Does Cheating Make it Better?

Well I may have mentioned before, I'm back in Viva Pinata. The funny thing is that when I first started playing it I sort of felt buyers remorse, I just couldn't get into the game. I guess I don't like open ended games where you just "piss around" trying to figure stuff out. I guess I'm too old fashioned and like having some notion of what to do, goal oriented gameplay.
Well I downloaded a few guides from GameFAQs.com and oddly enough I really like the game now. Even with a guide there is enough figuring out and experimentation to keep the game interesting. I will say however that without achievements I would not have bothered to play the game more than 10 hours.

Achievements are the primary reason why I enjoy playing the game because in an open ended game like VP "romancing 2 squirrels" is not something I'd go bragging about nor would I feel compelled to do very often. With achievements though I want to progress through the "romancing" so I can get the "master romancer" achievement. Without achievements the game would be a hollow shell and I would not bother to continue playing the game to be honest.

random notes

I finally finished Oblivion, thank god. I'm really tired of the game now. I guess I say 'finished' but really it just means that I hung in there and got the achievement points. I would imagine that I really only finished 50% of the game. Last check I played the fucking game damn near 70 hours. Too long really. I know a lot of people are hung up on games being longer than 10 hours but anything over 30 is too long. Perhaps it's just that Oblivion became such a chore to play. The load times got really annoying and because the game world is so huge you regularly end up spending several minutes trying to figure out what to do next rather than actually playing. I think I'm going to trade it in Forza 2. Normally I really hate the idea of trading games in (since the developers don't make any more money on the sale of used games) but in the case of Oblivion there is very little point for me to keep it since I know I'll never want to play it again, and because it's so big it's unlikely I'll brake it out for friends to play when they're over for drinks.

I finally got my 360 racing wheel that I won on Ebay. It was in decent shape, some scuffs and really fucking dirty but some windex shined it up nicely. It seems to work great and I managed to play some Forza2 demo and TD:U demo which worked well. I still want to find some way to attach the wheel to a tv tray table or something similar as it does feel better when attached to something (as opposed to sitting on your lap).

I got into the Halo3 beta last night. Live seemed REALLY sluggish, probably due to so many people trying to play the game. I never played Halo2 online so I don't know how to compare it but overall I was really impressed. Possibly because the match I played I spent the first half in the bottom 2 (of 8 players) and by the end I was fighting for the top spot (came in second). The game feels really balanced and not as twitchy as I expected. I sucked at CoD3 online and worried that Halo3 would be similar but the pace in H3 is much slower which works for me. Overall I was really impressed though I want to spend time playing some of the other game modes.

what a bish

Well I guess the mods have it out for me, nearly banned again on GAF because I stated my opinion that Folding@Home is a stupid idea on consoles.
Of course because it's not on the XBOX people misconstrued that as me being a fanboy and that if somehow it already existed on the 360 I would be okay with it.

The fact is, that folding@home, SETI, and all those other retarded projects are a huge waste of time and money and if people really wanted to feel like they were contributing to science they should open their wallets and donate to Cancer Research, Heart and Lung foundation and the myriad of other worthwhile causes.

If anything these people who feel strongly about 'distributed computing' should lobby Microsoft, Apple and the Linux orgs to include thin distributed software as part of the OS where the millions of office PCs that sit idle during non-business hours (and draining power anyway) would be put to good use.

I was impressed that the PS3 is so good at cranking out units, the Cell truly is a beast but I still think that all the effort used to create the folding@home is in vain and more effort should have been put in getting software on platforms where the hardware sit idle for eons. Are people really going to be dedicated in leaving their consoles on for hours at a time just so they crank out units? I don't buy it. Maybe for hardcore gamers like the ilk on GAF but for joe-schmoe who bought his console to play games... I don't think so.

GAF is a decent website but putting up with the mods can be a real nightmare when they automatically assume that everyone is a fanboy. Considering some of the posts I've read from the mods some of their opinions are no more polarized than mine are. Yet I'm warned. Funny how that works.

wheelie cool

Well I managed to win an ebay auction for a used 360 racing wheel. I tried to sell my Ferrari Force Feedback racing wheel for my PC but even at $15 it wouldn't sell. I wanted to get rid of it so it would be an easier sell to explain to the 'boss' why I needed yet another gaming peripheral. I did manage to sell a used 3500+ AMD CPU for $45 so I figured that I could use that Paypal credit to buy a 360 wheel. I wanted to buy a new one but I couldn't find any place online that would allow payment via Paypal and still offer a decent price.
I managed to win the used auction for $99USD which is still a lot cheaper than buying a new Canadian one $159+GST) . Hopefully it's in good condition, my only worry.
I'm still plugging away on Crackdown, I've gotten most of the supplemental achievements in the game, I'm thinking I'll try and finish the main storyline this week. I'm pretty confident that the game ratings due to the game being "too short" were totally unfounded. I guess if you just play the storyline and totally avoid the achievements you may agree but getting the main achievements and completing the story is going to clock in at 12-15 hours which is good by my books.

demos can be misleading

Heh, I'm so weak.
I was in Walmart with the family and this time passing by the games case I couldn't resist getting Crackdown. Perhaps it was the recent released screenshot that reminded me that I wanted to play this game.. or it could be I have serious problem avoiding buying video games. Either way I bought the game and am really enjoying it. I am REALLY surprised how much more difficult the game is compared to the demo. The first gang you tackle (the same one in the demo) is pretty straightforward but man the 2nd and 3rd faction are HARD...REALLY hard. If you go in guns blazing you will die.
It's funny because I didn't pick up the game initially because I figured that my friends wouldn't buy the game and the fact that it was supposedly short (which I believe due to the demo being rather easy). I was pretty wrong about the game being short and easy. Completing all the missions, maxing out all your skills and doing all the races is going to take some time.

I'm a little worried about C&C3, most previews I've read are favorable (and the demo was awesome) but a lot of people are suggesting that the final missions in the game will be insanely hard to complete with the 360s control scheme because of all the micro management needing to be done. Not sure if this is true but it does have me worried. I may wait for a few reviews before biting.
I may consider trading in Viva Pinata, Oblivion, FNR3 and Outfit soon too since I am either done them or just don't care enough about them to complete them.