real gamers. I feel like now is the time because gaming is really popular at the moment and there are a lot of people out there who may not realize they sound silly or are annoying gamers by trying to be one of them. Over the last year or so I've met too many "gamers" who's claim to game is stuff like Wii sports, Angry Birds and Just Dance.

Thanks to the Wii, IPhone, Ipad and facebook many people are under the impression that you are gamers. Be real. Being a "Gamer" is a badge of honor and courage that you earn through years of honing your skills and being informed about games themselves.

I give PC gamers a lot of trolling because its really like watching the hot girl from high school turn into a troll as she ages. But she doesn't own a mirror or been outside. PC gamers are cute to me. They brag about how pretty their games are or how consoles wont get to enjoy games like Minecraft. *cough* But as silly as I *think* PC is as a platform, their claim to game is legit. A lot of the games I play either are multi platform with pc or even ported to/from it. Even though I probably play a wider variety of games than a PC gamer Steam is changing that rapidly and bringing pc gaming back. Kudos.

But just cuz you lost your life playing WoW or Facebook Bejeweled you dont get to call yourself a gamer cuz its the fad right now. You are a game player. Its the difference between being a soccer player and knowing how to play soccer. In the gaming community the formal title is "Casual" gamer. Informally the ones marked as posers are referred to as lamers, llamas and noobs.

Gamers communicate through a lot of lingo a lot of game players just dont know. And you will not learn the lingo unless you become a gamer. Its like a rite of passage. Its been a long time since I spent time in an MMORPG but can still tell you what buffed, nerfed, AoE, HP, MP, XP, EXP, DPS, DoT, hammering, toon, mule and other lingo means. I can probably tell you about most genres and explain in vivid detail the difference between a horror game and survival horror game. Whats the difference between Western and JRPGs? If you can't even attempt to explain the difference you are probably not a gamer.

Gamers talk about games...not "a" game... Games. So if you can tell me everything about one game... Thats cool but if thats where your knowledge stops then you are still a softcore gamer. Nothin wrong with that but dont think you can hang with gamers at a LAN if they arent playin your game of choice.

How would you feel if you spent literally most of your life being teased for being a nerd only to have some noob pick up the sticks (or mouse and keys for my pc gaming buds) play Bejeweled or some other gaming fad like kinect or wii and all of a sudden claim to be a gamer? It would get on your nerves too. Thats the reality a lot of gamers are facing today.

To be continued...

Blizzard makes me shudder

2011-08-01T22:30:00.001-07:00

I used to love Blizzard games and products… But with Diablo 2 and WarCraft 3 I felt like they shipped me the same game I played last time around with better window dressing.

I don’t mean I felt ripped off with Diablo 2 or Warcraft 3. I mean I feel like all they did with both those games was add a little here/there and put a new Roman numeral at the end. Then at World of Warcaft I couldn’t stomach another MMO that had Everquest’s DNA.

And then that was it for me. Somewhere around 2003 I cashed in my PC gamer card for good and traded Counter-Strike, Blizzard, Epic and Valve games in for the likes of Square-Enix, Bioware and Konami. Why? Final Fantasy, Knights of the Old Republic & Metal Gear Solid were all on the Playstation 2. Then I realized more genres of games exist. Not everything is a shitty FPS, a button mashing RPG or the same fucking RTS you just played last year but with TWO NEW UNITS! ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH MY GAWD! Two new units?!? Wrap a game around them call it Whatever/Whatever 2: Shitty Subtitle (Now a days those 2 new units are 5.99 DLC apiece)

I’m just tired of Blizzard using it’s money to … what DO they do with their money? They have an amazing R&D department and have possibly hired a PS3 designer for (???). Nobody knows why? Blizzard isn’t talking. Which is lame. They can dangle the carrot for somebody else because I don’t care anymore.

I can’t even say Blizzard is doing anything wrong from a developer standpoint… but I don’t feel appreciated as a gamer by them. As days go by every sort of Blizzard related news story usually has something to do with removing a function I like from a game or them “innovating” on new ways to take my flippen cash. . . Like cross-server pay (I omitted an “'l” in “pay” on purpose). .

Actually I don’t care… I just realized it doesn’t make a difference because no matter what they do I’m just gonna throw a hissy fit and blog about it.

Cheers.

Brink got better

2011-07-31T21:20:00.001-07:00

As you'll see from my review of Brink in the upcoming episode of The Jaded Gamer's show it is a great idea on top of a flawed execution. It is a bit of a mash-up between Mirrors edge and Team Fortress 2. Well.. it is closer to Mirrors edge with gunplay and multiple objectives.

When counterstrike was the big thing, my favorite thing to do was practice against the CPU bots. The AI was terrible but when I wasn't in the mood for humans it worked. But I still wanted a game like Counterstrike that I could practice offline.

After I saw Brink's concept I thought it would actually be CS but with wicked offline bots.

Well, Brink arrived and it seemed like it was trying to be what I wanted but without much of a game. Counter strike was a fine mod especially considering it was free. But then recreating that experience and selling it back to me with parkour at 60 dollars felt like a rip. I enjoyed the game but it shipped broken with poor online and worse AI issues. Also the difficulty was time based which lead to the user dominating the computer up until the last minute of the match which the computer would turn into Neo and shift The Matrix to thier liking. Playing Brink felt more like punishment because after holding a location like a champ for 8 minutes the AI would turn into Seal team 6 with my AI teammates running around like Gomer Pyle. So as the computer turns into a well oiled machine in the last minute my team lives only to let them in and redecorate.

BUT... After over a month of this crap the good folks over at Splash Damage fixed their game. I mean honest to God fixed it. The AI plays much better. There are times where they are still cannon fodder but I can at least count on them more often to complete objectives. Which makes playing online more of a pleasure too. Before online play was mandatory with all the online issues. Now you can whip up fun co-op matches against AI and have it feel more natural.

This is not a review just a simple blog entry about them fixing Brink. The stats engine on www.BrinkTheGame.com add a much needed dimension of gameplay and adds more to the meta game. Soon clan pages will be made available to users too. Now I know a lot of this stuff should have been there at launch especially since they released the game early but the free DLC coming will keep me calm.

So even though this game came out broken enough people are playing it so that hopefully an amazing sequel will come out. I tip my hat to splash damage and hope they can take Brink to levels multiplayer shooters havent seen yet.

Best. Games. Ever.

2011-07-28T18:24:00.001-07:00

I'm gonna be trying to update this thing several times a week. In order to celebrate my inaugural entry, I'm going to take you through the best games I've ever come into contact with.

So here they are in no real order of importance.

Silent Hill

Notable entries: Silent Hill & Silent Hill 2

Silent Hill should be the game that goes down in history as the game that solidifies a genre and it's sequel enhances the concept. Everything that followed since Silent Hill 3 became a bit tired but the first 3 or definitely the first two are the Doom and quake of survival horror.

Metal Gear Solid

Notable entries: All of them & Peace Walker

This game goes from being a simple mission to the most crazy absurd yet eerily real plot. I may have been the only person who loved the cutscenes and watched them on every playthrough because I revel in the crazy story. I dont like stealth games but metal gear is so much fun.

Assassin's Creed

Notable entries: Assassin's creed 2 & Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

This entire franchise is in fact the new GTA but Ubisoft is putting out 2 and it's spin offs back to back year over year effectively mimicking the GTA 3 - San Andreas development cyle in 3 years rather than 8 or so. Here's hoping the 3rd chapter in Ezio's trilogy is AC's San Andreas

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

The first is better than the second, the 2nd has more force options. I like them both and I'm not even remotely a Star Wars fan. Bioware simply made a fun in depth engaging RPG with hours of dialog and great locations.

Oblivion/Fallout 3/New Vegas

Maybe i'm just a fan of the format or the game's engine but in all three games the point for me is an open ended playground to let my imagination fly. Every runthrough is slightly unique and epic fun. Which ever you prefer, guns or magic Fallout or Oblivion got it covered

Resident Evil

Notable entries: Resident Evil 2, 4, 5 & Code Veronica

When it comes to RE1 it's easily forgotten between playing RE4 or Code Veronica.

It should be noted that I do not find any of the resident evil games except for 2 scary. Even though they never really fixed the tank controls they all played real well for their time.

Parasite Eve

Part survival horror... Part RPG. All classic. I have been told the sequel sucks. I can tell you personally that 3rd birthday is an action game that mangles the plot of PE 1 + 2 so avoid Parasite Eve's sequels and spin offs.

Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven

It is metal gear solid... But with ninjas

Diablo 1 & 2

Even if you wont catch me playing Diablo 3 (Because Borderlands killed the loot concept for me) Diablo is still a great way to avoid your life.

Contra (NES)

Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A

Monster Hunter Unite

Big Monsters, epic battles, crazy loot, crazy crafting system.

Chrono Trigger

The disputed king of 16 bit RPGs. Fun characters, great plot, multiple endings. Tag team moves.

Earthbound

This became a cult classic. It's an RPG that takes place in modern times with crazy weapons, funny memorable moments and a character named Poo.

Ninja Gaiden (nes)

To appreciate the next gen you need to play the original which is white knuckle rage inducing difficult.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7

An interesting spin off, great use of the medium and an easy way to rekindle your love of FF7. The combat system is incredible.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories - Vice City Stories

Do you like Grand Theft Auto 3 or Vice City? Well how about in the palm of your hand?

Both the feel and look of each city. It is truly amazing how much they can cram into a PSP game. Even full on radio stations appear in each game.

Final Fantasy

Notable entries: 1,4,6,7,8,9,10

The meat and potatoes of RPGs. Some are better than others. Each one is slightly different. Undoubtably Final Fantasy 4 and 6 are also contenders king of 16-bit RPGs.

Fight Night Round 3 or Champion

This is the game that I use to settle disputes. Or it was until I ruled at it and none of my friends wanted to play against me. I lost interest in it and my skills and now I am hollow. There will be no comeback.

American McGee's Alice

I think it's sad when a video game is the best retelling of a dark tale than anything Hollywood ever offered you. Even it's sequel is better than anything Tim Burton could muster.

Halo

There. Fanboys may rest.

Doom/Quake

At this point, these games are history lessons.

Anything Valve

Half Life, Half Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2.

All solid first person shooters in very different sub genres.

LittleBigPlanet

It never ends. How many time did you finish the same old boring levels in Super Mario Bros? This is the platformer with infinite possibilities. It ends when people die.

BioShock

Great plot twist if you never see it coming.

Fatal Frame

I made fun of this game for months before release. However, I bought it day one and it scared the living shit outta me. Still to this day, Silent Hill and Fatal Frame are the 1-2 punch of survival horror.

Saw 2 (Fans only)

This only makes the list because the puzzles and atmosphere are a great addition to the world of Saw. If the rest of the game weren't bad then this game would truly be a hidden gem of Survival Horror.

God of War & Heavenly Sword

If you like one, you will like them all.

Need For Speed

Notable entries: Underground,Hot Pursuit 2, Hot Pursuit (2010)

The series that nails the arcade racer with emphasis on speed. It's been the staple

racer for 3 generations of consoles. Amazing.

Yakuza

It's like GTA but smaller and more densely packed. A LOT of stuff to do.

Bayonetta

Best action game ever. You may not like the plot or environment but if you cant agree that the gameplay is seamless and the combat is adrenaline pumping than you sir... hate fun

Borderlands

It's a first person shooter that's an action RPG... amazing.

Katamari

Rollin shit up in a ball. Never gets old.

TO BE CONTINUED

Fallout New Vegas ... Still Glitched out

2011-07-08T19:32:00.001-07:00

This new update does nothing much to solve the bugs or game crashing glitches. I think it's the 1.06 update. It's also about 527 megs too. You would think an update this substantial would fix the problem gamers would be having when playing the game. But no.. Obsidian continues to push out expansions like abortions adding more glitched out content. So now you get to gamble with crashes for an extra few hours per expansion.

I get why it is set in vegas now. Playing it is like roulette or craps but with odds favoring the house heavily. Every play session I've had since the 2nd update is riddled with glitchery. .

I suppose it's a testament to how good the game is. Gamers keep going back to get kicked in the dick harder and harder. And Obsidian just put on spiked shoes. I'm gonna go grab a cup.

Alice:Madness Returns to Rinse off the stank that Duke Nukem left behind.

2011-07-01T09:55:00.001-07:00

OK, Ever since the first game I heard rumours American McGee was going to make a movie in the vain of the first Alice game. Then I heard Tim Burton was going to make an Alice movie. At first I was mad because I thought “What about American McGee’s version?” Then I thought… “What if this IS American McGee’s version with Tim Burton at the helm?” … But it wasn’t. NOOOOOOOOOOOO! And Tim just… Look, Nevermind Tim Burton not satisfying my expectations. ALICE IS BACK BABY!

I guess because I’m an early adopter of the game, the original Alice game came along with it. CRAZY BONUS!

I don’t know where to begin with this game. The plot is a little annoying and a little confusing. Essentially Alice is getting lost in her head between levels in the real world. There is no rabbit hole. You start on your shrink’s couch, get up, go outside, follow a rabbit, interact with a woman, pass out, Wonderland and that’s how it goes. Wake up, talk to somebody, maybe go somewhere, pass out, Wonderland.

The enemies are very similar. Well… that’s not true. . There are two enemy types. There are the Ruins (I think, if memory serves me correctly.) which appear in every stage and the enemies which only appear in the specific stage. So you will see the Ruins all the time and it looks repetitive but they are symbolic of the madness eating away at you. . . or something.

This game is more repetitive than a bag of chips but the weird thing is… it’s just fun. Oddly enough, traversing is the game’s main mechanic. Every area seems to have a space reasoning puzzle that needs solving before you can continue. It usually revolves around flipping a switch or shooting a switch or using shrink. And you will do this through every single level. Flip a switch, shoot a switch or use shrink to solve any puzzle the game throws at you. So if you can’t find any switches to flip or shoot… shrink yourself and you’ll probably figure it out.

The game was definitely designed for console this time around. That basically means it controls more like a console 3rd person shooter than a PC first person shooter. (If you want to feel the difference just play Alice and Alice2) The various standard weaponry is at Alice’s disposal. A Knife, mini gun, grenade launcher, club and shield are all represented with a Wonderland counterpart. The minigun is a pepper grinder and the club is a wooden horse.

The game switches it up every so often by including little mini games to distract you from the repetition of traversing through the world. Mini games are usually 2D sidescrolling variations but they are no less fun. In some cases these mini-games save Alice from being a generic game. They add much needed flair.

I know it sounds like I’ve been bagging on the game but I’m just being objective. There is a lot of repetition and the plot is silly. But the game is good because the environments for the most part are done very well. Wonderland is just as beautiful as it is dark and gloomy. In some cases I felt they could have gone darker but there is enough screwy imagery to go around. Alice is also much more bad ass. Switching weapons on the fly makes her feel and control more like a seasoned veteran of annihilating Wonderland’s foes. The combat system also gives the fighting a God of War or Bayonetta vibe. But let’s not get carried away. Even still the combat is well done and works really really well. I’m going to say that Alice is the bare minimum of really good controls. Anything less and you’re just average.

Alice’s hair… You’ll notice in Wonderland that her hair has a life of it’s own. It seems to have it’s own gravity and speed sometimes but that’s ok. It adds to the ultimate bad-assedness that is Alice: Madness returns.

A fun ride from beginning to end.

GREEN: 7.5

Highs

   Fun

   Platforming fun

   Combat fun

   Mini games

Lows

   Repetitive in every way.

   A bit of a forced plot.

   Some areas feel a tad too long

Duke is Puke.. and I love it

2011-06-30T23:04:00.001-07:00

First of all I'm the only person you need to listen to about this game. Critics waited 12 years to shit on this game and that is just lame.

Big guns, swearing, babes and throwing freshly squeezed poo is the only way to describe Duke Nukem Forever.

If you've never encountered or heard of Duke Nukem 3D then stay clear of this game. If you prefer games with a good plot and modern graphics then skip this game.

If you are looking for nothing more than closure to a 12 year wait... Don't even rent it just borrow it off of somebody sad enough to own it... like me for example.

Are there boobies? Yeah. A little bit. One stage takes place within a small strip club in which you easily hunt down a vibrator, popcorn and a condom. (Note: The reviewer at 1up.com proclaims this level takes 20-30 minutes to complete. It takes only half of that so he was clearly masturbating, felt guilty and gave the game an F)

The bulk of the game takes place in and around Las Vegas as you journey from Duke's penthouse to Hoover Dam. Same guns, same enemies and similar Duke catch phrases. It's basically a higher resolution version of Duke Nukem. The gameplay conventions are instantly familiar to any Duke veteran. You grab a gun, point and shoot and try not to die. There are no health packs but your health/shield/Ego recharge when you stop taking damage. Unlike Duke3D you wont be able to pick up every single weapon you find but I found there was more than enough ammo in the debris.

So what makes this a bad game? The plot is barely even servicable and barely makes sense. It is literally as if everyone on earth remembers Duke's exploits but the aliens developed a hardcore case of amniesia after 12 years and decided to duplicate their plans to achieve failure at the hands of Duke Nukem. Their plan remains the same. Kidnap Earth's babes and use them to birth aliens as they wreck the planet. A lot of reviewers are put off by this premise because it involves the suggested rape and murder of dozens of women including Duke's girlfriends. Even this is nothing new to the universe of Duke because you spent the entirety of Episode 2 of Duke Nukem 3D doing the same thing.

Where the game completely falls apart however is between the loading screens and the repetition. No matter where you are the game revolves around pointing and shooting without a clear route through levels. You pretty much go from place to place going through the motions feeling less and less bad ass as you progress and more and more like a dolt. Other characters offer less and less to the experience and seem more and more stupid the further you progress. Duke revels in his own absurdity but fails to be anything more than a divine comedy in that only the Gods could find humor in such a tragedy of a game with so much promise.

The loading screens ruined it for me. I got stuck on the Octobrain boss in the closing stages of the game and no word of a lie I spent easily 5 to 10 minutes or more at the loading screen after premature deaths than I did fighting the boss. 10 seconds of gameplay 30 seconds of loading... 21 seconds of playing... 30 seconds of loading... and it goes on like this any time you find spicy hot instant death.

The laughable plot, the increasinly stale gameplay and the loading screens will easily eclipse any fun you will have with this game. There are fun bits though which reviewers seem to mention but never take into account with the give the game a 0 so I wont do that. This game doesnt exactly get a passing grade from me but with a little more polish I'd have given the game a slightly higher score.

RED: 5.5

HIGHS: Guns, babes, explosions, poo

LOWS: Not very funny - gets boring -LOADING

No comment: LA Noire

2011-06-30T23:03:00.001-07:00

I'm not reviewing this game. But I will talk about it. First of all I bought it used with the add on voucher still valid. In other words Rockstar didn't get money from me. At first I felt bad but the feeling didn't last long.

LA Noire has been hyped up to rediciulous proportions to the point people think they are playing the greatest game ever. Before this game was a hit Rockstar branded it as a franchise. This is annoying because there is a lot about this game that is not good. The plot is... there... but the execution is just as repetitive as Assassins Creed which got a lot of hate for it being repetitive as all hell

Every case is pretty much crime scene, search for clues, talk to witness, collect more clues at a new location, talk to new people, chase or shoot out followed by interrogate and then case closed. The random street crimes trend to all be "go here and subdue suspect"

The graphics are very well done however because they are so life like, the facial transitions can look awkward and robotic. Sometimes the heads look copied and pasted on. Every once and a while the motion captured animations make the controls feel clunky. For instance running up a fire escape. It's not obvious unless you release the controls but Cole will ascend every flight of stairs on his own when the animation begins which means you are locked into his direction of travel.

The in between bits where you are allowed to free roam look good but the city is not as full of life outside of street crimes so you are pretty much a tourist when driving around.

I don't know if LA Noir is supposed to be cinematic adventure like Heavy Rain or cinematic action like metal gear solid but either way it can't decide. They could just as well shoehorned this game into a CSI premise and it would have made sense.

Once I play through to completion I might review it but for now any review from me would just be troll fodder

JG

Jaded Gaming Classic

2011-06-17T19:26:00.001-07:00

MOST RECENT UPDATES AT THE TOP

11:17pm – I’m still thinking of getting episode 5 online because I have most of the footage I need for it. Episode 6 is going to take about a week longer (maybe) because I haven’t been making the best use of my time since I found out that a good friend died. I just can’t believe it.

8:08pm – The past 7 hours have been real interesting. I played a bunch of Fallout New Vegas. Honest Hearts is a decent expansion. I still like Brink. I was literally about to go to the store, get some soda, come back and film content and reviews but I got a phone call that one of my co-workers has died. So I’m thrown for a loop. Give me some time to wrap my mind around this.

12:43pm – I can’t do it. I just can’t do it. I can only ram so much L.A Noir down my gullet before I just start automatically rejecting it. I guess It’s time to film and edit stuff.

SUNDAY – 11:00am – My Alarm goes off… and the first question I have is… When did I fall asleep? The second I have is… Why I don’t I sleep in my bed? Coffee!!! I NEED COFFEE!!!

11:35 – My Duke Ending reaction

11:28 – After frequent breaks to trudge my way through Duke. I’ve finally made my way through it. If I died twice in a row, I took a break. Hell, Two loading screens in a row IS a break.

8:12 – After a lengthy break and some food, Duke Nukem Forever will be a notch on the ol gaming belt.

5:31 – Approaching the final hours of Duke Nukem

4:20 – Break, for no apparent reason.

SATURDAY - 12:30pm - Just woke up. Duke is loaded. Washing up then getting to it.

5:06am - Uploaded video

4:50 – Beat Alice: Madness Returns. . Vid incoming.

3:52 – Lies. Second wind.

3:39am – My eyes are burning. Gonna handle the finale of Alice tomorrow morning.

1:20am – Alice in the asylum

1:00am – Quick break. Making great time with Alice.

11:00pm – Alice is loaded and I’m bouncing down the rabbit hole to victory… I hope.

10:30pm - Ok folks. This is the first of probably many “Jaded Gaming Cassics” brought to you by free time and getting ish done.

The goal: To complete not only 3 video games (2 of which came out this past tuesday) but to release two episodes of The Jaded Gamer’s show back to back Sunday night/Monday morning. So with this thing set to kick off at 11pm tonight. (June 17th) I have to go do my starting prep… like… NOW

So keep checking the actual blog (www.TheJadedGamer.tk) because there will be videos/screenshots that may not get imported if you’re viewing it through imported RSS pages like Facebook/Fan group pages.

Hopefully there will be enough updates over the next 48 hours for you to sink your teeth into as well as videos you can ONLY view from this page/entry.

Thank you and wish me luck.

JG

Not a review: Brink

2011-05-23T14:53:00.001-07:00

I wrote a lot for this Blog entry about Brink, mostly defending this game. But I realize.. it doesn’t need any defence. Any reviewer or critic that hated this game… hates teamwork and innovation and would prefer every game be about Kill/Death ratios and kill streaks. Hey… if that floats your boat… cool. If being the greatest individual in a teamwork scenario is what you’re about… you will hate Brink. Brink will eat your face the moment you think you can go solo on ANYTHING!

I’m getting better and better at being a “Solo Op” meaning like Bond… I do my best work alone. High risk/High Reward. With me on your team you wont need to send a team off to hack a command post or shut down a shortcut, I can do that by myself. But that behaviour constantly screws my team over. If I’m not there for a Comms hack (reveals ALL enemy positions on your map) or highlighting enemies (so everybody on my team can see that one enemy even through a wall) … So because of my Solo skills I HAVE to succeed in my solo ops 99.9% of the time because I’m screwing my team over every time. Teamwork always pays off more than a solo effort…

The rapport I have with the Engineer class is amazing. After leveling up a bit.. I can hack enemy turrets and turn them against their masters… but… I level up a little more and I can use the Turret like it’s a mounted gun… BUT REMOTELY… so now I can watch over two points of entry. I’m still a “one-man” special ops team most of the time but I need my team to pull it off.

But does my team need me? I hope so. Without me the hack based objectives would be very difficult. I’ve got my hack technique down pretty good. I’m in… caltrops get dropped at the hackbox and now I’m hiding close by hacking the thing remotely. A lot slower with distance so.. PROTIP: I’m hiding REALLY close by. Now the enemy has to either find me or deal with the caltrops I dropped that cut them as they try to deactivate my hackbox. Then even assuming they find me to do me in… I can blow myself up after you incapacitate me. So I’m a threat even in death. Remove me from your team and you are already at a disadvantage. And I’m just one guy (9 times out of 10 I’m one of two operatives on my team) And chances are the other Operative does not play the same style that I do.

You’ll see my actual real review in a week or so. . but for now, look at videos of the game and read all the mixed to positive reviews. And if you still want to play it… rent it first. It’s a good game. Is it perfect? Not even close! But it’s the best attempt I’ve seen since Counterstrike and Team Fortress CLASSIC to try to move team-based/Objective based multiplayer forward. And for that it should be commended! I’m so bored by every DOOM/Quake/Unreal clone. It’s boring to me.

So if you can still feel good about spending 60 dollars on roughly the same multiplayer modes you’ve been playing for the past 5 – 10 years Brink is just gonna piss you off because it’s not the same game everything else is. So if you want the same boring stale shit you’re used to… go out and get Call of Duty or something.

Episode 4!

2011-05-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

1 Rant/8 Reviews

It’s been a long time. I shouldn’t have left you without a dope show to rep you.

Psn... and hackers

2011-04-26T21:15:00.003-07:00

Look Sony.. One or two days for your network being down is fine. Shit happens. But lets face it, you should have back-ups in place. Furthermore, you should have way more transparency on the matter instead of these stupid cryptic messages us users have to take decoder rings to just to understand what the hell is going on.

For the past two generations Sony has been ruling it. But from 2006 till now you guys have made the weirdest decisions ever. Starting with the $699 price tag (this shit better last 10 years) to the pspgo being more expensive despite having less functionality. Lets not forget the psp's price drop then price hike. My heart pours out to the psn+ users out there. They are getting screwed. And if you want more proof that DRM on consoles is a bad idea, check out bionic commando rearmed 2 that is unplayable till psn comes back online.

Every single time I take nintendo to task for their treatment of (real?) Gamers, I pray they dont realize Sony has been punishing me for supporting them. As a ps3 user I get DLC for cross-platform games after 360. I get games after 360...and still do. 360 exclusives tend to be better... And get this... 360 games even look better sometimes. Ghostbusters is a sony pictures product (isnt it?) And it looked better on 360. And get this awesome revolutionary concept! When I put a game into my 360... I'm playing it almost instantly. Same game on a ps3 is almost guaranteed to be a 2-5 gig install.

I would trade disc swapping for all that crap any day. .

But this psn outage is the cherry on top. 3 major releases in one week that depend on psn are useless. I'm gonna say it. I dont care about portal 2's co-op anymore and I'm buying Brink on 360.. In fact I might get EVERY multiplayer game I want on the 360. The network is superior (better be. I'm paying for it)

I'm kidding. If it weren't for IPs like Heavy Rain, Metal Gear Solid and Yakuza, i'd switch. But seriously Sony... Get psn back up.

Next... Anonymous. Maybe you brought down psn, maybe you didnt. I saw something on facebook where you took credit and then denied it on your homepage. Whatever. Normally when I hear of your exploits.. I think you have a point. But taking credit for this attack could land you in jail so why would you take credit? Furthermore... To deny involvement firmly places you within the ranks of terrorists.

Even if you agree with GeoHotz breaking the law (Like it or not, he did. Read the EULA) Threatening Sony for wanting to protect their intellectual property as well as the intellectual property of others is bad form. If you want to develop homebrew for the ps3... Tough. Buy the SDK. I would even say go ahead and hack your console but keep it offline and dont boast about it. You wouldn't rob a bank and then post how you broke the law on your twitter. This stinks of teenagers throwing a fit because their parents told them to be in before dark.

I respect your skills. I really do. But attacking somebody or ruining lives because of something so petty makes you no different than the scientologists you rage against. Your power and influence exist on the internet and id be silly to challenge it. I dont want to bring you down. Anonymous is a great counter-balance to government control but I now wonder if you have just become drunk with power... Much like the machine you rage against.

Ahhh Nintendo.. I know you hate me

2011-04-26T21:15:00.001-07:00

People seem to think I hate Nintendo. I really don't. We as gamers owe a lot of current gen innovation to them. They are a great company that does great things. And with the exception of the stupid Game Cube and it's playskool controller, I've been excited over every announcement they make.

My beef with them is that they are pretty sadistic and their fans have to be masochistic.

In my experience this all started during the gameboy era. Nintendo rules handhelds and always have. I mean the Game Gear was ok but it had too many problems. Lynx was garbage so you would be better off with those Tiger games.

From gameboy to gameboy pocket... A more portable version of a portable system... Ok.. Sure.. Why not? The gameboy was pretty bulky... Gameboy color... Wait .. What? Ok anything beats cream broccoli colour.. Fine.. Even though the so called "color" mechanic was pretty crappy.. I can deal. Gameboy advance... 32-bit in the palm of my hand!!! AWESOME!! No 3D processing... FAIL!.. But they made the most of it and some pretty great games did come out for it. Gameboy Advance SP.. This was the beginning of the end for me. I jumped ship to PSX because I wanted to play some next gen and the 64/GBA wasn't cutting it. Mainly because nintendo started pulling a sega by forcing peripherals on me. The graphics pak with the 64 and the headphone jack addon you need for the GBA SP.

So I hopped on Sony's bandwagon and for 10 years they took care of me. Wow a life span of 10 years... How old school nintendo! Naturally you'd think I would move on to ps2.. Nope... Original Xbox.. It was the Tim Taylor of consoles. MORE POWER! But it want selling as well as the ps2 so even though it angered me to see them leapfrog Sony, I didnt get too angry. But the ps2 was still being supported. I guess it made sense because the ps2 was once again on it's way to selling 100 million ... Again.

Back to nintendo. When the Wii bust out of the gate selling like hot cakes, I was impressed. I thought.. "Nice. They took an inferior system and marketed it so well." But I saw the pedobear come out of nintendo almost instantly. Over priced EVERYTHING on a system full of shovelware. But people ate It up for whatever reason. Skip ahead.. Wii is out selling everything. It has zero reason to release a new system and almost 80 million reasons to support the current one. But why would they when they know their fans are going to buy plastic peripherals, headphone jacks and classic controllers to make their repurposed games payable. And going out to buy a new controller to make your console backwards compatible. .. So weird you guys.

I know what you may be thinking, 5 years between consoles is not unusual. It's not. . when your console is in 2nd or 3rd place and you are competing for market space. Our even when your console is dying (which is why the DS despite it's iterations gets excused) but the wii should be in it's prime. Why cut the head off a popular system when you can easily extend it's life? ANSWER: Your fans are casual gamers that dont know any better. Nintendo relies on brand loyalty which is fine.

I like nintendo.. I admire the way they advance and innovate the industry but I'm not exactly sure they want me to like games. But thats a whole other entry.

(keep in mind I prefer the original xbox over the ps2) Sony has the best idea.. Support your console till it's dead... And beyond.. (pspgo says hi) The way the original nintendo did and the way microsoft is doing now.

in fact, kudos to Microsoft. The 360 is an inferior machine from a tech pov when compared to the ps3 but they manage to do extremely well.

With all that being said.. I'm looking forward to nintendo's new system. It sounds awesome... In fact, it sounds like what I want in a console. A ton of innovation seems to be placed in it. But is the wii going to die needlessly because of it? Do I have to buy peripherals to make it backwards compatible? Am I going to have to buy another console at the apex of the new system's popularity? Will there be less shovelware?

I would love to jump back on their bandwagon but if the console is going to get killed a year or two after I get it... Why bother?

EA games is 24 hour flu watery shit

2011-04-22T00:57:00.001-07:00

Ok. Whenever you hear me say anything about EA... I'm talking about the publisher and probably not one of their developers.

As most people know i'm a big fan of the Fight Night franchise. I'm not really competitive with it anymore. I think I've peaked and fallen off. I'm past my prime and it's all downhill.

Anyways... EA has a history of making you pay for things usually included in the game for free (like cheats) and they ship unfinished games (game mode sold separately) and all I'm saying is we gamers need to send them a message. I know it's easy to say "just don't buy it." But the bigger problem is my everlasting fight to save gamers from themselves. You see... If you still it, the will come. There really needs to be a grass roots movement rallying against EAs style of monetization.

Can you imagine if you had to pay $2.99 to use the konami code?

Pre-order deez nuts bitch!

2011-04-08T06:48:00.001-07:00

EB Games and Blockbuster think consumers are dumb. In fact.. A lot of gamers are dumb. But places like EB and Blockbuster make gamers dumb by feeding us nonsense. EB and Blockbuster both make gamers believe that without pre-ordering the game you may not get a copy.

This is a bold face lie. Anybody who believes this lie only makes it worse for the rest of us.

In my life I've only really had to actually utilize the pre-order option twice. Once for silent hill homecoming and once for Saw 2:Flesh and Blood. The reason I had to preorder had more to do with the fact that EB apparently doesn't actually stock many copies of them at launch. I just wanted to make sure I got my copy on day 1.

But then it hit me. . EB games is a specialty hobby shop... They specialize in games.. I should be able to walk in and buy the game no question. So.. Last November I decided pre orders are for suckers. So here are a few games I bought incident free on either day or week 1. Assassins creed brotherhood, fallout new vegas, dead space 2 and need for speed hot pursuit. . EB never ran outta stock on any of these items and the first print run of NFS & Dead Space 2 are marked limited edition.

Yeah I know.. None of those games are call of duty or halo. But.. Day 1 of CoD black ops coming out...After the midnight sale at best buy... I walked in to see if I could get a copy.... not only were there copies galore, but still to this day... months later... I can find the limited edition with the Rc car in there. Gee .. I was told to pre order or i'd never get a copy.

However. Counter-point.. Pre-orders make great gifts. My girlfriend always preorders any game that will be a gift. (Thanks for little big planet 2 baby) So preorders are not completely useless...

But the next time somebody at EB tells you to pre order... Tell them to preorder your nuts

JG

Practice Makes Perfect

2011-03-20T09:16:00.001-07:00

I have to admit that this was a bit of an experiment for The Jaded Gamer show as well.

I make no secret that I like the Fight Night franchise and if you go back and watch episode 1, I say I will destroy anyone in Fight Night. Well I was talking about Round 3. I reached my peak in 3… and a plateau with Round 4. That was it, my swan song and I retired from keeping my skills sharp. (Hand cramps… Lots of hand cramps)

But then I saw Champion… and the urge returned. And in all seriousness, I don’t know what exactly they did to the game but my rhythm is off… and it feels like I gotta relearn everything. So this is almost a training montage of sorts I guess.

It all started with Constant Eubanks

I wanted a Rematch…

So did he… And the thrilling abridged version of
Bishop vs. Eubanks 3: Who’s Fission Will Mail?

End result

*SPOILERS*

Im set..

2011-03-19T21:16:00.001-07:00

I think I'm set for games till portal 2. Between back to back platinum runs in both recent assassins creed games, finishing off dead space 2, developing levels in little big planet 2, fight night champion and yakuza 4 .. I don't think I need another game. And to be honest, I don't really want one side from possibly homefront.

First off. Im driven to play fight night because I used to be pretty good. I was good enough that playing on the hardest difficulty would provide the greatest challenge. So I was not super amazing. However.. Champion is just crushing me. I stink. I'm playing it on pro and still finding it to be just as hard a challenge as GOAT was in round 4. I'm even writing this blog entry before I fight a rematch because I was robbed! Well I kinda robbed myself. I snatched defeat out the jaws of victory.

And yakuza 4. Wow. It's gonna be tough to review that game. But I gotta play more before I can even comment.

as for my little big planet levels. They are coming along nicely. They are just delayed because of these other games I've fallen into. But I will return to them soon..

Ok back to fight night. Maybe ill twitpic my victory. Or loss...

Surrogate assassins update

2011-03-09T07:57:00.001-08:00

I have not forgotten about this. Some games came out and I've been working through them. Plus I have a show to do and I'm so behind. But good news... I'll have a ton of time over the next ten days to make every thing right. So in conclusion..

Fight night owns me right now

Comeback kid... Again

2011-03-09T07:41:00.001-08:00

So I picked up the new fight night game and once again I'm impressed with the people at ea sports.

Before I get to that.. Let me tell you a story.

Back in '04 when knockout kings became fight night I picked up the sticks and was baffled by the new control scheme and I didn't know how to recover from a knock-down. Simply said, I wasn't very good and I had to use the face buttons. Now because of my handicap I worked hard at the buttons and learned how to not get knocked down. I thought I was getting pretty good... Turns out using the face buttons when all your friends use the stocks makes you the odd man out. You see .. None of my friends could knock me down and blamed my button using for my victories. They were getting really mad too. Soon they got bitter and called me names and wanted to find another aspect of gaming to beat me in. I felt stupid for even thinking I was any good...

...Until Fight night round 2 debuted. I didn't play it too heavily but I got used to the sticks and got good with throwing the heymakers. So I turned up the difficulty a little. Then... Round three comes out and I start a winning steal that spanned years and was only ended because you can't stay unbeaten forever. But I got really good. By round 4 I'm playing it on the hardest difficulty and handing the computer its ass. Turns out that I have peaked and I am now back to square one.

Fight Night Champion is whipping me into shape in a whole new way. I actually have to relearn a large chunk my skills. My timing is all off. Things just are not the same. But I'll persevere. The fights are way more intense and my power punches don't connect like they used to so every fight I have to dig deeper and play harder because even the training exercises get harder and I'm not any good at any of them yet. Everything is such an uphill trek from here. But with these online gyms being what they are I'm sure somebody will train this former champ

JG

Ps. Not a bad entry considering I wrote it using public transit.

Droid styles

2011-03-05T09:59:00.001-08:00

Alright so now that I have this droid and it's ridiculously easy to write with... I can now drop nuggets of truth in remote locations provided there is a signal.

I'm sure I'll figure out some way too put this til good use.

In truth I've been out of the gaming loop for a little bit and been a huge epic fail in releasing episode 4 of the show so this android should help me organized and stay in contact with everything. I'll be takin tons of notes and making a bunch of tweets so stay tuned.

Will I stick with Sony?

2011-02-25T20:37:00.001-08:00

PS3 is bar-none my pick for winner of this generation simply by endurance. A lot of fights don’t end the way you want them to because one of the fighters was built to last. Such is that of the 360 vs PS3. Unless Microsoft fuel injects something into the 360 soon, I don’t know how they’ll keep that thing in the spotlight past 2012.

They may just have to leapfrog Sony AGAIN next cycle. . . And I might be the first to champion them. Why? Easy. The 1st Xbox ate the face off a PS2… the PS2 just had a deeper fanbase and broader library. I don’t think Microsoft even considered themselves a contender to win the console war. PS2 is the king. But secretly everybody was noticing that the Xbox … was prettier. (Because if was developed LATER) so naturally the 360 picked up a lot of deserved steam.

Then Sony whipped it out and said soups on and now it’s 2011 and it’s starting to go the other way. The PS3 is becoming the Xbox of this generation… But… should the 360 try to leapfrog PS3 again this console should last into 2020 … but will be early by 2 years as Sony probably wants to keep the PS3 around till 2015ish. So what is Microsoft gonna do for the next 2 years? Figure out how to pull a Sony is what… So next console cycle they’ll have the elite future proofed system whose entire medium wont be obsolete a year and a half into it’s lifespan (Don’t think I didn’t notice). Where does Sony go from the PS3 when it still has so much left to do? It all depends on where Sony and Microsoft stand with their next systems. I’m definitely more fond of my PS3 (OBVIOUSLY) but for online/co-op (My passion.) I can’t help notice the 360 is on top of it.

Dev Blog 5 – Location then population

2011-02-21T18:30:00.001-08:00

(Future entrance to the Multiplayer arenas)

(Future site of middle class residences as well as a club/bar)

The above picture is a REEEEEEEEALLY early snap of the area. But every screenshot I’ve posted so far as been of an area I’m referring to as “The Crossroads” which is the hub of the entre game world.

The game has started to take on a life of its own and I find myself considering a lot more than I thought. For instance, there is a really good “Sackbot Checkpoint” going around. Now I think do I utilize it? or do I push forward with the checkpoint system I had planned for?

The game keeps growing but I think it is for the better. I don’t see “The Crossroads” expanding any further (until an expansion pack) so I’ll be populating it and moving closer to that damn beta very soon. I’m actually considering some sort of closed beta.

Again, these screenshots shouldn’t reflect the final product. This is looking pretty good. There is a persistent world MMO aspect happening and I’m still figuring everything out. I wont give up on making it multiplayer/co-op

Surrogate Assassins Dev Blog #4

2011-02-19T23:58:00.001-08:00

I know it has been a little while between updates so I tried to make this one meatier.

For the past two weeks I’ve said I was gonna aim for a beta on Saturday. (I’ve also promised to upload episode 4 of the Jaded Gamer show – Oops – I will, its just complicated) And I thought I would definitely have some sort of beta. But the game got more complex. Back when I thought I’d have a playable version, I thought the game would hinge on one game mechanic but as it evolved it became so much more.

(Very ugly beta of the quest giving system. Would you like to accept this quest? Then select the green highlighted option… if not… Red means “cancel” When it’s completed properly it will look more fitting. Now it is just coloured squares.)

The area to the left used to be pure stone till I hollowed it out and now its going to be… something.

(Before and after shots of what I call “kill houses” these are houses/structures that your surrogate cannot “see through” that are there purely to “kill” AI sprites so they respawn) Simply put… any house you cannot see your player in, will kill you. Think of it as home security against your surrogate.

Early build of the Assassin guild’s heaquarters. *Note the “see-thru” aesthetic on the structure. This may change.

It is very hard to tell but the player is levitating that brown/rusty looking square. Holding down R2 (*subject to change) initiates telekinesis. Telekinesis can be used to crush your opponent with debris or possibly throw your opponent.

Again… Very difficult to tell… but the player is free floating/levitating. Hitting L2 initiates levitation. Since this is a “gamebreaker” ability, an annoying sound effect has been added to help prevent abuse. If this does not detour it…than a time limit on levitation will be used. But for now… I’m gonna see what happens.

Anyways… Everything in this game is beta…. however… within the next few updates I’ll offer an outlook on things like character/plot… etc. etc.

I know I’ve been calling this game Surrogate Assassins but the correct title is (Non-Officially) Surrogate: Assassin… Its a small edit … but theoretically the name of the franchise is “surrogate” and every spin off or sub story is a method of employment. . . a la… Surrogate: Thief… Surrogate: Soldier… Stay tuned in the coming weeks as things are becoming more and more official.

Surrogate Assassins Dev Blog #3

2011-01-31T09:19:00.001-08:00

Another small update.

Here’s a snap of the single layered homes with a lighting pass and a rooftop connection

I’ll be adding small hideaways within any stone walls. This one I think will be turned into a bar

Surrogate Assassins Dev Blog #2 – Mo Healthbars, Mo Problems

2011-01-30T01:37:00.001-08:00

If you’re viewing this as an import note on Facebook click on this link or go to http://www.TheJadedGamer.tk

Small healthbars on neutral citizens. Regular healthbar on player.

Separate healthbars for player and surrogate. (Bars are functional but largely untested)

Surrogate Assassins Dev Blog #1

2011-01-29T15:43:00.001-08:00

So after about three days of thinking this through, I think I’m going to do it.

Day 1: I said to myself… “Hey. I wanna make an assassin game for LittleBigPlanet.”

Day 2: I came up with a game mechanic for “hidden blade” assassinations.

Day 3: I’m blogging about it.

What is Surrogate Assassins? Well it’s my idea for a somewhat living world in Little Big Planet. It is inspired by Assassin’s Creed but also by games like Max Payne, Super Mario bros and Monster Party.

The game will look and act like a 2D platformer when it comes to running and jumping but some of the combat mechanics will pay homage to some of my favourite 3D shooters.

Enter/exit from the roof or front door.

Early shot of some homeless sackpeople.

This blog will track my idea game development from conception to fruition.

The first Screenshot above is an example of the simple architecture of the “Home world” It allows for swiftly entering and exiting the property for assassination purposes and if needed, quick escape. After some stickers and a lighting pass this area will look cleaner.

The second shot is a still of a homeless community of refugees outside the entrance to what will be the “Slums”

I’ll be back every day or two to blog about this game as it nears a playable beta. Once this game becomes a beta, I fully intend to release it to the public and watch it grow.

DO-OVER

2010-11-23T21:44:00.001-08:00

Let’s try the episode 3 blog entry thing again… My last entry seemed kind of asshole-ish.

Every now and again, people tell me I'm on to something and I need exposure. Well, all my viewers and subscribers need to stop keeping me in their sock drawers and tell their friends. PLEASE! I’m dyin here.

Oh and by the way – I’ve got ish 2 do

2010-11-13T09:32:00.001-08:00

OK! So if you look below, there is the 3rd episode of my webshow! And I promise more in the future as long as my real life doesn’t prevent me from doing so . . . So after you watch, be sure to read the story below regarding why this was such a long time coming.

WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG!?!?

Basically. I had a lot of stuff to do. I work, I play video games, I have friends and family that want attention so sometimes it is really tough getting momentum going for this blog and this show. And because of that I haven’t been as involved in the gaming community as I want to be. And partly because a lot of gamers are losers. (I’m sorry but you really are and I can prove this to you) Maybe not a lot but if you’re a gamer, you know damn well there are a significant number of jackasses out there that sit and do nothing but play games, think they’re badasses and invent stupid yet fun words like pwned. Yet, I love em all. From the good to the bad, the eclectic and eccentric tastes of gamers are what make it the most diverse bunch of freaks out there. Because hey… at my core, I’m one of you!

But simply put, I just didn’t have the time. But after having a falling out with one of my closest friends (whom I’ve famously said is my brother from a separate set of parents) I’ve realized how much time I’ve been wasting. So no more.

I know I come across as a prick sometimes when I talk but I’m the embodiment of the community as a(n) (ass)whole.

Athletes and gamers are the best at talkin trash!

Let's get it started.... Again

2010-09-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

Here we go again folks. Help spread the word. Embed, text people, email the links and word of mouth. DO WHATEVER YOU GOTTA DO!

Promo #1

Blooper Reel

Stay Jaded My Friends

Am I still a PS3tard?

2010-08-19T23:46:00.001-07:00

I didn’t use the *R-word*. And my sympathies to poor Jennifer Anniston over her choice of words. She is now under extreme fire… I don’t see why. Other blogs covered this so I don’t need to.

BUT! Am I still a PS3tard?
I mean, my praise has been declining and my critiques have been going up. But I just want the best from my beloved console.

Ok, fair enough but I went 50 days straight without touching the PS3, Which you saw on my 360’s blog. I can’t deny that I spent time away from the PS3 but nothing more than a week. I still played Bayonetta, Oblivion, Star Wars, Mod Nation Racers, God Of War, Assassins Creed 2 and Both Watchmen games and the order of my Trophy list will reflect that.

So, what about me riding all the 360 exclusives dinks?
Too Human and DOAX2 are garbage. Do I think they are better than PS3 exclusives? For Co-Op, Undeniably yes. For Singleplayer – PS3. And why would I buy anything other than exclusives? Should I buy the Cross-platform titles too? I mean I am paying to play so maybe I should be on a network where people want to play…

Yeah about that… See, I have been crapping loads all over PSN users. When they do play online a lot. They just don’t know how the invite button works. On the other hand on XBL all I have to do even in the most extreme case is come online playing the same game as anybody else … *Ding* Invite. The PS3 is and always will be the superior system and I’m sure I’ve ridden this thing into the ground.

Loyalty – Part II

2010-07-07T11:03:00.001-07:00

SO…

Having said all that. I am disappointed with the PS3 fanbase.

My claims of them being elitist snobs seem to be holding up. As my once mighty PSN friends list has dwindled from 62 to something like 12. Basically I give you either 30 days to game with me or a few attempts to Co-Op before I delete you. Even my friends fail me…

I don’t even bother to ask anymore. I just do what most of the people on my list do… Idle… Everybody knows I am down for Co-Op. But it seems that the only people that shit matters to is anybody on my 360 list. I have probably 10 to 12 people on it. Some friends and some randoms… and I have to go offline most of the time because I’m buried under game invites and I feel bad saying no.

To be fair… I never thought I’d be spending this much time with the 360. But … as it turns out… They actually came to game! Holy shit did they ever.

I love my PS3 but now… its purely for Single Player games. If I want to game with other people without waiting around or trying to find a random player that isn’t… gifted … I go over to the 360.

And it doesn’t really bug me that I flip flop with my loyalty. But considering I was one of the few people championing the PS3 when it was getting its ASS HANDED to them repeatedly by 360, you’d think ~~more~~, ~~some~~, at least one, PS3 user would mourn the loss of one of its biggest fans. But no… they just poke their nose in the air and float away.

So… to my newfound 360 friends and future ones I will no doubt make.. I am sorry for slandering you and raging against you. Turns out *I* was the idiot and you guys are the actual real gamers. So as I continue to eat my humble pie, I hope the lot of you wont rub it into my face too much. I’m just glad to be on a team that came to play.

Peace.
J.G

Loyalty – Part I

2010-07-07T10:38:00.001-07:00

I’ve never been brand loyal when it comes to games. I go with the system that rocks it the best for me. I was a Nintendo child, Sony Teen and continue to be a huge fan of Sony.

Normally this blog is just a gimmick and really a joke. There are bits of honesty and seriousness to it but it only exists to get people talking about games. But this entry comes from my Sitting-30-degrees-Celsius-sweaty-taint.

Fuck Fanboys/Fangirls/Xbots/Lamestation users and Wiitards!
You all can 5 S these nuts…. Yeah… You can Sniff/Swirl/Sip/Swish and or Spit or Swallow (depending on your preference) these nuts.

And its not just restricted to you console dipsticks. That goes for you Dev fanboys too.

I’m not really a fanboy. I play the role of one when it comes to fanning the fires between Microsoft Vs. Sony… but that’s my gimmick. I don’t like fanboys because they only come out to play when you diss them. Especially ActiBlizzion users. And with the exception of Nintendo fanboys… they spew these numbers at me like they mean something. 11 million users… So what? If Nintendo woke up with Blizzard’s money, Shiggy and Reggie Fills-Aime would perform ritual suicides. Please note I’m talking about the fanboys and not the fans themselves.

To any of my friends and family members who are Coo-Coo for Blizzard puffs, I’m sorry if you’re offended but just know that I’m not referring to you. Matter fact you all probably know who I’m talking about more than most because they just might be in your guild or your clan.

I’m honestly very happy Blizzard found a way to get a piece of the gaming pie in a once dying market. Activision-Blizzard & EA-Maxis are doing a great job of keeping the PC gaming space alive with all their brands… and even Valve with Steam deserves Kudos because thanks to all their efforts PC gaming probably wont be going anywhere. And that’s awesome for gaming and gamers alike.

But this isn’t about my contempt for ignorant fanboys…

If you don’t know my gaming history… Click on the first episode of my friggen show. I can guarantee that I was probably playing games before your parents started humping to Stairway to Heaven or R. Kelly and even Usher depending on your decade. I bleed silicon and my blood type is 3DO (Google it). I chew blast processing (Google it) piss trophies, shit achievements and fart emotion chips.

To Be Continued…

Before your head explodes…

2010-06-28T21:54:00.001-07:00

Konami has showed off Silent Hill 8 at E3…

And the general reaction from gamers before they whipped out their fingers to count on was “How’d we get to 8?” I understand the confusion but if you just counted you would realize that yes indeed SH8 is the 8th Silent Hill game.

Before I count them off I need to address something.
Opinions can be wrong. SH fans can have a favourite entry. Some fans actually think SH 4 was a good game, others are in the correct camp and know it wasn’t the greatest. Silent Hill 1 thru 3 are considered classics with some controversy over 3. But 4 – 7 are all mediocre to decent at best.

4 – 7? … Yeah. Here. In case you’re confused.

Silent Hill
Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill 4: The Room
Silent Hill: Origins (AKA Silent Hill Zero)
Silent Hill: Homecoming (Which most refer to as 5 but is the 6th game)
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Which is a reimaging of the first NOT a retelling.. hence #7)

So should Konami leave the title as Silent Hill 8.. you as a so called “fan” of the series shouldn’t be confused anymore.

The only thing I want from this Silent Hill if Konami isn’t stupid is Co-Op. Having a 2nd player wont take away from the horror if its done right.

1/4th of gamers appear to be stupid - CONFIRMED

2010-06-26T00:04:00.001-07:00

Look. I don’t like dissing gamers. Most gamers just want to have a good time and have fun. For the most part this blog’s title is just an eye catcher for anyone who’s into gaming. Rest assured that one quarter gamers are not stupid. Any true gamer knows the number is higher. (And even saying that is kind of an in joke) Anyways…

It seems like 25 percent of the respondents (thus far) on GameFaqs’ latest poll think Activision-Blizzard’s merger is most beneficial to gamers. While they are most certainly entitled to their opinion.. I wonder if this isn’t primarily fanboyism at work.

Even though 51% percent of these gamers are in the correct camp by voting for the powerhouse God of all gaming mergers Square+Enix+Taito+Eidos. Now, I myself have been critical of Square-Enix because of Final Fantasy 13. And how if you actually take the time and count it out, Square has either developed more mediocre-decent games than crazy awesome ones. But you know what… man do they keep you entertained. You’ll find a lot of fans only play Square-Enix branded stuff because they feel they are getting the best JRPG (They’re not) experience. Anyways this has nothing to do with my point.

I just want to know one thing. How does anything other than the assurance that Blizzard can continue making the same game(s) for another 15 years benefit the gamer?(Yeah I fuckin said it. Count the diversity between RTS, W-RPG and MMORG) Yeah maybe they make some great games. But all the deal does is ensure they’ll have the backing to continue making the same shit repeatedly. Its good shit though, it really is.

Whereas at Square-Enix (Japanese) has Taito (Also Japanese) now has Eidos in their talent pool… means so much more to gamers. Tomb Raider and Hitman games will get new life fuel injected into them by the old and new talent. DragonQuest now gets Square Wisdom… and vice versa. I guess for Taito the next Lufia game will be sick. Anyways. What am I missing about this Activision-Blizzard Merger? Are they doing Dope-Ass-PSP-Games-disguised-as-a-full-on-sequel? The answer is no my friend. It should also be noted that this was going to be a cellphone game in Japan. . needless to say … whoa.

Anyways, if somebody could explain to me what such a predominant section of the gaming population sees as beneficial to them in that merger that would be super cool. THANX… BWYE!

I can finally talk about Heavy Rain

2010-06-03T23:29:00.001-07:00

Ok. I have a friend that really wanted to play this game. Though it came out a while ago, he finally got it played through it. So I can finally talk about it.

First! It’s a very well constructed game, plays well and blah blah blah.. go to metacritic for the aggregate.

Second I need to go play Omikron (Cage’s first game)

Third. This game story doesn’t just have plot-holes where a truck could pass through… this game has plot holes that devour solar systems. I’m still not going to spoil anything but I’m not gonna shit on any aspect of the game before my friend completes it.

On my first successful completion of the game (after revealing that ____ _____ is the killer) I accidentally failed one QTE and failed the 2nd one on purpose just to let _____ _____ get away with it all and see if I got a trophy. I didn’t because I left Lauren alive. Oops. Anyways… after getting the ending… I started to realize a few things… then playing through as _____ ______ I realized even more.

This game was meant to be played/viewed once so you don’t realize that portions of it don’t make sense. OK Before Cagers freak out and say “He plans to fill in the holes with DLC” To you I say “Prove to me that was his idea from the get-go” and once you fail at that I ask you why the only DLC is content that was cut from the game? THEN I ask you why this article makes Cage look either like an asshole or an idiot. You don’t even have to click on it.. I’ll get the quote ready

“We won't release the end of the game as DLC that you need to pay for.”

That’s right.. Just one short fucking chapter you cut from the game. But wait there’s more…

“But we are talking with Sony at the moment about having maybe extra downloadable content, maybe with prequels or sequels about the characters.”

MAYBE? – 1) That shit’s a no brainer. 2) Olivia Munn is a fox. 3) This should have been on your little development table once you realized A) Ethan’s blackouts are unneeded and irrelevant. B) Shelby Has asthma. (You’ll understand if you don’t already) C) Tripto my friend… everybody wants to know WTFIJ with the Tripto? It’s good, its bad NOBODY KNOWS… so many ways to expand the game.

Well I guess the concern was that nobody would be playing it a few MONTHS FROM NOW. And the game came out at the end of February.

Man, I went off the wall.. .All I’m saying is that Cage needs to hire a writer to write his idea. I’m just tired of these ridiculous plot holes. Seriously.. the last half of Indigo Prophecy gets absurd. Luckily this is not nearly as bad. . . But in some ways, still just as silly.

PS3 vs 360 – Final Round

2010-06-02T00:04:00.001-07:00

OK this is it. Game Over.

After spending absolutely absurd amounts of time with both, I get to finally be the definitive bi-partisan juror. I’m a gaming fanboy.

For the purposes of this comparison I’ve assumed both of these objects will and always work at the best they can.

Now most of the stuff you read is true. Most games other than exclusives tend to look better somehow on the 360. However the tide is slowly turning. The Exclusives will always look better on the PS3… The thing is more powerful. END OF DISCUSSION. Google it.

PS3… It only does everything. You’ve seen the commercials. I don’t need to tell you what it does but it does a lot more than you think it does. There are programs that sync it with your PC(s) so you can stream media. You also have the added option of syncing it with a PSP should you own one. Though few games take full advantage of the connectivity .. but even the PS2 supports that. What you may not know is.. REMOTE PLAY… You can actually PLAY games through Wifi or Internet on your PSP FROM your PS3. (Currently to my knowledge a few PSN titles and all PSOne Originals can be streamed this way) The PS3 wins because the Xbox has nothing that compares to this.

XBL (Silver) vs PSN
Not worth it… Either buy a PS3 or get gold
(Seriously)

XBL (Gold) Vs. PSN
Both of these experiences are pretty much the same. It is all about content. A lot of the content even swaps spaces. It is all about what you want. Do you want to play classics from the PC era like Doom or Duke Nukem? Does Castle Crashers sound fun or does Fat Princess? Some research can be done to see what is available on each side but both offer a robust line up of stuff. What sets them apart is the lack of the Party chat system (which you need XBL Gold to do) where you can play Fallout 3 and talk to your buddy playing Final Fantasy 13. PS3 users will come to call this X (Cross) game chat or just simply Xchat when they get it. Then there is the fact that the PS3 has a full on browser and I hear people watch Hulu on it… The 360 has no equivalent. But then you can use twitter and facebook on the 360 (Which you have to have XBL Gold) … or you could just open up your browser on the PS3…. It’s pretty weak to charge your users to do this but Microsoft does it and people pay it. Kudos to sony for being and staying free. PS3 wins but I guess some would say its close.

WHOA WHOA WHOA! sdjfhdslkhfslhflsdkhf Wait a sec. The 360’s fanbase is A LOT more willing to play online. (It’s just a fact… they pay to play) Any multiplayer game you have… go online and your friends list will get jam packed. I tend to co-op so I don’t make friends too swiftly. PS3 may win just because it does everything for free but if you actually want to play with people who really want to play with people who want to play you will play on the 360. AND THAT is the bottom line.

The PS3 is a better and more reliable system. But the bottom line is the 360 is a gaming platform and it does the game experience slightly better for a price. The PS3 does the the whole game experience but at times its less-than-motivated online community kill a game prematurely.

ULTIMATE WINNER: PLAYSTATION 3 … But the victory is likened to one person standing up slightly faster than the other during a standing 10 count.

JUDGES
JG – PS3-9.5     360-8.0
SP – 360-9.5     PS3-8.0
CZ – PS3-10      360-9.0

PS3 vs. 360: Final Round – Pre-show

2010-05-22T16:47:00.001-07:00

I must explain a few things. However, before I do, you as a gamer need to just accept a few truths about me and my gaming habits. One being I’m not entirely loyal to one specific system during any cycle.

Now before people think I’m back peddling, you’ll see in a minute I’m not. Many people have this idea that I’m a PS3 fanboy. And while for a few months in 08 I joked that I was “THE PS3 fanboy”. That was meant as a tongue and cheek joke. Because a lot of 360 fanboys just seemed as stupid as their PS3 counter-parts and since I owned a PS3 and a PSP.. I didn’t want the wrong fanboy to represent the community. Regardless, I’ve since dropped the moniker and sung my poorly-auto-spelled-tweets-from-a-cell-phone praises of the PS3. I sing praise of the PS3 in the moments that it shines. I’ve explained why I bought it first. But make no mistake. I’m not Sony’s bitch nor am I PS3’s fanboy. I’ve criticized their developers, and made SEVERAL cracks on social sites about PSN users being and QUOTE: “Prissy little bitches” But they are not any more prissy, less little nor lesser bitches than the masterminds than inhabit the realm of 360. The difference is… these users WANT to play games online. Now people say I’m much more critical of the 360.. Of course I am.. Its why I bought it second…

Finally, I didn’t really sing 360 praises because it does what its supposed to do (finally) and that is not an accomplishment.

So I think I’m one of the few people qualified to judge or even weigh in on this 360 vs PS3 thing. Wii and DS don’t factor in for me. I’m a grown ass man.

I bite my thumb at you…

2010-04-13T22:56:00.001-07:00

I’m going to say something that may confuse a lot of people.

GAMING BORES THE SHIT OUTTA ME!

Hence the moniker: Jaded Gamer.
Granted, the capitalized statement above is a gross exaggeration of how I feel, but ultimately, I can’t say I am absolutely immersed in games anymore.

I have over 100 games now between my PSP/PS3 with both at them at almost a dead 50/50 split but its been a while since I did an official audit. I think I’m actually going to do a scoreboard between the dualling systems. Anyways, My point is, out of a 100 games I can think of so few that are timeless.

As a gamer my skillset has reached a plateau. I don’t feel too challenged as a gamer. I’m fairly old-school. Meaning I didn’t drop 60 dollars on a game to have my ass handed to me by early adopters and beta testers. I don’t care about getting THAT good. I’ll shoot around matches here and there and fair from the middle of the pack downward. I don’t hide the fact that I’m not exceptional at first/third person deathmatch type stuff.

Well, I’m not that good because I’m just not that interested in it. Fight Night is about the closest thing you’ll get to a serious competitive fight from me. (PROTIP: If you can knock me down twice, you’ll win the fight. I can’t ever figure out how to get up after that. DOUBLE PROTIP: It might be really difficult to knock me down in the first place)

Now the whole single player aspect of gaming is starting to get so boring as well. I still find it WAY WAY more fun than going online and shooting people in the face. For instance, as soon as you make any game co-op… You double or even triple the fun factor.

As far as I’m concerned, every game needs a player two. Remember when finding a one player game was difficult? Role playing games and side scrollers from time to time would be single player (Kid Icarus, Metroid) But everything else.. (Ice Climber, Pac-man, Super Mario Brothers, Gyromite, Double Dragon, Contra, Battle Toads, Final Fight, Streets of Rage and it died at 32 bit)

Games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid came in and killed each respective genre. (I can’t remember a time when Resident Evil was scary.. Seriously… Silent Hill was the first game to freak me out.. Followed by Fatal Frame.. and thats it)

Of the recent kick ass games (Which you’ll hear about shortly in Episodes 3 and 4) I can recall… BAYONETTA!

Case and Point. I liked Devil May Cry and Onimusha but still felt like the combat was a little janky which really removed me from the game a lot. They were and still are fun to play but when you’re attacking by the numbers that you can pretty much count in rhythm with it.. it loses a little something. But Bayonetta comes along and absolutely smashes it. First of all… I’m sayin it… Bayonetta’s a hot game. It’s a little awkward to watch at times but the character just bleeds sexuality with everything she does. So as you’re kicking serious quantities of ass (go back to back platinum on some of the parts in chapter 13… That’s serious quantity of ass kickery) it feels sexy.

Resident Evil 5. . . Fuckin KUDOS! I’ve sank well over 100 hours into that thing. And I will continue to sink more. Co-op makes it fun. It being well-constructed makes it even better, the downloadable content is an even bigger added bonus.

Borderlands! .. I totally think they could have done more with this but I await B-lands 2.. I’d still play a lot (and I mean a lot) more of the last two if my friends did as well.

So what’s your take on this… What does it for you?

Don’t confuse PSN with MSN – a FAQ sheet

2010-04-09T20:56:00.001-07:00

Howdy folks!

Thank you all for being patient as it is taking me too flippen long to put out more episodes. Even the games I review/am reviewing are a little stale. I’ll promise to get episodes 3 & 4 out ASAP!

But I deleted a couple dozen people off my PSN list and its been nothing but backlash.

I’ve made bold statements about PSN users being prissy little bitches… and we are. No matter what our trophy score or how many platinum trophies we do or don’t have, we snub every other gamer as if they fail to meet our standards.

I split my list into two groups. Gamers and Fans…
Fans never get deleted… Gamers do. Fans are fans of my “stuff” gamers are people who add me to play games.

Due to the prissy bitch factor, many people are confused as to why they’ve been deleted. So I’ve compiled my top 10 reasons for deleting you … whoever you are…

10. I chat on MSN… Not PSN
9. I accepted/sent a friend request and we haven’t talked/gamed since
8. You’re in my clan/squad but don’t even try to get along.
7. Inviting people to games is a mystery to you.
6. Instead of pulling me into a game to assist you, chat at me like tech support. (See #10)
5. You/I’ve not been a good co-op partner.
4. You flat out suck.
3. I needed to put space between you and my nuts
2. You’re a “model”/”mannequin” gamer (natural poser)
1. No respect for my count (Which is kinda all of the above)

I fully admit I’ve deleted people for having a low trophy count, but thats because they fall under #1 or 2.

And I hate to sound like I’m bragging cuz its totally not brag worthy, but I’m ranked moderately well on Playfire.com (Locally/Nationally I’m almost top #100 .. internationally I drop further) so a lot of Canadian/American ranked gamers add me to game. But I rather play with friends I actually know… So add me my tag is IamFN2K and you have 30 days to play a game with me otherwise you will be replaced by someone who will. No disrespect. But I came to game.

Just an observation.

Square-Enix has talent and a heavily lobotomized fanbase.

2010-03-29T23:51:00.001-07:00

First off… FInal Fantasy 13 is nothing special. A great game… Probably… Memorable? Possibly. Time will tell.

What was their last absolute smash packed jam hit? Probably Final Fantasy X. Though I don’t see what the fuss is about with that one. It is a good game… but you can put lipstick on any shitty game… call it Final Fantasy and SOMEBODY will treat it like gold dookie.

Say what you want about every single lackluster effort since FFX… One thing is undeniable.

Square-Enix are colossal, arrogant, dimwitted … douchebags.

They’ve managed to repackage Chrono Trigger twice, countless final fantasy games and a whole slew of other shit gamers didn’t know they wanted till they saw “Squaresoft” / “Square-Enix” branded on the front/side.

But now that PSN is doing it kinda big with putting PSX games on PSN – You’d think the supreme lords of double and triple dipping (They beat Konami AND Capcom) would have more than just a few FF titles online.

Recently they’ve discussed putting FF9 on PSN… They actually had to discuss this. This is how they are spending your FF13 money. They had to propose something that is a no brainer.

Confused?

Final Fantasy 7 is on PSN… around a year later… Final Fantasy 8 hits PSN… Both are considered successes… So after a while, some lightbulb goes off in a SE employees head and thinks “Wait a sec.. Didn’t FF9 come out 10 years ago? OOOH 10 year anniversary” ….

NOBODY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT A 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Its not that memorable of a game!~! Just put the fucking game online and charge us 10 bucks for it already. You don’t need to discuss this!!!!!!

You actually called a game… Final Fantasy X-2 … Not Final Fantasy “EX” Two…. Final Fantasy TEN TWO…… Is Yuna fly fishing? Driving? If you wanted to discuss something… it was then!

This is why I have the need to punch you guys in the throat. All of you.

I’m not fooled by any of this. Square doesn’t listen to their fans. They make the games they want to make and KUDOS for doing it. But if they listened to their fans… You know damn well what you’d be playing

Chrono Trigger 3 or Final Fantasy 7: HD

In conclusion… I look forward to FF 13: Versus as well as Agito (Sp?) because in all honesty… you make playable triple A games 99.9999%… and that’s something I can’t say of most developers with 20+ years in the biz.

But the problem is this… Bioware & Bathesda… Hell even Level 5 has a more innovative property on their hands.

All I’m saying is that Sq-Enix better revolutionize or evolve the RPG because sooner or later somebody is going to notice that Square-Enix isn't actually *THAT* good. And you’ll notice some things on that list…

Like Final Fantasy 14… and Final Fantasy 15… I can’t believe these words haven’t lost all meaning.

After saying there will be a decade of Final Fantasy XIII .. you’re kinda shooting yourselves in the face with buckshot here…

JG

My First Tradition-Now with more Pre-Amble

2010-01-14T23:15:00.001-08:00

OH MAN! NPDs ARE OUT!

But before I get into that goodness I’d like to say that I’m *NOT* a fanboy. My loyalty has jumped ship and has officially gone back-and-forth between Sony/Microsoft for the last 3 gens. (PSOne ---> Xbox ---> PS3) I do own a PS2 and I am retroactively playing the games that I missed. But bottom line… the Xbox smashed the PS2 into oblivion for anything cross-platform. PS2 won the console war that gen purely as a numbers thing. The 360 vs. PS3 debate is gonna come down to the same thing. I give the 360 a lot of respect… though not openly and frequently because I’m not retarded but … That system is outdated but it just manages to stay relevant and unlock it’s potential more and more. I’ll get into what I actually like about the 360 later … but back it up a little to the console war being about numbers. . . .

National Product Distribution or NPDs… are the numbers of the top 10 whenever (Consoles and Games) … Now if you're new to them GOOD! .. I get to walk you through them.

They always compare last month to the month before. So.. Here are the Consoles. You’ll learn very fast that outselling the Wii and DS is impossible and I don’t know why we bother comparing these numbers.

December 2009 Hardware Sales

Wii -- 3,810,000 <--- Add this…
Nintendo DS -- 3,310,000 <--- To this ... Over 7 million units.
PlayStation 3 -- 1,360,000 <---- This number used to be half
Xbox 360 -- 1,310,000 <---- of this one about a year ago. The tide is turning.
PlayStation Portable -- 654,700 <---- This is considered when compared to their usual 200K-ish.
PlayStation 2 -- 333,200 <---- Yeah.. they still sell this thing. Sony makes more and more money off this thing because it gets cheaper and cheaper to make but it stays $100

November 2009 Hardware Sales

Nintendo DS -- 1,700,000 <---- What the PS3 & 360 work so hard for….
Wii -- 1,260,000 <---- Nintendo does every month.
Xbox 360 -- 819,500 <---- After trailing the PS3 for 2 months they pulled their sales up. (They had awesome Black Friday bundles and no matter how you slice it, it’s cheaper than a Wii)
PlayStation 3 -- 710,400 <----- this is like a 200-300% increase compared to Nov 08
PlayStation Portable -- 293,900
PlayStation 2 -- 203,100

Are you still with me? Games are up next. I promise I wont do this for every month. This is me popping my NPD coverage’s cherry. I hope that doesn’t offend any women.

Anyways… When you read the game sales… Any new *Vogue* Wii game goes on the chart…. and it stays there… and it will be there for a very, very long time. Selling a million units every time.. As a result .. the Wii and DS tend to run the charts.

December 2009 Software Sales

New Super Mario Bros (Wii) -- 2,820,000
Wii Fit Plus (Wii) -- 2,410,000
Wii Sports Resort (Wii) -- 1,790,000
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (360) -- 1,630,000 <--- This is good
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3) 1,120,000 <---- This is better considering the lack of a decline.
Wii Play (Wii) -- 1,010,000
Mario Kart Wii (Wii) -- 936,100
Assassin's Creed 2 (360) -- 783,100 <--- I hope this hasn’t peaked
Left 4 Dead 2 (360) -- 728,500
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS) -- 656,700

November 2009 Software Sales

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (360) -- 4,200,000 <--- KA-BOOM!!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3) -- 1,870,000 <--- Bang!
New Super Mario Bros. (Wii) -- 1,390,000
Assassin's Creed II (360) -- 794,700 <---- Under a million during a launch month worries me..
Left 4 Dead 2 (360) -- 744,000
Wii Sports Resort (Wii) -- 720,200
Wii Fit Plus (Wii) -- 679,000
Assassin's Creed II (PS3) -- 448,400
Dragon Age: Origins (360) -- 362,100
Mario Kart (Wii) -- 315,000

And there you have it… Your NPDs… BYE!

Episode 2 - Playing Catch-up

2010-01-04T09:24:00.000-08:00

Back with my sophomore effort

PSN ID: IamFN2K
Leave a message “Saw your show” or something like that.

EMAIL: PROJECT-WINGMAN@hotmail.com

Like a feather up and down your shaft

2009-12-23T14:26:00.000-08:00

YOU GETTIN A TEASER!

Enjoy! Don't forget to join my fanclub on facebook keyword (Jaded Gamer) and subscribe to my channel on YouTube

I am a fan of

Jaded Gamer

Create your Fan Badge

Actually... Your campaign is kinda... Uhh.. Happy

2009-12-21T22:05:00.000-08:00

As if the Homosexual community doesn't feel society's ignorance enough. Now (and for the duration of the history of popular online gaming) they have to deal with constantly hearing the word "gay" being thrown around. Man... That's tough. I can't imagine how that feels.

But as a gamer.. and someone who uses the phrase "That's so gay" from time to time... Let me shed some light on this whole thing. And maybe piss some gasoline on a dying flame...

I'm gonna go out on a limb... and say there is a war brewing between Gays and Gamers. So...Gay Gamers... PICK A SIDE!! THIS IS WAR!

For those who don't know... way back in August, I reported on a ~~waste of tax money~~ ad campaign that wants to.... I dunno.. I think they want to do some sort of reverse psychology that stereotypes Cheerleaders, Jocks and Gamers.

The problem is.... I'm no cheerleader or Jock... but if a gamer is talking about somebody's sexual orientation... it's either Fag or dyke. And even the word "fag" is up for debate but one step at a time... Let's start with Gay.

The problem with this campaign is the fact that you're attacking people who are using the word gay.. in the same way one would say something is "bad" when they mean it is good. Gay used to mean happy or good before it was straight jacked by the homosexual community porchmonkey Clerks II style. So now.. in the modern world where bad means good and SICK means Really good... Gay now means lame or sad. Period. And there isn't a damn thing you can do about it but get used to it.

When a derogatory word is used for nothing but one thing... then complain... I don't wanna sound cold but when a gamer says "don't be gay" or "thats so gay" they aren't talking about homosexuals. So this campaign feels like gamers are being targeted for no reason.

I realize homophobia exists, but out of all the homophobic communities out there. I assure you that your average gamer doesn't give a shit about your sexual orientation (unless you're beating them) even if you're insecure about it.

Hey, I know being ~~gay~~ Homosexual is no picnic and that your community is still feeling the pinch of inequality. That shit sucks. But maybe the focus should be on the issues. Instead of picking a fight with gamers. You don't want to do that. Gamers can and will ruin you. Just ask Cooper Lawrence who simply said something stupid.

So... To the good folks at ThinkB4Youspeak.com your heart is in the right place. But your targets are wrong. And to the good folks at Out.com... you just wanted attention so...
Have a Coke and a smile and shut the fuck up.

P.S. Your list was hilarious. You had to use the Hubble Telescope to find the gay in 99% of the games you listed. Just like Cooper Lawrence, you ought to try playing them first.

JadedGamer

MyNutsHaveSpoken! Uh-Bitch-Bitch

Take Two made dumber than dumb choices in 09

2009-12-08T22:54:00.001-08:00

I don't wanna drag this out because I love their work. GTA (Italian air kiss) Max Payne (DELISSIOSO!)

Yet... for some flippen reason they are confused as to why their recent efforts to milk what they thought was a cash cow Fell Flat

I'll tell you why... GTA IV... great game... Replay Value... UGH... I dunno... but its really low. I beat it twice (2nd time was purely to if I could get the gold for beating it under 30 hours) And I haven't gone back and not even two DLC packs (Which are not even available to me) would get me to go back to a game I played in 2000

The statement goes on to say that between 2010's Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3 and BIO-FREAKEN-SHOCK 2... They don't think they can turn a profit. Ok look.. Your development costs are obviously WAY WAY too high. Maybe Max Payne wont destroy sales records... But Bioshock 2 should at least help you break even. I'm going to purchase 2 of the 3 titles mentioned and I'm sure one of them (Max Payne 3) will be OFF THE HOOK!

Back to GTA 4 for a minute.... See.. You thought because you did like 8 million units worldwide that you had a good game on your hands. And you did. One which ... from beginning to end was an enjoyable ride. HOWEVER! -- It was just a GTA 3 expansion in HD. Anything that you added.... was negated by what you removed. (RPG elements from San Andreas, The sheer map size, the girlfriend mechanics, and THE HUMOR) --- So The Lost and The Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony or whatever it is called may have been worthy ... .They just aren't what GTA players worldwide want to play. Here... I'll help you... GTA: Cape Disappointment (Which may not work because its a real place) But go with me... Make it like you're making San Andreas 2... That way it will be awesome!~! and if nobody plays it, you can say it was in the title and you'll know that gamers are done with GTA for now.

Finally... I take great exception to them acting like they give a shit about GTA on the PSP... That's bullshit and they know it. ANY and EVERY GTA-PSP owner will tell you.... 1) Fuck Chinatown Wars in the ASS with chalk dust. 2) Where the hell is San Andreas Stories? -- You wanna turn a profit on a portable system... SAN ANDREAS STORIES!!

You don't get to port a shitty half assed game (by PSP standards) and cry about your failure.

Have a Coke and a smile and shut the fuck up!

Jaded Gamer

So I totally went with Jaded Gamer's Show...

2009-10-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

FINALLY it's done!

There ya go. And Vote in the poll!

Katamari Forever

2009-09-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

Ok. I like Katamari Damacy.... I really do. I find the art and gameplay comical as well as engaging.

But this new iteration... I dunno. . .

It looks like the NBC Peacock threw up and took a crap at the same time.... then smeared the mess all over its feathers...

It plays nice though. I tried the demo but the environment looks old. I hope they did that for Demo sake.

Navigating the new world looks kind of confusing as well...

I'm worried I wont be impressed by this one.

Thoughts?

J.G

Facebook is making me do this... P.S. I'm BAAAAAAAACK

2009-09-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

Alright... This will be the only post that will appear the exact same in my personal and public blogs.

The reason for the doubling up of blogs is simple. This social networking shit is making you social creepers absolutely fucking nuts. It seems within the last few months or so that my facebook page has become a magnet for drama and that sort of thing. I don't know when it started or if it was the weather or something but too many people are turning my Facebook page into toilet paper... So let me go over some shit...

1) THERE ARE GROWN FOLK AND PROS ON MY LIST!
  Have some fuckin dignity. Yeah, cursin and cussin and having fun is fine and all that but keep in mind Facebook leaves a digital print of you online... do you really want other people you know, important people or somebody in control of your career or paycheque to notice you bragging about your sexual conquests, or WAAAAAAAAY out of context/left field remarks that just leave you (and me for being your friend) looking like a disgusting person?

2) NO BULLSHIT!
  This one is self explanatory either you feel it or you don't.

3) MY PAGE IS A BONZAI TREE
  I prune this bitch to MY liking ... not to yours. . . so if somebody says something in violation of previous rules or any rules which may or may not follow... what you say may end up on the cutting room floor. BUT However, keep in mind that the touchpad on my laptop is uber sensitive so if there is a screwed up word or something that is deleted, it could be an accidental tap on the touchpad. With that, its a case of what's done is done. I may not have meant to delete a thread or your post or my post or this link or that link.

4) NO BACKDOOR SHENANIGANS
   If a mutual friend decides to say something controversial on my page, that's their own deal. I'll check to see if it offends my morality code and deal with it if I need to. But if for some reason somebody says something on my page you don't agree with... say it right on the page... DO NOT MESSAGE me to bitch. I don't even care if I agree with you, we can talk about that OTR some other time. Don't bitch about eachother through me... hell half the time I don't really like either one of you.

THE POINT:

THIS BLOG! .. Whichever iteration of this Blog be it Jaded Gamer or This Yet To Be Re-Titled page. THIS! is the place where you can comment on anything I say without edit. Any comment here wont be subject to my law (unless its just really dumb) and you can get as nasty as you want and totally leave this page smelling like dead fish and hot dog flavored water. This is the place for it. So please... KEEP THAT SHIT AWAY FROM MY FACEBOOK.

Coming Soon!

2009-09-08T21:00:00.001-07:00

The future of Jaded Gamer... Coming soon... DUN DUN DUN!!