I have missed one PAX too many. Though I know I will probably miss most PAX primes, I was really gearing up for the East edition.
The universe conspired against me in that matter. By giving one of the things on my bucket list, allied with an obligation: traveling to London for the very first time…. for work. I could not pass up this opportunity to instantly eliminate one of the costly top targets on my list, and I could certainly not refuse to go present my work (do or die). It is my hope that this time around there will be no overlap with the Pax East dates. If that proves to be the case then maybe the Fates are trying to tell me something I don’t want to hear.
Oh well! By the by, coming soon: my shirt bucket list!
Author: Protoformalpha
Quick update
Enjoying Breaking Bad on the tab. Much better sound than the first version.
I may just keep this one…
I may just keep this one…
Third Nexus tablet
Today I received the third Nexus tablet ever. The two previous very rapidly found happy owners during the past year. It so happens that every time I purchase a tablet for myself, I always find someone to like it so much that I just HAVE to sell it.
I’ll be honest, it’s not just about tabs, most of the stuff I get, I will sell, soon, because that is my joy, buying and reselling. Even one penny of benefit is a penny I did not have. It may seem like an exaggerated minimum but it’s not. I have made single penny benefits before because I don’t care about how much I make, but about how much stuff I can move around.
So now, I have in my hands a freshly unboxed 2013 Nexus 7. I fell head over heels for the previous iteration when I got it last year (though that did not stop me from selling it), and I hope that this new improved version will make it hard enough for me to part with it.
Personal opinion on the device to come soon……
Loyalty programs (in console gaming)
Today I’d like to briefly talk about my limited experiences with loyalty programs in gaming, console gaming. The whole situation with Steam, Origin, GreenManGaming etc. where it kind of pays NOT to be loyal to just one or two will not be talked about here at the moment.
First and foremost: in my experience, Sony’s PS+ program is the very best one right now.
Reason’s are simple: I have gotten more out of my first 10 months than is worth the price tag for the subscription. I’ve played more games than I would have if it had not existed, and all of them combined would have cost me so much more. Please note that I only have a PS Vita which means I’m basically missing out on a lot of value without a PS3 to enjoy the free PS3 games from PS+. I know some would argue that it isn’t truly free, and that is true. But I calculate that once I get past the 50$ that I could have dished out for a certain number of games…..the rest is free by default. I was never a console person because work has me in weird locations at times, but a handheld is perfect for someone like me. I do have a 3DS, but so far I’ve paid for almost every single game on it, except for that special 30$ promotion when you buy Fire Emblem AND SMT IV, which is enough to get a third game worth 30$ or less. One big fact that I am excited about: PS+editions of PS4 games. This is one console that I may just get on day one if possible. They are truncated free versions of some PS4 games available for PS+ers (weird word huh?). It’s almost like a F2P version of those games, all you need to do to access certain content is pay for it, or pay an amount to access the whole game like everyone else who bought it does (at a discount for you of course). How AWESOME is that as a big fan service to loyal customers. So, yes, for me PS+ is the best loyalty program there is.
In second place comes of course Club Nintendo. Why? Because I’m not much an Xbox fan so I can’t give my opinion on that frankly (although, the new Live Gold rewards look like they will give PS+ a run for their money given time and momentum). CN is not as rewarding in terms of games as PS+, but it’s great for people like the Japanese market because they base their rewards more in swag than in digital games. You can redeem your coins for some old-ass digital versions of past console games or for swag (shirts, plushies, calendars, posters). I have a Teddy (from Persona 4) plushie, I am man enough to say it, and it feels good. Sure, it remains hidden from the potential ladies, but having a physical reminder of a character I like is cool, having posters of my favorite games up in the game room is also cool. When the console is off and you are sick of showing high scores to friends, what better to entice their jealousy??
I’d love to join Microsoft in their new journey with the X1, but unless I win the lottery I can only choose one. I recently sold my Wii, hoping to get a Wii U, but I’m not so sure anymore…
Loyalty programs are important for a business IMO, it’s what influences my choices of airlines. It even most of the time takes me towards Best Buy rather than Amazon, despite better prices and free 2-day Shipping. Because I know that in the long run, I will somehow get more back from one company for all my dollars spent than from the other. I hope they all realize that and get to work on it. At the end when the competition gets fierce, who’s the winner really? The companies of course!
But we consumers can also get something out of it eh?
Back again……….
I’ve been gone a while, a lot has happened since.
First of all: my Gamecom headset broke. It still works but the band that permits it to sit snugly on my head split during travel recently. Frankly going back to a regular stereo one (borrowed) made me realize how much I had taken it for granted. The difference in the clarity of sound and the ability to differentiate instruments is phenomenal. I really miss them, but I have no place in my current budget plan to get new ones for the next 2-3 months.
The second interesting event…..I FINALLY went to the UK. It was an amazing experience! I like the architecture, the people. I had quite some fun and though I went for work, even that part was great! As any other traveler will testify, the biggest problem is how high their currency is. For a tourist, going to the UK is going nuclear on your wallet. From plane ticket to food, everything cost so much more just because the pound is much much stronger than the euro and the dollar.
I hope to go there again in my lifetime but not sponsored by an employer. God knows how long THAT will take to happen 😉
I leave you with a nice pic of the pool of the Hotel Barcelo Santo Domingo where I stayed during UK visa application submission in Santo Domingo. Cheers mates!
Pains of technology
So my keyboard is almost totally messed up! Thank God for Microsoft and their accessibility features on Windows. Between dictating on my shiny new Plantronics GameCom 780 Gaming Headset with Surround Sound – USB Compatible with PC
Random (maybe not) thoughts
Drawing a blank. So pissed at colleagues and fellow Haitians in general that I can’t function properly; hard to focus on work; can’t really enjoy a movie; no libido; hell, I ain’t even interested in gaming!!! Imagine that!!!!! Me…….not interested in gaming. All I have is my fury. Fury at my powerlessness… fury that doing things the “right” way, seems so wrong to everybody else! Fury at myself for being who I am. If I was born here, what happened along the way to make me so different? Why couldn’t I just be “one of them”? If that were so, maybe I’d be happier; be married by now; have kids (yes, plural). Wouldn’t I?
New experiences
OK, so I took a 3DS. Some of my friends would say: “But you still have a DS lite from 5 years ago!!!” Examine the words people…..FIVE years ago. Now it’s a complete mess, with a desensitized touch screen and an upper screen just dangling but still lights up, and completely unresponsive shoulder buttons.
My first experience with 3D in gaming was with the ever-excellent Batman: Arkham Asylum. Using my brand new fresh out of the box laptop (old one barely held an hour of charge anymore), and “NVidia 3D vision discover” with simple Anaglyph glasses. It was fun, very. Mostly because Rocksteady did such a great job with the atmosphere and gameplay; seeing the cape flow behind you with such depth was exhilarating for a big fan of this character. I mention this because I need you to understand that for me making the switch was never quite about the 3D, but about the backlog of DS software that I just could not let go (Layton, I’m looking at you, sir) and about how much I appreciated what I consider as the most ass-kicking price cut ever in a hardware’s first year!!
Still, I had my doubts about what the glassless 3D tech would be like to me. I was wrong. It is rather nice, but not indispensable. One would wish that the angles at which the 3D can be viewed were wider, but beggars can’t be choosers. It’s a start, and the future can only be brighter no? So far I haven’t played any software where the 3D really makes a difference, I have a lot of reviews on Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 so I WILL definitely try them out to see if the hype is, in my eyes, justified. But I need to finish what I already have first! Cave Story 3D, that I’m currently playing along with the 2 latest Laytons 😉 , is a great one as you all may know, but the 3D is not indispensable. The extra dimension adds to the atmosphere for me, but most of the time good old 2D is all I need to progress.
What I DO like are the 3D videos. I can already dream about what this will mean concerning all those 3D movies out in Blu-Ray….maybe soon it will be possible to download 3D versions of these movies for the smaller screen???? No, I don’t have a Blu-ray. Yes, I know what sacrilege!! What I do have sitting in front of the TV is a broken down PS3 giving me that $^@#^ YLOD way too often!!!! I could’ve just got myself a new one right? Too discouraged man. The 360 had its RROD, but what did the Wii have? Verily, no Nintendo hardware has EVER given me such problems and if it weren’t for exclusives on other consoles, I would’ve stuck to my PC gaming and a handheld.
I am so far satisfied with this piece of hardware; I have no idea of how it will face up in my opinion with Vita, because the price of software is very important for me, along with the quality of the exclusives. The price of the Vita memory cards is ridiculous, but not knowing what they cost to manufacture I can’t say more than that. I will wait and see; I heard that Pushmo is THE killer downloadable app for the 3DS, so it’s next on my list to try out. Keep in touch…
Skyrim: taking an arrow to the knee
It’s official and everyone knows it, Bethesda has delivered a PHENOMENAL arrow to almost every other RPG making company’s knees out there this year. The amount of creative thinking gone into this game is rather awesome and it is never ever enough to keep repeating it.
What I most wanted to get into actually is “creative writing”. There is some fine writing in all the quests and the books found in-game, but most of all, with the way each gamer plays, the choices we each make, there could be room for each and every one of us to write a story. Just like many writers have built upon the Star Wars universe amounting to so many novels scattered in a chronology all to the joy of us readers and for the profit of Lucas and Co. the Elder Scrolls saga could actually milk its cow the same way, allowing the most creative of us to express our adventures to the public all the while building upon the mythos and making some money for both sides.
Seriously, chatting with a good friend of mine who chose to be a werewolf, is a blast! Comparing our approaches, our difficulties, the perks we choose….the diversity is immense! The stories told by the quests remain much the same with the final choices limited, then again “it’s the journey that counts” :
“In the end, it’s not how long we lived, but how fully we lived.”
what we live and see through our characters’ eyes from the beginning of each quest, makes the whole difference, make the whole EXPERIENCE. And it shows in the design choices of the devs, not giving any XP as the reward to a quest like other games or limiting the amount of gold reward (not to exaggerate) quickly makes a player deduct that the meat of what you can get out of a quest is within said quest itself! Get it now!!!
"Game of Thrones" first contact
Today I watched the very first episode of “Game of Thrones” the new HBO series based on the fantasy epic series “A Song of Ice and Fire”. The first book in the series is, duh, “A Game of Thrones”. Check it out on Amazon.com it seems interesting enough. Now I gotta admit that it is the very first time I’ve come in contact with this story. Why? Because I’ve had my cup full with so much to read, I have relied mostly on reviews and advice. There is so much material out there…It’s easy to stumble upon something you don’t like, and even easier to get hooked on something so hard that you forget all else.
After seeing the episode, I chose to go and find a sample of the book, just to see if my initial impression of how it could be was correct. And it was. I’m not going to include any spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen the episode or read any of the books. What I will say is that the few pages I’ve sampled this afternoon after my viewing, have partly confirmed the “feel” I’ve gotten concerning the story. It reminds me of a series of books I’d read in high school on the long troublesome period before and after the reign of French king Philippe le Bel. A story full of intrigue, passion, treachery. But also of honor, of the old knightly ways that women of our time speak so fondly of, though in truth they know nothing of it!
And quite possibly, and this may be confirmed to me in time or through comments of readers of the books, I believe this is a story that will span decades or more. “Winter is coming”, a season in this fictional world really does last decades, and so many of the characters so young, it is gonna be a hell of a ride watching/reading them grow, and carry on the burden of the aftermath of their families’ actions. It will be a show to keep an eye on, and a story to read. I look forward to acquiring the books. This post is not intended as a review but rather my initial impressions of the story and to let my friends know about this as I’m sure they were as ignorant as me until HBO decided to bring to our screens every Sunday nights.
Let us pray enough people will watch and that the future episodes will never be of lesser quality.
Zen Alpha Musings 