buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

Archives for February 2006

Back on track.

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Maybe I was too tired last night. Whatever it was, I was frustrated and had to vent. Now that I got that out of my system, I’m back on track in RE4. I sat down this evening with a cool head and breezed through the section of the game that was giving me such fits. In fact, I was on such a roll that I made it past “It” with just two attempts. The first time through, I died a bunch of times in that section. I made it all the way to the part where Leon has to take down Krauser to get the insignias to get through yet another gate between he and Ashley. The Krauser part was the toughest last time so I’m assuming it’s going to be tough again.

Leon with Broken ButterflyAnd can I say how much I love the “Broken Butterfly”? Easily my favorite weapon in the game (also the best name for a weapon). Sure, I’ve never heard of a 12-shot Colt .45 revolver, but the Broken Butterfly is my weapon of choice. Little details can be overlooked when I’ve got the President’s daughter (and the world) to save. My sweet Broken Butterfly took “It” out with ease and I’m hoping to have the same success with it against Krauser.

So yeah, I’m back on track. Sometimes all it takes is a step back, a deep breath, and a good night’s sleep.

Arrgh!

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[ Mood: FRUSTRATED ] [ Listening to: Whatever is on the TV ] (This is what my entry would look like if this was a Live Journal blog.)

Holy fricking crap am I frustrated right now with Resident Evil 4. I’m currently stuck at the point where Ashley is driving the big dumpster/bulldozer and you’ve got to run up and raise the elevator lift. Ashley lamely sits in the truck while you’ve got to fight off the bad guys, hit the button, and keep the baddies away from Ashley. Get out of the driver’s seat and run away, you nit! Anyway, I’ve got that part pretty much down pat. The truck then drives on some more, fighting off waves of baddies, before you’ve got to take out a runaway truck coming straight at you. I must have done this sequence twenty times this evening. Something would always go wrong — I’d miss the peep-hole target in the runaway truck, Ashley would get shocked before I could get back to her, or one of the ganados’ head would turn into monster-tentacle-death dealing claw-head and would get me with one hit. It’s frustrating for so many reasons.

If I hear Ashley say, “I’m leaving it to you,” I’m saving the ganados trouble and I’m blasting her myself.

So I might be taking a short break from RE4. Or I might be right back at it tomorrow night.

I’ve got needs, after all.

Opera and the DS – surf the web!

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This is the coolest news I’ve read in a while: Opera (my personal browser of choice) is building a browser for the Nintendo DS.

In Opera’s agreement with Nintendo, Nintendo DS users will now be able to surf the full Internet from their systems using the Opera browser. The Opera browser for Nintendo DS will be sold as a DS card. Users simply insert the card into the Wi- Fi enabled Nintendo DS, connect to a network, and begin browsing on two screens.

This is very cool news, just in time for the DS redesign! Right now, the article only mentions users in Japan, but I can’t see any reason why we can’t expect this here in the states. I can’t wait!

Poor reporting

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I just read an article that makes me angry. The amount of mis-information and fear mongering is just amazing. The article starts out

We have an important warning for parents. Today marks the three-month anniversary of the launch of the Nintendo DS Wireless Connection. But Action News has learned this popular gaming system could put kids in harm’s way.

Huh? Right away, the red flags are going up. I assume they’re going to talk about the WiFi Connection. Sure, there is always the possibility of gaming with unsavoury people online, but Nintendo’s friend code system does a decent job of filtering those type of people out. So far, there are three games that use the Wireless connection (Tony Hawk, Mario Kart, and Animal Crossing) so right off the bat we’ve got some poor research being done:

It has built-in wireless capability. That allows kids to battle fellow Nintendo DS players across the room or across the world.

“They can play somebody they’ve never met.”

While this is technically true, my guess is that most kids aren’t playing with people they haven’t met over the WFC. I’m guessing most of these kids are playing with real life friends. (Let’s not forget that connecting to the WFC isn’t exactly simple. I’d say most kids under the age of 14 would struggle to get on without parental help). So what exactly is endangering the children? The super-horrible Picto-Chat!

Theresa’s 11-year-old daughter, Emily likes to doodle so she’s using the Nintendo DS Pictochat feature. Pictochat puts you right into a chatroom and let you send messages wirelessly – and on this day we are in one of Philadelphia’s many Wi-Fi hotspots.

Theresa Keel/Center City: “This screen name pops up and asks her what her name is and how old she is, and she answers.”
Emily Keel/Center City: “And I just felt a little scared and confused.”

This has happened to the Keel’s once before. But this time the screen name is so offensive, we can’t even show it to you.

“It frightened me. It really did.”

Wait one minute! Pictochat is not WiFi-enabled. At all. In fact, in order to chat with someone, you’d have to be in close proximity to the other DS your chatting with (about 60 feet). Unfortunately, this parent is so clueless that they have no idea what the technology in their child’s hands is capable of. All the mother has to do is tell her child to turn of the DS. If she was worried that they might be in danger, they could alert mall security and have them look for the scary person with the offensive screen name. But turning off the DS instantly severs any connection to the bad person. That’s all it takes. No one is “in harm’s way.” But of course the reporter couldn’t be bothered with the facts.

This is simply a case of not doing due dilegence with your research before you run a story. Sowing seeds of fear accomplish very little.

Even when we’re thinking of the children.

(via Digg. Slashdot, too.)

A milestone

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Over the weekend, buttonmashing.com received its 100,000th hit! May not be much, but I was pretty happy about it.

Onward to the next 100k!

What I’m playing

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Even though I have a stack of unplayed games (hereafter to be referred to as “The Queue”), I am currently engrossed in Resident Evil 4. Even though I finished the game over a year ago, I’ve been playing the Mercenaries mini game, off and on, for the past couple months. Just recently I decided to endeavor to get 5-star scores on all four boards with the five characters. I unlocked the last character (Albert Wesker) and then spent some time racking up the scores needed on each board. Upon doing so, I unlocked the “Handcannon” which would be available to me next time I played. So I started the regular game over again, this time with the “Pro” difficulty. I figured I’d get to the first encounter with the merchant, buy the Handcannon, go blast some baddies with it and be done with the game. Things didn’t go as planned. I got to the merchant and the handcannon wasn’t available. But I had been enjoying myself so much that I decided to finish the game on Pro difficulty. I just rescued the President’s daughter from the church and now we’re trying to get out of dodge.

Having played this game extensively the past week has reminded me why this is such a great game. The game defines what a polished game is. The attention to detail is what gets me every time. From the authentic Spanish phrases (I will be updating the list with words and phrases I missed the first time through) to the gun reloading animations, I can’t say enough. Just a fantastic game, top to bottom.

Ashley Resident Evil 4I decided to go with the “Special Costumes,” an option you get once you beat the game. Leon is now decked out in his Raccoon City Police Department Uniform. It’s a nice touch. Little did I know that Ashley (the President’s daughter) would also be sporting a new, *ahem*, costume. I couldn’t find any screen shots of the new costume, but she’s gone from the demure and preppy skirt and sweater combo to a revealing cowboy outfit, complete with a rather revealing halter top. It was rather unsettling to see her risqué side. I guess I should come to expect such things.

So yeah, I’ll be playing Resident Evil 4 for a while. I’ll eventually get back to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and the rest of The Queue, but for now it’s RE4 time, all the time. I still try to squeeze in a game of Guild Wars when I can and I also check in on Animal Crossing: Wild World to check the price of turnips and to water my red turnip, but that’s about it. My animals will probably be complaining and leaving town sooner or later, but tough for them.

I got escort the President’s floozy daughter to safety.

Buckeye Blogging, basketball style!

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osu_sylvester.jpgI know I don’t mention the Buckeye cagers a lot (come on, there’s way more games to watch) but today was OSU vs. Michigan in ESPN’s “Rivalry Week.” While I would disagree that OSU and Michigan are rivals when it comes to basketball (that honor would go to the Bobby Knight-led Indiana Hoosiers) but it still is Michigan and Ohio State, so I’ll give ESPN a bye on that one. It was a good game, with the Buckeyes absolutely shredding the net with the three-pointer in the first half. They ended up winning 94-85, which is a huge road win for anyone in the Big Ten. Go Bucks!

Funny thing is, the best part of the game was around the eleven minute mark of the 2nd half, the showed a little clip of the OSU/Michigan football game. They highlighted the Gonazales catch. You might remember that great catch, but in case you forgot, you can check it out here. I know it sounds sad that the best part of a OSU basketball is an OSU football highlight, but that’s how we roll in Columbus. We really, really like our basketball team, but we LOVE our football team.

The catch still gives me the chills.

I’m level 31

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… and 365 days till my 0% to my next level.

I’ve gone from “just being thirty” to now being “in my thirties.”

It’s a strange feeling.

Butt-kicking girls

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Saw this article about girls and video games at Utopian Hell. It’s a pretty good article, but this little bit troubles me:

That’s evidenced at GamerzNet where nearly 5-year-old Sarah Grodin and her mom, Heather, play Counter-Strike together. Across the aisle, Kathryn Grodin, Sarah’s aunt and co-owner of GamerzNet, also plays the counterterrorism game.

A five-year-old playing Counter-Strike? That doesn’t strike me as the best way to game with your kids. I mentioned early about the article that a large portion of parents that are gaming, which I think is great, but this seems a little over the top.

But it’s a good article nonetheless. Getting more people involved with gaming is always a good thing. This last little bit made me a little sad, though:

Of the nine girls gathered in a circle minutes before game play, all of them have a PlayStation system in their house. Two have an xBox and five have a Nintendo GameCube as well.

None of them had ever heard of Atari, the first console video gaming system.

That’s not right! Know your roots!