Heath Leader, Bobby Fischer pass away
Yesterday, Heath Ledger was found dead due to an overdose. This is certainly sad news, as he was a great actor. Some people are saying it was suicide, but I think that's a bit wrong to say. Not every overdose in history has been suicide. The assumption of "it's an actor, so it must be suicide" is very ignorant.
(His last completed role was as the Joker in the newest Batman movie, due out later this year.)
Since I havent had time to update my blog, I also want to discuss the recent death of chess legend Bobby Fischer. He passed away on last week on January 17. He was a true great in the world of chess, however his anti-American ways were simply ignorant in my view. It's pretty clear he went crazy at some point in his life. I suggest that people should see Searching for Bobby Fischer. It's a great movie that is about a young boy that is very good at chess just like Bobby was.
Rest in peace Heath and Bobby.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Lazy typers, poker and card games
Lazy Typers
Why are people so lazy when it comes to typing out full words on the internet? I find it very annoying they can't type a few extra letters.
Some examples:
4 instead of for or four
u instead of you
Then there is the people that spell things wrong on purpose, "wut instead of what" and so on. People simply can't be that bad at spelling, can they? I suppose part of it is due to bad spelling, and part is them thinking it's cool I guess. Well it's not cool, people need to stop taking shortcuts just to be a very tiny bit quicker.
Poker and card games
I'm a huge fan of no limit Texas hold 'em poker. I play in free online tournaments (that have cash prizes) daily. Usually each is a few thousand people, and I make it in the top 100 in most of them. I've only won a few tournaments however. In general, I enjoy most card games: uno, solitaire, spades, cribbage and so on.
Why are people so lazy when it comes to typing out full words on the internet? I find it very annoying they can't type a few extra letters.
Some examples:
4 instead of for or four
u instead of you
Then there is the people that spell things wrong on purpose, "wut instead of what" and so on. People simply can't be that bad at spelling, can they? I suppose part of it is due to bad spelling, and part is them thinking it's cool I guess. Well it's not cool, people need to stop taking shortcuts just to be a very tiny bit quicker.
Poker and card games
I'm a huge fan of no limit Texas hold 'em poker. I play in free online tournaments (that have cash prizes) daily. Usually each is a few thousand people, and I make it in the top 100 in most of them. I've only won a few tournaments however. In general, I enjoy most card games: uno, solitaire, spades, cribbage and so on.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Game shows, wrestling, Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Game shows
I enjoy game shows. My personal favorites are Deal or No Deal and Jeopardy. Game shows are appearing more and more on networks in prime time, due to the writer's strike. Usually I would think this is a good thing, but they are making big mistakes.
A few weeks back, commercials aired for 1 vs 100 stating "someone finally wins the million on the next show". Whatever happened to the ability to surprise viewers? Then there is the commonplace "teaser" clips before commercial breaks. Things such as "coming up, is a moment you wont want to miss", along with a short clip. In my view, the networks need to stop worrying about ratings so much. Produce decent shows, and people will watch.
Wrestling's Royal Rumble
This month is WWE's annual Royal Rumble event. It's one of my favorites of the year. It's a 30-man match to determine who will face a champion at WrestleMania.
For those that don't know how the match works, I'll explain it.
The rules of the match: 2 men start, and every few minutes another enters. This process continues until all men have entered the ring. A wrestler is eliminated at anytime, when he is thrown over the top rope and onto the floor. The last man in the ring wins.
As of now, a little over half of the people in the match have been confirmed. For the most part, the people in the match are decent.
The Royal Rumble event also features a few other matches. This year has WWE champ Randy Orton against Jeff Hardy, World champ Edge against Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho against JBL, and Ric Flair against MVP (with the stipulation that if Flair loses, he must retire). This is probably all the matches the event will have. It's a decent lineup of matches for the most part, but I don't expect Flair and MVP to have a good match.
Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Recently this game was delayed again, and people on the gamefaqs message board threw fits. They whined in numerous topics about it. Seriously, don't they have better things to do? It's just a game, and games get delayed all the time. They act like their life is over because they can't play the game the exact moment that they want to. Be patient people, it's not hard to do.
In other Brawl news, Sheik (the alter ego of Zelda) is confirmed for the game. By doing a special move, you can turn Zelda into Sheik and play as a whole new character to the game (however she isn't new to the series, as she was in Melee.)
Overall, Brawl is shaping up to be a pretty decent game. 30 characters from the Nintendo universe (plus ones that aren't: Snake and Sonic), many stages and modes, and much more. I plan to get the game, but probably not right away.
I enjoy game shows. My personal favorites are Deal or No Deal and Jeopardy. Game shows are appearing more and more on networks in prime time, due to the writer's strike. Usually I would think this is a good thing, but they are making big mistakes.
A few weeks back, commercials aired for 1 vs 100 stating "someone finally wins the million on the next show". Whatever happened to the ability to surprise viewers? Then there is the commonplace "teaser" clips before commercial breaks. Things such as "coming up, is a moment you wont want to miss", along with a short clip. In my view, the networks need to stop worrying about ratings so much. Produce decent shows, and people will watch.
Wrestling's Royal Rumble
This month is WWE's annual Royal Rumble event. It's one of my favorites of the year. It's a 30-man match to determine who will face a champion at WrestleMania.
For those that don't know how the match works, I'll explain it.
The rules of the match: 2 men start, and every few minutes another enters. This process continues until all men have entered the ring. A wrestler is eliminated at anytime, when he is thrown over the top rope and onto the floor. The last man in the ring wins.
As of now, a little over half of the people in the match have been confirmed. For the most part, the people in the match are decent.
The Royal Rumble event also features a few other matches. This year has WWE champ Randy Orton against Jeff Hardy, World champ Edge against Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho against JBL, and Ric Flair against MVP (with the stipulation that if Flair loses, he must retire). This is probably all the matches the event will have. It's a decent lineup of matches for the most part, but I don't expect Flair and MVP to have a good match.
Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Recently this game was delayed again, and people on the gamefaqs message board threw fits. They whined in numerous topics about it. Seriously, don't they have better things to do? It's just a game, and games get delayed all the time. They act like their life is over because they can't play the game the exact moment that they want to. Be patient people, it's not hard to do.
In other Brawl news, Sheik (the alter ego of Zelda) is confirmed for the game. By doing a special move, you can turn Zelda into Sheik and play as a whole new character to the game (however she isn't new to the series, as she was in Melee.)
Overall, Brawl is shaping up to be a pretty decent game. 30 characters from the Nintendo universe (plus ones that aren't: Snake and Sonic), many stages and modes, and much more. I plan to get the game, but probably not right away.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Video game rant #2
(For the first rant: since December 11, 2007)
Remember, there is more to gaming than big name titles
I've said this before, and I'll say it again: try other games besides the big name ones. People complain there isn't any good third party games. Why exactly should companies make many when people seem to ignore them most of the time? If people actually bought the decent ones out now, then companies would realize the demand is out there.
Avoid video game stores for the most part
They love to scam customers, and shouldn't be trusted much. If you trade in games, you don't get much and they end up selling it for a lot more than they gave you. Profit needs to be made, but not this much profit. Another scam they have going (which I mentioned in the past), they sell used games as new. They have discs in a cabinet they claim are new, also they shrink wrap used games and sell them as new. The only good thing about video game stores: they have hard to find games sometimes. If you don't want to pay shipping from ordering online, it's a good idea to check game stores near you.
Pikmin 3 in the future?
Pikmin and Pikmin 2 were two great GameCube games, and it's likely Nintendo will make a new game. Hopefully they improve many things in it.
A few suggestions I have:
-Bring back the day limit. The sequel had no true game over and no limit, which was a bit dumb. Every game should have a game over screen, otherwise... what's the point?
-Split time between the surface and caves better. In Pikmin 2, caves were most of the game. They were repetitive after a while. In a new game, time spent on the surface and caves should be about the same.
-New Pikmin types are a must, but don't mess with the old types too much. White and purple should still be grown in caves.
-Online play isn't a requirement. Everyone always assume things such as "online games are the best" and "all games should be online" but that's not always true. Pikmin 2 worked fine as a multiplayer game, and a third game should be the same.
-Improve 2-player battle mode. It was fun for a bit, but got old with the lack of objectives and lack of levels to play in.
Remember, there is more to gaming than big name titles
I've said this before, and I'll say it again: try other games besides the big name ones. People complain there isn't any good third party games. Why exactly should companies make many when people seem to ignore them most of the time? If people actually bought the decent ones out now, then companies would realize the demand is out there.
Avoid video game stores for the most part
They love to scam customers, and shouldn't be trusted much. If you trade in games, you don't get much and they end up selling it for a lot more than they gave you. Profit needs to be made, but not this much profit. Another scam they have going (which I mentioned in the past), they sell used games as new. They have discs in a cabinet they claim are new, also they shrink wrap used games and sell them as new. The only good thing about video game stores: they have hard to find games sometimes. If you don't want to pay shipping from ordering online, it's a good idea to check game stores near you.
Pikmin 3 in the future?
Pikmin and Pikmin 2 were two great GameCube games, and it's likely Nintendo will make a new game. Hopefully they improve many things in it.
A few suggestions I have:
-Bring back the day limit. The sequel had no true game over and no limit, which was a bit dumb. Every game should have a game over screen, otherwise... what's the point?
-Split time between the surface and caves better. In Pikmin 2, caves were most of the game. They were repetitive after a while. In a new game, time spent on the surface and caves should be about the same.
-New Pikmin types are a must, but don't mess with the old types too much. White and purple should still be grown in caves.
-Online play isn't a requirement. Everyone always assume things such as "online games are the best" and "all games should be online" but that's not always true. Pikmin 2 worked fine as a multiplayer game, and a third game should be the same.
-Improve 2-player battle mode. It was fun for a bit, but got old with the lack of objectives and lack of levels to play in.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Things that annoy me part 2
Since I forgot a few big things in the first post, I decided to add them here.
-All the people that assume credit cards are free money. Debt wouldn't be such a big issue, if people actually thought before buying things. "Buy now, pay later" is just asking for trouble, if you obviously can't afford something. Things like school, a house and car are the few exceptions to this.
-All the advertisements for poker websites during poker tournaments on television. Unless I'm missing something, why exactly does just about every player need to advertise poker sites? Each player at the table is wearing a shirt, jacket or hat that is advertising a poker website. It just makes them look like employees of the poker website or something.
-Wikipedia editors that don't understand many of the rules. People assume they own articles that they personally create, think they can do what they want, create anything they want and so on. It's really not that hard to read policies and guidelines. The encyclopedia isn't a guide to everything, it's not a hard concept to understand.
-All the people that assume credit cards are free money. Debt wouldn't be such a big issue, if people actually thought before buying things. "Buy now, pay later" is just asking for trouble, if you obviously can't afford something. Things like school, a house and car are the few exceptions to this.
-All the advertisements for poker websites during poker tournaments on television. Unless I'm missing something, why exactly does just about every player need to advertise poker sites? Each player at the table is wearing a shirt, jacket or hat that is advertising a poker website. It just makes them look like employees of the poker website or something.
-Wikipedia editors that don't understand many of the rules. People assume they own articles that they personally create, think they can do what they want, create anything they want and so on. It's really not that hard to read policies and guidelines. The encyclopedia isn't a guide to everything, it's not a hard concept to understand.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Things that annoy me.
While I'm not usually one to complain, here is just some of the things that annoy me (also known as "pet peeves"):
-People at stores that have a cart full of items that use the express lane (usually 15 or 20 items only). Employees never seem to stop them, which is just stupid. The phrase "the customer is always right" doesn't apply here, as the customer is just ignorant. It's not hard to read the sign near the lane.
-Used video game stores that sell opened games as new. This is clearly false advertisement, yet they continue to get away with it. At GameStop and a few other places: you bring them a case, and they will get the game disc out of a cabinet. Seeing as how the game is out of the case, it's not new anymore. In my view, these places need to be investigated by the Better Business Bureau.
-All the focus on fashion. Let people wear what they want. There is all these magazines and shows that praise and bash people depending on what they wear. Who exactly made these people the experts on clothes? The majority of people enjoy what they wear, so leave them alone.
-People that judge things that they hardly know anything about. Research something before you comment about it.
-All the DVD editions of the same movie. There is limited edition, special edition, anniversary, unrated and so on. One big problem is that they don't always come out at the same time, so sometimes it's just better to wait a while before buying a movie. Unless you simply don't care about special features. Most of the time they aren't even worth it. Why buy a DVD for a little more, for things that you wont even watch more?
-The video game label of "kiddy". Most of the time when people call a game kiddy, they don't even know what they are talking about. Many people love to call Nintendo kiddy, however the system appeals to everyone and not just kids. There is kid's games (such as ones based on children's shows and so on) and a some kid's educational games, but that's the only things that can truely be labeled kiddy.
-People at stores that have a cart full of items that use the express lane (usually 15 or 20 items only). Employees never seem to stop them, which is just stupid. The phrase "the customer is always right" doesn't apply here, as the customer is just ignorant. It's not hard to read the sign near the lane.
-Used video game stores that sell opened games as new. This is clearly false advertisement, yet they continue to get away with it. At GameStop and a few other places: you bring them a case, and they will get the game disc out of a cabinet. Seeing as how the game is out of the case, it's not new anymore. In my view, these places need to be investigated by the Better Business Bureau.
-All the focus on fashion. Let people wear what they want. There is all these magazines and shows that praise and bash people depending on what they wear. Who exactly made these people the experts on clothes? The majority of people enjoy what they wear, so leave them alone.
-People that judge things that they hardly know anything about. Research something before you comment about it.
-All the DVD editions of the same movie. There is limited edition, special edition, anniversary, unrated and so on. One big problem is that they don't always come out at the same time, so sometimes it's just better to wait a while before buying a movie. Unless you simply don't care about special features. Most of the time they aren't even worth it. Why buy a DVD for a little more, for things that you wont even watch more?
-The video game label of "kiddy". Most of the time when people call a game kiddy, they don't even know what they are talking about. Many people love to call Nintendo kiddy, however the system appeals to everyone and not just kids. There is kid's games (such as ones based on children's shows and so on) and a some kid's educational games, but that's the only things that can truely be labeled kiddy.
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