Valkyria Chronicles

Picked this game up for the PS3 and it is quite good. It's a turn-based strategy game with some light RPG elements. The story is really well done, right up there with actual anime. I'm only a couple of hours into it, but so far I really like what I see. Can't wait to dig deeper!

Still trying to make time for my other recent games as well. One of these days I will get online with Street Fighter 4 and get my ass handed to me. Looking forward to that!

Computer (bullshit) update

My computer will not be ready until Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest and I am beyond pissed off. First, this was not a complicated task. Replace the chipset fan. That's it. They called last night and told me I could pick it up soon. Then they called back to say that the fan they had didn't fit but they would have one that did this afternoon. I called them today and they said it would be ready in an hour. I went by to pick it up and of course there is a problem. It seems my video card is extra large and they cannot fit the replacement fan and large heatsink that they had ordered. Well, I could have told them that my video card was big and that it sits above the chipset fan. Amazingly, they took out my fan and didn't notice that size would be an issue until it was time to put the new fan in. IDIOTS! So not only will they not have a new fan in until Tuesday or Wednesday, but I couldn't take my PC back home and use it in the interem because the had completely removed the chipset fan. Before I could hear if the fan started failing and immediately shut down the PC with no harm done. That's out the window.

So for a simple fan replacement that should have taken 1 day I am now going to be without my computer for a week. I did pick a USB mouse to use on my wife's laptop so it's not such a pain in the ass to use. But all of my e-mails, bookmarks and info (including iTunes) is on my PC and I can't get to it. My daughter Jess just bought an new iPod Touch but she can't hook it up until I get my PC back. This is a real pisser.

More computer problems

Well, my chipset fan has become a real problem. I can't leave my PC on unattended. So I took it in today to get it repaired. They told me that 1st they have to diagnose the problem (what the hell does that mean? I know the damned problem, the chipset fan needs to be replaced!) and that it may be done by the weekend. Bravo.

I would have done it myself but it is hard to get to and I am not sure how to actually get it out. I am sure I could have managed, but I thought I'd let someone who knows what they're doing work on it. I just had no idea it was gonna be such a project. I called this morning and explained the problem and I asked them if the fan was something they would need to order. If so, I wouldn't take the PC in until they had the fan on hand. They assured me they had a fan that would work. Then when I got there of course, they said they may need to order the fan. Ugh.

This is really a simple problem and if I don't get my PC back by the weekend I am going to be super pissed. When I asked if they thought it would be ready by the weekend, they said "hopefully." No shit.

They work on a first-come-first-serve basis. Apparently I am set for a "diagnostic exam" tomorrow. When I told them there was no need, that I knew exactly what the problem was, they said they need to run it through some tests to make sure no damage was done. Argh! Just replace the chipset fan, take my money and let me be on my way!

Why does something so easy have to be so damned complicated?

My favorite baseball story

Spring training is underway so I thought I would share my very favorite baseball story. Whether it is true or not, I do not know. I hope to hell it is. I read about this in the Bill James Historical baseball abstract and it has always stuck with me. I may have a couple of minor details wrong, but this is the gist of it:

Back in the nineteen-teens, the Detroit Tiger's manager got a cable from some farm kid saying that he was a great pitcher and that he could strike out Ty Cobb on 3 pitches, guaranteed. He wrote a couple of times a month, always saying he could strike out Cobb on 3 straight pitches. Since the Tigers needed pitching, the manager decided he would send for the kid, knowing that the worst that could happen was he would have wasted money on the cost of a train ticket.

The kid shows up before a game and the Tigers' manager lets him get ready and informs Cobb of the situation. Finally the kid is ready to go and Cobb steps up to the plate for the showdown. The first pitch is right down the middle and Cobb smacks it down the 1st base line. The 2nd pitch is hit nearly to the outfield wall (and Cobb was a slap hitter in the dead-ball era) and the 3rd is right back up the middle and knocks the kid off of his feet.

The Tigers' manager is clearly disgusted and he walks to the mound shaking his head. "Well kid, what do you have to say for yourself?"
The kid considers just for a moment and then points toward home plate. "You know," he says, "I don't think that's Ty Cobb."

A very worthy music plug

If you are a fan of singer/songwriters, you owe it to yourself to check out Sarah Harmer. She released a CD back in 2000 called You Were Here. I listened to it constantly back then and I stumbled upon it again recently. It still packs a wallop. She has a tremendous voice and a real gift for melody. Many of the songs are just pure heartache and resonate for a good long time. Some of my faves from "You Were Here" include Basement Apt, Capsized, Lodestar, Don't Get Your Back Up, Uniform Grey and Coffee Stain. As you can see, I hard a hard time paring down the best tracks. The whole album is fantastic.

I just downloaded her followup, All Of Our Names, and it is terrific as well. I will be ordering the catalog of her old band, Weeping Tile as well. This is all great, great stuff that you probably would never have heard of anywhere else. I love discovering "new" music and I hope you do too.

You can see several of Sarah's music videos on Youtube, along with some live performances as well. Check her out!

Street Fighter IV

Picked it up today and it's top-notch all the way. In news that is sure to shock the entire gaming community, I completely suck at it. I am trying to learn some of the more difficult moves and either I am not doing something right or I am misinterpreting what I am supposed to be doing. I'll have to keep trying and hopefully find some tips somewhere. The controller works great for it as well.

Nice deal

Well, I satisfied my gaming jones and got a pretty good deal in the process. Thanks to a nice gift card from work and trading in some older games I no longer play, I was able to pick up Soul Caliber IV (used) and a new Mad Catz Street Fighter IV controller, *plus* pay in full for Street Fighter IV (which comes out tomorrow morning) and MLB '09: The Show, which comes out the first week in March. Not bad if I do say so myself.

I went with the PS3 versions of SCIV and SFIV mainly because the Mad Catz controller is wireless on the PS3 and wired on the 360. My only concern about going with the PS3 is online lag. The Playstation Network has never been able to compare in my experience. But considering online play will take up about 5% of my total time with the games, it's not that big a deal.

Now if I can only find some time to actually play...

The gaming jones

I am getting the bug again. Must...get...new...game! Every once in a while a game comes out of seemingly nowhere to pique my interest. That was certainly the case with Far Cry 2 last year and now the same thing is happening with Street Fighter 4. I am not a huge fan of fighting games; I like them okay but don't get into them very much. But SF4 has me seriously intrigued. First of all, the reviews are stellar. Everyone is raving about the way it looks, plays and feels. Anytime a game gets almost unanimous raves I start getting the jones. Second, in the IGN review, they talk about how accessible the game is, whether you are a Street Fighter veteran or just starting out. They say beginners should be able to pick up a controller and have tons of fun right off the bat. Speaking of the controller, there is a new game pad put out my Mad Catz which is supposed to be absolutely superb for SF4 (and all other fighting games). It costs $40, so it is a little pricey, but luckily I have a large gift card burning a hole in my pocket.

MLB '09: The Show comes out in early March, but as of right now there are no other games on the horizon that I am looking forward to. So just maybe I'll spring for SF4 and that new game pad. Now I just have to decide which console, Xbox 360 or PS3, to get it on. The 360 version supports 1080p while the PS3 does not. On the other hand, if I skip the new game pad, the PS3 controller is said to be a lot better than the 360 controller for this game. Decisions, decisions.

Octuplets' mom seeks online donations

Wow, I sure didn't see this coming. Poor lady. She has what, 14 kids now? She's a single mom but decided to add 8 more children to the 6 she already had. Brilliant thinking. Oh, and now she needs money because, you know, it's hard to feed 14 frigging children when you are on disability. So since she has squeezed out her last 8 love muffins, she has tried to get her own TV show (as if we need another John & Kate + 8) and is now appealing for donations.

I am normally not taken with the old "welfare cheats" stories about how some women keep having kids to get more money, but this is just ridiculous. It's obvious that this psycho was all about the publicity. Otherwise there's this thing called family planning, see? And it helps you make tough decisions like, "Say, you already have 6 children that you really can't take care of. Perhaps you should think about stopping right there, eh?" Instead, during a full blown economic crisis, she wants everyone else to foot the bill for her completely irresponsible decision to have more kids. And just who the hell was her fertility doctor that thought she needed help having more kids? There's some real ethics there, huh?

So please, folks, give generously or else the kids will suffer. Because that's what this is all about. You know, the kids.

Computer back!

Back up and running. I replaced the heat sink and CPU fan, which had been making noise for a long while. Then much to my surprise when I rebooted the computer, I still got the fan alarm. Only I read it closer and it said my chipset fan was the culprit. Doh! Anyway, I unplugged it from the board and rotated it a few times by hand to make sure it was spinning freely. When I rebooted, it started up just fine. Obviously I will have to keep and eye on it, but my computer does alarm when it is malfunctioning, so that should be cool. And I am so glad I replaced the CPU fan anyway because it has been a problem for a long while. Now I can not worry about it anymore.

Anyway, I am back in business!

Computer down

I am typing this from my wife's laptop as my PC is currently unavailable. My CPU fan has been making noise for a while and I knew I was going to need a new one. Today the power went out in my house for about 30 seconds and it took my computer off. When I restarted it, I kept getting an alarm saying that the fan was not running at a fast enough speed. After striking out at Radio Shack and Best Buy, I am going to have to visit a computer repair shop, possibly as soon as tomorrow. I may check in from my wife's laptop before I get mine going again.

Movie minute: In Bruges

Saw this last night and absolutely loved it. It's a small, quirky film but it is filled with great performances (Colin Farrell has never been better) and lots of laughs and drama. Ralph Fiennes is menacing as a crime boss while Brendan Gleeson teams up with Farrell to portray a pair of unlikely hitmen. Highly, highly recommended, I'd give it a solid A.

Some sports gaming stuff

I am loving the hell out of FIFA Soccer '09 right now. When I played it right after it's release, I was underwhelmed. But I recently started playing the Be A Pro mode where you play as one person the entire match. Very addictive, and I don't have to deal with the frustration I have playing defense; my main complaint about the regular game mode is that your computer teammates are brain dead when it comes to playing defense. You have to constantly switch players and do everything yourself; your teammates don't even go after the ball. FIFA has been like this for ages. But with Be A Pro mode, I can concentrate on playing as a striker and worry only about attacking.

FIFA is such a well done game. I am a sucker for a sports game that offers up lots of teams to play with and FIFA has over 200 teams to choose from. Different leagues throughout the world are represented so you can play in the Barclay's Premier League if you'd like or you can go somewhere where the talent isn't so good, say the Australian or Korean leagues. It's a lot of fun and I am really glad I gave this game another spin after ignoring it for along while. My only other complaint is that when you create a player, you can only make him average at best. There is a limited amount of skill points you can give him, so you can't create stud players. I am a firm believer that games should give you any and all options available. You pay a lot of money for these game and the user should be able to have all the flexibility he/she wants.

I also downloaded the demo for Sony's MLB: The Show 'o9. Brilliant stuff. It is a lot like last year's version, which is a good thing. It looks like they added some new features and cleaned things up a bit. It is a beautiful game, just stunning as far as the stadiums and players go. This is a day one purchase for me. As Dave Roland mentioned, he and I are gonna have to get some more baseball games in this year. I still owe him for a beatdown he gave me last year.

Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage

I went ahead and download the first DLC for my Game Of The Year for 2008, Fallout 3. I have yet to boot it up and it will probably be a while before I can get into it. Reviews so far have been good, not great. Apparently it is basically all about combat and no real role playing is involved. I'll offer up some thoughts after I spend some time with it.

Super Bowl review

Well, if you read my earlier post on the Super Bowl, you know I got exactly what I wished for; a good game by Kurt Warner and a last minute Steelers' win. But I couldn't help myself. Bill Bidwill aside, I was pulling for the Cardinals. When Fitzgerald scored that TD with just over 2 minutes remaining, it was euphoria at my house. My parents and some good friends of ours were over to watch the game and we were all pumped. Then came the Steelers drive and score, on that spectacular catch by MVP Santonio Holmes. The whole house deflated.

I hope Warner's performance was enough to put him over the top for the Hall Of Fame. His one interception was a huge, huge play in the game but he passed for over 370 yards and 3 TDs. He has played in 3 Super Bowls and has the top 3 passing games in Super Bowl history as far as yards. That's damned impressive. I know not a lot of his passes were long, but he had to thread the needle all night over the middle and he did just that. My hats off to him, and to the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers. Celebrate hard and safely, Steel City.