Kaz

Never, I repeat, never tell me that console gaming is superior to PC gaming because there is no tweaking or installing or patching required. This is no longer the case.

Starting with the release of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue console gamers are entering a brave new world. A world I’ve been in by choice for quite a while. Die to the timing of GT5’s release I spent nearly 45min getting the game installed. Let me repeat that. I put the disc in and wasn’t watching the opening cinema for more than 45min!

Here’s the breakdown:

1. Turn on PS3 download update.
2. Install Update
3. Restart
4. Put in GT5
5. Install GT5 (yes an install, woohoo!)
6. Restart
7. Boot up GT5
8. Download required patch
9. Install patch (why is this a separate step?)
10. Restart
11. Boot up GT5
12. Play one race
13. Sleep

God forbid you have a slow internet connection, it would take you almost an hour to get racing. The question is was it all worth it? I’ll answer that later this week.

I came home to quite a surprise today.

The people that live above me were kind enough, after several months of stomping around as loud as they can at all hours of everyday, to cement my hatred for them in an act of stupidity that a normal person couldn’t wrap their head around if he or she tried.

First of all, you’re probably wondering why I’m blogging at 6am. And I’ll tell you that it is because I’d rather be at work than at my apartment, for my apartment is quite stinky right now.

Why is my apartment stinky?

Let me take you back to when I was coming home from work yesterday to answer that question. I was happy, I was listening to the NPR Podcast of Car Talk, I was on my way to pick up my long awaited copy of Gran Turismo Prologue, I was going to have a relaxing evening in front of my TV with GT5 and the new Halo3 maps, I -was- happy.

Then I got to the door of my kitchen Read more

This weekend was a good one.

It had been a while since I’d had people over for drinks and merriment, so a party was in order. The usual setup was necessary: get booze, get more booze, get last minute booze, clean up apartment, realize non-alcoholic drinks were not purchased, frantic call friends and ask them to bring carbonated beverages.

After 2 hours of polite conversation, and many refreshing concoctions, someone decided they wanted to play Rock Band. Rather unsurprisingly many people thought this was a grand idea because we had suddenly become the best singers in the world (even though Rock Band disagreed). Several failed attempts at Weezer songs later–we were having tons of fun singing along to the songs whether or not we were on the mic. And victory shots were on order for those who managed to slur their way to the end of the song. Read more

I’ve finally gotten around to delving into Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. I haven’t touched FFVII in a while, haven’t even looked at it since Justin started playing it for the first time last year, so I was wondering how well I would take to the nostalgia factor. I only question my enthusiasm because of my diminishing appetite for traditional JRPGs as of late. After putting a combined eleventy-billion hours into Final Fantasies V though X I haven’t completed an FF since.

Merely an hour or two in I feel a strange fondness for the FFVII world, a fondness that is compelling me to play what begins as an intensely simple and boring button masher. Several sources have attempted to allay my fears over the battle system and I wholly believe the experience will get better. So fear not, I’m not dismissing the game and walking away. In fact, this may be the first PSP game I finish (humans weren’t meant to finish Wipeout games).

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