buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

Asides

Contest Time!!

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Welcome to a hopefully recurring new thing here on Buttonmashing Dot Com: Contests!! Giveaways! Free stuff! Hopefully this will be a taste of things to come. It’s so exciting, it gets two exclamation points!!

Our first contest is sponsored by Split Reason, makers of fine Geek and Gamer garb like T-shirts and Hoodies. For this inaugural contest, they are giving away THREE free t-shirts to Buttonmashing Dot Com readers like you!

So here’s how this first contest is going to work. For the next three weeks Until December 10th, every time you post a comment to the site, you’re automatically entered into the contest. Each new comment you post is another entry in your favor. The more you comment, the more chances you have.

I want to avoid comments like “Me, too” and “LOL” by people looking to pad their entries, so I reserve the right to exclude any comments I feel excessively “spammy.” I want to generate good discussions and have a way to thank (i.e. reward) those who add to the it.

Zombie Day at the Mall t-shirt @ SplitReason.comSo if you’re interested in playing, now would be a great time to start your entries. The winners the will be able to choose their prize, so why not head over to Split Reason and pick out you favorite shirt and come back and tell us which it is! If it were for me, I’d definitely go with the Zombie Day at the Mall:

Since this is our first contest, we don’t have a set of contest rules, per se. I think we’ll have to restrict the contest to our fellow North Americaners. I don’t think Split Reason wants to ship anything international. Also, for this, the first contest on the site, everyone is eligible for a prize (except me). So contributors and friends and families of the site are eligible. Other than that, have fun and comment away!

Fable II Quirks

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I’ve now put almost 8 hours into the game. It is everything Fable I should have been but there are some weird things going on.

  • The economy is a little messed up on the gambling games. I won a large amount of money, but when leaving the game, I actually lost some.
  • The map is useless except for a vague general overview
  • The inventory and expressions menu are a little counter-intuitive
  • Are you used to using “B” to cancel? So am I. Has anyone else frightened the citizens by thinking you were canceling an action and you torched an area with a spell?
  • Inconsistent volume levels between gameplay and cinematics.
  • Co-op is completely useless. It’s not even co-op. A locked camera? You’re just a helper? It’s not your character? I can see why Lionhead didn’t have it in there. Funny. People complain and that’s what you get. There are times the developer does know best.

This is not a big deal, but it’s too easy to do things on accident. I got married twice because there were onlookers nearby when I was doing expressions. I ended up giving the wrong person a ring. I was then stupid enough to move them into houses next to each other. Both spouses were mad at each other and then turned their anger towards me. They both walked off together. I’m now renting my two houses out. I actually thought that was pretty funny, but I did not intend to become a bigot (Yes, I did end up hating them. I was a bigamist as well.) and a divorcee.

This may seem like a big gripe. I like the game, but there’s just a little bit of polish that was missed. It’s just a smudge. I guess it’s because I’m also playing the most polished game ever right now.

In My Hands

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A little package appeared at my doorstep on this past Saturday afternoon:

Special Delivery!

It would appear that someone (Nat) is trying to broaden my nerd horizons, into a realm I’ve never ventured…

Yo, to all you buttonmashers

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Hi everyone!

My name is James, and I’m Tony’s brother-in-law. He seems to be ok with that. = )

It seems like it’s a good idea to start off by letting everyone know my gaming history too. The first video game exposure that I had growing up was an Apple 2, I can remember my favorite game was Ali Baba (That was the best). Then came the PC (286,386,etc.) and with that came Maniac Mansion, Castle Wolfenstein, and so on, beginning my connection to PC gaming and PC’s in general. Eventually I would play various PC titles such as: Starcraft, Diablo 1&2, Warcraft 1,2, & 3, Everquest, Battlefield (most of the series), Guild Wars, Dawn of War and many others.

The first console I had was a NES shared by my brother and I, followed by the SNES and Gameboy’s. I had a Sega Genesis for a while until the PlayStation came out and I traded up all the old systems for the new kid on the block. The original PlayStation converted me to Sony as the gaming system of choice and the PS2 locked me in. You name it and I’ve probably played it on the PS2 or have seen it in action.

When the 360 and the PS3 were coming out I was all for the PS3 it had the better system specs after all. Yet, my brother and Tony getting 360’s helped me to see the good in Microsoft, at least in the game selection and exclusive titles. (As a side note, I am still interested in the PS3 and even the PSP but having limited funds can deter curiosity) My collection of games varies from titles like Dark Sector, Viking:Battle for Asgard, and Halo 3 to Marvel Ultimate Alliance, DOA4, and Burnout: Revenge.

I am in to comics and try to follow what is going on in the Marvel and DC universe’s. So any games that have to do with superheroes will usually peak my interest. I also tend to download most of the mainstream demo’s of new games that are available on Xbox Live.

Enough about games for now I think.

Oh yea! Why Ehergeiz as a handle right? Well there is an old PS1 game called Ehrgeiz from Square that I thought the name looked cool so I figure I’d change the name a little and use it. Not too much to it but that’s where I got it from. = )

I’m looking forward to posting a bunch of different things on buttonmashing.com for everybody.

Yoroshiku o-negai shimasu.

Is This Thing On?

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Um.  Hello.  I’d just like to thank Tony & Nat for giving me yet ANOTHER place on the web for me to go and blather about games.  I guess I’ll do a quick introduction.

I’ve been a gamer as long as I can remember.  I recall going over to my neighbour’s house and staring in envy at his shiny PONG console and sneaking over to friends’ houses to tinker with their awesome C64s and robust Colecovision consoles.

My first computer was a Texas Intstruments TI99/4a.  Alpiner rocks.

I’ve been a console player, a PC gamer, a handheld junkie and even played the odd board game.  I don’t do benchmarks, I could care less if a game is pushing 3 million polygons on the character’s left moustache hair if I’m bored to tears when I play it and I can utter the statement, “This JRPGs story is awesome AND generic” and not feel like a hypocrite.

If you poke around on the net, you’ll most likely find me going by the name Spigot on the inimitable Evil Avatar, where I write a weekly post about obscure and overlooked games (which is now going into it’s 19th week).

I plan on talking up some of the lesser known games and/or JRPGs more than anything else.  I’m absolutely burnt out on first person shooters right now and even most 3rd person action games are starting to wear on me.

I also spend far too much money on comics and books.  Somehow I am able to raise two kids and keep my wife from throwing all of my games into the garbage, though it’s an ongoing battle. 

And one last thing…

I AM CANADIAN!  Just don’t hold that against me.

Reason #13,597 I love the internet

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At some point today, someone I follow on Twitter (I don’t remember who it was and I’m too lazy to look it up) linked to a wikipedia page of Joseph Ducreux, an 18th century French painter. As part of the article was this picture:

I love this painting so very much. I imagine him greeting someone with an 18th century version of “Sup, brah?”

This won’t replace my favorite internet thing ever, but it’s in the top 5.

Ubiquity: It Will Change the Web

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I’m not going to explain it. Try it.

It has been the rage all day on the web. I’ve been using it off and on and it’s been amazing.

Think of it as a simple way to use anything from anywhere on the web and use it for almost whatever you want. If I was Microsoft, I would be shaking in my boots. When this is added to Firefox–and it will be, it will revolutionize how we share information with one another.

Now, back to gaming.