JonCole

It's been a little while since this thread was active, but I figured I'd revive it to give some quick impressions of a new mouse I've been using - the Razer Mamba. I've gotta say, I haven't really considered deviating from my typical love for Logitech mice, keyboards, and other peripherals... but this one may have changed my mind. Razer took what was seemingly impossible - creating a wireless mouse with the responsiveness of a wired mouse - and has pulled it off better than I expected. Furthermore, the whole wireless setup is totally slick; the charging dock is conveniently integrated with a mini-USB plug which can be plugged directly into the mouse at any time, which allows for wired-to-wireless switching on the fly. Beyond that, it just feels really great in my hand, which is a little difficult since my hands seem to be relatively small and don't work well with most huge gaming mice. I'd recommend this mouse easily - I got it at a sweet $70 from Woot, though it normally retails for $100 - 120. At the regular price, it might be a little more difficult to create a convincing argument for an impulse buy, but it's probably the best spent money I've burned on a peripheral for my computer yet.

Take what I said however you want, my point remains the same. If you want more functionality out of an iPhone, jailbreaking is a viable and smart way to do it. And the truth is, it's a much better phone once you do it.

Yeah, totally agreed. There was a lot of cool stuff in there, but the pixel density was the big story. I can't wait to get a 26" monitor on my desk with >300 ppi... though it'll take a damn long time for that to be affordable. On the topic of Apple products not being open enough for you, that's what jailbreaking is for. Apple doesn't use it as a selling point for obvious reasons, but jailbreaking takes a good phone (iPhone 3GS, probably iPhone 4) and makes it relevant among the latest Android phones.

Actually, if you go to the Rockstar Social Club website, they have a 100% page that tracks things that contribute to that thing. It seems a little buggy, but it definitely points you in the right direction.

Just beat this game yesterday. Really satisfying ending... probably one of the most satisfying endings I've experienced in quite a while. Now I'm just trying to tick away at that last 5% completion rating, bahhhhh.

I believe it's on Netflix Instant View as well, to those of you who find that relevant.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History - a new one that I came upon per Shawn Andrich's recommendation, pretty captivating conversation about history. He talks in a way very much like that one professor who's really enthusiastic and excited about the subject he teaches at university. Reporters' Roundtable - pretty interesting tech podcast put out by cnet that takes one big picture topic per week, puts it in the crosshairs, roots out some experts on the topic, and talks the nitty gritty with detail and insight.

IGN may be a little better nowadays with Anthony Gallegos and Arthur Gies on watch, but developers continue to carry the torch of producing shitty quotes for shitty games. Case in point, Two Worlds 2: <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdvP0RR0YdY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdvP0RR0YdY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object> "Intriguing" - IGN.com Two uses of the word intriguing in the preview: Ah, Southpeak, you dirty dogs.

On the topic of good film podcasts, I'd be daft not to mention Filmspotting. I also heard that their forums are pretty solid, though I haven't spent any time there just because I don't have time to.

http://gammasquad.uproxx.com/2010/05/littledog-is-learning-waiting-plotting

We just had Shawn Andrich of Gamers With Jobs on my podcast, where we talked about the fate of 4 Guys 1UP, Red Dead Redemption, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and Google TV. It was actually a really great episode both if you're a fan of GWJ and want a little bit of the story behind it, as well as if you're hungry for some Red Dead discussion (we went on for 20 minutes, easily). http://www.castmedium.com/2010/05/25/castmedium-podcast-037-05-25-10/

Yup, this is exactly what I did with Call of Duty 2. I mean... otherwise, I would have probably removed it from my backlog by breaking the disc in half.

I don't understand this. Bethesda isn't particularly much better as far as bugs are concerned - I've fallen through textures, got stuck in geometry, randomly lost items, have had NPCs completely disappear, and such FAR more in Bethesda games. I absolutely agree. I have a much bigger problem with linear games with plenty of bugs.

This game is destroying my life. I'm already 20 hours into it within less than a week and haven't really slowed down at all. I feel the game slowly coming to a close, but I still feel like I don't know exactly when it's going to end. I'm starting to get a little bit of the buggyness that people are talking about... fell through the second story of a building to the first and all the textures reset, once. Also couldn't get a captured bounty onto my horse to save a life, eventually dying after seven waves of the guy's delinquent friends. But honestly... this is like two major hitches within the span of 20 hours. Maybe this is just anecdotal, but I really don't consider this game that buggy.

I got my goddamn horse killed by a pack of wolves. Those things have killed me more times than anything else in this game.

As far as the graphics go, I honestly think that it looks fantastic. Assassin's Creed 2 is a hell of a high watermark, sure, and it definitely doesn't live up to that game. But in comparison to other open world games of this scale like Fallout 3, Oblivion, and such, RDR looks damn good. Especially the John Marston character model. Do you... still need help with these other things? Fame and honor are explained to you as you achieve the "levels" or ticks on the scale every time you earn them. Basically, honor gains you cred with lawmen and fame gives you cred with everyone. Bounty is basically just semi-long term repercussions of committing crimes, upping the ante from Rockstar's GTA games. Once you accrue a bounty, you can either pay it off at the closest train station, hand in a government pardon to magically whisk your bounty away, or let it build up over time hoping you don't get ultimately screwed. The game seems to save pretty consistently after quests complete, along with various checkpoints within each quest. Beyond that, you have to manually save at a campsite, property you own, or bed you rent from someone. Dueling is pretty simple. Challenge someone to a duel and when the whole thing starts, you enter "dead eye" mode. Unfortunately, that whole thing isn't well explained either. Dead Eye mode allows you to mark several places to shoot after a certain time elapses, normally activated by aiming at someone and clicking the right trigger. After you mark enemies using the right bumper, you then pull the right trigger to fire off all the bullets you just aimed. Dueling just takes that mechanic and places it into a very narrow scenario, requiring you to disable one guy faster than he gets you. You can easily win most duels just by marking the guy all over as fast as you can, but you can also try to shoot him in the hand to make him drop his weapon. Now that you mention it, that was a hell of a lot to explain. Then again, that stuff is explained a little bit more progressively and "in the moment" than any other game I've played, only really teaching you those things as you need them/they become useful to you.

So, I've been wanting to get some Firefight on, but I hear it's really best with a full four players. I'd love to play with some thumbs if anyone's game, maybe we can set up a time sometime soon if there's enough interest.

I thought I'd revive this topic just in case anyone else is going to miss Reach after the beta is out the window and maybe wants to get a little bit of use out of their ODST disc. So, yeah, I'd be up for some Firefight, Co-op, or hunting achievements.

This game is so fucking good. It's basically taking a lot of the mechanics of GTA4 and putting them into a world and atmosphere that I actually give a shit about. I haven't had this "can't put the controller down" syndrome in a little while and it feels so good.

I feel like UPS sensed the urgency of my package, because I got it at 11 AM (about 4-5 hours earlier than usual UPS deliveries).

360 - jonac13

Saw Daybreakers today. Surprisingly well crafted movie, in terms of atmosphere and world building. Great for total cinematography whores like me. As far as the story goes, it's a little bit campy with the overindulgent gore and corny dialogue, but it does all of those things in just the right capacity. I was fairly impressed with the film, though I didn't have high expectations for it to begin with.

I understand that it's a bit of a throwaway blanket statement, but it doesn't do everything it does fantastically. I mean, story? C'mon. You made the Die Hard comparison, but Die Hard at least has a moderately logical story. I enjoyed MW2 single player and enjoyed thinking about the plot, but I would never say that it is fantastic.

Man, I know how you feel. I have to restart any long games if I haven't played for a while... was a total pain in the ass to get back to Fallout 3 after seeing my old character that had 15 hours invested.