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Archives for 2005

New Auction/Trading Site

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I wanted to promote a new site a friend of mine is starting. It’s called “binswap” and it’s a little like a cross between eBay and a swap meet. You create a list of items you have (and want to sell/trade) an you create a list of items you want (to buy/trade). You’re matched up when ever someone is looking for something you have or someone lists an item your looking for. Seems pretty straightforward. It also seems like an excellent way to trade in those old video games you have lieing around gathering dust. It’s better than trading them in at the local used video game store, getting a pittance in return.

I’m linking to the site with my “referral tag” here (so I can win that iPod!) but you can click here, unfettered by my referral info. Your choice.

Just give it a looksie. I think it’s a great idea and I hope my friend is sucessful with his new endeavor.

A good DS golf game, please.

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The touchscreen for the Nintendo DS lends itself well for control of a golf game. Unfortunately, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005for the DS is a gigantic turd. The controls are atrociously unresponsive, the music grates on my ears and I derive little or no joy from the game, compared to really enjoying Tiger Woods 2005 on the Xbox.

Watch this movie for the new golf game on the DS called True Swing. Maybe Tiger Woods should be called “I’m trying a new swing” Golf. The use of the touchscreen looks a thousand times better than Tiger Wood’s interface. I swear Tiger Woods has some kind of random noise it injects into the control scheme to hose your shot, because I’ve never had two good shots in a row. True swing looks like it’s head and shoulders above TW. I can’t wait. The visuals look similar to the MMOG Shot-Online (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). There’s mention of downloading the game for mulitplayer, but I’m hoping for some online love. That would be the cherry on top.

You can see more screenshoots of True Swing at Kotaku.

Buckeye Blogging, Week #10 (7-2)

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#10 and climbing! The lastest rankings are out and OSU sits at a solid #10 in both. I wanted the BCS to be in shambles again this year, but that being said, I’m glad Miami beat Va. Tech. I’ve been saying for a long time that they’re overrated and they got embarrassed last night. So the disaster the BCS was headed for looks less likely to happen, now that there are only 3 unbeaten teams. There’s still a chance that both USC and Alabama go down and then they’ll really have probems. Those problems don’t include OSU, unfortunately, but that didn’t stop from OSU putting a hurt on yet another Big Ten team.

Illinois really never posed a threat but it sure took OSU 2 quarters to put the heat on. In the end, OSU’s defense dominated and their offense threw up another 40 points. Ginn and Holmes have finally started living up to their billing. They look solid and Smith has been consistent since the Penn State game. OSU no longer resides in the basement of the Big Ten offensive leaders.

So what’s left for OSU? For one, it’s pay-back time for Northwestern. Their win last year has definitely left a bad taste in OSU’s collective mouth last year. Look for the defense to bring the hammer down on Northwestern’s vaunted offense. I’d like to see us rack up 4 or 5 TDs and just punish Brett Basanez and his team of pretenders. And no need to mention the game on November 19th. That goes without saying. OSU. Michigan. The Big House.

Tradition.

Your ascendance is now complete.

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My first character in Guild Wars has finally ascended. It took me a lot longer than it probably should have, but I finally did it. My character is a Necromancer/Mesmer. He’s a great support character but he doesn’t exactly dole out the damage. (Note: If you haven’t ascended and/or don’t want any spoilers, you might not want to continue reading.)

For those who don’t already know, the final “test” is a face off against a doppelganger, a “mirror” image of yourself. Sort of. This so-called image of me had a big magic axe and powerful bow, both of which I don’t have. He also had my spells but he was doing more damage to me than I could do to him. No matter what I did, he was whipping my butt. I got close to beating him a couple times. Of course close only counts for nuking elementalists. I had to quit for a while because I was getting frustrated. Not just frustrated. FRUSTRATED. It didn’t help that fellow GW-mate Bobster told me how easy it was for him. I had no clue what to do.

Most gaming I do, I do “pure”. I don’t do GameFAQs, I avoid spoilers and hints as best I can. When I beat a game, I want to do it without any help. (That’s probably one of the reasons why I haven’t finished Viewtiful Joe) When it came to ascending in Guild Wars, I wanted to do it “pure”. I didn’t want help from the interwebs or fellow players. Heck, for a while, I wouldn’t even change my skills, allowing him to kick my butt with my own magic, repeatedly. I’m stubborn like that. I noticed he was doing some serious damage with his bow (insane damage, actually) so the first thing I did was upgrade my armor. With the new armor, I redoubled my efforts and took him on again. I tried numerous skill combinations and strategies. After another dozen beat downs I decided purity wasn’t as important as actually getting it done, so I went off to the crazy web and did a little research. Of course hitting the forums immediately yielded results and victory was near.

The solution? Necromancers have a handy little spell called “Insidious Parasite”. It steals health when an enemy physically attacks you. With my new armor I was better equipped to take a beating, so I ran in, cast IP on my doppelganger and let him go to town on me. Since he was dealing out less damage than what I was leeching from him, I just sat there and let him kill himself. Cheap? Maybe. Impure? Sort of. I would have figured something out eventually, I just didn’t have time for eventually. Ascensions need to happen, know what I’m saying?

So in the end, I guess I should just be happy to have reached a GW milestone and get on with my questing, but there will always be that nagging doubt in the back of my mind.

I’m unclean.

At least now, maybe I can finish Viewtiful Joe.

PCs vs. Consoles, round 8,493

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Want to know why PC gaming will never garner the audience console gaming does? This is why.

Unfortunately, I thing “patching” will become commonplace in the next round of consoles with their always-on connections to the net. Online services like Live are great for providing things like new maps and content, which are great, but patching a game because it was rushed through QC is not something I look forward to.