Shouting Grounds

I was quite excited to see the new DLC for New Vegas available for purchase, though I immediately regretted starting down the Lonesome Road, not for the reasons you’d think.

I have no idea what is going on with the Fallout series and the continuous technical bugs/glitches that plague the inhabitants of the wastes, but it is getting ridiculous.

SLOOOOOW DOOOOOOOOW — – - — NNS……..

The amount of time I’ve waited between open/closing containers and entering/exiting VATS between the last two DLC released surely outweighs the time I spent commuting to work for the entirety of a month. How can you fail on the process of looting containers? That’s the sacred cow of the Oblivion/Fallout series. I’m actually avoiding opening containers and joy they contain because I know that it will mean sitting and waiting for 1-5 minutes to return to actual gameplay. I should write it as “gameplay” because all I’ve been doing since I entered the Lonesome Road is waiting for the game to catch up. I even tried installing an SSD into my PS3 to hopefully avoid the sort of lockups and freezing problems I had with Oldworld Blues. It maks no difference. The Fallout wiki states that the PS3 may exhibit lockups when too many games saves are “in memory”. I deleted tons of game saves and even proactively deleted the game data force a reinstall and it makes NO DIFFERENCE. Such a waste of potential. I really LOVE this game but it’s become so laborious that I don’t even care about the storyline anymore. I just want to PLAY the goddamned game. I’d say I have to reboot the console every 15 minutes in order get the game into a state that’s tolerable. That is unacceptable. Maybe a software update will resolve these issues, maybe it’s a problem with the ever-increasing size of the gamesave file and not being able to fit into the PS3′s limited RAM, thus forcing swap-o-rama. I don’t know, but something has to give. I’m starting to lose faith in the Bethesda know-how. If Skyrim is anything like this, count me out.

From Yahoo (of course): “MTV is embracing change. In nearly three decades on the air, almost everything about the cable network — from its programming, to its focus, to its place in popular culture — has changed with the times, except for its famous tagline, “Music television.” Recently, the network quietly unveiled a new logo which has dropped the tagline entirely, indicating that MTV itself is leaving its original mission of an all-music channel in the dust.”

“The new logo is meant to put the focus on MTV’s current slate of talent.”

From Socrates Points (of course): OK, the graphic has GOT to be a joke.  There’s bad photoshop (on celebs, wafer-thinners and other trash), but then there’s REALLY bad photoshop…and this logo is definitely REALLY bad photoshop.  So you’re telling me that after 30 years, MTV just crops the fuckin’ original logo?  That’s it?  Just fuckin’ crop it?  Oh wait, if I really wanted to be technical…make that “crop it and invert it.”  Done.

That’s not edgey.  That’s not new and original. That’s just fuckin’ REALLY bad photoCHOP!  A baby can do that crap.

And because of that, I’m pissed off!  You know some fuckin’ lazy gen-x asshole out there (working for MTV) came out on top with this one.

Socrates Points is back, and he’s pissed off.  Thanks.

Ok, I’ve looked at Borderlands and it’s probably not the pickup and play variety. It seems like WoW without the crowd; pure shoot and loot. You run around doing missions and tend to accumulate lots of guns with different specs. shoot, loot, sell, repeat. There’s experience points and tons of upgrades.

The art style reminds me of Crackdown, so does the drop action. You off someone then hit point numbers, XP, ammo, guns, and money shoot out of his ass. The gun’s are fucking cool and each attribute definitely makes a difference when using them, plus there are fun little perks like “chance to set on fire” and I hear that there are sweet amalgamations of weapons like a missile-launcher shotgun.

One thing I noticed was that the FOV is really tight, like claustrophobic style. I don’t feel like I’m fully out of sniper scope view for some reason. That make firefights a little tense, since she can get right up on you without a good peripheral hint that they’re getting close. The compass shows bad guys as red dots, large red dots if they’re aggro, but I found myself whipping around to make sure I wasn’t being jumped by a midget psycho. (Yes, midget psycho’s are bad guys that crop up every now and again, squealing and giggling like a clown, extremely funny the first time when you don’t expect it)

Also of annoyance but technically more “realistic” is when you utilizing the automated ammo, gun, medial vending machines, up to your nuts in stats comparisons and equipment, you can still be attacked. I was shopping for SMG upgrades, and hear this giggling and howling, then I started taking damage. I closed out the shop screen, spun around and blew the head off of whatever was bothering me, but it just shows that this game’s a little different than your average FPS or RPG. When you go into your inventory screen it also doesn’t pause the game. So switching weapons apart from your two currently equipped ones during a firefight may cost you some health. You can pause the game by hitting escape at least.

Oh and respawn. Like an MMO the enemies you brutally murdered respawn in just a few short minutes. I butchered an entire Skag nest, went over the hill to loot some shit, then shot a few more things, and when I went to leave the original nest of Skags was repopulated. It’s good in one sense because it gives you a nice/fast way of grinding for gear, money, and XP but for an FPS I wasn’t expecting the Doom3 Monster hole effect. As far as your death, when you die you respawn back to the last respawn point you physically walked past for a small fee. If you run out of fund I’m assuming your totally fucking dead.

In true RPG style as you level up there’s skill tree’s for different things. Just how Team Fortress characters have different abilities, depending on which core class you pick when you create your character (Hunter, Siren, Soldier, or Brick) you have a different set of abilities that you can train as you play the game. The solider is all I played so far and he has this auto turret called the scorpion that he can drop that has a shield you can duck behind. Add points to the scorpion to add more firepower, longer duration/damage, healing of teammates near the turret, added damage for player near the turret, that kind of stuff. Skill points are can go to your core skills, like weapon specialization and passive stats.

Along with Skills, leveling up increases your core stats, and allows you to use weapons with higher level requirements. For loot whores out there this gave follows Diablo-style loot rarity colors. From the Wiki:

Borderlands uses a classification system for gear that follows the standard color-coding system for RPGs. A common (white) gun would be average, an uncommon (green) would be slightly above average, a rare (blue) would be a premium gun, an epic (purple) would be a very strong gun, and legendary (orange) guns are the best of the best.There 3 type of orange,Light Orange, Orange and Dark Orange. Dark Orange being the rarest. The rarity of each gun is indicated by color as stated on the page of each gun. (See Category:Weapons)

White < Green < Blue < Purple < Light Orange < Orange < Dark Orange

For those who like to cut to the chase on loot value, the game gives you the trade-in value of the item at the bottom of the stat sheet and the specs are color coded (like in mass effect) to let you know what stat is higher (green) or lower (red) than your currently equipped weapon.

Like in Wow and other RPG’s if you trying to fight a character with a skull next to their name and health bar, you are in for some hurt. It’s best to grind up or do other quests until you’re about the same level. There is definitely the same WoW damage/difficulty ramp when fighting slightly higher level characters that are skulled. You may blast through their shield, but they won’t take anywhere near the physical damage you think that they would with the amount of lead your feeding them. All the while your shield and life is being pulled out of you like a nightmarish happy-ending.

It has 4 player coop, in sort of the same vein as diablo battle.net matches, since it’s an RPG. Monsters get stronger with more players entering the world, weapon trades are possible, and joint XP. it’s great for me because I like soloing games anyways, but there is the opportunity to team up if you’re the social butterfly of headwounds.

Anyway, I’m interested in seeing where this game goes as it’s pretty fun, but I’m sure it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, due to the RPG structure of this FPS. I loved Mass Effect, and this covers the combat (minus the non-realtime strategy portion), the weapon lust, and the character building, and it has a WoW open world (level gated) and grinding/loot model. An interesting mix, indeed.

On a scale to 1 – 100, I’d say, so far, it’s about an 85.

Link

Genius. I almost passed out from laughing at this. I particularly enjoyed his attention to detail. The “judemental teddybears” are fucking hilarious.

hai giuyzzzzz!! LOLZ

I LOL’d

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn’t Fucking Work

Magic John Stone back with your stupid ass for another Oscar LiveBlog. Even though no one will be F5′n this mother fucker during the show, I’ll be posting up like the Mailman every few minutes to let you know how lame the Academy is this year.

7p central, Oscar Fashion Handjob Pregame (blueballs mix)
- Just like last year, forgot that hollywood thinks we tune into the Oscars to find out who these overpaid screws gave too much money to for their dresses and suits…what a joke. Maybe seek out the stars to ask them interesting questions instead of cupping their genitals like total fuckups.
- Diane Lane…num num.
- Amy Adams is pretty hot, short but hot…like a little hot pocket. Tuna Croissant Pocket.
- Sarah Jessica Parker is still a Gremlin, Matthew Broderick is still a retard.
- Now this cheese dick is interviewing Valentino? WHO FUCKING CARES?! Movies, assface!
- Good to see Danny Boyle brought half of India to the show…wonder why no one cares what they’re wearing?
- Mickey Rourke is the ugliest Pimp in Hollywood. It’s gotta be hard out there for a Pimp.
- Vanessa Hudgens looks different with clothes on.
- Robert Downey Jr is cool.
- Viola Davis, from Doubt, is up for Best Supporting Actress…I think she was in the movie for like 4 1/2 minutes. And yeah, I saw that shit.
- How old is Miley Cyrus again?
- Anne Hathaway…num num.
- The douches with the winning envelopes have plastic smiles.
- Meryl Streep’s daughter is bangin’! But there’s always the fear she’ll age like mom.
- 16. Miley Cyrus is 16…
- Jack Black knows how it is…he’s dug in at the bar. And he made the interviewer look like the tool he is.
- Marisa Tomei…num num. Yes please.
- Seth Rogan and Judd Apatow are dug in with Jack Black at the boozer. Smart peoples.
- Segment about the thinking behind the production of the Oscars…slightly interesting.

End of Pregame, I’m unsatisfied.

- Huge Assman is hosting…this should be interesting. Wonder if he’s the first guy from the Criminal Continent to host?
- Kate Winslet is a serious MILF
- Huge Assman is playing it like SNL…pretty smart.
- Shit…he can really dance too. That makes me nervous.
- Nice, he wonders too why The Dark Knight’s not up for best Movie.
- LOL…overall one of the better intro Montage/Performances I can remember. I think it’s partly because Huge actually thought it was funny too.

- Angelina Jolie, good god. They should clone her or something.
- Ew…Tilda Swinton creeps me out.
- Guinan! Red light y’all! I’m sure Whoopi will find some reason to slow down and complicate the Oscars.
- I think Huge should give Anjelica Huston the old Croc Dundee Dick-Check…she’s looking like she picked up a Y-chromo or two somewhere.
- Goldie Hawn’s 1 drink away from dreamland, and 1/2 inch away from showing her complete pec’s to the Academy.

**AWARD**
Best Supporting Actress – Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona

- Penelope Cruz? Really? I think that was Marisa Tomei’s award…or the woman from Ben Button. Once again the Academy shows its tendency to give awards away to foreign movies. Just a little conspiracy theory of mine.
- Great…Steve Martin. Maybe as soon as his mouth opens someone will shoot him.
- Shit…that didn’t happen.
- Tina Fey is hot, but I gotta say there’s something not right about her hair.
- I haven’t heard of any of these fucking movies for Best Original Screenplay.
- Oh wait, In Bruge! Shit yeah! Now Milk, here we go…what were those first two movies?
- Now WALL-E? Really?

**AWARD**
Best Original Screenplay – Dustin Lance Black for Milk

- Milk was a good movie, I can accept this award.
- Fuck, this guy is young.
- Have a feeling Slumdog’s gonna win Best Adapted Screenplay.

**AWARD**
Best Adapted Screenplay – Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire

- Good award, fantastic movie. I think this guy’s wearing a Pleather Tux. Probably pretty warm.
- I think Jennifer Aniston’s about to lose her shit being this close to Angelina Jolie.
- The Animation 2008 montage wasn’t too inspiring…

**AWARD**
Best Animated Feature Film – WALL-E

- WHOOP-E
- Philip Seymor Hoffman’s wearing a seaman’s watchcap and holding a bible or something.

**AWARD**
Best Animated Short Film – La Maison en Petits Cubes

- PURE EXCITEMENT.

- Sarah Jessica Parker’s got some grapefruit tits.
- Daniel Craig is a man’s man. He should do us all a favor and choke the Gremlin to death.

**AWARD**
Art Direction – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

- Yeah yeah yeah. So it was good…but you know I wanted TDK to win.

**AWARD**
Costume Design – The Duchess

- A Dude just won an Oscar for designing ridiculous women’s dresses. An Irishman to boot… What’s the world coming to?
- So far, this show is like Mountain Dew that you can watch. Xtreme!
- That was a joke…

**AWARD**
Makeup Artist – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

- TDK’s now 0 for 2 on the night. Just so you know.
- You know how they have that pre-award show for technical acheivements? How about boxing all of these stupid ass costume/makeup/set awards into that and shorten this goddamn show?
- How the fuck does the sleepy cuntrag vampire-pussy from Twilight end up on the Oscars? And presenting the “Romance 2008″ montage. Pheph!

- Natalie Portman…nummie num num.
- Cinematography, Slumdog or Button?

**AWARD**
Cinematography – Anthony Dod Mandle for Slumdog Millionaire

- 0 for 3.
- Slumdog’s gonna sweep up.
- Guess I’ve never seen Danny Boyle, he looks like a functioning retard.
- Ohmigod, Jessica Biel. NUM.
- Awesome, a Pineapple Express short film! w00t!

**AWARD**
Best Live Action Short – Spiiegle’sland or something

- This guy’s a nat-zi.
- I want to bone Meryl Streep’s daughter.
- Wanna take a moment to throw a shout-out to my boy Redscape watching the Oscars from the West Suburbs…
- Assman’s doing the big Broadway again. Damn…Beyonce…Damn…
- Huge Assway. Broad Assman. Think about it.
- The ‘Musicals’ performance, pretty good. Some classic showbiz right there.
- Here’s Best Supporting Actor…Heath Ledger HAS TO FUCKING WIN THIS.
- This has to be the closest Cuba Gooding’s been to the Academy since Rod Tidwell. What a shame.
- Ironic he’s complaining about RDJ in Tropic Thunder, stealing the black man’s role. Cuba’s been too busy making diarrhea to get a good role.

**AWARD**
Best Supporting Actor – Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight…FUCK YEAH

- He deserves it…
- I wish he was around to receive it. I’d really like to have seen him get the recognition.
- Follow that up with a Documentary montage? Really? y4wn.

**AWARD**
Best Documentary – Man on Wire

- zzzzz…maybe it’s a spoof of Man on Fire? Maybe it’s about a guy that is hopelessly obsessed with the Wire? Maybe not.

**AWARD**
Best Documentary Short Subj…ah fuck it.

- PFFT!
- Action 2008 montage. Now we’re talkin’…jack it up! Xtreme.

**AWARD**
Outstanding Visual Effects – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

- I suppose that makes sense, Iron Man and TDK, while fantastic in the VFX dept, were slightly more pedestrian than all the Ben Button shit.

**AWARD**
Outstanding Sound Editing – The Dark Knight

- Well, at least they got two.
- SNORE, how’s that for sound editing?

**AWARD**
Sound Mixing – Slumdog Millionaire

- How can two different movies with Sound Editing and Sound Mixing? Let’s face it, assholes, it’s the same fucking thing. (no matter what JT says)

**AWARD**
Film Editing – Slumdog Millionaire

- Will Smith’s apparently paying his dues for wasting his load on shitty blockbusters by presenting the mid-show F/X awards.
- Redscape thinks this Slumdog Film editor is fucking Moby. I don’t wanna know how he’d know that.

**AWARD**
Gene Hershaw Humanitarian Award – Jerry Lewis (presented by Eddie Murphy)

- Who is Eddie Murphy? He looks familiar but I can’t place him…

**AWARD**
Best Original Score – A.R. Rahman for Slumdog Millionaire

- Do they get a discount on statue plaques if they’re all the same, say Slumdog?
- The Best Original Song performance was good.

**AWARD**
Best Original Song – A.R. Rahman for Slumdog Millionaire, “Jai Ho”

- Really? Hopefully Slumdog sweeping the Oscars will just inspire people in general, not open the door for shitty Bollywood movies to head West.
- It’s 10p central, this show should be wrapping up right now…but you know we have another hour left, right? Ridiculous.

**AWARD**
Best Foreign Language Film – Don’t Bother from Magic John Stone

- I think that Liam just read the nominees for a different award…none of what he said matched the screen, nor did the winner…that’s just bad as balls.
- Oh god. Queen Latifah. Queen of what I ask you? Queen of horrible comedies? We need to find the Queen’s Castle and sack the shit out of it. Then guillotine her shit.

In Memoriam montage…notables:
- Bernie Mac
- Michael Crichton
- Roy Scheider
- Isaac Hayes
- Ricardo Montalban
- Stan Winston
- James Whitmore (Brooks)
- Charlton Heston
- Sydney Pollack
- Paul “Fucking” Newman (bytheway)

- Heath Ledger died on January 22nd last year, guess he was in last year’s montage…I was waiting to see him up there.
- I want to punish Reese Witherspoon. Wrecking Crew style.

**AWARD**
Best Director – Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire

- Surprised? Me neither. He deserves it…good director.
- His head is enormous.
- Nicole Kidman looks like she just blew the band, Sophia Loren looks like a nightmare

**AWARD**
Best Actress – Kate Winslet for The Reader

- She did a great job in that movie, justifiable
- Kate Winslet should have to accept the trophy naked, and her dad looks like Hannibal Lecter back there…
- And she’s genuinely happy, no notes or political murmurs or other bullshit.
- I haven’t seen Jack all night…where’s he at?
- They got quite a crew of dudes up there…for some reason I’d like Ben Kingsley to punch Adrian Brody in the schnozi-ola-ola
- I think Sean Penn’s the man for best Actor, but I’d like to see Mickey Rourke or Brad Pitt win too

**AWARD**
Best Actor – Sean Penn for Milk

- Well, there you go. Good chips.
- Penn’s surprisingly humble, that’s cool. He’s had some great roles.
- STEVE! Where you been Steve?
- The Best Picture montage is bad ass.
- It’s gonna be Slumdog Millionaire…

**AWARD**
Best Picture – Slumdog Millionaire

- It was certainly in the cards. Milk and Button could easily have won in different years…
- I didn’t get to see Nixon, but Slumdog was the Best Picture of the lot that I saw.

done…I’m going to bed.

Not to belabor the topic, but what is this? Fucked in the skull game month?

If you though kids were jittery and lack focus during their studies, wait until you see this onslaught of attention span collapsing japanese hand/eye torture.

The idea is that you have to kill and level up like a standard RPG but in 30 second increments. You must meet the level goals in 30 seconds to move to the next event and refill your timer. Totally insane. Holy Shit

Okay, normally these fan made jobs come out looking like flame broiled asshole but this is actually pretty fuckin good. According to the creators…

Originally envisioned as a project to test out numerous post production techniques, as well as a spec commercial, it ballooned into a multi-part series. Filmed guerilla style with no money, no time, no crew, no script, the first two episodes were made from beginning to end on a budget of $500.

I suppose a live action Half-Life film, if done right, could be a good thing. I’m nominating Guy Pearce as Gordon Freeman.

Toss some specs on him, trim that hair up, and put him in one of those EV suits and he’s a dead fuckin ringer!

Amirite?