butt3r RETURNS!!!1

No, I didn't commit suicide while playing NBA 2K8 (although, I did consider it).

I've been out of it for a while. Once school began my life has felt like watching a fast-forwarded movie. I'm only taking two classes, but I've also taken on the job of being the editor for the arts & entertainment section (Life!) of FIU's student newspaper, which is what is taking up the majority of my time now.

It's been a complete 180 compared to the lifestyle I experienced in Italy, where everything was so relaxed -- so peaceful and slow.

Now, it seems like there aren't enough hours in the day. I'm constantly checking my e-mail, writing e-mails, assigning stories, and editing stories. We're a team of three in Life!, but for some reason, I feel like I should be the one with the majority of the load. I need a change of mindset.

I'm also taking the dreaded grammar class, "Writing Strategies," but that's going better than expected (so far). Aside from the paper and school, I still work one day a week at my part-time job as a "Traffic Manager" (data entry person and dispatcher) for DOT.

I await every weekend like a starving dog waits on a piece of bacon. I welcome it with open arms and then hump it. And then, it's all over too soon.

I wanted to update the blog with something video game related, but honestly, I haven't been able to play a darn thing. I sprinkle some 2K in my life whenever I get a chance, and I played the first half hour of God of War 2, and that's about it. If you're wondering, the first half hour of God of War 2 is badass, and NBA 2K8 is still a pain in the ass.

Hopefully I'll adjust and become a better manager with my time. Actually, I'll have to. Have you heard about all the shit coming out this fall?

Gears of War 2

Prince of Persia

Resistance 2

Fallout 3

Fable II

LEGO Batman

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

NBA 2K9

LittleBigPlanet

Guitar Hero: World Tour

Rock Band 2 (already came out yesterday)

Saints Row 2

Mirror's Edge

Far Cray 2

Call of Duty: World at War

Yikes. Wish me luck. Or a winning lotto ticket.

A doppo, amici.

NBA 2K8 Online Pisses Me Off

Being an NBA aficionado, I always find myself playing NBA 2K during the off season. Only in the last two iterations of the franchise (2K7 and 2K8) have I taken my game online to take on fellow Xbox Live members. Upon my return from Italy though, it has come to my attention that it has become a bit more difficult to find a good game against someone online. Besides there not being too many people playing NBA 2K8 during NBA off season, there are also some connection issues with 2K Sports' beloved basketball sim that make it tough to even commence a game with certain players. Once a potential adversary is found, however, it becomes even more arduous to enjoy the ensuing twenty (or less) minutes of pixelated basketball action. This, of course, is due to the three different types of characters you'll find when venturing to play NBA 2K8 online, and I've done the human race a favor by categorizing them below.

The Cheesers
The Cheesers are actually a rare breed of pest. You won't encounter Cheesers very often, but when you do, they're probably just as annoying as the Quitters or Sore Losers. Like Quitters, there is more than one type of Cheeser.

Kobe Bryant Cheesers
I've always thought that the Kobe Bryant Cheesers should be given the benefit of the doubt, but I've changed my mind after seeing how some people use him in-game. Kobe, in real life, is almost unstoppable. Therefore, in NBA 2K8, he is almost unstoppable. But, Kobe, in real life, does not run up, down, sideways, and around in circles throughout the court while dribbling, hoping to finally, at some point, get open, and launch a shot. NBA 2K8 players, on the other hand, do exactly that, and actually have a lot of success with that strategy due to Kobe's insane (yet deserved) ratings.

Exploit Abusers
These Cheesers have found a way, no matter what team they play with, to somehow get down the court with their centers and power fowards faster than baseline photographers' shutter speeds. They inbound the ball to their point guard and then launch it down the court to their center or forward, whom is already waiting under the basket, with the nearest defender barely at the three-point line. Easy dunk. Of course, this strategy doesn't work one-hundred, or even seventy-five percent of the time, yet this strategy defeats the purpose of playing a basketball simulation videogame.

Normally, Cheesers also fall into the other categories below.

Quitters
These sacks of manure probably make up close to half of 2K's online population. The development team has worked hard to punish quitters any way they can with their online interface. Aside from a player losing rank for quitting, stats for how many times a player has quit or "dropped" from a game are kept on a player's 2K Player Card. These stats may be viewed at any time by fellow 2K players and are meant to inform a competitor that wants to play a game that he may be commencing a game with one of these pests. Quitters can be categorized into two different classes:

'Oh-No!-You-Just-Scored-Six-Straight-Points-On-Me' Quitters: A very frequently found quitter, these lowlifes take the time to adjust their camera angle and player matchups, only to quit upon the first sign of their opponent going on a run (something that is quite common in basketball and not necessarily a tell-tale sign for a loss). These quitters believe that only they, the superior player, should be able to go on a run, and therefore quit (in apparent disbelief) because someone has shown them otherwise. These quitters have also been spotted dropping games because their superstar misses their first seven three-pointers.

'Close-Game-but-It's-Evident-That-I-Will-Lose-in-the-Final-Seconds' Quitters: These guys are similar to the ONYJSSSPOM Quitters, but don't be fooled. These scums of the Earth are somewhat of a tease. They stick with you even after you've gone on your run, because they know that, eventually, they'll go on one of their own. But, once the game clock ticks closer and closer to that final buzzer, the CGBIETIWLITFS decide that they'd rather shave their grandmother's mustache than endure the final seconds of a game they have lost. You'll know you've encountered an CGBIETIWLITFS as you dribble the ball up the court, take a glance at the scorebox to see that you're up eight and there are only seven seconds left (and you decide to do the sportsman-like thing and just hold the ball until the time runs out), and suddenly your screen goes black -- your opponent has disconnected.

The Sore Losers
It's probably fair to say that whomever is not a quitter on 2K8 online is most likely a sore loser. These folks will play the whole game, let the final buzzer sound, and proceed to leave you negative feedback, making your 2K Rating go down (and in turn people will be less inclined to play with you). Common negative feedback comments given:

Verbally Abusive: ...Except you weren't even using a microphone.
Abused Some Exploits: Because Steve Nash just happened to go eight-for-twelve from the three-point line because your opponent always double teams the post on defense with his PG.
Poor Sportsmanship: Because you did not allow your opponent to get back into the game in the fourth quarter by just shooting half-court shots.

And there you have it folks. NBA 2K8 is a great basketball sim, and when played by two good samaritans, can be oodles of fun. Sadly, when playing NBA 2K8 online, you'll find that over half of the potential opponents playing online fall into one of these three categories.

Happy gaming, all!

Ciao, from Italia!

Ciao, ragazzi! Scrivo di Italia! (Hello, everyone! I write from Italy)

I've been meaning to post something up for quite some time, but I also wanted to include some pictures in my post, and sadly, I forgot to pack the USB chord that transfers pictures to a PC with me. Therefore, this will be a moslty pic-less post. I do, however, have one picture that was stolen from a friend's facebook account...


... and here it is.

Here I am with one of my fellow students, Wesley, in Narni, Italy (or Narnia, as it was called in Latin), showing the Narnians just how gangster we roll. We went to Narni on an excursion with all the students that came on the trip. That castle you see in the background is a monastery inhabited by one (1) monk. Yes, one. He lives in that giant castle by his friggin' self. We actually hiked all the way over there, and the bastard wouldn't even let us in. Oh well.

So far, my trip has been utterly amazing. It started off on the wrong foot when my flight had an overlay in Dusseldorf, Germany, though.

Upon arriving in Dusseldorf, the first thing my girlfriend and I tried to do was hail a cab (which in Germany, are almost all Mercedes-Benz'). The first cabby we hailed gave us this response when we asked him how much it would run us to get to our hotel:

"Do you need a taxi, or not?"

I guess it's true that many Europeans do not like Americans.

After our silent taxi ride, we arrived at our hotel, changed, and attempted to explore Germany for the few hours in which we'd be in the country. We tried to get onto the public tram, only to have the door slam shut in our face when we tried to get on. We looked over at the tramdriver, confused. She threw some crazy raindance looking gesture at us, and she took off.

That was my welcome to Europe.

A day later, we arrived in Rome, and thank the heavens that it has been exponentially better ever since. We took a private bus with our fellow students and two of our professors to Perugia, Italy, where we now live (until July 31).

Perugia's beauty is indescribable. It's a medieval city that is built on top of a mountain, composed of sloped roads, and gives the illusion that the buildings are stacked upon one another. The landscape was something of a shock to someone that is accustomed to Miami's below-sea-level surface. I live in a ridiculously small apartment, with a roommate, on the third floor of an old building (that doesn't have an elevator, ugh!) that is about a three minute walk from the heart of Perugia, which is where all the nice shops, restaurants, and beautiful people can be found. The main street is called Corso Vannucci, and if you've ever been to Lincoln Road in Miami, then you kind of get the picture of what Corso Vannucci is like.

Since arriving in Perugia, we've traveled to Rome and Florence via train.

In Rome, we went to Vatican City, went inside St. Peter's Basilica, and then immediately realized that for the rest of our lives we will never again see anything remotely comparable to its beauty. It's also a bit creepy at the same time. The interior of St. Peter's Basilica is 101 percent adorned with some sort of sculpture, painting or luxurious tile. And it's not like the church is small -- it is the largest church in the Catholic world. It's scary to imagine the power and wealth the church must've amassed to decorate the church as splendidly as they have. I had forgotten that Michaelangelo's La Pietà is on display there too, so I was in for quite a pleasant shock as soon as I walked in. I had never been so close to any of the Renaissance master's works.

La Pietà by Michaelangelo

I'd get used to being up close and personal with universally famous works of art as time progressed, though. After the Basilica, we hiked around the Vatican's wall over to the Sistine Chapel. I was overwhelmed when I layed eyes upon the real Sistine ceiling, it got me a bit teary-eyed just thinking that at twenty years old, I was actually doing what I had dreamt of doing since I was in middle school.

The next day, we checked out il Coliseo, which again, made me catch my breath upon entering. To realize that the ground you stand over has thousands of years of history trapped within it is an indescribable experience.

The following weekend, we traveled to Florence, in which I got to experience the David, Botticelli's Venus, some more Michaelangelo paintings and sculptures, a couple Carvaggios, a few da Vincis, and countless other works that, altough I was not previously familiar with, were equally intriguing.

David by Michaelangelo

The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli

In Florence, I also got to see the Duomo, the Bronze Doors by Botticelli, and I haggled some of the merchants in the market for a tripod (from €10 to €5) and bracelet (from €20 to €8) for my girlfriend. Good times.

This weekend I stayed in Perugia to enjoy the Umbria Jazz festival, which has been going on since the ninth of July, I think. We saw KJ Denhert and Alicia Keys perform last night, which is something we probably could've done back home, but back home, we can't see her in Italy :P. Stay tuned, for next weekend, we plan to venture to Pompeii! I can't wait.

Doppo, amici! (Later, friends!)

Ciao! I'm Off to Italy!

I'll be back on August 1.

I'm going to try and update this thing with some pictures at some point throughout my trip. Stay tuned!

Arrivederci!

Metal Gear Solid 4 Afterthoughts

**This article is spoiler free**

Upon completing Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, I said this to myself without completely realizing it:

"Wow. This was a great movie."

Did I mean to say, "this was a great game."? Probably. Nonetheless, I found it quite amusing that I mixed up these two words, considering that I honestly felt like I was watching more cut-scenes than sneaking around and snapping necks while playing MGS4.

I digress.

MGS4 was an amazing game. I honestly think the way the game actually plays is, up to this point, unmatched. The refined controls are a few ticks away from flawless, the animation is crisp, smooth and realistic, and all of the new (one being not-so-new) environments are masterfully designed.

I can assure you that everything I just stated is not the speech of a blinded Metal Gear fanboy that praises anything Hideo Kojima's cat pees on. The actual gameplay really is perfect. That being said, I am downright disappointed that there just wasn't more of it. I've never felt so desperate for a cut-scene to end during a Metal Gear game -- and that isn't to knock the cut-scenes at all. The movie sequences are about as expertly directed as the gameplay is constructed, but to put things summarily...

they're just too long.

Apparently, Kojima Productions agrees with me on that note. During the prolonged mission briefings, the team decided to let players use the Metal Gear Mk. II/III while Snake and company talked it up. You can use the Mk. II/III to snoop around the Nomad (the plane that Otacon and Snake use to get around) and find items that'll aid you on your next mission. You can also take a look at the security cameras inside the Nomad instead of watch the cut-scene, but rolling around in the Mk. II/III is a lot more entertaining. I think the plot points that I still don't understand can be blamed on the fact that I was too busy ramming my Mk. II/III into Snake during the mission briefings instead of actually paying attention to all the talk about nanomachines and viruses.

Which brings up my second and final gripe about MGS4: I'm not a biomedical engineer or a rocket scientist, and therefore, I do not immediately grasp all the nanomachine hullabaloo. Sadly, that is a bit detrimental to my overall experience, especially since I've been such a huge fan of the story since I played the original. The original MGS had a story that kind of went in that direction, but still remained relatively easy to follow because genes, memes, zenes and wenes were not as prominent as they are in MGS4. The original probably has one of the greatest stories ever told on any video game platform. Metal Gear Solid 3 was similar in that sense, due to the fact that it took place in the 1960's, and nanomachine technology was not around at that time (thank God).

Besides these two hiccups in my experience, this game was simply stunning. It's one of the few titles I encounter every now and then that actually compell me to continue playing even after completing it. There are so many ways to conquer a level that I find myself constantly beating, then reloading a stage just to try and best it in a different way.

Perhaps I'm disappointed by the lack of more gameplay because I know that Solid Snake's tenure as the protagonist of Metal Gear games is finally over (Kojima stated this is the last game in the Solid series). Either way, Snake goes out with a bang. Guns of the Patriots is a masterpiece from the frenetic introduction that takes place on a Middle-Eastern battlefield, to the epic final boss fight against ______ that takes place on top of ___________.

I bought a PlayStation3 for this game. If you don't have one, I suggest you do the same.

Cheerio!

Another 10?! Metal Gear Solid 4 Impressions

"I've been waiting for MGS4 since I was two!" yelled out one of about thirty or so males in line for the midnight release of MGS4 at my local Gamestop. Mind you, the kid couldn't be over twenty years of age (and no, it wasn't me).

The midnight release was actually a lot less chaotic than I expected. While the lines that formed for the launch of other recent titles, such as Halo 3 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, were absolute madness, MGS4's launch was relatively quiet. Even an hour before the release, there were no more than twenty people hanging around Gamestop's front door. Some intently read their MGS4 special edition manuals, while others in line attempted to negotiate a deal with those whom were towards the front of the line -- in order to get their hands on the scarce MGS4/PS3 bundle.

"C'mon, I'll give you eight-hundred for it," implored one desperate gamer to another, the ladder simply shaking his head.

I would've felt the failed negotiator's pain, but thanks to some perseverance, I managed to actually get an MGS4/PS3 bundle held on the side for me. Five-hundred-and-thirty-four dollars of my hard-earned cash vanished that Wednesday night, and honestly folks, after playing about five or six hours into MGS4 already, I can say it's been worth every cent.

Of course, you don't have to take my word for it. Check out Jeff Haynes' review here.

Yup. Another 10.

I won't agree or disagree with the score just yet, seeing how I'm only a few hours into the game, but if I had to rate what I've played so far...

Yeah, 10 sounds about right.

The cinematography is pure art. The dialog, characterization, character design, the this-could-be-our-world undertone is the work of an absolute mastermind. The visuals, from the newly designed HUD, newly designed pause menu, to the way Snake's OctoCamo suit blends into its environment are simply jaw-dropping and drool-inducing. The actual gameplay is just... you get my drift? The game reinvents itself while still maintaining that elemental, suspenseful me-against-the-world super-spy stealth-action.

The game's level design (so far) is a lot more reminiscent to MGS3's. No narrow hallways with completely conspicuous security cameras or locked sliding doors that require a level-9 card to pass through. The levels are expansive and, thanks to the new behind the back, right-analog-controlled camera, are easier to navigate than MGS3's environments. The new camera also makes the transition between indoor and outdoor environments a lot easier.

The new aiming system is perfect. It feels as Konami meant to create a shooter. Pressing L1 now draws your weapon and brings the camera over Snake's shoulder. A yellow reticule appears on-screen and you can now aim in all directions -- while moving -- without going into first person mode. A click of the R1 button fires your weapon, and if you want get a more precise shot, slap the triangle-button to go into first-person mode. Snake can now move while in first-person mode as well. Shooting around in first-person mode almost feels like you're not playing an MGS game -- but I mean that in a most positive way, because the first person shooting in MGS2 and 3 was quite horrendous (what kind of legendary soldier stands completely still while shooting anyway?).

Go get this game now.

On a completely different note, I saw The Incredible Hulk tonight. That was good.

I also finally beat GTA4. Great game. Definitely overhyped, though.

Oh, and sorry for the lack of pictures, but it's been brought to my attention that whenever I post a picture up here without permission, the fleas of a thousand camels might infest my groin region. Therefore, here's a pretty entertaining video from YouTube for you.



See you next time folks. Same butt-time. Same butt-channel...

It's Been a While...

... Kind of.

It hasn't been that long, but I know, I've disappointed many of you by not doing my weekly (or semi-weekly) update. Not to worry. School is finally over as of today, and Thursday I'll be posting some pics of the MGS4 launch and writing a bit about it.

'Til then...

Ciao!