Pet Peeves in Gaming

     The gaming world is filled with surprises.. different personalities, ideas, habits, methods.. etc, the list goes on. But some things are just CRAZY ANNOYING.. and here, I will explain them and then hopefully everyone will live by them and be careful to never ever piss me off (because in reality, everyone should live and breathe this blog). 



It's consuming her soul..

      1. Inviting the Unwanted
    I'm all for starting up parties and playing with friends, but have some manners and ask everyone else in the party if it is okay to invite a few people, especially when you aren't the person hosting the party anyway. Personally... in COD, I don't care, I like GroundWar, but there's some people on my friends lists who I can't stand and I rather not deal with them at all.. and before anyone writes a comment, muting them isn't enough. So people, don't be obnoxious, ask people if it's okay to bring someone in before doing so.. it's just common courtesy.


      2. You've been killed by: TheKillerWhale
     I love unique names and awesome names, but I don't want to be killed by the BraveLittleToaster. Or TheEngineWhoCould. Usernames with a buttload of numbers in them are also annoying, and more so because.. it's number. It's not attractive. Everyone should be able to think up of a username that doesn't consist of "358735". Also, the more X's you have in your username, the more officially annoying you are. Which, speakin of usernames or gamertags, why are people modding theirs? If you don't like your name, just ask people to report you and recreate a new one.. your name doesn't need to consist of curse words or rainbows.


     3. Hidden Clan Tag Messages
    I see this ALL the time, a guy has to have a penis or a person bending over as their clan tag, and it's so... stupid. You must really like penis in order to try to and make the shape of it as your clan tag and flaunt it around for thousands of people to see. I don't think guys understand what they seem like whenever they do this. And the person-bending-over clantag? Again, that could be a guy for all I know because there's no curves or anything. There's also the clan tag with the gun, which... that's alot cooler than the penis one, but still annoying. And also when people have "sexy" or curse words as their clan tag or username... I could go on about this all day, but how hard are you working your tiny little brain and how much time are you spending to try and get pass the filter just to curse? Is it even worth it? Noooo. There's no pink mystical unicorn presenting you a box of chocolates if you can succeed getting past censors and filters.

           < There was suppose to be a pic inserted here but I couldn't find a Unicorn presenting chocolates to a nub >

     4. RPG-7 = Retarded&Pathetic Gamers who are 7. (CoD)
    No one should use this... at all. My idea for grenade launchers? Make them lock on to an automobile or something instead of free shooting. Can I take my stinger out and shoot someone in the face? Noooo. So.. what is the difference between that and the RPG? Nothing, IRL. So why is there a difference within the game that prides itself on being "realistic"? Exactly. They may have changed it up to give gamers more options, but give them more options by giving them equality, if you're going to have a grenade launcher shoot freely without lock-ons, allow the others to do that as well.


    5. Take the mic out of your throat.
   Scientists could conduct a study of what the difference is between counties and how they use their mics, but I'll save them from spending all their money and time and I'll just say it here.
   USA: Mic away from mouth and shouting/yelling
   Canada: Mic away from mouth and whispering
   UK: Mic in their throat and shouting/yelling.
 And that's completely accurate. If you've been in a lobby with Americans and people from the UK, they're in a constant screaming match, the only difference is that you can understand what the American is saying because they don't have their mic so close to their mouth where it sounds like white noise. And Canadians.. you can't hear them either way, so that doesn't matter; the loudest I've ever heard a Canadian, it was at the same level as an American whispering. Either way, 2/3 of people are screaming into their mics and it's ridiculous, I feel bad for those who have TurtleBeaches because they have to hear the annoyances 2x greater than what I have to on regular cheapo headsets.


    6.  Horrible Hosting..
   I hope whoever reads this, spams the mailboxes of the creators of COD, because they need to pay attention to this one: Instead of just settling for ANY host, get a good host. I am, as I'm sure other gamers, are willing to wait 1 minute in a lobby to get an amazing host, rather than spend 15 seconds in a lobby and get a crappy host and have that "Waiting for new host..." window every five seconds because some idiot person can't replace his hamster-in-a-wheel device for a REAL router.


   7. Save an Eardrum, Don't Sing
   I am so guilty of doing this that it is ridiculous... but I do it to have fun and goof around, but I can't stand it when I'm in a yelling match with someone (I'm from Jersey, US of A), and someone is singing "WHY CAN'T WE BE FRIENDS!!???" it makes me want to hop through the Ethernet cable and beat their hippie-humpin asses. But, again... I sing worst songs, like "That's Amore" by Dean Martin... love that song. But if you were to be the next Rihanna or Usher, you would be singing infront of producers, not to idiots on Xbox Live. So don't sing, don't rap, don't do anything other than talking. Also... no blaring the radio, that's just dumb. It comes through the speakers all fuzzy and white noise-ish and it doesn't sound good.

  

    8. "Wasn't Me!"
   We've all kicked someones ass in a game at one point or another... and ofcourse they always say "that was my friend playing, not me.". No, it was not your friend, it was you, and you know what? Personally, if I had friends over, the last thing I would be doing is playing video games or being on the laptop joking around... that is obnoxioussss. When I have friends around, we go to the gym, walk around, run errands together, and possibly go out for lunch. Drop the act, you suck... end of story. And here's a question... you have your friend over, you probably don't live together... if they're coming over to spend time with you, why are you going to put a headset on and talk to other people?

   
    9. Modding: Why Brag?
   Now... I have a good story for this. Me and my friends (and an idiot someone invited in, for the sake of it, we'll call him PileOfPoop), we got into a lobby.. played the game, in the game he was bragging how he bought a mod, now.. these guys we were playing against were pretty good, but we won, and PileOfPoop, out of everyone, goes and says "Nice modding _____". And I can't have that, so I call him out on it, "You just bragged that you bought a mod". His reply? "It's a bad mod"... seriously? You spent the money to buy a mod in the first place and try to talk trash and say it's a bad mod? Get outta here. Needless to say, modding isn't cool.. and neither is bragging about it. I always get into lobbys these days that has some Try Hard bragging how he has a mod and aim bot.

   10: Real Men Insult Women, Apparently.
   I always get called things... all the time. Lesbian, butch, bitch, and some other things which are explicit... and I also have witty comments for them, but these guys are stupid. They meet a girl on xbox and their instinct is to disrespect her? Where's the love? If I was a guy on xbox, I would rather play with a girl than a guy.. but nope. These guys want the full on guy action... or gay action. Whichever. And it's sad.. would these guys want other guys to talk about their moms like that? or daughters if they had any? I've had guys say "Hey! That's a girl! It's fat chick thursday!". Fat? I don't even like junkfood, the only junkfood I like is soul food and that's mac and cheese and I make it without butter, thankyou. (You cut over 1000 calories a serving if you make it the way I make it.. and it tastes good). Grow up boys... once you get past the "cootie stage", the world is way better and more likely to listen to your dribble.


 

    I'm sure as I continue gaming and venture off into other worlds, I'll find more things that irritate me.. but I guess what everyone can learn from this is I can't stand people and I especially can't stand people who act all big and bold because 1,000+ miles is seperating us.

Popular Misconceptions Pt. 2 - Stereotypes

 If you read my Popular Misconceptions entry, you would see that I talk about how girls do play video games despite popular belief, and how they get called "fat", "ugly", and "stupid".. but I never actually put in any detail of the type of stereotypes that come with girl gaming... only the public's general idea that every girl gamer out there is obese. Now, alot of people may scratch their heads and say "what kind of stereotypes are there with girl gamers?" and there's alot... it's the same with guy gamers, except no one cares about them.. so, let me just give the different stereotypes that surround girl gamers.

The Ladies:

 When it comes to stereotypes of girl gamers, I've seen them all.. the "try-to-be-a-gamer" gamer, the "typical" gamer, the "casual", and even the "Jap-fan" gamer... I've read of them all and dealt with them all, but this is my own list of the popular stereotypes, the forgotten stereotypes, and the newcomers.

The "Try-Hard" Gamer:  
Being spotted having usernames like xXsxyXcutieXx and BlondGRL4U, these are the types of girls that are usually shunned by the "hardcore" girl gamers, any other type of girl gamers out there. By taking promiscuous photos of themselves and talking about their pillow fights over their bestie's house last night, these girls try to distract their peers from paying attention to how much they actually suck at games and to focus on the overall picture that a possibly attractive girl has a gaming controller in her hand.
  You will mostly spot these girls on Live Uno, anything that tests the hand-eye coordination (RockBand, Guitar Hero..), and some will try to claim that they play FPS and that they're "serious business". The best way to get rid of them and shut them up is to come up with something witty to say, that will keep them quiet for the rest of the game. If you want to look up these girls, go to myspace... you'll see a bunch of them having bright pictures with consoles, controls, and games in order to appear "hardcore" and to try and have people strike up a conversation with them on what their favorite game is... only to say that they love "old school anything"... yet they don't even know what a NES is.. *smh*

      The Infamous Fat Girl Gamer:
  The *Most Annoying* girl gamer stereotype out there and the most popular is the fat chick.. but let's be honest, who really looks like this? No one. Probably 1 out of every 1,000 girl gamers look like this... seriously, I bet there are more people who get killed in Africa by bees than there are of female gamers who look like this... 300lbs and all. Let's look at reality and science... you are what you eat, if you eat junk/unhealthy foods nonstop on top of living an inactive lifestyle, you're going to clog up your brain as well as your body, your brain isn't going to be at full potential... so how on Earth is someone who eats THAT much and has that big of a percentage of body fat going to have a high reaction time and to move their thumbs quick enough in order to kill people? Not to mention, this is probably one of those "fat models" that have webcam shows and get paid by males to dress/act/do whatever and one of her clients told her to steal her cousins gaming equipment and to wear it.
  I'm not dissing the big folk, I understand it's not a funny issue and there's a ton of factors that are to be counted for, but let's get rid of the whole "fat girl" image for female gamers, because it's way worst for men and more typical than it is for women, especially since most female gamers are on the Wii playing Mario-whatever instead of FPS.


           Which brings me to..

The "Health Nut" Girl Gamer:
  Working out is good, there is nothing better than working out. It makes you happier, healthier, and for me... just more tolerant to other people that I usually wouldn't be able to stand on a regular basis.. but there is one problem... some girls seems to think that performing certain motions is equal to 2 hours at the gym... it's not. You need resistance (more than just gravity on your body weight).
  These girls aren't all that mainstream, but hey.. someone has to be buying WiiFit, and I don't think it's guys.
   Now, I went to a website and it pretty much did the sales pitch of "pay for a gym membership but never use it? Wait for a perfect cold day to workout outside but find out it gets hot too quickly? Use the WiiFit in your very own home!" Nooo. Get off your ass and go to the gym.. Rule 1 of Losing Weight: Don't be lazy, you want to be toned and healthy? Get to the gym.
   Now, these are the girls that probably have a secret shrine of health games... EA Sports Workout-whatever, Jillian Michaels workout-whatever game (can't bash on her, she's one of my idols..), and if you dig real far back, you'll see Healthy Cooking.. and if you see this, you better start running.. Low Fat, Low Sugar Recipes.

   A Message to Men: Only pursuit if you want your manhood taken away. While dating someone who cares about health and appearance is attractive, she can't cook. So.. you either keep your mom around and let her do the cooking, or sneak off in a dark corner eating Chinese food.. because you know this girl isn't going to allow take-out and will throw out any trace of it.

       The "Butch" Girl Gamer:   I laughed the first time I was called a Justin Bieber look-a-like butch lesbian girl gamer... it's kind of like the thing with the "fat girl gamer" where guys want to use aesthetics against you because they can't say anything about your intelligence since it surpasses theirs.. -cough-, but has anyone seen a girl who looks like this? Because I haven't, and this person in the photo is an exception, she's from a reality show, so it doesn't count... but I've looked up hundreds of photos of girl gamers from conventions and competitions, and while I can't see if they're lesbian or not, I know that they didn't look like this. I've also seen lesbian gamers and the worst lesbian gamer I've seen.. she was thick.. not really fat, but curvy, and she had colorful dreads in her hair and sharpie-d eyebrows, pretty much something you would find on vampirefreaks.com but without the corset or doing much upper body work.

   Here's the thing though.. and guys don't realize what they're saying when they're attacking people with stupid remarks, if I'm a fat girl gamer, or a butch girl gamer, and you just lost to me.. that makes it all worst, don't you think?
   But anyway..
  If these girls exist, they're busy playing FPS, Skate1-3, and..- no, no... these girls probably play video games because their friends do, otherwise I really think they're off their ass and skating for real... who plays a skateboard game when they could probably do it outside? Beings that they're butch, it's something they probably do.. sports and stuff, and what's the fun of playing in on a console when you can do it for real? These girls aren't big in the game industry, better to let the stereotype die.

   The "FanGirl" Gamer:
    There's two types of fangirls, however... both are calmer than any fanboy out there and do not get into screaming matches on why a game is good.
 FanGirl A: Usually just buys a game t-shirt and takes a photo with her face and a game in order to show her dedication.
 FanGirl B: Girls that show up at conventions dressed as their favorite character (Rikku is most popular)... and yes, they went as far as to hire someone to make this outfit. if you want to get with this type of girl, just ask her how long it took her to make her outfit, she'll love it. 
     Fangirls can be found in a variety of locations, in a local arcade or game store, or on their fav. game's forums, figuring out what the opening track is so that they can download it as their main ringtone.

     The "Hardcore" Girl Gamer:
  It's 3 in the morning, her eyes are blood red, and the rest of her clan/friends went to bed five minutes ago for the competition/clan match tomorrow, she is the Hardcore gamer and at her damn tiredest, she can still kick your ass. Unlike the casual gamer, you won't see her hoeing it up on Farmville but instead ripping through zombies, slaying dragons, and killing any person who's body is hanging out even an inch from a corner on the other side of the map.
   These girls need the best of everything when it comes to gaming, a tv screen instead of a monitor, dual video cards, and every gaming console out there in order to fill her need for gaming.
   If you see them outside of the house, they're either filling up on energy with carbonated horse pee, or waiting outside to buy their game so they can zoom up to the top of the ranks.

   Message to Guys:  If approached, you might feel emotional abandonment.

     The "Casual" Gamer:
  There's a few types of casual girl gamers.
        Casual GG 1: Owns a few handheld gaming consoles and a few regular consoles. She plays Mario-anything and Ledend of Zelda, maybe you'll even find a Yoshi's Story laying around somewhere in her room, in other words... no shooters.
        Casual GG 2: She is the evolved version of GG1, while she has a few shooters, the most realistic she can get in to GoldenEye007... if you know her, you're lucky, she's most likely to have a FF7 laying around somewhere.
        Casual GG 3: She loves The Sims, Zoo Tycoon, and anything that has to deal with management and simulation, obviously... doesn't venture much from those genres and will be guilty of going to bigfishgames.com and purchasing a few of their time management games.
        Casual GG 4: Don't expect much from this gamer, she's as much of a gamer as I am at being a Las Vegas cross dresser. You'll find her flooding your facebook wall with crap about Farmville and any other Zynga game there in out there.  There is one good thing about this girl though, she's a pro when it comes to phone games, especially solitare or bejweled.. best there is out there.




    In the end, who cares what kind of gamer you or someone you know is? As long as you have fun (and that's what it's for) no one else should matter. And yes, I was going to do guy stereotypes but I couldn't stand seeing this article in my Drafts anymore.. so here it is. Maybe soon I'll write something on stereotypes on guy gamers, even though there's only so many times I could write e gangster, dumb frat boy, and retro nerd before I get bored and move onto something else... like girls who beat their guys at video games ;].  -sigh- male egos..

No, No More, No More Zombies.

  So Red Dead Redemption is coming out in late October with a zombie expansion pack called Undead Nightmare, I'm assuming it's about zombies taking over the small area of the United States and Mexico that you get to play in the game, and you have to stop them and shoot them with various weapons.. which is typical because I've never seen a game where you have to team up with zombies, as a human,  in order to corrupt the order of a civilization. In this expansion pack, people are zombies, animals are zombies, and even some "mythical" creatures.

... not joking.



 Different things are going to be featured in RDR's new DLC.. such as new single-player missions, 8 different type of zombie characters, the zombie animals/creatures, *dynamic* events which Rockstar is known for providing to it's fans, new gameplay mechanics, a secret location.. which is no longer a secret, new weapons (including the Blunderbuss) , and new multiplayer modes. Which is "ooooo... exciting..".. maybe...
  Another great thing, and this might be a spoiler, they're bringing back some old characters! And one of them is Bonnie McFarlane, which is one of my favorite characters.. not to sound like a bra-burning feminist (although bra burning really didn't happen..), but Bonnie was really the woman living in the man's world, and she took it by the no-no area and swung it around, and it wouldn't surprise me if that's why their video game world rotates.

  But seriously, I'm getting tired of the whole "zombie" thing though. COD has zombies, Left4Dead is all zombies, this has zombies, everything has zombies... I mean, hell... they even zombified Hello-freakin-Kitty.

-shudders-

   What vampires are in movies and television, zombies are for video games... and it's annoying. I feel like I could vomit up a zombie and everyone in the gaming industry would be buldozing down my door in order to use it in a video game featuring... ZOMBIESSSS. ooo... (and I vomit rainbows and ponies).

   When my boyfriend first told me that RDR was doing this idea, I almost cried. RedDeadRedemption was such a good game, gameinformer (or some other site) said that it was almost too perfect to a fault, and blah.. I don't think so.. it was a good game.. worth the money.. but why did it have to take this turn? Sure, alot of people get sick and tired of playing cops and robbers or cowboys and indians, but there has to be more ideas than "Zombies: The Expansion Pack - 14th edition". They could've done a peice of "moving back to the east!", they could've done a sack race to the gold mines! Anything but zombies.. it's like what I was talking about with Halo, it's the idea that people come up in the boardroom meetings because they want to continue a game and make money, but have no original concepts, and so they turn to that one idea that they know would sell... which in this case is zombies. And I'm tired of it.

  However, the graphics in the expansion pack are incredible. I've watched the Undead Nightmare trailer video and have seen screenshots and so far I'm not disappointed with the overall view of everything and what it's about. Steve Martin, the studio director of Rockstar, also stated that the expansion pack tells you how the zombie outbreak occured and how it's affecting society and where the game takes place, so.. there is a whole different story to it.. which is nice. It's not like Nazi Zombies in COD where you just enter a game mode and zombies run at you, it does include story, so... that's refreshing and something to look foreward to. The "con" though would be the fact that it is $9.99/800 MSP, so.. I'm not sure if it's really worth all that much, for that amount of money I could go and do ceramics and be completely happy or I could even go to the gym for the whole day and be happy, or.. even buy a COD Map Pack. But, if you're a fan of the game then I wouldn't let this slip by you.

SCREENSHOTS: (click to see original)

    

Why aren't you in school!?

     I'm not really a news site, but with everything going on about California and it's law to "ban mature video games sales to minors without parental consent", I had to mention this. Why? Because it ties in with the fact that I'm annoyed at kids playing mature video games, and moreso annoyed at the parents who let them.

   As a gamer, it's annoying to hear kids trying to use "adult language".. and I'm talking about kids who are 8-14 years old.. when they're at the moment of their lives that a 20 year old girl sounds more like a man than they do. It's frustrating to literally have them screaming in your ear, team killing, and also taking your kills. I'm frustrated right now just thinking about it.

So Angry I Could Hold a Rolling Pin

   Now anyway, the original writer of the bill was LeLand Yee (he's azn)... and in 2005 State Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed it as a law, so... pretty much on Novermber 2, 2010... Hollywood and the Video Game Industry are going to Supreme Court and fighting their case that it breaks the First Amendement and right of Free Speech... and the reason why I think the rest of Hollywood is behind video games is just the fact that they don't want the law to limit their mature sales to any audience either.. so really, they're there for their own selfish benefits.

   I'm on the fence about this... the law is bringing up "studies" that say that playing mature video games can create violence, distraction, and take away socialization that people naturally need... and the Video Gaming industry is just bringing the fact that it's in violation of First Amendment.

   Personally, I think if parents were parents and watched over their kids.. then the law wouldn't need to step in and do it for them. This is the opposite of parents boycotting Vanessa Hudgens, they rioted to Disney to fire her when they could've simply just turned the tv and radio off. And then in the other corner, you have parents who don't care enough to the point where the law has to step in and help with parenting.

  Activison CEO Bobby Kotick actually said, "California could and should have adopted any number of measures and campaigns designed to ensure even higher rates of parental understanding of, and reliance on, the industry regulation system.".. which I agree. And for parents reading this.. that means:

    I know I'm not a parent or anything,  but I do know that I love these games and I know I would never let my kids play these games until they got to a certain age. The fact of the matter is, you're really introducing your kid to hostility and very adult language and topics without any care or shield. 8 Year Olds should NOT be on Mature Games, they should be playing what I grew up playing and that would be Mario-something, or even Go Fish. I understand if they're annoying, (trust me, I know all about that, I'm the one stuck with them while you're sitting in the other room sipping your frappaccinos), but don't dish them out to other people.

   Back to what the studies said about kids playing mature video games end up "more violent".. I actually agree. I know a ton of kids on my block who grew up playing video games and I can't count how many verbal and physical fights they get in at school, their grades suck, they have a low attention span, and they're tempermental... can't even talk to them without them having them rant like Mel Gibson on steroids.

In the end: Take care of your kids, they piss me off... or find someone else to be a parent for you.

  

**UPDATED** Halo: Reach, Purchased and Played

My Guide to Buying Halo: Reach:
  Pre-Order: Check
 Go into the store to pre-buy? Check
 Check In: ... Forgot
 Stay in a long line: No
 Was the last person to get the game: Just about.

   Was there a ton of people in the line for Halo Reach? You betchya. Why? Don't know... ofcourse I was there too, so I don't have much room to talk, but hey.. I was smart about it. While people stood in line, cursing, smoking, and being idiots.. I was in my car eating Haagen-Dazs' White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle ice cream, listening to 104.5 (http://radio1045.com/main.html best music ever) and chilling out with the boy...seriously, most fun I ever had.

   Now, was the game worth pre-ordering? Well... I got it in order to write about it, other than that? Can't say I'm too much of a fan... I'm still a COD lover.


  HALO: REACH, WHY IT'S NOT A 10/10:
     I don't like describing a series/franchise as huge as Halo as "horrible" based off of my opinion... I try to be unbiased. I can appreciate the fact that Halo has been around since 2001 and has a major fanbase. However, I'm updating this because I understand after my previous post that I really wasn't specific enough, and after the playing the game more, I realize that there were more issues that I left uncovered and I really didn't give credit where credit was really due. 


CAMPAIGN:

     I'm not a huge, huge fan of the campaign. It was rather short and not as entertaining as I really anticipated and aftertalking to other hardcore gamers (and faithful Halo fans) about this game, it really eased my mind about updating this post and creating it to be more fair and discriptive.

    The campaign takes setting two weeks before Halo: Combat Evolved (Halo1). The problem with this is that they took this game and did the prequal approach, "in the beginning before the beginning" type of thing, and really.. it's not shocking to me that this is the last game Bungie is doing. Whenever a company goes and says "we're just recreating the past and adding to that" it's a big slap of "we ran out of inspiration and motivation in order to try and continue the future because we don't know what to do", and that, I don't respect. I do respect the fact that they did 10 years of story telling with mangas, comics, books, games, and even a movie coming out, but I would rather call it quits on a story or a project rather than trying to add to the past of it and trying to milk people for money.

... Even go after your piggybank.

      The campaign took me 5 hours to beat on normal difficulty, and that's my first complaint. I don't feel like I got the bang for my buck, sure.. this game usually gets it profits from buying the game to play it on multiplayer, and that's all fine and dandy, but why can't the "perfect game" cater to those who do love the interaction that live gives, while as well cater to those who really love the story part of the video game? That's how it all started, video games before were built off of great story telling, okay graphics, and sounds that ringtones on modern day cell phones would put to shame.

     The story, I don't believe was well thought-out and it seemed like a rushed or a last-minute concept. I know the story of Halo, my boyfriend is a fan, we have several friends who are major Halo fans, I hear the story about 10 times a day without buying every single book or piece of writing there is out there, and we all really agree that the ending to Reach campaign rather... sucked.. and the story just seemed like "whatever". The end? Any fanboy will tell you that the end is "OMGZ! IT IS SOOOO GOOD!" but no, really.. the end was horrible. I'm not going to spoil anything, but let me tell you this... it sucked..

     -SIGHTS&SOUNDS:   The graphics for this game was everything I expected it to be. Is that bad? No. Is that good? Not insanely, I didn't feel surprised. The Halo series has been going on for 10 years, I would expect graphics to improve as time went on, so.. the upgrade in graphics isn't something I'm in awe of. Now... I've had conversations with people about this game from A-Z, and people were saying "the graphics are amazing! Not the best, but definatly amazing", and I agree... amazing, compared to the rest of the Halo games, and because it is a new game, I would think that their graphics are up to par with the graphics of other games as well. So was I shocked that they upgraded graphics? No. It's something I expected.

    The sounds with the game were decent as well. A game needs sounds, and as the years go foreward with gaming, gamers are really expecting a "cinematic adventure", they want a great story, amazing graphics, and dramatic sounds, because you know... the game wouldn't be all that interesting if all you heard from the game was foil swords being smashed together. So.. the sounds were in tune with the game overall. However, when it came to other characters in the story of the game, they all have accents... which I cannot pick up accents very well from video games, so I enabled Subtitles.. and oh my gosh, what a disaster that was. The subtitles were on average 2 seconds off and in some parts maybe 3 seconds off, and it doesn't seem like such a big deal.. but when the character is saying long sentences and quicker than normal speed, it's hell trying to understand that they're saying as well.



     MULTIPLAYER:

         - MAPS:   I think it's really a cool idea that you can allow people to vote on what maps they want to play on... but when the game gives you the same map 5 times in a row, there's only so much of that you can handle before you over-play a map and just decide to back out of the lobby because you can't stand that map anymore. Also, there's nothing new to the maps... last time I played Halo it was 2 years ago and it was Halo 3, and it all seems the same. Some of the maps are so verical, you can't really do anything except try and jetpack your way around them, and even then.. that's not so amazing because now you have people focusing on this flying object in the air.


      - GUNS vs SHIELD:  The guns need some work. I understand their ideas and they're trying to be creative with the guns and even bring some cool guns back (personally, my favorite is the Needler).

It's purple and has diamonds coming out of it =]


  But if you mix the power of the guns with the strength of the shield, it's all out of measurment and proportion. To me, and it's just my opinion, but there's no way how I should get sniped in one bullet when I have full shield strength, and on a usual basis, I'm putting full on two clips into someone who will have a full shield also (and I shoot quite accurately). I also have to throw grenades at people and hit them twice on a regular basis in order to see a kill...and that's just exhuasting... now compare that to just one sniper bullet who can not only kill me in one shot, but drain all shield power I have.


  - PSYCHE REPORT: Wanna troll? No problem. Want to be in a quiet lobby? Peice of cake. Is your motivation to win? Awesome, because there is a psych report that matches you to players that have their psych report similar to yours, and let me tell you... this is one awesome feature that I wish CoD had. Now, I filled mine out to "Quiet Lobby, Team Player, Motivated to Win, Mature Lobby" which... sure, it takes forever to find it.. but it's worth it because there's actually a drop of sane people in an ocean of insanity. Now, it doesn't seem like much, but trust me.. I'm grateful to every extent.



      OVERALL:

  Would I buy this game again if I had to? Sure.. to write about it. Do I play this game on a regular basis? No I don't.. and I'll probably only play it for an hour once a day beings that most of my friends are on the game, other than that... I'll mostly be on COD. Which, the main difference between this and CoD is the fact that I can play COD by myself or even with friends and not be bored whatsoever, Halo is kinda boring if you're playing by yourself. It's a game that really thrives off of people playing it with their friends, which would explain why the campaign is so short and they didn't pay much attention to story.

  I wouldn't recommend this game to people who want a fast-paced game.. it is very sluggish compared to games like COD or even Battlefield and the transition from going to a in-you-face game to something slower could be slightly difficult... never in a million years would I put my sensitivity on the highest in COD, but I did that for Halo in order to try and speed it up and that only does so much as far as actually moving around is concerned.
 

   WHAT TO REMEMBER: Games are all about preference. I don't normally prefer games like this and I'm not into futuristic works of art or aliens, it's not something that interests me. So keep in mind that everything I said (especially about the story and campaign) it is coming from someone that doesn't care so much about Sci-Fi... I'm more into realistic and fast-paced games, so I wouldn't recommend this game for someone who prefers those types of games also.
    Is Halo fun to try though? Ofcourse, but It's definitely different than COD, and it's not on my Top 10 List.

Alice in Please-Not-Tim-Burton Land

 I don't care what anyone says, Tim Burton's take on Alice in Wonderland was like watching two dogs hump, you didn't want to watch it... but you couldn't stop. Here's the test if you're going to survive a serious threat to human species:
    - if you liked Tim Burton's Alice in wonderland... congrats, you'll be dead.
    - if you're asking "Tim Burton made an Alice in Wonderland?", you're going to live. You're also going to live if you remember it, but thought it sucked so don't care wither way, which also includes every movie critic out there (LAWLZFAIL@Burton).

   Now, I'm writing about this because American McGee is coming out with Alice in Wonderland: Madness Returns, and you know what? It achieves everything Burton failed to do with tons writers, special effects teams, make-up artists, camera crews, high paid actors, and "dynamic" angles to try and bring back artistic value to the film (since the movie didn't have enough CG). This game brings darkness, gore, and monsters.

   Personally, I remember being a young girl and walking through game stores and seeing the first American McGee Alice game on the shelf and I was intoxicated by it... even just looking at the cover and reading the plot and everything that came with it, and you know what? It lived up to my tiny kid expectations of what the game should be like, and 10 years later?Here's the second one coming out, and just in the first part of 2011 (although other sites say Fall of 2011).

  This game continues with Alice being free from the Asylum and being relocated to some shrink... her mind goes crazy and she starts hallucinating, and ends up losing her mind by thinking about her parents "mysterious" death. So, what does she do? Probably what every normal... or crazy, person would do... she starts imagining her own little world in order to escape reality. And that world? Yeah, Wonderland. So.. her crooked imagination pretty much ruins her wonderland and everything in it, so she now has to fix it and make everything better. Yeah, yeah.. the plot doesn't sound all that exciting, but when the first game came out, it was known for amazing soundtracks and graphics that were completely ahead of it's time.
   Back then, computer games weren't really known for being graphically striking or the most amusing plot-wise... and McGee was kinda the one that went out there and really tried to create a good and long story that people could enjoy.. and he accomplished that. So am I excited? Hell yes.

   The game is going to be available on the PC, Xbox360, and PS3. If you have the PS3, I would recommend getting the game for that (if you're not a PC gamer) because with games coming out on the PS3, they're taking advantage of the space on the cds that xbox seems to lack now.

Popular Misconceptions

 There has always been false judgement on video gamers... from being a nerd, loner, and a loser to being a fat virgin living in their grandma's basement (and I mean at 40 years old, Collector's Edition Darth Vadar helmet and all)... and now the stereotypes today, from live gaming, has now pushed the envelope even further for misconceptions, especially for girl gamers.

  One example is that game developers think that their clientele is made up of sad, horny, teenage men. How else do you explain all the boobs you see in video games these days? I'm not joking, while surfing the internet for video game lists, there came up "Top 25 best boobs in video games". How sad do you have to be to sit there and literally study these images on your gaming console to make up a list?

  Now, if people's ignorant judgements were right, I'd be a 10yo boy who is also a 300lb girl... who just so happens to be lesbian.. which might be nice since I tried to find one on the internet and I couldn't find one, which would make me the first EVER!!! (I hate the multiple explanation marks, but this called for it).

 To actually demonstrate my point on how the guys perception on girl gamers is wrong, I'll be comparing girl gamers vs. guy gamers side by side.. while being completely unbiased (maybe).

The Girl Gamer:     
   Now, gamepro.com says that one student in some big whoopdy-doo university in Belgium did a study with over 900 people and found out that girls find video games "too complicated.. which, if I spent all 20 years of my life playing manegment games and The Sims, I would think that running around a random map and killing people would be slightly complicated too. But ofcourse, me growing up playing games like Zelda, Mario, and Goldeneye 007 has prepared me to play something like CoD and has taught me to atleast explore the map and to know the guns before I just go out there and "wing it".. so, we'll just ignore that study and say that it was completely pointless to hand someone something they know nothing about, and expect them to be able to figure it out and master it in what was most likely 30 minutes of gameplay.

   Here's the awesome news, according to Entertainment Software Association, 25% of console players, and 39% of gamers on the PC are women... and that was in 2004. In today's society, female gamers that are 18+ make up 34% of gamers completely. That's like.... for every 3 guys, there's 1 and a half girl. And sure, some girl gamers are horrible, trust me.. I've played with several other girls and have even been a part of some all-girl clans, and some girls are just flat out horrible but not once have I ran into the stereotypical "fat and ugly" girl gamer.

 Honestly, I know guys just throw insults like "you're fat" because they feel completely emasculated by a female who has more talent at video games than they do.. but if I was fat, I would not be able to move my thumbs that fast in order to kill you over 10 times, let alone the rest of your sad, sad team.

 The Guy Gamer:

   Hey fellas, ever wonder why game developers make the main guy character so scrumdiddlyumptious? Because they feel like you all look like this guy, and you need an aesthetically pleasing model to look up to... after all, the main character in games is daring, smart, sexy, brave, and ambitious... and it's their very special way of telling you "hey you! you suck! Now be amazed by this character that you're being forced to play, and be in awe of the things he can do that you could only wish of! Mwuahahah!". Seriously... that's what they do, they have board meetings for this sort of thing, why? Because NO ONE wants an ugly superhero. Look at Quasimodo from the Huntchback of Notre Dame... did he get Esmerelda? No, no he did not.. even if he loved her.. instead, she fell for the gorgeous Captain Phoebus who she probably knew for 3 seconds.

Now, I'm not dissing this guy on any level, but you know what? I don't know how many times I've had some jerk on the 360 call me fat and ugly, and I counter-insult him and he tells me to look him up on facebook... and what do I do? I look him up on facebook and have a good chuckle to myself at the fact that I was able to call off his bluff, and trust me.. this has happened on more than a few occasions. Now, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that the average gamer is 35 years of age, overweight, aggressive, introverted, depressed... and male. Another study shows that games usually are marketed towards men because they fulfill the deep-rooted urge in order to conquer and dominate (click here to read).

   Now, I'm not trying to stir the pot or fuel the fire when it comes to stereotypes... and I know every gender and race has it's stereotypes... but come on people, this isn't the 1500's. Technology isn't what it used to be anymore.. time to update the human species and the way we consider things.

 

Like this guy.