Stuff

I've been sick with a stomach virus for the last four days. Not fun. Anyway, here's some stuff I've been meaning to write about but have been too sick to crawl to the computer for.

- The NCAA 2007 demo is out on the Marketplace. Florida vs. Florida State. I've played the demo about 3 times and I don't know what to make of the game. Why? Because you get fucking 1 minute quarters, that’s why!!!

Why does EA do this? Every damn sports demo (aside from Fight Night) is so compressed that they are practically unplayable. You'd be surprised how fast those quarters go, even for an EA football game that lets you fly to the line to call plays.

This is very annoying. Hello, EA, the point of a demo is to try and convince the player to buy your game. In order to do that, you have to provide enough substance to make the game look like a viable option. 1 minute quarters just doesn’t cut it. I can't get a drive going and I am forced to change my play calling to a two minute drill. I can't get a feel for the game this way. Also, why don't you have instant replays in the demo? Manual ones? Again, the more you handicap the demo, the less impressive it is. I hate to beat a dead horse, but look at the Fight Night and Lost Planet demos (the two best demos available for download). Both are extremely polished and offer an experience that lasts longer than four minutes. Get with the program EA, these crappy 1 minute quater demos suck serious ass.

- There are a few new cool videos on the marketplace. One is a behind the scenes of Halo 3. They don't really show you anything new (just some new camera angles for the current trailer) and they don't give you any story or gameplay details, but still an entertaining watch.

The second video is a "behind the scenes" look at Mass Effect. All I can say about this video is . . . WOW!!! It has surpassed my expectations. This game looks simply amazing. Amazing. Really, if you haven't seen this, go download it now.

- I'm all up in Oblivion again. This is game is fantastic. I've now logged in around 120 hours and I'm not even close to finishing the game. Nor am I bored with it. I have never played a game for that long. It is safe to say this game is well worth the $70 spent for the collector's edition.

Lately however, I have been getting some dirty disc errors while playing. It has only happened with Oblivion and is getting annoying. When I look at the disc, it tends to look a bit more scratched than what is normal for my games (I am VERY careful with them). Don't know how that happened. So, now I am just making sure I save more just in case.

- I also started playing Halo 1 again. I think it was the behind the scenes Halo 3 video that did it. I decided to replay Halo and Halo 2. The game is still fun today, although it takes some getting used to after playing part 2 for such a long time. Your shields take longer to charge up, you have health to worry about, no dual-wielding, and I keep wanting to pick up the energy sword after I kill one of those Elites.

- I got my 2GB memory stick duo for the PSP. Now if I could just figure out how to put songs in it . . .

- I've managed to get some quality games of GRAW co-op in. And like I have said, you need friends to do it. I recently started playing with my buddy Avalon and setting up a match is as simple as 1-2-3. Now, if I was trying to find a match to play in by myself, I'd probably still be looking as I write this.

GRAW co-op is a blast.

Alright, that's it for me. I need to go lay down. I hope I'm back to 100% soon, because this damn virus is annoying the hell out of me.