New Site

I have just bought a domain and hosted it and I plan to continue this blog there. I'm trying to finally get a serious following to my blog so my new one is at secondstorygamer.com. Please read it as you continue to read this blog. Thanks and hope you enjoy it

Portal

This game is amazing to me. Valve has done such a great job finding this game when it was just a concept and working it to perfection. Yes, I said perfection. I believe this game is the perfect puzzle/action game. It is not the perfect puzzle game, because it is so short and it is not the perfect action game because there is basically no combat, but the whole is an amazing title which would have easily been worth $60 (if it had a few more levels), except Valve threw in a few more excellent games for us. Ok, I'm done confessing my love of Portal.

Personal Games of the Year

Here are my personal picks for Games of the Year that I've played. Remember, I'm only including the games that I've played so far so sadly some are left out (for example, Mass Effect and Uncharted)

1)Bioshock
This game just blew my mind away. The atmosphere, the game play, the story, everything was absolutely perfect. There was a bit of a frame rate issue for me but other than that it was perfect.

2)Orange Box
This game packs 3 potential game of the year candidates (and two older titles) all into one package. This was an amazing offer for me especially as I've never played the Half Life series, as I'm not a PC gamer. Portal, Episode 2, and Team Fortress 2 are all great games.

3)Call of Duty 4
This game did what other games found impossible. It took away gamers attention from Halo 3 a mere month after its launch. The story and the multiplayer are both good enough to match Halo's.

4)Rock Band
It's not often that I play video games with my family. Now this game (and the Wii if I had one) are solving the whole video games are bad problem. The whole family is having fun with this even if my mom sometimes gets headaches from the noise.
5)Halo 3
Sure, the story wasn't great but this game's multiplayer is still top-notch. Look for it to get much of my playing time this year and onwards.

Well there you have it, those are my top five games of the year that I've played

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you. Get any good gaming gifts this holidays. Just shout them out in the comments. Personally, I got, as previously discussed, Call of Duty 4 and Half Life 2 (no, not Orange Box, just Half Life 2 for the Xbox 1) so a pretty decent haul. I'm planning to pick up Mass Effect and Orange Box as soon as I get back home and those games should hold me over till next year sometime. So I'll be playing Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, Orange Box, and probably some Rock Band and Halo 3 for the next few weeks/months.

Oppositely recieved gifts

Ok, I have just found out two of my gaming gifts this year. I am getting Call of Duty 4 for the 360 which is amazing because I don't know whether or not I would've picked this up on my own because I can't really justify buying another shooter right now, even if it may be one of the best games of the year. So this gift pretty much takes away the guilt of it. The second one is Half Life 2 for Xbox 1. Yah, I'm cringing too. Great time to get Half Life just as I was going to get the Orange Box. Wow, that is ironic. I plan on returning that one as soon as possible to get some credit towards Orange Box. Hey at least I got COD4

Feet hurting like hell

Ahhh is it just me or does everyone's feet hurt crazily after playing the drums on Rock Band. The foot pedal is either too hard to push down or I'm doing something wrong. I've just been searching the internet and now I've heard that you need to keep your foot down. I guess I'll try that tomorrow and maybe my feet will hurt a bit less and I can finally nail those hard songs.

NEED a TV

I feel like a starving person in a buffet that I'm not allowed to eat. There are so many good games out right now but I can't play them. And that is because my damn tv is broken. I haven't even bought the games yet because they may drop in their price as soon as my tv comes in. I have a little 20" SDTV downstairs but I really want to wait till I get my big HDTV back to enjoy the games. Some of these games are supposed to have great graphics and I don't want to ruin their quality by playing them on a crappy tv. I'm also planning to get Rock Band (see next article up) and I have a 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound System with my big tv so I want to enjoy that as well. God I really hope we get one soon.

Favorite Podcasts

Well, I've been traveling a lot the past few weeks and nothing keeps me more entertained on a long car ride or flight than podcasts. Currently, my favorite is 1up Yours which has great discussion on video games. I also like the Video Game Outsiders, Podtacular, Gamespot Presents the Hotspot, Major Nelson, and Mugglecast. All of these are great podcasts. Leave comments with your favorites.

Top 5 Apps for iPhone/iPod Touch

Since the iPhone and iPod Touch (called iTouch by strange people) will soon have third party application support, here are my top 5 most wanted apps for the iPhone/iPod Touch (I'm going to just refer to the iPhone for the rest of the article even though the apps would be for both).

5. Art App

This application would basically be paint on the iPhone. Could you imagine flicking your finger across the touch screen and see pretty colors pop up (ahh). This would be a kid favorite and a good way to keep the kids occupied for a while. It would be even more amazing if you could mix the colors. Imagine all of the masterpieces you (or your kids) could make.
4. Shopping App

This application could be basically an online store similar to Amazon. Actually it could even be Amazon but in an easier to use User Interface than the online Amazon store on Safari. This would be even better for Apple as they could negotiate with Amazon for a percentage of the revenue. As if they needed any more money.
3. Games App

This application should have been implemented in the iPhone since launch. It seems ridiculous that the other models of the iPod, which have smaller screens and more limited user controls have games while the users of the iPhone have absolutely no games. Most of the games would be even better with touch controls and a huge screen that the iPhone has. Oh yes and there is also an accelerometer in the iPhone for a six-axis like experience.
2. Game Emulation App

This app would be a bit more shady than the other apps as emulators are known to use illegal digital copies of games on their emulation systems. But think how cool it would be to play your favorite SNES, N64, and PS1 games on your iPhone. I'm sure the iPhone processor could handle it as it isn't that hard.
1. Streaming Music from Personal iTunes Library App

Yeah, I couldn't think of a short name for this one so I had to describe it in the title. Basically this application would allow you to stream your content in your iTunes Library onto your iPhone. This is important because Apple has only given you 8 gigs (16 for iPod Touch) and most peoples' libraries are much bigger than that. If the EDGE network couldn't handle it, it could only happen when connected to Wi-Fi. This is a must have in my opinion.

Well there you have it, my most wanted apps on the iPhone. Let's hope that these will be implemented in due time.

Trip to the Past

This Thanksgiving, I'm in (on?) the Cayman Islands. This small island is owned by the U.K. Since it is owned but a modern country you would think it would be modern, but it really isn't. Technology is very much absent here. The only technology here is that of American tourists who are here on vacation as I am. These people have no radios in their cars or high tech computers or anything. And do not think they are in poverty these people aren't. It's just a different way of life. A way of life without much dependence on technology as we are in the U.S. Many stores don't even accept credit cards here. It's strange to come to a place where everything dealing with technology that you take for granted is absent.
I recently went to someone's house that resides on the island for dinner. They still had an old 20" tube television with a 9" tv in the kid's bedroom. I, being used to 50" flat panel plasma televisions, found it disconcerting. It was almost like a trip to the past. At my house I'm looking at a huge tv with high definition graphics playing on the latest game console (only Xbox 360 as of now) online with many of my friends. At this house I was playing the original Tony Hawk (Tony Hawk without any numbers behind it, just imagine) on the PlayStation 1 on a tiny tv squinting to see which person I am. I also managed to check out their computer. It was probably three years old by our standards but fairly new by theirs.
The only reason there is any technology here is because this place is a huge tourist destination. If it weren't for the influx of tourists arriving almost daily these people would be totally isolated from everyone else in the world.
Now I'm not saying you should pity these people but rather you should admire the culture of people not as privileged in technology areas as we are. You should also realize you can live without the latest technology (for a month or two) and you shouldn't wine about. Just think about the people in less developed areas. I know I will never forget these people from my trip to the past.

Tons of Games arriving this week

Wow there is a ton of games coming this week. Great time for my frickin tv to stop working right? The highlights of this week for me are Rock Band and Mass Effect. Rock Band has changed my opinion as I thought I was getting Guitar Hero III but after watching The 1up Show and listening to 1up Yours Rock Band looks amazing. I don't want to buy both and now Rock Band looks like it will get my money. I have two siblings and it will be perfect to play this game with them. I can't wait to get my hands on the drums. As previously stated on this blog, I am ecstatically excited about Mass Effect. It looks like a Game of the Year contender (so does Rock Band now that I mention it) and I want that tv to be fixed and in my house right this instant.

COD4 Train

Whoa, I am officially hit by the Call of Duty 4 hype train now that it is released. Everywhere I look I find great things about the game. It looks amazing. Again due to the fact my TV is broken I can't pick it up right now, but I look forward to getting this game soon. Wow, another game to my extended list. So far the list goes:
Assassin's Creed
Mass Effect
Guitar Hero III
Call of Duty 4
Orange Box

These are the games that are a MUST BUY for me in no particular order. I'm sure I'll be picking up other games this holiday season but these are the most important ones to me. God, I'm gonna need to find some more time for gaming, I mean look at this lineup!

Sorry for the wait... again

Yah another lapse between posts. Sorry about that I was trying to make a gaming website but it didn't work out.
Oh yes there will be a slight delay in the Guitar Hero III, Assassin's Creed, and Mass Effect reviews due to the fact that my tv is broken. Again, I'm sorry, but i promise to make them extra huge and detailed when it is fixed.
Speaking of Assassin's Creed, some of the reviews are starting to filter out and they look great so far. The only things that have been worrying me so far is that the game looked amazing when they revealed it, then the problems with the game starting showing up, disappointing combat, repetitiveness, but it looks like they pulled it together with this one. All of the reviews look very positive and I can't wait till my tv is repaired to pick this and Guitar Hero III up.
And it looks like I could go to K-Mart and get Mass Effect right now if I wanted to as there have been numerous reports of K-Mart breaking the street date and selling Mass Effect to consumers ten days early. All I can say is, is it really that difficult?

SAT!!!!

GAHH SAT tommorrow. We'll see how that goes. I'm not too worried about it but we'll see

Long Time no Post

Dang its been a while since ive posted on this thing. School was really busy this week so I couldn't get around to posting. Well I've been wearing those Nikes this week and I can tell you I really like them. The air sole really adds a bounce in your step and they feel very comfortable. I haven't tried running in them yet, because I want to completely wear my Nike Frees do death before I start running in these. Allright let me post about some news now

Nikes

Yah i got new shoes yesterday. They are blue, running, Nike Air Max 360s. I've only worn them one day so i'm not sure how they will be in the long run but so far they feel very good. The whole walking on air thing is true in my opinion. I went into the store looking for Nike Frees since those are my favorite shoes to run in but these might be ok too. Ill post in a week or so about how they are.

A New Day

Today is looking like a much better day than yesterday except for one thing. That one thing was a huge surprise to me and i dont know what to do about it. Ill have to figure out something. God little kids are so gahh. Allright well Ill post later.

Advertising

Ok i just saw the advertising add-on to the blog and i think that would be good to drive in some revenue. allright ill have a talk with the parents and see if i can get something to work. ill also need to spread word about this blog.

Weekends finally here

ok so i actually have a second post on here. pretty amazing eh. yes i love that word. i know its a canadian thing but idk its just very fun to say. yah well school went ok this week. a lot less tiring than last week. well i guess ill post again tommorrow.

First Post

Ok so this is a new thing. Never tried blogging before. We'll see how long this lasts. Ill probably get sick of it in about a week but we'll see.