F.E.A.R. Safety Tip
Welcome to today’s cluskevird safety tip.
Remember boys and girls when you throw a grenade while in reflex mode, be sure you have actually let go of the grenade BEFORE ducking back behind the wall.
This tip was brought to you by. . . F.E.A.R., the number 0, and the Suicide King Achievement.
Sneaking in an Achievement
What can I say? I went all week without a single achievement and I was feeling like I needed to get SOMETHING! With this thought in mind I went a little out of my way to grab one that I knew that was obtainable.
Lately, all I have been playing is Bejeweled 2, Mutant Storm, and F.E.A.R. It’s a nice little trio of games and I did throw out a couple of extra arcade games here and there. However, I’ll get back to those main three in a little bit because this paragraph is dedicated to the Proving Grounds. That’s right, I decided to put in Forza 2 and take on those last three races in the Proving Grounds. I needed a car that qualified and I found it with Cadillac (not sure which one). Even so, I knew I was in for a battle when I noticed that there was an A class car made by Ferrari in the mix. I admit to a little bit of a control problem in the first couple of races and I had to redo it twice before I got things under control (more or less). I still made a mess of my car. The important thing is that I managed to beat the Ferrari in all three races thus completing the series with all gold medals.
Mutant Storm has me all kinds of frustrated. I’m working on Tally mode and level 87 KICKED MY BUTT! I never thought I’d make it past that screen. Three days it took and then I think I lucked out. 88 was difficult but I knew I could do it. Now I’m on the last screen and I’m about ready to pull my hair out. I think I can do it, but I haven’t had a nice solid block of time to concentrate on it.
Bejeweled 2 is still there… level 111 so that means I still have a loooooooooooong way to go still.
F.E.A.R. is still getting some loving every now and again as I slowly make it to each new checkpoint. It took two tries to get past the first robot thing that fires missiles… but that second time was sweet. I managed to take him out only sustaining three points of damage. I’ve been doing pretty good, but I still get myself into trouble now and again. I’m hoping that I continue to make it through the checkpoints. I’m still on interval 6, but I’m getting closer to the end of it which means 4 more levels. Unfortunately I know of a few places that’s going to drive me crazy.
Tomorrow starts my new crazy schedule so I’m hoping that I can still get some gaming in now and again. If I don’t, well, do me a favor and play an extra five minutes for my sake. :p
The End of One Surreal Week
This week has turned out to be one of the most surreal and depressing weeks for quite some time. Nobody likes to get awakened at some weird hour, especially if it’s a phone call with bad news. On Thursday, my day started well before it should have shortly after 5 am. The phone call turned from bad to worse when I realized I couldn’t understand what the caller was saying because he was so distraught. The phone was then handed off to someone else and I could hear something said in the background. That’s when a calm voice identified himself as a deputy from the police and that my boss had passed away.
Most of the day was a blur as I quickly alerted people that needed to know including my fellow co-workers and upper management. I don’t know how I did it (shock probably), but I maintaned an even keel through the day. Today was a different story as I couldn’t even tell the one guy that didn’t know (gone the last couple of days) and keep my voice steady.
This was the reason for no blog yesterday. . . and why this one is so short.
It Has Begun
The work of putting the siding on the house has begun. The guys showed up today and they have started putting up the Weatherbeater insulation giving the house a distinctive pink look to it. :p They say that by Friday it will be completed so we only have to worry about stepping around the materials and workers for two more days. The guy comes out to measure for the doors tomorrow as well and then a couple weeks will pass and the final portion will be done.
It will be nice once it’s all said and done and I can once again concentrate on other things. . . like games :p Speaking of which, I’ve hit a killer screen on Mutant Storm. Level 87 is kicking my backside. It’s driving me crazy to tell you the truth. F.E.A.R. also did a number on me as well and I only made it to one checkpoint before walking into a mess I wasn’t prepared for. :p Sure, it might have had something to do with the fact the workers picked that point to show up, but it could have been because I didn’t take my time and decided to play catch with the grenade.
How to Game With Time Constraints
During the week I usually have a limited time to play games. Why is that you ask? Well, I work odd hours that occur during the afternoon to late night portion of the day. During the daytime I get to do a couple of things that break up my day at weird intervals. So, how to I get game time that actually feels like I’ve accomplished something? Well, I’m glad you asked.
I have a couple of games that I call grinders – which means that in order to actually get to a certain point, you’ll have to put in a lot of time. Endless Mode for example. To get through a single level I’m at about 25 minutes or so. This is a good one to get to while you are waking up and still have a nice block of time where you can make it through a level or two. As long as grinders are broken down into little sections, you can decide how long you are going to play for and therefore make sure you don’t just keep playing until you are late to work.
When it comes to retail games though, you have to be careful which one you pop into the 360. RPGs are rough because sometimes you just get lost in the game and only realize you are late when you get a phone call. I have one game in particular that I feel gives me a little playtime and alerts me at stopping spots. F.E.A.R. has checkpoints here and there throughout the game and gives you a nice little visual that a good place to stop would be there and a quick check of the clock helps make your decision. Otherwise if you fail miserably in this game then you are sent to the last checkpoint and once again you can decide if you have enough time to continue on or need to get it in gear and head out. Since this is a retail game I try to stop a good half hour before I need to be going so I don’t feel rushed.
So during the week I usually stick to the same couple of games. Lately I’ve been pushing Bejeweled 2 again in another attempt to get up to level 281. But at getting two levels a day this will take a long time. The real reason I’m playing this again though is to have 360voice.com show me in the top spot of most days played :p I’m but 13 days away and currently in possession of the second most days played. F.E.A.R. is getting love again thanks in part of my wife’s sister playing it and getting my interest back. For some reason I’ve been working hard at getting through tally mode in Mutant Storm… I’m only 20 some odd screen away from snagging an achievement for that.
F.E.A.R. This
Normally I am only good for just a few difficulty levels of a game. GUN, COD2 are just among a couple where I get to a certain level and then just feel it’s no longer fun, or just plain get burnt out on it.
Then there’s F.E.A.R. Granted I’m still on Interval 6, but even when I get in dicey situations that make me go through it several times at a time in certain areas, I feel I can still manage to make it through. Even on parts that were killing me on the lowest difficulties I’m am getting through on the toughest difficulty because I feel I’m getting better as a player. I remember a time I would be giving out lessons that I have learned like don’t don’t throw a grenade against a solid object and things like this. Now I’m learning the real lessons like aiming and gratuitous violence… errr… I mean gratuitous use of the slow motion. :p
I know I still have a lot of crazy battles to get through but at this point I’m still moving forward. A few checkpoints at a time.
More House Improvements
Today marks the day where I start getting anxious and hoping that my money situation is actually as good as I’ve had it planned. The reason I’m saying this is because today we got an estimate on how much it would take to get vinyl siding for the house. Yes, it is going to be very expensive, but the skirting of the home is already suffering as well as a few spots on the siding itself. Luckily, no matter what happens, this is going to add curb appeal to the house meaning that if and when we sell, it will all help out in the end and we’ll more than likely see a good return.
Along with the siding, we’re getting our doors replaced as well since they don’t do well at keeping things out like rain (when the wind is right) and outside temperatures. :p The doors are actually kinda neat with their 20 gauge steel and custom built frame so it fits perfect (magnetic seal and everything). It’s all energy star stuff so the energy bills should also see a slight decrease. Anyone who offers a guarantee like Sears means that this will be a quality product that will last a lifetime. In fact, I believe that they said it was guaranteed as long as we own the home AND for as long as the next owners own it.
I’m not going to throw out any numbers, but it’s safe to say that it’s going to be tough on the pocketbook for awhile. My plan is to take some before and after pictures.
Game Browsing… in High Definition
Now that I have the HDTV I’ve decided I’m going to play a little bit of every game I have. Slowly I’m making my way through the games, but I want to keep working on some of the games I’m active in as well, so for now it’s mostly the arcade games I’m marveling at.
Hexic and Bejeweled 2 are currently on my active list and I try to play a little bit every day right now in order to work on some of those pesky achievements that take awhile to get. Today I put in Luxor 2 and Mutant Storm to see if there was much difference and the only one I didn’t see much in was Mutant Storm, but that could be because I was so intent on surviving the level I was on. Yesterday I looked at Astropop and Zuma as well as Galaga (which I went ahead and got all the achievements for since it seems I’m not as interested in this game as I first thought I was).
For the retail games, F.E.A.R. is still my active game with Forza making an appearance. I still have many many games to goof around with and it may take me a really long time to marvel at the detail. Hmmm… I wonder if I can read the text for Dead Rising now? :p
Catching Up With All That Happened
I do try to keep things going here, even if it’s a bit on the nonsensical nature. There are those times, however, that things kind of take control of my ability to do so. This is one of those so sit right back and I will tell you the tale. . .
Have you ever had one of those days that just didn’t seem to want to go right? I’m sure you have – let’s face it, everyone has experienced a few of these in their lifetimes. Yesterday decided it would be my day. How did I handle it? Just like everything else, I rode it out and tried to maintain an even keel.
The day itself appeared to be going okay for a Monday, I mean nothing foretold of anything going awry so I obliviously wandered through the day working on my little games like Hexic, Bejeweled 2 and F.E.A.R. Then again if you do check out my 360’s blog this is not any new news. :p I got into work with a few things that needed worked out, but nothing overwhelming and a little exertion was all that was needed to clear the night for our usual heavy Monday workload.
The first problem arose wih a highly secured password getting revoked that in the past only one person in the world could reset, but with a little phone call I found out that I now have a little more power than I used to. Resetting the password was cakewalk since it’s one of our main functions at the help desk. The it came to pass that our most important highly secure job don’t mess it up or heads will roll started printing. . . and jamming. and jamming. and jamming. Looking at the paper stock, our closely monitored control numbered pages were warped, right at the perforation making a nice little bow – which prevented the paper from getting taken into the machine properly. Mind you it takes all night to print these guys out on a good night. We now had to load half of what we normally loaded at a time in order to get the machine to run fairly well. It was here that we should have known the night was going to last forever. Bravely we ventured on and watched in horror as a different printer just didn’t want to cooperate. Unsatisfactory print was coming out of it. At least these weren’t on the highest priority and we could reprint these guys with no problems. . . All my knowledge of cleaning up the printer went out the window which meant that it could only be one thing… Yeah – call tech support and have them dispatch someone out to fix it. Which would have been nice if someone would actually be able to get out to us. . . Limping along our HIGH priority job stops dead. . . Needs developer mix and. . . strangely enough, only a service tech is able to do this. . . Make another call and because it looks like we aren’t getting a tech out to us we take our emergency backup data set and send it to a printer that is half as fast and only holds two reams at a time. . .
We’re gonna make it, don’t worry. Get everything forward spaced to where we need to be, load up the proper forms and get things moving. As long as we’re making progress things are going to be okay. Then we get a break. The tech DOES show up and gets our little printer printing clean copies again by changing out the part which I knew was the culprit. Then after a painful display of not knowing what he was doing, finally got the developer mix changed out for us.
At only 3 and a half hours of overtime, I feel we did pretty good for the trouble we had. But leaving work at 2:30 in the morning isn’t something I look forward to. Luckily I have the day off for today and I got a little more gaming in, a little house cleaning done and a little birthday time for the wife taken care of. All in all, things worked themselves out pretty good.
Working Hard All Day Long
When it comes to projects, I usually end up working on them all day long. Today was no exception as I put together a tv stand, got the 50" Plasma HDTV on its base and on the completed tv stand, called the Dish Network guys to come out and upgrade us to the High Def receiver and then I put together the 5.1 surround sound system.
Sound easy? Well, not when you have to figure out the darn instructions. I had no problems putting the stand together, but I like to take my time on these things to make sure I have a decent finished product instead of something that looks like it fell out of the truck. Even the Plasma was fairly easy to get connected up and showing us some television. Apart from finding the instructions, getting the dish network remote to recognize the tv was also simple.
Then came the speakers. My head still hurts. My valiant efforts provided no surround sound for the tv – yet once a dvd was inserted, the surround sound was fully operational. Okay, back to the drawing board. While I was looking through the instructions to see what I missed, I had a little voice telling me to call customer support. I hate calling ANYBODY. I especially hate calling tech support for stupid things. I eventually discovered the error of my ways though and that was I didn’t connect the audio portion from the tv into the surround sound system. So, after discovering that I had an extra set of wires handy the problem was solved.
Last and definately not least was the 360 (which looks so nice sitting on its little glass shelf). Also a little troublesome since I messed up with the surround sound at first, I also plugged the high def component cables into the surround sound system and not the back of the tv. Upon fixing that I held my breath and hit the switch. It was okay, looked a little stretched. . . decided to check the video settings and made a couple of adjustments like switching the settings to 720P instead of the 480 it was at. Hmm… seems like I had to make one more setting change but I can’t think of what it was.
Anyway, fired up Bejeweled 2 and got a case of the giggles. Not only did everything looks so clean and crisp, but the surround sound of those jewels exploding was definately making extra noise. I also checked out Hexic in HD. Then I went for a retail game test. Holding my breath I put in F.E.A.R. and was blown away. Yeah, I walked into a roomfull of bad guys and they threw a grenade at me. :p Okay, I’m fibbing – Holy Cow! Everything is so much clearer. I can actually read the text and see the details in the little graphics for how many grenades I have and medpacks. I can actually see the enemy a little better as well and I was having lots of fun. Last of all I had to do some racing in Forza. Took me a couple of tries to finish an arcade race and then I experienced a time trial. Last of all I went for my last race in the Lightweight series (Proving Grounds) and ran directly into a wall. Even after that, I still managed to briefly take first place only to run into another wall…. So much for my bragging the other day about no contact. :p My second attempt netted me a much better result and now I only have the Heavyweight series to complete in order to grab that achievement.
Who knows what I’ll play tomorrow… I’d kinda like to see how some of the other games look in high definition glory. :p
The Mixed-Up world of Cluskevird 