GTA IV just recently got its release date of April 29 and a lot of people are a buzz about it. To me though, I can't say I'm that excited about it. I've played GTA 3, Vice City, and Liberty City Stories, as well as GTA2, and none of them really held my attention and interest. Each game that came out, the same thing would happen. I would get the game, play for maybe 2 hours then uninstall it. The first 45 minutes or so I would actually play the game normally and try and complete the missions. After that, I would do what most people do, wreck havoc in the city doing exactly what Jack Thompson hates about the game, kill everything that moves. That holds my attention for maybe 30 minutes, and then the game is dead to me. So why should I spend $60 on a game that just interests me for about 2 hours?

GTA IV's graphics do look good, and it has nothing to do with the game in itself. The game does what its supposed to do well. It does fit the game's style and some people can play those games for hours or days on end, but to me the game just gets boring after a short while.

I'm normally always about replay value when I buy games. If a game will only get me a couple hours of fun, its just not worth it to me, especially with today's prices of $50-60 a pop. I'm not completely against the game so much that I won't buy it no matter what, but I won't be looking at reviews to decide on my purchase. With this one, it will be friends' experience that will pretty much be the deciding factor. If I'm going to get this game, it will have to add A LOT to the game in itself to the point that I will be completely convinced they added enough to get more gameplay in to be worth it.

Are you gonna get it on relase?

Tags: thoughts, gta, overhype

I've been keeping busy over the last couple weeks doing this and that. Last thursday was the normal poker night which went well, ended up breaking even so I can't complain about that. Was a big turnout too...6 people, Bailey, Kat, Brian, Rachael, Cass, me. I had a good time so I can't complain about that. I'm hoping I can sort things out with Steve, had a little squabble with him over a game of poker a couple weeks ago. It sucks but in the end, I still feel I was right and I have corroborated that as well.

Weekend was rather lazy, sadly I got the Red Rings of Death for my 360 which sucks, but I can survive for a couple weeks without my XBOX. I look at it this way, it will give me time to play other games, as well as working on other things that I've been putting off. On another note, if you have a PS3, make sure you pick up Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The game is amazing, graphics-wise, gameplay-wise, and story-wise.

Monday night I went to the scout meeting, helped their fire building competition. Went well, I'm glad I'm getting more involved in it. I know I'm going camping this weekend so that should be a good time. Eric's running it too so it'll be fun to see what he can do.

I found a bunch of tutorials on game design so I think I'll spend some time reading over those and see if I can't get something started. I think I have an idea of what I want to do, so hopefully the tutorials could help me out. Here's the link if anyone's interested: http://gpwiki.org/. Not sure how good they are just yet, but so far it seems to be a good start.

I got my subversion repository set up on my server for my code for my website and should be able to use it for anything else as well. I created a new tree last night for a version 3 of my site, not sure when that's going to get any real progress. I know what I want to do, just trying to figure out how to do it. Will have to read up on things to get it done.

Tags: poker, xbox360, uncharted, rrod

As Gizmodo notes, Legos, the popular toy building blocks just turned 50 today. I still believe to be the best toy ever. Legos can bring the creativity out of young minds and even those older can use their creativity to build what they want. I remember spending hours on end playing with them as a kid. My parents still have all the legos separated by color in bins in our basement. I remember always getting new sets, building them, then taking them apart to use for whatever I wanted to make. The best part of Legos was not building the patterns & sets, but rather using the pieces to build whatever it was that you wanted to build. As seen above, Google is even honoring the 50th anniversary of Lego.

Tags: legos, nostalgia, toys, life, thoughts

So I got the dreaded Red Rings of Death last night which sucks. My XBOX 360 decided for whatever reason it didn't want to work anymore. After leaving it unplugged for about an hour and plugging it back in, it does seem to be working right now, but I don't know how much I trust it, so I'll be sending it in anyway. Two plus years after buying it and Microsoft still covers it...sweet.

It's the 2nd time that my XBOX 360 has done this, which is kinda annoying, but at least Microsoft is good about it. My first experience with 360 problems went very well. Microsoft tech support for it helped me out a lot. First they thought it was the hard drive so within two days I got a new hard drive for my 360. Well it turns out, that the hard drive was not the problem. I called them back and it was deemed neccessary to send the console in. Two days later I got the empty box, and 2 weeks later I had a new 360 console. The console failing rate shouldn't be so high, but at the same time, the way Microsoft has been with fixing the consoles that do break is admirable. Tech support was very good in helping me out both times, and the response and pickup times to actually talk with a human being was also good, I think I waited like 2-3 minutes before a human picked up. Compared to my experiences with AT&T and various other tech support calls, 2-3 minutes is pretty damned good.

So for like 2-3 weeks, I'll be without my XBOX 360 which should give me time to work on other projects I have on my plate.

Tags: xbox, xbox360, microsoft, rrod, blah, life

Everyone knows by now that Microsoft is the leader of the pack when it comes to market share with the Windows Operating System. Over the last few years though, both Apple and Linux are starting to gain ground.

Apple & OS X

With the introduction of Intel-Based Macs, Apple started a new chain of events that has only seen their market share rise. OS X, their operating system I feel is significantly ahead of Windows in terms of usabilty and the whole user interface. I used to bash Macs, mostly because I didn't realize their full potential and what they can actually do. Once I got my iBook G4 a couple years ago, that all changed. The smoothness and the intuitiveness of the operating system and its base programs I thought, and still do think make OS X what it is. So many of the programs are all integrated together, something Windows has a problem with at times. And the base software itself rivals that of Windows. You get so more with OS X than you do with Windows, and if you buy your PC from Dell, HP, etc, you don't get all the crapware that comes preinstalled.

Linux & Open Source

Linux, once the operating system for the true geeks and nerds (no offense to anyone), now is proving to be much more user friendly, and a viable option for those who choose to try it. Ubuntu Linux is probably one of the key reasons for Linux's success recently with its ease to install and use. However though, as many point out, Ubuntu is not "Linux". It is a Linux distribution, but Linux is a lot more than just Ubuntu. I've been using Linux for 2 maybe 3 years now and honestly, if it weren't for games, I probably would have wiped Windows from my desktop entirely by now. It's probably wishful thinking, but I wish that more game developers would consider writing games for Linux. Sure, games like UT2k3 and UT2k4 had a Linux installer, and there's WINE and Cedega, but overall, hardly any mainstream games will run on Linux natively. And running on Linux doesn't mean that the software has to be open-source. You can install closed-source and proprietary software on Linux just as easily if written properly. The idea of proprietary software may be against the "true" open source ideals, but in my opinion Linux and open source are more about the freedom of choice rather than whether or not something is proprietary or open source.

It would be wishful thinking that either Apple or Linux could overtake Microsoft anytime soon combined or separately as Windows simply just dominates, but with the sad state of Windows Vista, Microsoft might end up seeing both Macs and Linux gain a little more of the market share.

Tags: windows, linux, apple, microsoft, ubuntu